x0xb0xes!

Pictured above are the two x0xb0xes I have built, photographed on my usual background of the comforter on my bed. For the uninitiated, a x0xb0x is a diy Roland TB-303 clone, which is available as a kit from Adafruit industries. If you don't know what a TB-303 is, perhaps you should Google it? ;-)

Anyway, TB-117 is my own personal x0xb0x and TB-329 is one I built for a customer. They are functionally and cosmetically identical, with the exception of a different serial number, and #329 has a later firmware installed on it.

Although they're not terribly difficult to build if you have a strong background in working on electronics, it is very labor-intensive and will require several hours to build at minimum, if you're very fast and don't do any modifications to the kit. I, being one who can never leave anything well enough alone, modified the kit, as you can see. Cosmetically, the case gets a nice spray of matte aluminum paint, custom aluminum knobs, and a custom control panel and labels that I designed myself. I think it spruces up the kit nicely. Eventually, I would like to re-case it into a metal case with wooden sides. Functional modifications include resonance boost, bass boost, hi-beta transistors, and a modification to the envelope to allow a wider range.

So, how's it work? In a word, great! It has lots of extra features and improvements that weren't present in the original, like an easier-to-use sequencer, midi, random mode, and a USB port for firmware upgrades and such. Most importantly, it sounds fantastic. It would be difficult to tell it apart from a 303 in a blind test. Below, you can see me fiddling with the two x0xes before I had to send #329 to its rightful owner:



You can also hear a couple more demos on my music page here. (All my gear demos are down near the bottom of the music page.)