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A lot of people, myself included, still love and create acid. The original 303 itself is pretty absurdly (prohibitively) expensive to acquire, and it's a tiny plastic toy and net anywhere from 2000-4000$. A case study in supply and demand - with a little bit of hype, I suppose.

There have been a bunch of pretty good software emulations, most notably: https://www.audiorealism.se/abl3.html and even some much cheaper physical emulations: https://www.cyclone-analogic.fr/en/34-bass-bot-tt-303-070198...



Roland recently reissued many of their classic synths including an updated 303. Now it’s called the TB-03 and it has a “friendly” step programming option in addition to the original crazy style:

https://www.roland.com/us/products/tb-03/


The only reason I didn't mention the tb-03 is that it is essentially a digital(software) option, whereas the TT-03 is still analog. I still think it sounds pretty good.


The TB-03 provides a fairly faithful and accurate reproduction of the TB-303's sound.

The TT-303, on the other hand, despite being "circuit identical", can sound downright weird at times (as can Roland's other "analog modeling" 303 reproduction, the TB-3)

Here is a 4 way comparison of the 4 synths I just mentioned complete with waveform visualizations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CAEUU_ics


Very true. The look and feel of the TB-03 is second to none though. Imho the build quality is much higher than the original 303.


Behringer are also bringing out a bunch of clones. I think they may have just released a 303 clone. Can't speak to the quality of it though. Always found Behringer kit to have a high noise floor but that was at least a decade ago so things may have changed.


Behringer is generally awful, but check out their Model D. Peter van Hoesen has an excellent review of it. It's almost a crime how good it is, considering how much cheaper it is than the Moog it's copying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhoakNEoKU


DinSync RE-303 is probably the most impressive. As they say "it's not a clone it's a replica". They painstakingly traced the PCB, used as much original parts as possible, and you can use the original TB-303 CPU to control it (or you can get the RE-303 CPU with their own firmware since the original is proprietary and long since out of production). Meaning you can use the project to revive a real 303 if you have to, or build your own legit 303.


Have you considered getting a x0xb0x kit? I built one of those a few years back, and the sound was pretty spot on to the original.


Xoxbox and the Cyclone ones feel very cheap. Knobs are shitty plastic. The TB-03 feels much better, lots of metal parts. As to the sound of the machines, that's a never ending discussion.


Sadly some of those parts are almost impossible to get.


Any recommendations for modern artists?


Ceephax Acid Crew - super fun(ny) bangin' acid dance beats

Aphex Twin (aka AFX, Polygon Window, Caustic Window, The Tuss and others) - insanely beautiful, engineered yet organic music, has tons of acid tracks (see 'Syro', 'Collapse', 'Analord' (afx) and Rushup Edge (The Tuss) for more recent acid stuff)


Posthuman - Mutant City Acid (https://bleep.com/release/111312-posthuman-mutant-city-acid), released a few days ago as it happens.


There's a series of EPs called Acid Test (available on Spotify) which are great. Donato Dozzy and Tin Man's collaboration is particularly good. Tin Man is another artist worth checking out.

For an alternative (more downtempo/ambient) take on how the 303 can be used (among a few other machines), check out TM404's self-titled album, and Risveglio by Alessandro Cortini


Along these lines, everything on The Bunker NY, Interdimensional Transmissions and sublabel Eye Teeth is great, these people are really pushing and evolving the sound. https://ithq.bandcamp.com/ https://eye-teeth.bandcamp.com/

I also like Luke Vibert's take on acid, more rooted in UK hardcore https://www.discogs.com/artist/253-Luke-Vibert


These are great. I love the minimalism of TM404. It sounds like something that you could come up with doodling at home and yet it's so much more too.




Artists : EOD / Shinra / Dmx Krew / Roy of the ravers / Automatic Tasty / Brainwaltzera / Rx 101

Labels : Analogical Force / CPU Record / Null+Void / mindcolormusic / WEME Record


No Plastikman mentions yet? Well here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUl43l71rEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIvM1Zgj0AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDBcxEMHNMs

Paranoid London has been doing great stuff the last few years as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcgY7JNOMks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUQjXUsgZ5E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd4O9cLvBgw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uh1GZifkT0

And this old Roy of the Ravers track is maybe the best acid track I've heard in a while (thanks Aphex Twin Field Day set):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqj_R4xCvN0


The mini/micro-brute by Arturia are the new cheap analog bass synths.

They combine a minimal amount of monophonic signal nodes while providing quite a lot of possibilities. The Voltage Control IOs are a bridge to Modular Acquisition Systemic Syndrome :)


Sorry I didn't mean equipment, I meant artist recommendations.


Donato Dozzy - Filo Loves The Acid

Apehx twin - Analord

Universal Indicator - Red


Another Dozzy fan on HN!

Also recommend checking his Acid Test releases. Especially Test 3, which is beautiful, but it's all amazing.


Recondite




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