Roland TB-303
More info
- Manufacturer
- Roland
- Released
- 1981
- Type
- Bass synth with sequencer
A bass machine meant to replace the bass player for solo guitarists, which failed at that completely and invented acid house instead.
Roland launched the TB-303 Bass Line in 1981 as a practice companion for guitarists playing alone. It had a single oscillator, a resonant low-pass filter and a built-in sequencer that was notoriously awkward to program. It didn't sound like a bass, nobody bought it, and production stopped after a few years. Used units ended up in second-hand shops for pocket change.
That is where Chicago producers found them. Phuture's "Acid Tracks" in 1987 swept the filter and cranked the resonance until it squealed, and that squelchy, gliding sound — the sequencer's accent and slide — became a genre of its own. Its designer, Tadao Kikumoto, also drew up the TR-909 drum machine. Clones now exist by the dozen in hardware and software, and originals sell for many times their launch price.