Climox 303
'Acid Man'
Friendly not-so-small-print
Version 2.00 (c) 2000 Joost Diepenmaat - To be enjoyed and copied freely.
Without any warranties whatsoever, so use at your own risk.
Description
- The positive description: Climox 303 is a Roland TB-303 emulator that really sounds like a Roland TB-303.
- The negative description: Climox 303 is a monophonic bass synthesizer that doesn't sound at all like a acoustic bass.
About this 303 emulation
This is my second attempt at writing a TB-303 emulation for Buzz.
The first one was never release because it sucked.
This one was because it doesn't.
This emulator is meant to be fast (about
12-16 % CPu time on my P100) and convincing (which I think it is now).
But I'd like to point out that the 303 emulation is not perfect yet, especially the
filter design, which is now just a rip-off of the standard cookbook
formulae LP-filter. Any constructive suggestions or good filter-design algorithms will be appreciated,
please send them to my email-address below, or post them on BuzzTrack.
You may find that some features of this buzz machine work a little different from
other (virtual) analog machines - especially the slide function - that is because I
tried to keep close to the original, in both synth and sequencer abilities.
On the other hand, if you've worked with an original TB-303, you may be worried that the
sequencer in this machine is too easy to program: you can see all the notes in a pattern
at once, you can enter slides, rests, notes and accents all at the same time and it
does not have decaying push-buttons that sometimes react, and then not and then twice.
For these people I have devised the followin strategy: while entering notes in the
pattern-editor, close you eyes, enter the notes, then do the same
in the slide and accent rows; then go over the pattern again with the cursor keys,
in the mean time hitting INSERT and DELETE and random. You now have a 303 pattern
just like the original. :-)
But (a little more) seriously; there are a few thing to keep in mind while programming
this machine:
- First of all: the original TB-303 has only 3 octaves to play in (in this machine: C-3 - C-5)
plus a tuning button that goes approximately -1 - +1 octave and a transpose function of one octave (0 - +12),
which makes the 'usable' notes (with the tuning set to zero) C-2 - C-7 (6 octaves).
so keep away from the upper octaves, if you don't want to give yourself away.
- Second: the slide switch keeps the note on as long as the VEG (volume envelope generator) takes
it, but after that you have to switch it off in order to hear anything. This is my
understanding of the workings of the original, but I could possibly be mistaken. Anyway
you can alway make the volume decay longer by editing the VEG Decay attribute.
- Note off ("off") and no note ("...") are equivalent in this machine; if the slide is
off there is no note playing; if the slide is on the note is kept on. This is because in
the original 303 you don't have notes longer than 1/16th beat, except slid notes.
- Slide and Accent switches are kept in there respective states if they are not set (see
also second point).
Commands / sliders in the Climox 303:
Command |Description |Range
-----------------+----------------------------------------+----------------------
Wave: |Select waveform |0 - 1 (square/saw)
Tuning: |Tune machine (in semitones) |00 - 30 (-24 - +24)
Cutoff: |Filter cutoff frequency |00 - fe (0 - 254)
Resonance: |Filter resonance |00 - fe (0 - 254)
Env Mod: |Filter enviroment fodulation |00 - fe (0 - 254)
Decay: |Environment decay |00 - fe (0 - 254)
Accent: |Accent amount |00 - fe (0 - 254)
Volume: |Main volume |00 - fe (0 - 254)
-----------------+----------------------------------------+----------------------
Note: |Play (or slide to) note |c0 - b9
Slide Switch: |Set slide |0 - 1 (off/on)
Accent Switch: |Set accent |0 - 1 (off/on)
Some people who've been very helpfull:
- I would like to thank Robin Whittle for his excellent texts on
the inner workings of the little silver box; I couldn't have done it without his information (I know, I tried ;-)).
Other buzz machines by Climox
At till now I've only released 1 machine; the drumbreaker Climox Breaker.
Upcoming projects
- Coming soon: the Climox Pulse M machine - a 6-voice virtual analog ala the Roland
SH-101 / JX-3p; 4 filter types, pulse modulation, ENV follow on pulse and cutoff freq, keyboard
tracking, slide, hold etc. etc.
Will be available as soon as the last bugs are eliminated.
Joost 'Climox' Diepenmaat
joost@netlinq.nl
http://thor.prohosting.com/~climox/