Roland TB-3 was released together with TR-8 in 2014. Apparently, the legendary brand approached the design quite in a unique manner.
While TR-8 looks like TR-808 and 909, TB-3 ultimately represents a remake of everyone's beloved "303". The bass synthesizer is of the same portable size, but most of the attention is given to the front panel, provided in the form of a touch interface.
As in TB-303, there are 64 patterns to which a few interesting functions have been added. The interface offers a step mode. In addition to it, real-time notes can be recorded via the keyboard mode (by the way, when playing, a somewhat scattered quantization is observed). Adjacent patterns are easily connected during playback, and they can be copied and pasted into different "cells" without any pauses while being played back. Among the versatile features you will find a randomization possibility. Randomize function can be applied to all elements (including notes) of the sequencer, as well as for the octave shift, slide or accent.
Sound capabilities of the famous TB-303 depended on 1 oscillator generating 2 waveforms (saw and square), 18dB filter with adjustment of the cutoff and resonance, and also Env Mod. TB-3 took many features from its predecessor, keeping the same set of components - only envelopes are now adjusted via the surface of the touch screen. The result of the TB-303 waveform reproduction in digital form met our expectations. It is important to note that TB-303 saw and square represent only 2 of 133 patches that are available in TB-3. All the patches are grouped into 4 banks with the names A, B, C, D. Bank A contains 26 variations of 303 patches, B covers a set of 50 basic bass patches, bank C offers leads, and D has a modest selection of special effects.
Tags: digital synthesizer