[alfiedotwtf]

> There might be some synth or guitar pedal that you are in love with, or even several, but it rarely turns out to be critical to your personal sound.

The 303 defined acid, the Juno gabba and early rave, and sliced 4 bars of a single song defined jungle. Maybe in what you're saying is true, but on the other hand for other genres, synths = genre

[klodolph]

The 303 defined acid, but now that we know what acid sounds like, you don’t need the 303 any more.

Like, 90% of what made 303 lines sound unique is in the sequencer, which you can program into a DAW or something once you know how it’s done (it’s a fairly basic step sequencer with a couple quirks, but those quirks are easy to replicate). Use a simple subtractive synth, turn the filter knob around, set the resonance pretty high, and bam… you’ve got acid.

That’s what I mean when I say that something rarely turns out to be critical to your sound. Once you understand how a sound is made, it makes it possible to achieve similar sounds in other ways.

That last 10% is not something that people listening to your music care about, by and large. The TB-303 has a unique diode filter design… kind of weird, you might say “3+1 poles” (is it 24 dB/oct? or 18 dB/oct?) with a built-in high-pass filter. However, despite the fact that the TB-303 has such a unique filter design, and the 303 sound defines acid, and the 303 filter is a key part of that sound, you can replace the filter with some boring random 4-pole VCF and still end up with an acid track.

So you don’t need a 303. This is good news! It means that it’s easier to create acid than it ever was. The 303 is no longer manufactured. You can grab a cheap clone like the TB-03, TD-3, or program the 303 sound into a more powerful synthesizer that you already own.

[alfiedotwtf]

> “3+1 poles”

I see you know your 303s :)

The acid I can get from a Virus or SH-101 is acid but not from a 303, and the sequencing I can get from a Rytm definitely has that slide/glide vibe, so I totally get what you're saying.

... I guess if you know what you're doing you can make anything sound like something else, especially in a mix, it's just that sticking with a certain synth for that sound can make it hell of a lot easier

[klodolph]

Oh, for sure. The TB-303 makes it easy to get that sound right away. I think people should be picking out synths based on UX… the faster you can get the sound that you are looking for, the more time you spend making music. TB-303 gives you acid, like, instantly. Course, if you’re picky about tweaking your pattern and getting it just the way you like, you might hate the TB-303’s sequencer—something that became much easier if you e.g. had Virus and a MIDI sequencer, once that was available circa 2000.

[alfiedotwtf]

Totally. I've sold a lot of gear because they had all the features yet took a long time to get what I wanted. Simplicity is what I'm aiming for these days and it's changed my workflow completely. Creativity rather than frustration!

... you're totally right - the easier it is, the more time you spend making music!