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The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the 303) is a bass synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in 1981. Designed to simulate bass guitars, it was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. However, cheap second-hand units were adopted by electronic musicians, and it became a foundation of electronic dance music genres such as acid house, Chicago house and techno. It has inspired numerous clones.
The TB-303 was manufactured by the Japanese company Roland. It was designed by Tadao Kikumoto, who also designed the Roland TR-909 drum machine.[1] It was marketed as a "computerised bass machine" to replace the bass guitar.[2]
The TB-303 can produce a sawtooth wave or a square wave.[3] This is fed into a 24 dB/octave[4]low-pass filter, which is manipulated by an envelope generator.[2] Notes are programmed using the internal sequencer.[3]
The TB-303 was released in 1981 and retailed for US$395 (equivalent to $1,399in 2025) or £234 (equivalent to £902in 2025).[3] In the US, Roland did not supply an English-language instruction manual, which made learning to program it difficult.[3] The TB-303's unrealistic sound made it unpopular with its target audience, musicians who wanted to replace bass guitars. It was discontinued in 1984.[5]
The Indian musician Charanjit Singh's 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat features an early use of a TB-303, alongside the TR-808 drum machine. It remained obscure until the early 21st century, when it was reissued and recognized as a precursor to acid house.[6] Singh influenced the Bollywood music producer Bappi Lahiri, who experimented with tweaked TB-303 basslines for several Indian discofilm songs released in 1983: "Koi Lutera" in Wanted: Dead or Alive, "Aah Ha Oonh Hun" in Do Gulaab, and "Tum Tum Tumba" in Karate.[7]
The first song using the TB-303 to enter the top ten of the UK singles chart was "Rip It Up" (1983) by the Scottish band Orange Juice.[8] The same year, Japanese musician Ryo Kawasaki used the TB-303 with a TR-808 and synth guitar in his electronic jazz album Lucky Lady (1983).[9][10]
The Chicago group Phuture bought a cheap TB-303 and began experimenting. By manipulating the synthesizer as it played, they created a unique "squelching, resonant and liquid sound". This became the foundation of the single "Acid Tracks" (1987), often credited as the first acid house track. With the TB-303 as a staple sound, acid house became popular worldwide, particularly as part of the UK's emerging rave culture known as the second summer of love.[3]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as new acid styles emerged, the TB-303 was often overdriven, producing a harsher sound, such as on Hardfloor's 1992 EP "Acperience" and Interlect 3000's 1993 EP "Volcano".[11] In 1995, the TB-303 was distorted and processed on Josh Wink's hit "Higher State of Consciousness"[4][12] and on Daft Punk's "Da Funk".[13] The English producer Fatboy Slim admired the simplicity of the controls, and named his first single "Everybody Needs a 303" (1996).[14]
In 2011, the Guardian named the release of the TB-303 one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music.[5] The popularity of acid caused a dramatic increase in the price of used 303 units.[15] As of 2014, units sold for over £1,200.[16]
The TB-303 has inspired numerous software emulations and clones,[17] such as the TD-3 by Behringer, released in 2019.[18] In 2014, Roland released the TB-3 Touch Bassline, with a touchpad interface and MIDI and USB connections.[19] In 2017, Roland released the TB-03, a miniaturized model featuring an LED display and delay and overdrive effects.[20]