Free TB-303 Ableton Instrument Rack
When it comes to electronic dance music, the iconic Roland TB-303 synthesizer remains a signature symbol of the acid sound that’s driven dance floors since 1985. Its hypnotic basslines and squelchy acid leads have left a permanent mark on the world of music production. However, creating those acid sounds often require expensive software emulations or less flexible hardware – until now.
Introducing Abletunes AT-303, a free edition of our Ableton Live instrument rack that faithfully emulates the TB-303’s distinctive character.
What sets AT-303 apart is that it doesn’t require any third-party plugins or effects. Moreover it’s fully compatible with ANY edition of Ableton Live, including Intro and Lite.
Good old single-cycle waveform synthesis
AT-303 rack is based on the power of single-cycle waveform synthesis, offering a super lightweight yet fully playable instrument. This approach leads to a quite realistic recreation of the TB-303’s signature sound while keeping CPU usage to a minimum.
A Unique Take on TB-303
Our goal wasn’t to create an exact replica of the original synth, as doing so with just Simpler is simply impossible. Instead, we set out to capture the essence of that acid sound, making AT-303 a distinctive instrument on its own. To add our own touch, we included the WAVEFORM macro control, which allows you to choose from different saw and square waveforms. Zero position represents the original waveforms sourced from hardware synth, while the other positions offer a range of variations, each with its own character and frequency content. This feature provides you with more choices, allowing you to shape the character of your sound, whether you prefer an analog or a more digital vibe.
All the familiar knobs
The rack features 8 macro controls that are mapped to correspond with the knobs of the original TB-303 synthesizer. With these macros, you can easily fine-tune and automate parameters such as filter cutoff, resonance, filter envelope, and more to create evolving acid leads and basslines. Just like you would do on the original hardware.
And if you’re the lucky owner of Live 11, you can use knobs snapshots feature to save and recall presets.
Famous TB-303 Accents? Easy!
Accent is one of a kind feature of TB-303 and AT-303 rack allows you to recreate that effect – simply adjust velocity of the individual notes. However, recreating original accent sound with Simpler had its challenges, given the unique hardware of the original synth. While the accent feature in AT-303 may not precisely replicate the original, it’s still usable and sounds quite interesting.
An unmatched resonance sound
Of course, it’s important to note that Ableton Live’s filter doesn’t replicate the original and unique TB-303 filter sound down to the smallest detail, but it still brings that signature character. In fact, it often surpasses many software synths. This was one of the key reasons behind the creation of AT-303 rack.
After playing with numerous well-known soft synths (non-303 emulations), we were left disappointed, mainly due to the resonance sound of their filters. Most of them failed to capture that extreme resonance that makes the TB-303 such a standout synthesizer. The disappointment was so profound that it drove us to create AT-303 – a solution that would not only fill this void but also go beyond in delivering that unique resonance sound that’s so crucial to the TB-303’s iconic character.
It may not be identical, but the results are quite cool and, for many, surpass the capabilities of other popular software synthesizers. So, if you want to get that signature ‘acid’ sound that defines the TB-303, among the free options, AT-303 rack is your best shot.
Want to hear it in action? You can hear the sound of the rack in our Big Room Techno Ableton template, Acid Storm. Just hit play on the video below.
Abletunes AT-303 is more than just an emulation; it’s a passion project driven by the desire to provide Ableton producers with a free, reliable, and quality instrument for recreating the sound of the TB-303. And we also highly recommend that you experiment with different distortion plugins to achieve that raw, driven acid sound. It’s all about tailoring the sound to your preferences, and the possibilities are limitless.
Installation
- Unzip the downloaded file.
- Open the project file with your copy of Ableton Live.
- Go to the first track and click the diskette icon to save it to your User Library.
Now, you can access it anytime from your User Library.
Compatible with any edition of Ableton Live 10 or higher.
