The Roland TB-303 Sound - A comparison with various synths

[kritikon]

Had to check that, because I totally forgot about the GS post. People do perceive things in very different ways. I couldn’t disagree more whith the people saying the cobalt and the pulse 2 sound good.

They must be a bit weird over at GS - I thought they were supposed to be hw afficionados? . Those 2 synths were several levels down from pretty well all the others you used. I understand debate over the others - they all had their merits and own distinct character and anyone could reasonably pick any of them as their favourites.

[bmanic]

I may be weird but I really liked both the Pulse and the Cobalt.. but my absolute favorite here was the Korg Minilogue! Man that was some seriously rubbery stuff!

Wasn't surprised by the Deepmind as I have one and naturally I also have a TD3 as it's cheap as chips and fun to jam with while watching a movie.

[kritikon]

Yes, you're officially weird now.

[cryophonik]

I may be weird but I really liked both the Pulse and the Cobalt.

Weirdo.

jk, but I didn't care for either of those in these particular examples, but I love the Pulse 2 and wouldn't call this 303 example very representative of the synth overall. I've never owned a Cobalt, but the demos I've heard sound pretty good for a VA to my ears.

[_leras]

I thought the Pulse sounded great, but though acidy it not very 303 ish. I've got a mk 1 and it can make some amazing sounds!

That dreadbox sounds really fat and smooth. Sub 37 actually does some great acid things similar this.

Really nice comparison thank for sharing.

[DrGonzo]

I've never owned a Cobalt, but the demos I've heard sound pretty good for a VA to my ears.

I don't want to call Modal a weird company, but they are certainly very prolific in their design choices. As a tone generator (I mean as in food for your samplers/Omnisphere/Kontakt/Pigments/whatever that takes samples) Cobalt is pretty awesome. You can create some seriously interesting waveforms with it that sounds really good. But on its own as a synthesizer it's quite weak. The filters are so tame you wonder if that was a deliberate design choice from Modal. But throw in some of the Cobalt waveforms in Omnisphere, slap on an analog style filter and you are talking serious business.

/C

[revvy]

Pulse 2 is a great and thankfully is nothing like a 303.

[Uncle E]

Pulse with oscillator level above 100 overdrives the filter. That’s probably what happened here.

Roland TB-3 (the touchscreen one) is a cool way to get 303 sounds with a much better sequencer. It sounds more legit than most of these, too, despite being digital.

[kritikon]

That might explain it. Though it sounded like pretty grainy drive if that's the case. I think OP more likely did an unintended fuckup for the recording of that one though? I've heard a few demos of Pulses and none of them sounded that poor quality to me. I actually don't believe that Pulses really sound that poor, though obvs their character will be down to personal taste...he has a nice set of synths so can't imagine he would've bought a Pulse if it sounded like the inside of a moped's exhaust pipe.

[Uncle E]

The Pulse is a great synth that gets a unique sounding, ripping distortion when all 3 oscillators drive the filter hard. But a 303 emulator it isn’t.