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Back to save the world, this friendly little box never needed the bulk of a massive modular synth wall, or the fussiness of a huge keyboard and an army of controls to gain the considerable cult status that it probably never expected. This is the old Roland TV-303, repackaged and reborn in the shape of the Behringer TD-3. Designed to work seamlessly alongside other recent legend-based Behringer gear, the renowned ’80s bass rammed into this device comes at a more than attainable price, especially when compared to what you’d have to fork out to get your hands on a genuine second-hand TV-303.
The TD-3: The Return of a Legend
Almost the entire catalogue of electronic music produced throughout the ’90s (yes, Acid included) was usually driven by a 303. This was not just due to the incredibly popular 303-sound, but due to the incredible simplicity of the thing. In honour of this effective simplicity, the TD-3 is built around an oscillator (sawtooth or square), a filter and a step-sequencer. The original 303 always had an 18dB filter but, since no one quite knew how it worked anyway, the architecture of the original chip has been lost and replaced with a less obscure 24dB filter – highly tweakable for any sound-designer. Even with the 6dB difference, this little bass box is still able to spit freaky loops using a singing filter with brilliantly weird accents, overdrive and almost-human sounding slides.
Further Highlights
Besides its deep vintage roots, the TD-3 is definitely a synthesizer of our time. Around the back, you’ll find a MIDI input and a MIDI Out/Thru as well a thoroughly modern USB-MIDI port, and a single CV port is also included so that the TD-3 can freely interface with Eurorack gear and other equipment. In terms of controls, besides the addition of a small corner of encoders that can be used to set the distortion level, things have been kept as straightforward as the original 303, because why would you need more?
