Release Date:1982
Price: $1200 (about)

Gear info:

This is the most famous acid machine! 303 is a little silver box. It looks very simply and weak, but you can do so damn cool acid sounds with it! If there is a tune with lots of wicked resonations you can definitely hear 303! In fact this is nowadays pretty expensive machine, but if you wanted to make some good acid resonations this is the right machine for you!

About:

Liam Howlett have had several of these over the years. There has been at least two competitions with Liams 303 as a prize for winner. I bet he still has at least one. He has it connected to the Kenton MIDI Box which converts the CV signal into MIDI.

Links:

• Acid.ch- TB-303 modification page, TB-303 link list, aluminium cases for the TB-303.
• Devil Fish- Modifications for the TB-303
• The TB-303 Operation Manual - Full manual online (also downloadable in ZIP format).

I like the 303, but so many people used it in the acid house days. When I use it, I really overload the mixer so I get a distorted bass line instead. Usually when you program the 303 you've got things like Slide and Accent. Well, you don't get that with MIDI, you just get the basic sound. Sometimes I'd prefer to get an old sequencer box instead of using MIDI so I could get the true synth sound. Liam

Used:

Claustrophobic Sting
Firestarter
Funky Shit
Used in many live tracks
(Lose Your Mind, Acid Break and Lyrical Terrorists)
Stand Up

Liam at studio August 2017. "I never programme the 303 like an accountant pressing buttons, fuk that... , i play the shit live onto the tracks".

(He is actually using a Roland TB-03 here)

One of Liam's original TB-303 was given away in website competition. Read more about it here.