PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

This is a really cool project which i've been watching for some time now. Can't bear the thought of destroying our TB tho, so it's one for the lucky beggers that find a 303 in a pawn shop for 50 bucks <a href="http://ultra303.ultrafex.de/">Ultra303</a>

Well, excuse my baldy white ass, my mistake.

I thought someone might be remotely interested in a programmer and developer who is doing some very interesting programming in my opinion, such as re-writing the 303's sequencer to have more powerfull options such as shuffle.

I'm also sure you'll know what i mean when i say that the 303 (believe it or not) is a very powerfull little synth indeed considering it's one of the smallest, cheapest built & most basic synthesis wise.
The cool step sequencer does a lot for it U C. It's actually very versatile & enormously powerfull when you connect it's CV & gate out to a synth like the Cat.

The 303 is a lot more than it's acid reputation geezer. Like the Fat Boy said, everyone needs one

But hey, who am i to preach to the Gurus about here.

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 0&forum=16

strange...now Shroomz is the one who's said to relax...where he just mentioned the link and then got comment...which he nicely met...

Stardust i am permanently relaxed You said "oh yes. but 303 sound is so 'used' meanwhile". Well this is a funny situation with the 303's reputation. It inspired dance music producers so much that they all wanted one to get the characteristic sound. After 20+ years of dance production, the bandwagon has flipped from everyone loving the 303's sound & wishing to have it in their arsenal, to a situation where again, like sheep everyone plays follow the leader in some bizzarre anti-303 movement based on it's sounds over-use & the label of 'acid' machine brought about by it's use in so much acid techno. This has probably been exasperated by Fat Freebasses, Deep Bass-9's , ML-303 clone's & all the software emulations, starting way back of course with Rebirth. In a way, the synth industry may be responsible as much as the 'acid' movement for the demise of it's reputation.

This is how i view the 303:

There are some synths that we either own now or have owned in the past which have such an incredible sound that they stand out from the rest like a sore thumb. These synths each have a unique sound of their own which to my ear (& i think many others too) is just right for electronic music of *all* flavours (which is my taste) depending on how you use them.

The most noticeable of these synths to me are

1. The contraversial TB-303
2. The incredible sounding EDP Wasp.
3. The even more incredible Oxford Oscar.
4. The rare & breathtaking Crumar Spirit.
5. The filthiest synth ever, the Octave Cat.
6. The most amazing 1 OSC mono, the Kitten

And not necessarilly in that order
You'll notice that i've not listed moogs, OB,s or SCI's etc. That's because although i love the sound of almost all analogue synths, the ones i've listed above are the most 'unique sounding' analogue synths i've heard to date over the 15 years i've put my ear to them. Yes, i know the Wasp & Oscar are not truly analogue, but their filters are and very nice they are too

So i'll ask you this. Do you think it's perceivable that the moog sound has been flogged to death as much, if not more than the 303's ?? I mean you've got thousands of Model-D's still in use, thousands of Voyagers in use, thousands of VSTi users using MiniMonsta or moog mod', thousands of Scope & Noah users using Minimax & now we have Minimax ASB. Depending on how they're being used they are more versatile sonically than a TB-303, but it just seems to me like a very similar bandwagon. A bizzarre reputation based bandwagon which i'm almost certain will flip full circle, just like the 303's did.

Does a synths' reputation effect it's sound, it's circuitry etc ?? ..... Only in copies and emulations of 'classics'.

Oh, to get back on the topic of the cool ultra 303 project, this is the current feature list that's been implemented :

# lcd display to show informations and stuff.

# full emulation of the old internal sequencer.

# more advanced editing of the patterns like transpose, step forward and back, display of the next note and pattern position, randomize,1/32 notes, pitchmode and time mode is not separated and pattern length is not fixed to 16 steps anymore.

# midi implementation.

# pattern select via midi bankselect... trackmode is not needed anymore and will be skipped !

# better syncronisation...it can be synconized via midi clock (midi to cv/gate is not needed anymore) or it can syncronized via an internal bpm counter which is syncronized with a pattern select.

