Hi,
I would send this guy a personal mail but I don't know his
address. Maybe some other are interested, too.
I wrote the following mail to Analog-Heaven. Its a little report from the Frankfurt music fair
where 3 303 emulations were shown.
Novation bass-line:
This little unit has good features for a monophonic synth. Here are some of them:
-2 VCO
-Choice between 12dB and 24dB filter
-the resonance can be turned to selfoscillation
-PWM
-One LFO
-2 ENV (ADSR)
-VCF and VCA could be modulated by velocity (the amount of modulation is
-ajustable)
-Portamento
-fingered portamento
-all knobs send sys-ex
-Pitch can be modulated by an envelope
-little memory of 8 patches (they can be dumped via MIDI)
Its sound is cool but I dont think it sounds like a 303. Perhabs like a 101.
The price is ok. In Germany you will have to pay 950 DM (1$ = 1.7 DM) which is
not too much in a country you have to pay 1000 DM for a 101 (without Midi-CV).
The man from Novation said that the 303 has not a 24dB but a 16dB (or 14dB, I can't
remember it for sure, but he didn't said 18 dB) so if you like to have a 303 -sound
you have to choose the 12dB mode. He also said that if you tweak the resonance at the
303 the cut off frequency is affected, too. So do the novation. Sounds untrustworthy!
What do you think?
There are some disadvantages:
-There is only a row of knobs for one env. You only can edit one at a time. This
is alittle confusing, because after switching to and editing the second env and
then switch back to the first env you don't see how the first one looks like.
-I'm not sure but sometimes I tweak a knop and suddenly the sound changes totally
like I choose another of the memory. Or on one unit (There were three of them) I
couldn't switch off the Filter-modulation of the LFO. Maybe I made a mistake,
but I would test it a while if i buy it.
-If you don't like to play with ugly toys, don't buy this synth. Cheap design of cheap
plastic.
The 3 clone
these guys affirm that they are the only ones who made a real copy of the 303 filter.
They said that they do not need a licence, because it is a moog filter and moog doesn't
exsist anymore. The sound is really TBesque, believe me but.....
-fixed partamento-time. I think the real one do control the portamento-time via tempo,
right? Big minus!!!
-The portamento is not a fingered (legato) one. You have to switch on/off the midi-portamento
controller. So you cannot play keys legato to get the funky portamento (the novation provides
this feature)
-the parameters can not be controlled via Midi!!! And they will not change this.
-accent is not like the 303 accent. The real one handels the accent the following way, right?:
If the accent pot is on maximum position all notes are equal. If the accent pot is on the
minimum position the notes with accent are not affected but the ones without are very low.
The clone acts this way: If the accent pot has its max position you are able to play the
clone dynamically. If it has its min position velocity will be ignored.
Hey, you 303 users, do you think this is important and does the accent affect the VCF or VCA
or even both?
-the price : ~1400 DM. The real one costs about 1600DM
-another ugly thing. It is a 1HE 19'' rack unit. The actual case is smallerthan 19'' but it
has some sheet metal ears. It has some cheap-looking pots. The whole thing looks home-made.
There is also something good to write: The clone can be used as a one voice Midi to CV
converter and has an external in.
Control synthesis: Deep Bass Nine
These guys say that they developed their own filter (a ladderchain filter, ever heard of these?)
and it is not a licence product like somebody on AH wrote before but the sound is amazing. It
is difficult to say that the DB9 or the clone 3 sound like the 303 but I think they get very
close.
Disadvantages:
-fixed portamento, but they work on it and want to change that.
-portamento is not a fingered one, too (see above)
-the parameters cannot be controlled via midi. But they want to implement this feature.
-the accent is like the one in the 3 clone. but it is not dynamic. It has a treshold like
for example velocity 0 to 80 = no accent, velocity 80 to 128 = accent on.
-the price is almost the same like the 3 clone.
advantages:
-a nice design of a 19'' rack-module. Nice fonts, nice pots and of course one of the coolest
names ever!!
-1 External-in
-CV-out, gate-out
-CV-in, gate-in!!
Ok, thats it.
If somebody has some questions feel free to write me.
bye,
erik erikbfac@w250zrz.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE