Bad Gear - Roland TB-03 - The Official Fake??? 

0:50 "…The iconic, the legendary, the one and only" -> Shows Behringer-clone. Good one Florian ;-)

I think we can all agree that the world is ready for an AudioPilz debut album! - The little tracks you come up with for each of these vids have their own potential.

"2000 dollars worth of gear Sounds like car alarm" I'm dying, here. That may be the best thing I see all day.

I own the original 303 and what I miss from this demo is the noise between notes, randomly generated sequences after power-off and last but not least the positively absurd sounds you get when you reach for the corner cases. For example type in a pattern of all lower C transposed down with accent, then crank up the sequencer speed. You will have some weird self oscillation happening between the sequencer's triggering of notes vs. the filter envelope. It truely sounds like your face is melting like ice cream and gives the name "acid" meaning.

My two Dobermans do NOT like the TB-03 sounds. They have been grunting in the background. Adds a little low end. I like it.

"The one and only TB-303!" (shows the Behringer clone) Florian - This kind of wit is why I love your videos so much!

You are the Easter-egg edit master. The "Uli-fication of the market" I like that; keep 'em coming.

Dude that space echo bit was 100% superb.

Dr. Gear! You gave another informative meme-filled electronic music history lesson that pleasantly corroded my mind with this acid bass line instrument! If only all classes and videos could be as memorable and informative like yours!

Cheers Florian, doesn't sound anything like a bass guitar, it's a no from me. :)

I come for the entertaining info and memes but honestly I am always impressed by how musical and joyous your original songs are that you craft when really trying to show off the gear near the end of every video. The jam with the space echo rules! You're a bad ass Florian!

i got the behringer bug and bought 2 td3s, and i just recently taught myself how to use the song mode so i could play the american football "never meant" riff to myself in da basement for meme points. midwest 4eva

I still wholeheartedly defend this piece of machinery.

Like all clones, the TB-03 sits in the mix just fine. People dancing don't know and don't care. And I tell myself that's fine. But the guy sitting on my other shoulder whispers 'But YOU know' in my ear! 😜

Roland's digital synthesis is certainly quite good, and I think it's better than a lot of us give it credit (even myself at times), but when you've got other companies cranking out new and repro analogs left and right, and doing so for fairly cheap at that, it gets a little annoying to see Roland create yet another digital recreation with tiny knobs and arguably lackluster features. I have a Behringer TD-3 and it's the first hardware TB clone I've ever used (like you, my first synth was ReBirth). Even without effects, it sounds so good that I can spent a good hour or more with a couple of simple patterns just tweaking the knobs back and forth without getting tired of the sound. I think that's what's missing in the TB-03: it just doesn't have the HAIR of that gnarly analog sound. It's so close, but not quite there. It starts to sound a little thin and boring after a while, and this is most notable when you spend a lot of time tweaking the knobs... the very REASON to own a 303 in the first place! That said, I'm not the kind of person that collects 303's, although I have been strongly considering getting a second TD-3 for obvious reasons. But I just can't see buying a TB-03 when the TD-3 is so cheap. There are already mods out there for the TD-3 as well, which might appeal to tinkerers who want to further refine the sound. You won't be able to do that with Roland's digital recreation, either. I still enjoyed the music you created with it though. I think for at least 90% of listeners out there, any TB clone will be "close enough" especially when using quality effects with them. The details tend to disappear a bit when in a full mix anyway, but I think when the bass itself is the star, those details can make a difference.

Dude! my kids started school this week so i didnt even know it was friday. always happy when you show bad gear i own. this little guy hasnt left my hardware set up and compliments the Se-02 quite nicely, even more excited when you ran em through the space echo, which I own the more economical boss pedal, sometimes the fast tempo tb-03 can quickly get lost into distortion w the tape echo. it did take a long time for me to start loving this gear, so you just need more time and it will grow on you. thanks again for the laughs and great content.

The original 303 was popular in the electronic music scene because it was dirt cheap back then. That's why the TD3 is the realest OG out of all clones. I even got the cheapest colour, too (red). Long live Uli!

Awesome video as usual! The TB-03 definitely has that 303 flavour, even if it's not perfect. Both jams were really nice in this episode, as was the Acid Techno Meditation at the end!

Whenever you stray from Roland for a month, you always come back to it with a grand slam. Great ep!

The track at the end is sick. Nice job. Love that bass line on the minimal track as well.

Great episode! Re-birth was my first musical instrument too! I spent countless hours jamming as a teenager! Oh those wonderful simple times...

Couple thoughts: 1. Just like with any 303 or clone, compression makes all the difference. Getting the dynamics a bit more smoothed out is important (also, with the TB-03, it makes the Overdrive actually useful). 2. Really wish they'd made it possible to use the filter on external audio (wound up getting a TD-3 for this reason).

Another great video! I'm patiently awaiting for the release of Florian's boutique gear line. Taking everything he's learned from Bad Gear and making epic gear! ;)

Nice jams this week. It’s amazing how complete a basic drum track & a 303 can sound all on their own.

"Internal speaker: I don't care [fart sounds that are vaguely an arpeggio of something]" - I nearly died.

Recommendation to everyone: Listen to the final song at 6:50 while watching a muted Wipeout 2097 gameplay video :)

The weekend always starts with 'Bad Gear'. You're a hero already, thanks for the great entertainment!

Love how you create a new subgenre every video you make

Sweet, kicking off the weekend with some acid vibes. Always a treat!

Had the original tb 303 and my manual was in Japanese...One thing about the original is you could take apart the unit and adjust the osc's up or down radically...Check out Josh Wink- Higher state of Consciousness! He adjusted his to get the high squeching sounds....great track!

Lovely hearing this through the space echo. Smoothed some of the edges most definitely. Got me thinking about analog modeling, it'd be lovely to see a video of some early Korg analog modeling synths like the Korg Prophecy (I can already hear your intro being played on it). Thanks as always for the videos

Great vid yet again, and the first time I actually heard the subject gear in the intro tune before it was pointed out. You have to fit 'zehr schmutzig' into one of your song titles.

By this point, I think the most important differentiating quality of a 303 clone is the user interface, and that's where e.g. the TD-3 falls flat. Just a small change like being able to step freely through a sequence with the next/back keys would be a massive improvement.

There is nothing bad about the TB-03. Lots of professional producers use it. Out of all the boutiques the knobs and size are good. I do prefer my TD-3 but both together are great

Amazing videos as always!! I’m picking up my first vintage analog 8-voice polysynth tomorrow, if you can find one you should totally do a video on the Casio HT-6000! I never knew it even existed 5 minutes before I snapped one up at a bargain $100!!

Slowly but surely my favorite channel on RU-vid 👍👍

This was my second favorite Boutique, after the D-05. I know it's not a perfect recreation, but I like having access to that 303 workflow, and some eq and compression can get it sounding quite nice.

Love the finale tune - just went down a 90's PC game rabbit hole trying to remember what it reminded me of!

Thank you for making this show - it is quite literally my favorite show

Dr. Bad Gear. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Roland TB-03.

Ah! Best start for the weekend! Bad Gear comes on and it tears Roland gear a new one. 🤣 At 0:06 i wasn't sure, i see correctly and had to look twice. The D50 User Manual is the best easteregg, i've seen in a loong time! 😃 And i'm kinda glad the "Ulification" happened. It allowed me to get the 303 sound for less than half the price of the TB-03. Not only does the TD-3 cost less, it sounds, at least to me, infinitely better than the digital Rolands.

I'm using the "song mode" of a 303-type synth: chaining four patterns together makes it easier to record them into the OT for slicing fun.

Caught myself singing Chaka Khan's 'Ain't Nobody' at 6:50. The song you conjured up is great, quite possibly my favourite Bad Gear original song :-). Very nice episode. I couldn't find a TB-03 where I live so settled for an egg yolk yellow TD-3, which I am very happy with 🙂

Good day becomes great, AudioPilz has a new vid!

I stand by my TB-3. even when the cutoff knob falls off and I accidently hit the wrong note on the touchscreen. it's perfect in every way.

I miss ReBirth, my first software groovebox. Wouldn't it be great if Behringer was to steal, I mean, be inspired to remake it as hardware?

I always enjoy your tracks.

I have to give a shout out to your video graphics and editing. Especially the intros.

So about that Aira TB-3 - I remember in the review you were rather unimpressed and described the touchscreen as a terrible interface. But now you seem to be using it on the reg - did it grow on you or did you find some particular niche it fits really well?

it was only a question of time to see every rolca boutique here :))

You need to release an Acid house album Florian, seriously I could listen to these jams all day.

I fear the day I'll watch all your old videos and have to wait for it every friday.

TB-03 just lacks so much punch and raw electronic analogue buzz compared to the TB-303. Behringer TD-3 gets very close to the original. I like the Aria TB-3 very much too, so underrated. I rarely use my TB-03. My Roland Bassline TB-303 got stolen by a synth tech in England in 2020 would you believe. Absolutely gutted. Had had it since 1990. Still have the box, sling case and manual though.

I just read a comment that the TD3 doesn't have reverb/delay, but it is analoge & that is what people want & you can buy a TD3, 3pedals or a mixer with 99effects, for the same price as one TB03.

I'm a big acid techno head, and even if I don't like the tb-03, I must admit your pattern and knobs tweaking was very enjoyable

+++ UPDATE +++ I just bought myself a TB03 after watching this video. Thanks, Florian 🥳 Excited to add this to my setup as a third 303-flavour. --- 3:29 That realtime-mode was already present in the #OG TB-303. 4:06 #SONGMODE - oh yes! After owning it for like 25 years now, I just tried that mode two weeks ago. And it's fun! A little bit strange, but I did it like the manual suggest; mute the output while writing the song. What I like about this mode is that the song repeats. So you can program something like a fill-in-pattern every 8 bars or whatnot. I used it together with the 808's auto-fill-function, nice combo. Gives you the chance to have longer sequences than the average 1-bar-loop.

I know I'm in the right multiverse when my TB-03 is the audio interface for an overproduced reboot of a 90s console boomer racer soundtrack acid techno meditation.

I feel that this will be a acidish video. ❤️

I love this video in particular. Started with Rebirth, still using Reason. 22 years or so of Stockholm Syndrome, but at least I showed up to modern analog modular nerdery already (kinda) knowing how my cv patch cords worked.

901 thumbs up, 6 thumbs down. Yup, another great video! I so love this channel.

Never regretted selling my beaten up original 303 or MC202. The Atari sequenced smarter and the original plastic Bass Station had just as much squelch. A nerdy collector bought the OG Rolands off me, and probably still has them in a locked vault. The TB-03 and all the other boutique Rolands are a fiddly nightmare for the banana-fingered fraternity, so I own precisely none of them. The Aira TB3 is cute, and I get to play with one occasionally, and the TD3 is as cheap, tacky, and wibbly as the original, so I'm nostalgia-proof. Plus, there are dozens of vst emulations around if I need a quick fix of squelch, without having to clear any valuable desktop real estate. Although I'd still rather use a Pro 1 for acid sounds, proud heretic that I am.

My friend got a TB-03 a year back while I've been using the xoxbox clones with effects. I think the 03 sounds very much alike the xoxboxes (wich also sound different from each other). And the overdrive effect is a plus because you really need it and personally I like the selection of overdrives. The delay is way to basic on the 03 tho. The added 3 parameter delay on my xoxboxes is a billion times better and hits the sweetspot between maximum choice while not frickeling on the sound for hours. (choose delay lengh, delay volume and about 4-5 seemlessly evolving delay types). Overall I still think the TB-03 is way better all in total because of the really easy to use interface. Its much simpler and faster to use then the clones and doesn't have those software hiccups or hardware surprises from the xoxboxes. ------------------ Much love to your channel! Your skills while using all this different gear is so impressive and the review is always on point and entertaining. I've been using some of the gear you made videos on for a long time and completely approve every video you did on those. Can u do a video on the octatrack?

yet another delightful (and very phunny I must add, are you sure you are german?) episode from Audiopilz!!! Hillarious, thank you!

I do like the built-in reverb. Maybe I’m picking one up soon! Great video.

Suggestion: the KORG volca modular, the West Coast-style synth that’s too small for insects to use.

I love my 03, it’s a modern 303 for the new generation of producer .

Ha! I'm actually having to work to keep up with the sheer number of quality jokes in this video. Loved, the manual gag in the intro. Flashes me back to the dual manuals that came with a K2500.

I’m here for the jams. And humor. And reviews. And visuals.

I honestly don’t get why Roland doesn’t simply restart producing the 303. Instant worldwide buy, hands down, and a win-win solution

This is the episode that REALLY needs that epilepsy warning.

Brilliant, as always.

another great video! got some good sounds out of there even if it was not inspiring to play... kind of instrument will break your heart if it sounds good but is a pain in the neck to play. ps: did you use any special software to do the kaleidoscope visualization for end jam? i'm looking to potentially do something similar for my band

IMO people who obsess over whether any given clone sounds like the original often don't realize that there were often bigger sonic differences between the originals anyway. So it's really just measuring up to their ideals/nostalgia rather nailing "The Definitive" TB303 sound. It's not like synths with, say, Curtis chips where examples of a given model sounded 99.9% the same.

