Have 303 prices stopped increasing or even decreased?

[kosmasepsilon]

Originally Posted by worm

these have to be one of the most ridiculously overpriced synths ever. sure they give you 'that' sound. but is it worth $1k? never mind 2, or more!?

whiskey tango foxtrot, people?

you can make acid with many many synths.

Some people are still willing to pay 30.000$ for the fairchild 670 'sound'..

[CoolColJ]

What's this rubbish about a X0XB0X not grooving and sounding like a 303?

My no. 173 X0XB0X sounds like a 303 IMO
It's fairly modded too, with the bass boost and power sag mod on a trimpot
In any case I'd only sell mine for around $500 or so, that's all their worth, and it's better than a 303 for functionality

303 vs my X0X, and one with the HPF on the mixer engaged at 80 hertz to get that nasal tone back
Bare in mind the 303 went direct to DAT before getting transfered to PC and mp3, while the X0X went through a mixer, so it's a bit more coloured.

[Dirty Halo]

Originally Posted by kosmasepsilon

Some people are still willing to pay 30.000$ for the fairchild 670 'sound'..

And then the Anamod 670 came around and even the great golden ears of Gearslutz can't tell the difference in a blind test... watch people try and dump their $30k future paperweight (as 6386 tubes become increasingly impossible to find, rendering that 660 and 670 useless)

-andrews

[szf]

Originally Posted by CoolColJ

What's this rubbish about a X0XB0X not grooving and sounding like a 303?

Yours has not been modded to remove the annoying DC offset clicking, something the 303 is not marred by..

I have to get around to doing this on my xoxbox also, like this:
x0xb0x « Midiot Blog

By the way that 303 sounds like it needs a service.

[Acid Hazard]

Originally Posted by szf

Yours has not been modded to remove the annoying DC offset clicking, something the 303 is not marred by..

I have to get around to doing this on my xoxbox also, like this:
x0xb0x « Midiot Blog

By the way that 303 sounds like it needs a service.

This is very interesting. I didn't know about this. Thanks for bring it up!

[CoolColJ]

Originally Posted by szf

Yours has not been modded to remove the annoying DC offset clicking, something the 303 is not marred by..

I have to get around to doing this on my xoxbox also, like this:
x0xb0x « Midiot Blog

By the way that 303 sounds like it needs a service.

I'm fine with the click. The first 303 I had in the early 90s clicked and I loved that, very much like my first Juno 106
The attack click adds percussiveness, which I'm fan of. I love snappy sounding synths

The 303 I recorded was done in the mid 90s, so it wasn't that old back then.

With a filter input you can do this, which takes it beyond a normal 303
Take the output and feedback into itself to get more resonance and self oscillation

And play it via midi from a keyboard, handy if you want to fire another non CV/Gate synth through it's filter and VCA

X0X's VCA also saturates at high volume pot settings as well
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...distortion.mp3

[MarcB]

I regrettably sold my 303 years ago and always wanted another...

that is until I got phoscyon and a midi controller.. I love what this thing can do for less than £100 !

[Altitude909]

The click thing can be present in both the BA662a and the Ba6110 based clone used in the x0x. Some click and some dont. It's a part to part variability issue so 303s and x0xb0xes can have the DC click.

Interesting side note about this is that Roland knew about this issue so when you see a dotted ba662a, that is a low DC offset one (low click). If you own a SH-101, the board actually has a spot for the high value resistor and a trimmer to trim off the DC offset next to the 662 but I have never seen one with those parts stuffed and they are NOT on the schematic. So Roland never did anything about it for some devices (808, 303, 606) and probably opted to sort the parts for low offset in other devices instead of implementing the extra parts for the fix

[Rabenmutter]

Originally Posted by LiveFromKyoto

What do people use them for? Is acid house still a viable genre?

‪Mike Mind-acid machine‬‏ - YouTube

[schmuck]

Thanks for the great info Altitude909.

[Odey]

Originally Posted by seanino

Hi,
Anyone notice that you can get 303s on ebay for €1000/€1500. Don't remember being able to get them for that price before, they seem cheaper now. Always thought they were generally more than that last couple of years. Have the chance to buy one for €1000 and thought I was getting a good deal, now i'm not so sure! Maybe the xoxbox is responsible for less demand...
Whats everyone elses thoughts?

Are you sure thats not because the Euro has gotten stronger over the last couple of years? Price is probably the same in dollars and £'s...

[szf]

Originally Posted by Altitude909

The click thing can be present in both the BA662a and the Ba6110 based clone used in the x0x. Some click and some dont. It's a part to part variability issue so 303s and x0xb0xes can have the DC click.

I can only say that from a practicle view, most 303's do not have such clicky envs. (Alot of 303's have low DC offset BA662's ?..)
Many FR-777 owners familiar with 303's have noticed the same difference.


@CoolColJ

Nice Xox demo, have to mod mine/swap out some parts, doesn't sound as good as your's.

[Estin]

i think vintage gear prices are still going up. last year i bought a showroom condition juno 106 for $550 then sold it for $900 after i realized it wasn't for me.

[Altitude909]

Originally Posted by szf

I can only say that from a practicle view, most 303's do not have such clicky envs. (Alot of 303's have low DC offset BA662's ?..)
Many FR-777 owners familiar with 303's have noticed the same difference.


@CoolColJ

Nice Xox demo, have to mod mine/swap out some parts, doesn't sound as good as your's.

There are some other things in the way the x0x VCA is designed that tend to accentuate it more as well (hotter output, the way the current mirror works, couple of other things) and it can be made to sound identical to the 662a based one with some work (Brian Castro did some work in this area playing around with values, matching transistors and got it indistinguishable) but I would have to agree that the DC offset thump is much rarer on 303s than on x0xb0xes. I hFE match the transistors in the current mirror on my x0xb0xes and use the offset fix and that generally improves things quite a bit.

It is also very important to be able to separate the DC offset thump (which is a better way to describe it) from the free running VCO click. The latter is present on ALL x0x and 303s (but again less so on 303s due to the VCA difference IMHO) and sounds more of a rhythmic clicking when the VCA fires on a rising edge of a waveform. One of the software clones actually has this as a feature you can turn on and off

[Yoozer]

On a small tangent - why do x0xb0x builders make the saw/square selection knob so uh.. thin? You'd think a nice solid rocker switch would feel better.

I realize that this is a cost/wear (you're not going to flip it a million times) issue and the original had one of those horrible plastic ribbed switches, but still. It just looks so brittle.

[Altitude909]

The board is laid out for a specific switch, you cant just put whatever you want in there. The NKK part is a not a bad switch, it has a reinforced housing that is soldered to the PCB..

[Acid Hazard]

Luckily neither my 303 nor x0x have the click.