Roland TB-3 Performance Ready Touch Bassline Synthesizer

Roland TB-3 Overview

Since the 1980s, the legendary Roland TB-303 has been a staple of electronic music. The AIRA TB-3 Touch Bassline is a performance-ready bass synthesizer based on the original TB-303, featuring its authentic sound and intuitive controls. The unit maintains the unmistakable character of its predecessor, delivered in a modern package with a pressure-sensitive touch pad that makes both playing and programming a total breeze.

In developing the unit, the company meticulously analyzed the circuitry of the original TB-303 piece by piece, right down to the individual circuit behavior. Using Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) technology, the TB-303's sawtooth and square wave oscillators are fully reproduced, as well as the -18 dB per octave ladder low-pass filter, capturing that unmistakable cutoff and resonance character. In addition to the original tones, the AIRA TB-3 includes many new patches.

The unit provides a brightly lit pressure-sensitive touch pad that allows for seamlessly creating patterns and interacting with the unit during performance. In addition to pitch and volume, filters and control modulation can be adjusted by simply pressing down on the pad with a finger. A step sequencer allows seamless switching between pattern creation and performance, while the scatter function features slice, reverse, gate and other effects for instant variation, stutter and glitch generation.