Speaking of Ulification... he makes garbage most of the time but his gear is missing from your channel. Are you afraid of having a synth named after you?

The memes are killing me. :) And the track at the end is brilliant! Thank you.

3:45 I like the nod towards The Prodigy’s Give Me a Signal (feat. Barns Courtney). They used this machine quite heavily on the No Tourists album and Liam still uses it live. Actually noticed you using the Oman break riff a few times. I like these little nods.

One day all the "Bad Gear" will be the future classics.

This is like when you're at kindergarten as a little child and your cat dies so your father gets a replacement cat by the time you come home and he spends the next week convincing you that it's the same kitty you always had. You know deep down in your heart it's not the same cat but have to accept that this is the future and the past is the past

Thanks for doing this synth! I've been very tempted to get a 303 clone for a while but I figure im fine without one. Would love to see a Behringer comparison since everyone acts like they sound exactly the same

that final acid blew me away, youre amazing

I still like my Volca Bass, especially for the $120 CDN I spent. Great as a 303 clone but goes beyond. I'm also diggin' my Behringer TD-3...very VERY close to the original and just like the original, it's dirt cheap. The Roland version of it's own synth just doesn't do it for me. The sound is OK I guess but, like all the boutiques, the interface is just to tiny and fiddly for me.

Back in the hospital, third heart attack in one year. Had a visit from my dream woman earlier, laughed so hard my ribs hurt (turns out that CPR saves lives but breaks ribs!) and have been feeling more than a little sad all day, since she’s moving away unrequitedly soon. The only thing that can redeem this day is some Bad Gear!

Bad Gear Friday!!!! Awesome episode!

Awesome episode, thank you!

i want to buy one of these and jam along to the Blade soundtrack in the same way i used to play along to zeppelin albums

I personally feel the TB-03 to be the best of the bunch, when it comes to 303 emulations, whether analogue or digital. I had 2 originals back in the day, one sounded very different compared to the other, but they both sounded good. - Apparently, one component none of the other clones have inside them are the "shitty little diodes" the original had, as they haven't been available for some time, or so I hear, and they make a small but significant sonic difference. So, if Roland have used their ACB correctly to emulate said missing component, they should sound the most genuine, - and to my ears they are easily good enough. I have the TD3 and MB-33 also, and I tend to use the MB33 most of the time, over the TB-03, - purely because it has a more modern sound, and i like they way it clips internally when the volume is pushed past 12 o'clock, - but they are all great boxes.

After I got a few of my synths broken (my Acid8 mkI) and stolen (my friend still has my TB-03), I only had the TB3 as an acid machine... And your video really sparked the interest back into it, as a originally "mistake" to my goto sequencer, and mono synth, I got a Sherman Filterbank 2 and goes like magic with it, I even send his sequences to my MS-20 wow.

Another great show. I am considering becoming a patreon supporter. I would like to see how you decide what to assemble and how you start producing.

Oh my, has it really been 6 weeks without Roland? I'm gonna go out of my way here and guess: Good sound but not the best user experience (aided by the fact that the documentation probably sucks). 😃 Edit: Oh my god, I'm dying so hard at the little TD-3 joke. Love or hate Behringer but at least they allow some people to get their hands on things they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. :D

The ACB sounds are GREAT. Not a joke. Roland is great at digital.

You are so good at teh music. Every synth you rock sounds great. Even the ones that that really aren’t great at all.

I've tried most of the 303 clones except for the Avalon (which is as expensive now as the OG), and I always come back to the Roland TB-03. It has that sound, but more importantly, control features like CC assignable knobs that can be automated by your sequencer. I also find the step-sequencing to be super easy.

sorry to say, but Roland messed around since the 90s starting with the mc303. Everyone wanted a faithful 303, Behringer delivered 25 years later.

Plastikman - Sheet One is my fave acid based record.. spooky stuff

Your basslines are killing lately

Almost everytime when I see clickbait title at RU-vid I know that's Your channel. Starting watching right now.

The moral of the story is: The Roland RE-201 will make any synth sound good.

It's waaaaay overpriced. And it looks like Roland overpriced themselves out of the "loop" here, ahem - aside from the phun, Rolands 500$ JD-XI completely DESTROYS it (and yes, you can adjust and record the resonance changes on-the-fly internally without an external groovebox, because ...surprise to no one...the JD-XI is a ...groovebox), except it's got no less than 4 of the best Roland Drum machines in it.

YES! More Boutique! I love these little things.

I went with the Behringer and am happy with it. Good stuff as always.