# standard midi stuff like note on off...accent slide filter automation.

# velocity (filter).

# backup of the internal sequences .

# online editing on the pc during the 303 replays a song.

# the old ram is replaced by a eeprom...a backup battery is not needed anymore.

# 64 patterns ... extenable to 512 patterns.

# 2 internal 0-5 v analog outputs. which can be used to control stuff for every note... it's possible to setup a value for the aux outputs... that is more for ppl who are planning to do mods for the 303 by default they aren't used...or for people who are using a modular synth (cv outputs) .

# a sid emulation is included to make new sounds...means the 303 has a new osc to create 3 osc sounds... of course the old one is still working and usable...you can use the old or new.

# random pattern generator...each feature gate note up down accent and slide can be generated separately... also it's possible to setup a mask on which steps a random should be preformed.

# transpose up and down.

# shift left and right of the pattern.

# a simple pattern init is implemented.

# init silence and init 1/16 c.

# ultra303 is working on the ml 303 clone.

# a special copy feature is implemented to duplicate for example the first 4 steps to 16 steps by coping the first 4 steps to the other 12 steps...same is available for 2->16 and 8->16.

# scale correction of the patterns. means you never get disharmonic tones when you know the chords of your song... there are 20 scales to select from.

# special clear feature is implemented...means it's possible to clear note accent slide up and down separately...also it's possible to setup a mask for this.

# uploading of the firmware via midi

# a pattern groove editor is implemented... means a shuffle on the pattern is possible.


This is quite a set of features in my books & really the main reason i thought a few folks around here might like to see what the guy is up to.

I mean WOW ....a 3 OSC 303 with SID emulation included.....This is very cool

3 OSC 303 with SID emulation included.....This is very cool

well I´d rather buy a c64 with a sidcard.

Ehhm, well i'd rather keep the TB original & buy an Elektron SidStation, but the price of a pint of milk has gone up from 55p to 65p, so i'm kinda put off the idea

I must admit that I too found your reaction to mr. Shroomz enthusiams about a new upcoming devolpment of the old 303 a bit out of order. And I don't see how your ironic apology should make it any better.

Stardust, i'm not even gonna respond to your extreme sarcasm.

Some people might say that something as easily & readily ridiculed as the 303 actually had a hefty part to play in the original creation of the techno scene, one of the most influential electronic music scenes ever.

Although i could be completely wrong about that, so please don't quote me on it.

& U said "chill"

Awesome. I wonder if this is compatible with Robin Whittle's devilfish mod.

What is it with this place ?

You reach the rank of 'guru' by posting smilies all over the shop & then what? Do you feel oblidged to live up to your new rank & talk like a prophet or something ? I dunno, i could make myself seem like a whole bunch of different persona by quoting wise text from wiki or whatever, but why not just be myself, why not just be yourself ?

Awesome. I wonder if this is compatible with Robin Whittle's devilfish mod.

I guess so as from what I understand the change of CPU shouldn't affect the Devilfish mods. Obviously the change of memory would mean that the Devilfish memory mod wouldn't work, but you wouldn't need that anymore.

I really like the look of this Ultra303. I don't think I'd be willing to butcher 'my baby' just yet, but if it's CPU was ever to die on me, this would definitely be my first port of call.

On 2005-10-27 13:13, stardust wrote:
Mr.Shroomz, now honestly,

do you think 'rank' matters ?
do you think 'number of posts' supersedes content ?

I will kindly ask John to reset the rank to 'noob' and the count to zero if that helps you in accepting my remorse for frankly speaking out.

Stardust, i'm not interested in arguing on this thread. PM me if you have a problem with anything i've said or taken anything to heart as there was no offence meant.

This thread is about the Ultra 303 project, so without further mindless mumbling i've got to say Yes Symbiote, there's actually some mention of Devil fish compatability on the Ultra 303 website. He also mentions that although he's made the CV/gate input inactive, he can configure the CV/gate outs to work for modular/analogue synth users etc, which is really cool.

I love the look of this mod & would love to find a dead 303 at a car boot sale or something to do it. But then, i'd have to visit car boot sales for that to happen

I found the link interesting but Rebirth is free.

Yeah but Rebirth is s**t.

here we go again...

Rebirth is nice and all, really not anywhere near as nice as a real 303, sorry =P.

Plus you can't devilfish Rebirth. Case closed!

Ehhmm, maybe you could devil fish rebirth if you had an open source version. That might be better coming in the form of open source DSP code of some sort though, which wouldn't involve rebirth

Or maybe one of our new developers could devilfish the ol three-o-three