quoted 2 lines Can anyone who actually owns one of these notorious little devices describe to>Can anyone who actually owns one of these notorious little devices describe to
>the rest of IDM exactly what sorta buttons and knobs are on this thing?
It's a small silver box (cf Hardfloor - "lost in the silver box") about 6
inches wide by 3 inches long and 1 inch tall. It's got cheap little silver
buttons on it for the keyboard and control functions. It's got cheap
little silver knobs on it for tuning, filter cutoff, resonance, env decay,
env mod and accent. It's got a knob for tempo, a knob for mode and a knob
for pattern select.
quoted 2 lines Why is it so heinously popular, and would it be a fair assumption to say that>Why is it so heinously popular, and would it be a fair assumption to say that
>it is expensive simply because the 303 is trendy?
It is trendy, that is why it is expensive. It's popular because it makes
that one special elusive sound that no other box can make.
quoted 1 line How does one actually sequence on it?>How does one actually sequence on it?
this is where the magic happens: the sequencer is so odd and funky that you
can just hit buttons at random and it magically becomes "That 303 Acid
Squelch Sound." the way it works is: first you input the pitches of the
notes you want by plonking them on the keyboard. you add the durations on
top either by hitting preset duration buttons or tapping out the rhythm
along with a metronome. finally, you go back and "embellish" the pitches
by adding up or down octave, accent and glide. the latter is where that
awesome slidy tweakiness comes from in 303 patterns. now all you need is a
way to synchronize your 303 playback with the rest of your gear. not that
easy since it doesn't support MIDI. there are boxes out there that
translate between MIDI and the old style Roland DIN-Sync.
quoted 1 line Inquiring minds gots ta know!>Inquiring minds gots ta know!
hope that's been enlightening. tune in next week when i explain how you
can build your own 303 with toothpicks and rubber bands.
/j/
-Dan