Cyclone Analogic Bass Bot TT-303 Hardware TB-303 Clone Released

Update 11/28: Update on the price:

UK: £449.00 + VAT
EU: €549.00 + VAT
US: $699.99 + VAT

Update: additional pics & PDF via Lorne/kidtronic via Rhythm Active.

Remember the Bass Bot TT-303 demo videos posted here back on October 18?   Well, it is currently available as of today, and it is the first product from a new company named Cyclone Analogic based in Hong Kong (possible sites not yet live: http://www.cyclone-analogic.com | http://www.tt-303.com).  You will find full details on the TT-303 further below.

Before we get to that, Robin Whittle, who brought us the Devilfish Mods for the original TB-303, will be performing them for the TT-303 as well. You can find details on his page here.

Lorne aka kidtronic wrote in to let us know Rhythm Active in Australia, one of our sponsors, currently has the TT-303 available. I also hear Syntaur in the US has them for $649.95 $699.95 plus $14.95 shipping to the lower 48.  Syntaur adds the following details: "There is a nicely-done printed manual - on real paper, with ink! Just like back in the analog days of yore... Also a power adapter, and a MIDI break-out cable. (The TT-303 has a single 8-pin MIDI jack. A standard 5-pin cable can be used for MIDI In only, and the break-out cable - 8-pin jack to two 5-pin cables - can be used for MIDI In and Out.)" Update 11/28: Modular Square in France (one of our sponsors) will have them in stock soon (via Twitter).

The following details are via Superior Sound London, who currently shows them as being sold out in the UK:

"The Bass Bot TT 303 electronic bass synth features a selectable monophonic analog VCO processed through a 4 pole analog cascading filter. It uses 21st-century transistor technology to synthesize tones from super-crisp self-resonating leads to squelchy rhythms and deep subharmonic bass grooves.

Creating music as simple or complex as you want with the Bass Bot is a breeze. Its ground-breaking InstaDJ OS is an artificially intelligent sequencer and can be programmed in two methods: by a human user or by the computer-controlled Bass Bot.

Humans may program musical patterns manually using traditional step entry with control over pitch, time, length and special characteristics such as octave transpose, accent and slide for each note.

Alternatively let the Bot generate a pattern and use it immediately, tweak it to taste, or mutate it into a new pattern altogether at the touch of a button. The Bass Bot TT 303 includes seven different ‘personalities’ each of which generates its own special style of musical patterns. No two Bots will produce the same patterns. Each is as individual as the user, though the basic personalities are the same for every Bass Bot.

The Bass Bot TT 303 features seven unique preset personality programs, capable to generate up to 224 computer generated presets by the Bass Bot ™.

An additional 224 Editable Patterns can compose up to 7 songs of up to 127 bars. All information is saved to onboard flash (permanent) memory and transferable directly to other Bass Bots via 8 Pin DIN cable (cloning) or to PC / MAC (backup) for storage with a downloadable transfer application available on our website. Other platforms to be supported soon.

FEATURES
• Monophonic selectable (saw, square) VCO with 24db 4 pole analogue filter.
• User or Bot generated programmable patterns with InstaDJ ™ sequencer.
• MIDI IN by default / MIDI IN and OUT (with provided splitter cable).
• 13 Colour LED display with user definable console and individual pattern labelling.
• Auto Tune and VCO calibration on demand.
• Arpeggiator.
• Generate new patterns using one of seven unique personality algorithms.
• Mutate Patterns to create infinitely complex pattern structure and variation.
• Live Pitch Transpose (+/- 1/2 step pitch), Live Accent (velocity) & Live Slide (portamento).
• Pattern Rotation (left or right) one step in time.
• Complex file manipulation of pattern banks using Copy & Paste.
• Merge up to 8 patterns to one pattern (maximum 64 steps).
• Portable with battery or ac power options at only 730 g (1.6 lbs).

Warranty: One (1) year warranty from purchase. Online registration required.
Included: Operation Manual / 100-240v adapter 9 volts, 300ma / 8 PIN splitter cable to 5 PIN MIDI IN and 5 PIN MIDI OUT.

