No Dough Music

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The Silver Dream Machine: The synthesizer that accidentally changed the world.
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They say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. By that reckoning, you certainly shouldn't judge a synth by it's cheap plastic casing. On first impressions you would probably not take much notice of this little silver box with it's array of silver knobs and switches scattered over its clumsy exterior. The red LED lights are hardly anything to improve it's looks either. This ain't no Roland Jupiter 8 or Clavia Nord Lead to look at (just in case you're not familiar with aforementioned synths, they're virtually supermodels in the world of synths, with looks so good they're enough to make just about anyone blush just by the perfection of their aesthetics alone).

The 303 is an monophonic analogue bass emulating synthesizer with a simple pattern-based step sequencer. It's sound is generated by a single oscillator which offers the user a choice of two waveforms, saw or square wave. It contains a simple but extremely effective voltage controlled filter section with resonance, cut-off, and envelope controls to shape the sound. There are also knobs to adjust tuning, envelope decay, tempo and accent. It is a very light and flimsy piece of kit that on initial inspection feels like no more than a cheap child's toy. But we all know how deceptive looks can be. Even by turning the box on and experimenting with it for a period of time isn't always going to guarantee you anything to make much noise about.

 

So why is this arguably one of the most important musical instruments of the last 30 years? Along with a group of Chicago based dance music producers in the 80's, an emerging music scene in the UK and a lot of sensational tabloid headlines, this little box of tricks unintentionally permanently changed things in the musical spectrum. When abused correctly, it was the characteristic sound which made this synth the must-have item in every dance producers arsenal but it was the after-effects of the parties based around this synthesizer that caused tabloids to react with such extreme knee-jerk spasms of completely irrational behaviour. Even the Government and the British police got involved as the scene grew into a movement that would become bigger than anybody had anticipated. Now lets go back to the very beginning and see how this all started and exactly what happened along the way to warrant the synth having such a legendary status.

 

At the time of it’s release in 1982 the 303 barely caused a ripple in the music world. It's full name is Roland TB-303 Bassline. The TB part stands for "Transistor Bass" (whereas the TR used in the name of many of Roland's drum machines stood for "Transistor Rhythm"). 1982 was a time before MIDI - the computer sequencing standard which allows synths, drum machines and computers to "talk to one another". It was a time before home computers and sequencers were common place. Music around this time was very much performed as opposed to programmed. Drums machine and synthesizer arpeggiators were the first signs of computer controlled timing and even these were considered a novelty by some, with many "real musicians" dismissing the newly popular synth sounds as soul-less and nothing more than a fad.