STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
ON HOW TO PROGRAM
A TB-303

Ok, you've finally found your favorite toy, fill it with 4 x 1.5 volts battery or 9 volt power supply, then switch on .... ready to play ! But the lines already saved aren't too good and you want to create your own, kool ! Unfortunately you don't have the fucking manual .. ?? You've just reached the good place then !

You need 4 main actions to write basslines on the TB :

1. Entering the notes (pitch)
2. Entering the time informations (how long is the note)
3. Entering the 303's own features : accent, glide and transpositions
4. Entering the line's lenght (how much notes played from start to finish, from 1 to 16)

Here's the detailed procedure :

1. Switching to write mode and clearing old pattern

Switch your 303 on, push start to select which pattern you want to discard to create a new one, then stop and turn the pattern/track button to PATTERN WRITE mode.

Now you're in write mode, first you need to erase the current pattern : push the FONCTION button, hold it, and while holding it push the PATTERN CLEAR, then release all, the current pattern is now empty !

In fact the real effect of this procedure doest clear the pattern, but simply discard all time and pitch informations from the memory, but the notes are still there !

2. Entering the notes

Now we are ready to start writing our line, first push the PITCH MODE button, now the 303 is waiting for you to enter your notes with the 'keyboard' (16 notes maximum, you can enter more but the 303 will only save the 16th firsts), so push the notes (mostly randomly ... he he); each time you enter a note, you should heard the sound of it. When finished push the FUNCTION button, the 303 is now back in normal mode but as you didn't already entered the time informations, you are NOT able to listen to you line yet !

The keyboard of the TB-303 :

3. Entering the time informations

Start by pushing the TIME MODE button (the one at the top of the 'slide' label), ok you're in time mode and you have only 3 possibilities : push the button at the bottom of the 'down' label to get a black not (1/16th lenght), push the button at the bottom of the 'up' label to get a white note or the button at the bottom of the 'accent' label to get no note played (1/16th blank), so push those 3 buttons randomly 16 times. The TB-303 will automatically turn back to normal mode when you reached the end of your line.

There is also a TAP mode to enter the timing info : enter in PITCH mode and push both FUNCTION + PATTERN CLEAR. You will hear the sound of a metronome (you can even tweak it !), now you can enter the timing info with the TAP button, but you have only ONE BAR to proceed, so better switch your tempo knobs to slow !! This mode is usefull for experimenting and random creation ... but not really interesting to create serious stuff ...

Now you can listen to your new line for the first time, push START button ... Sounds strange ? Let's continue entering more informations for a better result... Press STOP.

4. Entering the 303's own features

First you need to go back to pitch mode by pushing the PITCH button. Now you are able to give the transpose up, transpose down, slide and accent informations for all notes of your line : press and hold the WRITE/NEXT button, you have the first note playing and while holding the WRITE/NEXT button push the up, down, slide or accent button to add informations, you can even add multiple informations : if you want a note to be slided and accentued and transposed 1 octave up, press up, slide and accent (while still holding the WRITE/NEXT button !), the lights at the top of the buttons will show what is the current information. To proceed to the next note, release the WRITE/NEXT button, and push it again, you'll have the 2nd note of your line ... Then continue to the end of the line (16 notes max) and when reaching the last note, push the FUNCTION button to come back to normal mode...

Check your line once again, now I think it should be a killer !!?? To check the accent effect you have to turn the accent knob fully clockwise ...

5. Choosing the lenght of your line

It's one of the most hidden tool of the 303, and very tricky to use ! If you want to change a 16 notes bassline to a 4 notes bassline (good for background basslines or very repetitive lines) you'll have to enter PITCH mode by pushing the PITCH button again, then push the FUNCTION button AND HOLD IT ! Now you can enter the amount of note your want in your line by QUICKLY CLICKING the STEP button (same as TRANSPOSE DOWN button) as much time as you want notes in your line : exemple, if you want 4 notes only, push FUNCTION button and hold it, then fast click 4 times on the STEP button and release everything ... now your bassline is only 4 notes lenght ... If it doesn't work, then click faster on the STEP button ! If you want to go back to as 16 notes line, use the same procedure and click 16 times quickly instead of 4 ... If you click more than 16 times, the machine doesn't change the line !!!!

If you have a better procedure to change the amount of note, then e-mail me !

Ok, now your bassline is ready to be played ! Turn back the PATTERN knobs to pattern play mode (WARNING : the 303 MUST be stopped !!!) and play with the upper knobs to modulate your line.
While in pattern play you have those following tips :

• You can select up to 4 lines to be played chained, push keyboard button 1, hold it and push keyboard button 4, then the 303 will chain patterns 1 to 4 !
• You can modify the global pitch of your line while playing : push PITCH button, and while holding it push any of the keyboard button to globaly change the pitch (better result if you go 1 octave upper by pressing the 8th button).

... Happy composing ...