SPECIFICATIONS
Selectable Waveform Switch (saw or pulse)
VCO Tune
Cutoff Frequency
Resonance
Envelope Modulation
Decay
Accent
Tempo, Track/Preset and Mode Switch, Power/Volume
Instrument Mix-In Jack to mix audio source with output
MIDI IN (MIDI OUT with included 8 PIN DIN cable)
CV / GATE OUT Jacks (1 volt / octave)
Stereo Headphone Jack
Mono Output Jack
Power In Jack
Physical Attributes:
Power: 100-240v adapter (included) 9v or 6v use with 4 x "C" UM-2 batteries (not included). / Case Material: Plastic ABS.
Weight: 730g / Dimensions: 300(W) x 146(D) x 55(H)mm"

You can find a slightly different write-up doc and the PDF Brochure captured above as images here.

MMTA Fall SYNTHFEST 2013 Pics by MATRIXSYNTH

flickr set by matrixsynth

My set. :) I did a bit more hanging out with people which was extremely nice this time around. I'm not the best photographer, but hopefully these will give you a sense of what was there. I had an absolutely great time this year. Huge thanks to everyone that could make it, a big thanks to the MMTA members that made this happen and of course a huge thanks for Shoreline Community College hosting yet again!

In attendance: 4ms, Synthwerks, Mattson Mini Modular, Division-6, Circuit Abbey, Sythrotek / Antimatter, Malekko, Bubblesound, Computer Controlled, Lorne aka Kidtronic, JohnLRice, Infradead (with Dinsync Amnesia eurorack modules & more), Vsyevolod, Barto & more.

Be sure to see the MMTA SYNTHFEST 2013 channel below for more.

Sealion's Monotron

YouTube via kidtronic | September 06, 2010

"Check out the Korg's Monotron in the studio, including processing with spring reverb, passing a minimoog through its filter, some noise work, and the Monotron through a Leslie 147. Lots out there on hacking them by the way, circuit board labelled for cv/gate/LFO etc."

monotrons on Ebay

Oberheim Live on the I-5

YouTube via kidtronic

"An Oberheim minisequencer (#10) driving the SEM 2 oscillator synth fed into a Korg Tape echo which is on top of George's modular. The room is an unsuspecting hotel off the I-5 in Bellingham (has a cool radio museum and growlers). We were travelling down from Canada to the Pacific Northwest 2008 synth meet in Renton the next morning. The lower right corner of the sequencer is the rate knob. If you pull it up sequence two determines the length of time for each note. On the SEM the bottom rows are envelope ADSR settings. Usually the weird sounds come from other rooms..."

light synths and drones.wmv

YouTube via kidtronic

"1st use of a screaming angel. Playing quietky with things built this year or made by designers for me. Oops forgot the x0x0b0x and the wtpa? Anyway something to dance to kids. Thanks Hugh Davies, steim and metal machine music (16 rpm). My first version earlier today had video frame dropouts, sound forge 10 issue. Sorry first seven viewers. Visit the American Radio and Electricity Museum in Bellingham, or buy their book, and drool zombie drool. Out."

Lorne at the PNW Synth Gathering 2010

YouTube via matrixsynth | July 28, 2010

"Lorne (http://www.youtube.com/kidtronic) goes over his various noisemakers including a modified Roland Compuphonic Jupiter-4 at the Pacific Northwest Synth Gathering.

via Lorne: "The Compuphonic Jupiter 4 is custom modified with four banks of eight user memories. On top are space rockets gristleisms, fm3s, original buddha boxes, a postcard weevil and the jackson pollock-ish item is a Dearraindrop videoscope [video below] by critter & guitari for audio to video synthesis."

