{"id":6125,"date":"2023-03-03T08:16:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T08:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/?p=6125"},"modified":"2023-03-22T05:19:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T05:19:14","slug":"happy-tb-303-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/03\/happy-tb-303-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy TB-303 Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At Tsugi, we love synthesizers, and since today is 03\/03, we decided to pay homage to the famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.roland.com\/global\/promos\/303day\/\">Roland TB-303<\/a> bass line that became such an integral part of many electronic music genres. So, we created a rough emulation of the TB-303 in the patching environment of <a href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/web\/en\/products-gamesynth.html\">GameSynth<\/a>. First, let\u2019s check out how it sounds!<\/p>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\"><a class=\"litymp3\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/video.mp4\" data-lity=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/video.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"tsugiblog-blackheader\" style=\"margin-top: 40px; padding: 22px 18px; max-width: 670px; background-position: right center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; letter-spacing: 0.05em; color: #ffffff; background-color: #000000; background-image: url('https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/header-bg1.png');\">The Sound<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, it is not an exact emulation of the machine, but with a surprisingly low number of modules, we were able to mimic the original device close enough.<\/p>\n<p>The TB-303\u2019s architecture was relatively basic, which helped us:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We used an <strong>Oscillator<\/strong> module of <em>Saw<\/em> type as the generator (it can of course be set to <em>Pulse<\/em><em>,<\/em> like on the 303).<\/li>\n<li>Then, we connected its output to an <strong>EQ Filter<\/strong> set to <em>Lowpass<\/em> with a slope of <em>24db\/octave<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>EQ Filter<\/strong> <em>frequency<\/em> and <em>q<\/em> inputs are controlled by an <strong>Envelope<\/strong> that simulates the envelope modulation of the machine.<\/li>\n<li>We also added a <strong>Saturator<\/strong> of <em>Cubic<\/em> type, with only a bit of <em>saturation<\/em> to add that analogue touch to the sound.<\/li>\n<li>At the end of the audio chain, an <strong>Envelope<\/strong> controlling a <strong>Gain<\/strong> module acts as the general amplitude envelope for a single note.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\">\n<a class=\"blog-picture-lity\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/01-Sound.png\" data-lity=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/01-Sound.png\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"tsugiblog-blackheader\" style=\"margin-top: 40px; padding: 22px 18px; max-width: 670px; background-position: right center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; letter-spacing: 0.05em; color: #ffffff; background-color: #000000; background-image: url('https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/header-bg2.png');\">The Sequencer<\/h2>\n<p>To play a sequence of notes like the original, we added some new modules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>Clock<\/strong> connected to two <strong>Arpeggiators<\/strong> controls both the <em>amplitude<\/em> and the <em>pitch<\/em> of the Oscillator.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Arpeggiator<\/strong> connected to the <em>amplitude<\/em> is used to select which notes from the sequence we want to trigger.<\/li>\n<li>The other <strong>Arpeggiator<\/strong> &#8211; connected to the <em>pitch<\/em><em> &#8211;<\/em> creates the melody.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By adjusting the two <strong>Arpeggiators\u2019 <\/strong><em>steps<\/em>, it is possible to generate various bass lines, while the <strong>Clock<\/strong> can be used to change the tempo of the whole sequence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\">\n<a class=\"blog-picture-lity\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/02-Sequencer.png\" data-lity=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/02-Sequencer.png\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"tsugiblog-blackheader\" style=\"margin-top: 40px; padding: 22px 18px; max-width: 670px; background-position: right center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; letter-spacing: 0.05em; color: #ffffff; background-color: #000000; background-image: url('https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/header-bg3.png');\">The Controls<\/h2>\n<p>In order to replicate some of the controls from the original synth &#8211; and perform the patch in real-time &#8211; we added several <strong>Meta Parameters<\/strong>. Therefore, although the sound generation was quite trivial, the control section of the patch uses more modules.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Tempo<\/em> <strong>Meta Parameter<\/strong> is connected directly to the <strong>Clock\u2019s<\/strong> <em>frequency<\/em>, and the <em>Cutoff Freq<\/em> and <em>Resonance<\/em> <strong>Meta Parameter<\/strong><strong>s<\/strong> are connected to the <strong>EQ Filter\u2019s<\/strong> <em>frequency <\/em>and <em>q<\/em> respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The two last <strong>Meta Parameters<\/strong>, however, were a bit trickier to add as they affect parts of the patch that are already controlled. The <em>Envelope Modulation <\/em>(Env Mod) controls the amount of modulation on the filter, and the <em>Accent<\/em> &#8211; which makes the sound of the 303 so unique \u2013 adds emphasis on specific notes.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve this, we used several <strong>Arithmetic<\/strong> modules (set to <em>Multiplication<\/em> or <em>Addition<\/em>) to mix and prioritize the control signals as intended, while another <strong>Arpeggiator<\/strong> module was used to select the accented notes. The <strong>Biquad Filters<\/strong> in the control chain are simply used to smooth the signal a bit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\">\n<a class=\"blog-picture-lity\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/03-Controls.png\" data-lity=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/03-Controls.png\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So here it is, happy 303 day everybody, and thank you Roland for designing such an iconic machine! The patch is available below, so do not hesitate to share your comments or suggestions on our new <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/hacFY2EmgF\">Discord server<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"blog-picture-lity-wrap\">\n<p><a class=\"download-patches\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/GameSynth_TB-303.zip\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tb303\/download-patch2022.png\" alt=\"download-patches\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gs-learn-more\" href=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/web\/en\/products-gamesynth.html\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020_06_Introducing-Modular-Weapons-Modules-banner-1.png\" alt=\"GameSynth\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At Tsugi, we love synthesizers, and since today is 03\/03, we decided to pay homage to the famous Roland TB-303 bass line that became<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procedural-audio","category-tutorial","category-gamesynth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6125"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6147,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions\/6147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsugi-studio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}