A TB-303 via Zebra CM

TB or not TB! It’s not so much a question, as how we use our own Zebra CM plugin to recreate the sound of a TB-303 for our 303 issue!

- Dave Gale

If there’s one thing we have gleaned from this months , it’s that there is plenty of love for the Roland TB-303, with use that extends far and wide. One of the most bizarre considerations that we lay firmly at the 303’s door, is how it managed to garner its reputation as an eternal classic, with a vintage price tag to match, while offering such an incredibly simple signal path that could be trumped by so many other synths, old and new.

With this consideration at the front of our minds, we’re going to create a classic 303 ‘aceed’ sound using our very own Zebra CM. Ironically, our in-house softsynth is capable of so much more than the basic 303 architecture, but the dressed-down process serves as a perfect entrée to understanding signal workflow. We’ll also be using some basic envelope settings, for both amplitude and filter modulation.

Armed with this basic concept, it’s a simple progression to getting something which sounds more akin to an SH-101, Bass Station or Moog, by extending the 303 construct with a second oscillator or sub-oscillator. So let’s create a great 303 sound, all from our very own Zebra (with real credit to our friends at u-he, of course!).

1 The first step in our process requires the booting of your DAW and an instance of the Zebra CM plugin. We’re working with our beautiful new-look version here, so grab your update if you haven’t done so already. Once loaded, visit the drop-down patch menu and select Init to start with a clean slate.