Other noisemakers include the Shruti-1, Casper Electronics Drone Lab, Eric Archer, 4ms, and Where's the Party At 8-bit sampler. Click here for all PNW 2010 posts. Another MATRIXSYNTH T :) I added this and John's video to the MATRIXSYNTH Ts post.

sealions live noise rig

YouTube via kidtronic
"Testing a new simple live rig for noise performance, 2 dronelabs, 1 nebulophone and 1 postcard weevil."
http://bugbrand.co.uk/

George's Klee Live on I-5

YouTube via kidtronic

"George built this Klee and the modular below. Here it is running in a hotel room in Bellingham on the way to the Pacific North West synth show at Renton. The sliders on the Klee have a range set by a dial and teh ranges of teh slider are musical intervals: 3rd, 7th, octave, two octaves,etc. New notes are calulated out of the ones you set with sliders based on teh position of teh silver switches for setting teh bits. this is one deep and unusual sequencer. George favours the Thomas Henry oscillator design and wasn't happy with the results of an emf one he built, so the second voice in use here is my Oberheim SEM."

Moog Modular Poll

Lorne, aka kidtronic, asked what all modular synth geeks and sound tinkerers (myself included), wonder each time a new Moog product is announced - why don't they just make modules again? The market is growing and they could make a killing off them. I could be wrong but I'm guessing it's a combination of time, physical resources (manufacturing and people), prioritization, and size of the potential market. Modules are currently limited to people that have and/or want to build modulars. How big is that market? What would be the tipping point for them to consider modules and if so, what format? Eurorack is gaining popularity, but would it be sacrilege to go with Euro vs. the classic and original Moog format? Could they afford to do both? Technically you could design the guts for Euro and then mount them in both. Heck, you could make Mini-Moogerfoogers for the non modular market.

Moog could put a poll up but in doing so, it would mean they are considering it, and if it didn't pan out, they would be disappointing those that voted for it. That said, I thought I'd put up a few polls for fun. I'm doing these on the spur without much thought, so if I'm missing something obvious feel free to comment or shoot me an email (contact info on the bottom right). I went with Eurorack and Moog for the formats for now. If there is interest for other formats, don't vote and mention it in the comments or email me. I will add them. I don't want to dilute the poll with them unless there is genuine interest.

Spread the polls around so people see them. I included links to the embed code for those on other sites. Note there is no link back to MATRIXSYNTH, so you are safe. :) The polls are hosted on Polldady and I have to embed them as well. In order for the numbers to mean anything across sites, it's probably a good idea to have only one poll for each question.

Now the BIG assumption of course, is that the cost of the modules would be relative to Moogerfoogers as far as functionality vs. price.



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Shruthi Polivoks & Gorf

YouTube Uploaded by kidtronic on Mar 10, 2012

"A walk through the different filter styles of Olivier's Parisian designed line of Shruthi synthesizers. Two contrasting designs (in German designed cnc cases) include a clean digital clone of an analog IC filter & one based on the Polivoks Russian take on a Japanese Korg filter, and all driven by a British designed cheap and useful midi sequencer by Paul Maddox with a case designed by a friend of his. All of these were made by me with a soldering iron from kits. Make yer own and get out and perform! Oh and good bass, missed by the camera microphones."

wtpa? 8-bit sampler DIY

YouTube via kidtronic
"Tom Bugs told me about Todd's kit and I just made one with a soldering iron. Here's a look at how I decided to case mine and a small peek at what yoiu can do with it. No overdubs or computer software used. Last I heard there are only a few of the first 200 kits left, details in the end credits. Sampler the size of a paperback, and it does a lot. Thanks to George for the help drilling and cabling the case!"

dronelab kit

YouTube via kidtronic
"A look at teh casper electronics drone machine kit."

TR-808 IN THE DARK (Black Keys & Blue LEDs)

YouTube via kidtronic
"i bought some unusual parts from chipsforbrains for my Roland TR-808. Just finished soldering them in. This is for the 808 crowd if they've never seen this. Programming blind & live. I had a delay and a tapco spring on the board (no compressors). Programmed w/one hand while the other held a Canon powershot camera in video mode with its own pinhole sound."

DEVOBOTS DEVO Synthesizer on Kickstarter

On Kickstarter.
This one in via Lorne Hammond aka kidtronic.

