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Building a TB-303 from Scratch

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Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#31

Post by svantana »

Applejinx wrote: post #26
torusle wrote: post #9

The fun thing was the Roland Sync. You could sync up all the TB-303, TB-909 and all the others with a 5-pole DIN cable. The sync was badly implemented. It lagged, it had latency. However! As soon as you cabled all together their imperfections added up and they started to groove like nothing that has been heard before.

This I don't understand. DINsync is raw trigger outputs/inputs like you'd have in a modular synth, in contrast to MIDI that has to send serial messages over a 1k data bus. Perhaps this take has something to do with calling a five-pin DIN plug '5-pole'? Something's wrong and backwards here. Again, I guess this is where we are now? I remember reality, but here we are.

No, this is different from pure CV. Each device has its own (digital) sequencer that can synchronize with others using pulse trains over DIN cable. Lots of places where latency and instability can occur!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#32

Post by [deleted] »

Applejinx wrote: post #26
torusle wrote: post #9

The fun thing was the Roland Sync. You could sync up all the TB-303, TB-909 and all the others with a 5-pole DIN cable. The sync was badly implemented. It lagged, it had latency. However! As soon as you cabled all together their imperfections added up and they started to groove like nothing that has been heard before.

This I don't understand. DINsync is raw trigger outputs/inputs like you'd have in a modular synth, in contrast to MIDI that has to send serial messages over a 1k data bus. Perhaps this take has something to do with calling a five-pin DIN plug '5-pole'? Something's wrong and backwards here. Again, I guess this is where we are now? I remember reality, but here we are.

[deleted]

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#33

Post by aa-jv »

juleiie wrote: post #28

Once you hear analog perfect imperfection, it is hard to go back to emulators. No words can describe the feeling of original Yamaha cs-80. It is very unfortunate as there is no true alternative to a 80kg, age issues ridden, ultra expensive antique device.

Well, Deckards Dream comes pretty close to attaining a modern analog manifestation of the CS80 ideal:

https://black-corporation.com/shop/

And, well, its a lot more feasible to gig with, by comparison.

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#34

Post by [deleted] »

juleiie wrote: post #28

Once you hear analog perfect imperfection, it is hard to go back to emulators. No words can describe the feeling of original Yamaha cs-80. It is very unfortunate as there is no true alternative to a 80kg, age issues ridden, ultra expensive antique device.

[deleted]

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#36

Post by bxguff »

juleiie wrote: post #28

Once you hear analog perfect imperfection, it is hard to go back to emulators. No words can describe the feeling of original Yamaha cs-80. It is very unfortunate as there is no true alternative to a 80kg, age issues ridden, ultra expensive antique device.

my high school had a cs-70 and it poisoned me for life. that being said, theres a pretty big leap in terms of accessibility vs a browser based synth and you dont need $10,000 to play it so that's nice

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#38

Post by creativeembassy »

keyle wrote: post #2

The TB-303 of reference to me is still Jeskola TB-303 :) Back in my day of the demoscene and Buzz... demo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2kl-CW9snU

This brings back memories. Buzz is how I got my start. And I've been producing electronic music as a hobbyist ever since.

Re: Building a TB-303 from Scratch

#39

Post by windowliker »

Applejinx wrote: post #26
torusle wrote: post #9

The fun thing was the Roland Sync. You could sync up all the TB-303, TB-909 and all the others with a 5-pole DIN cable. The sync was badly implemented. It lagged, it had latency. However! As soon as you cabled all together their imperfections added up and they started to groove like nothing that has been heard before.

This I don't understand. DINsync is raw trigger outputs/inputs like you'd have in a modular synth, in contrast to MIDI that has to send serial messages over a 1k data bus. Perhaps this take has something to do with calling a five-pin DIN plug '5-pole'? Something's wrong and backwards here. Again, I guess this is where we are now? I remember reality, but here we are.

DIN sync is not trigger based, it's a full clock protocol invented by Roland that has various different states. The fact is that not all DIN sync capable machines implement it the correct way, leading to slight differences in synchronisation, even between devices made by Roland.
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