Snip for the archives:

"MECHANICAL MAN IS YOUR FREEDOM OF CHOICE :

This is the first ever DEVO App utilizing one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years. The App includes never-before-heard music and sounds remastered from the DEVO archives that you can use to create new music plus thousands of artistic assets that you can utilize to create your very own DEVOBOT Robot, digital or Vinyl. This is the DEVO App that fans have been waiting for.

KIT ROBOT in collaboration with DEVO:

DEVO Modular Synthesizer featuring unreleased Devo music & sounds from their archives, coupled with a Devo Robot Maker: A TWO in ONE App Available for your device...

The Story:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Cyclone Analogic Bass Bot TT 303 Audio Click Problem

This one in via Tim Webb of discchord.  He wrote in to let me know he discovered a clicking noise when triggering his Cyclone Analogic Bass Bot TT-303 via an external MIDI sequencer.  I brought in Lorn Hammond, aka kidtronic, and Robin Whittle who produces the Devil Fish mods for the original TB-303 and plans to make them available for the TT-303.  Robin was able to confirm the problem.

via Robin Whittle's Real World Interfaces:

"When playing closely spaced notes via MIDI In, there may be clicking noises. These are moderately loud and have sharp edges, so they are quite audible. Please see this waveform: click-fix/click-pink.jpg . The magenta part of the waveform illustrates where the click occurs - the VCA gain suddenly drops to zero at the start of a new note, which in this case is while the decay tail of the previous note is still going. The previous note probably ended around 15:228 and the new note probably started around 15:230.

These clicks were reported to me on 2013-02-03 and the next day I reproduced the problem on our machine, determined the cause and wrote to Cyclone Analogic about it. I devised a relatively simple two component change for the circuit which solved the problem on our unit. I expect this would work well for all Bass Bots. This is not solvable via firmware changes. My suggested fix can be done without changing the PCB. Cyclone Analogic have asked me not to post any modifications to their machines, so I won't. However, for a technical description of the problem, please see: click-fix/ ."

syntar madness with steve

YouTube via kidtronic.

"A couple of camera clips from the Pacific Northwest synth meet in Renton near Seattle, October 25 2008. You may see the inventor briefly."

Note that should be Syntar.

sealion live electronics with a 2009 Tom Bugs Board Weevil

YouTube via kidtronic
"A post-post-moderne tribute to the ghost of Saturday Night Fever. I'm playing one of Tom's synthesizer circuit board designs. It uses knobs, tiouchplates and watchout for that fancy rope work buckaroos! The Board Weevil.has two little light sensitive resistors. The "stage" has its own microphone to link patterns to audio changes. But can you dance to this? All audio is off the teeny speaker on teh circuit board recorded by the crappy mike built-into the camera sitting on a $9 new tripod. We are talking big budget production values here. Well I had fun. Next time 1200 watts and subwoofers. :-)"

flame midi talker

YouTube via kidtronic

"I'm playing one for the first time at the PNW synth meet. R2D2 in a box and then some. I'm filming with one hand and playing with the other and your not getting (from the camera) the full two channel nature of the flame. Got me grinning, quite a mad bit of gear."

MMTA PNW Synthfest 2013 Pics by Computer Controlled

At the event:

4ms, Synthwerks, Mattson Mini Modular, Division-6, Circuit Abbey, Sythrotek / Antimatter, Malekko, Bubblesound, Computer Controlled, Lorne aka Kidtronic, JohnLRice, Infradead (with Dinsync Amnesia eurorack modules & more), Vsyevolod, Barto & more.

MMTA Spring SYNTHFEST 2013 Pics by James Maier aka Carbon111

Full set on Facebook here.


Pictured:

Mark Vail, author of Vintage Synthesizers & former Editor of Keyboard Magazine drawing the winning ticket for one of two Bob Moog Foundation raffles at the event.  Craig Padilla on the right & Jarrett manning the desk on the left.

David Skinners Synthesizers.com Box11 cased system.  Randy Jones of Madrona Labs in the background to the left. I also see Lorne aka kidtronic with a MATRIXSYNTH T!  :)

Jason with his three cabinet wide Mattson Mini Modular system & the recently released SQ816 sequencers.