The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland Corporation from 1982 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic dance music.
The TB-303 played an important role in the development of house music, influencing Chicago house and forming the basis for acid house. It is also commonly used in related dance genres such as acid techno and acid trance.
The TB-303 (short for "Transistor Bass") was originally marketed to guitarists for bass accompaniment while practicing alone. Production lasted approximately 18 months, resulting in only 10,000 units. It was not until the mid- to late-1980s that DJs and electronic musicians in Chicago found a use for the machine in the context of the newly developing house music genre.
The TB-303 has a single audio oscillator, which may be configured to produce either a sawtooth wave or a square wave. The square wave is derived from the sawtooth waveform using a simple, single-transistor waveshaping circuit. This produces a sound that is subtly different from the square waveform created by the dedicated hardware found in most analog synthesizers. It also includes a simple envelope generator, with a decay control only. A lowpass filter is also included, with -24dB per octave attenuation, and controls for cutoff frequency, resonance, and envelope modulation parameters. It is a common misconception that the filter is a 3 pole 18 dB per octave design when in fact it is 4-pole 24 dB per octave.
When me reach me yard me got one thing on me mind,
To hold me little woman and fe make her feel irie.
Be play album, dub plate, and forty-five
For dat's the kind of riddim that keeps me alive.
Me turn on fe me radio some a chat 'bout dat
But I know more than D.J. so I nah play you dat.
[Chorus:]
Me tek a 'D' and a 'U' an' a 'B' - not 'E'
That thing there is special to me.
Me listen in the morning, also in the night
For dat form of music is out-a-sight.
The newest form of music is easy to see
It start with a 'D' and end with a 'B'
Dub in a de morning and dub in a de night
Mek the whole neighbourhood feel alright,
feel alright
When me reach me yard me got one thing on me mind,
To hold me little woman and fe mek her feel irie.
When me reach me yard me got one thing on me mind,
To hold me little woman and fe mek her feel irie.
[Chorus]
Rock in a de dance, me seh fe give dub a chance,
Rock in de blues, you know you jus' can't lose.
A dub me a defend, on dub i can depend
Check out dis yah music and run tell yo' friend.
We don't want rock 'n' roll and we got enough soul,
We don't want rock 'n' roll and we got enough soul.
Bass is beutiful if it's clean,
But dis yah dub music, man it well mean.
No bother follow friend and ignore dub again.
It's simple, but effective, can't you see?
A lot of people catch on in 'eighty-three.
Now is 'eighty-four and you must know the score,
Anything me chat, you know the people bawl 'more.'
Me jump 'pon de graphics, don't get vex'
All me have a total concept to make you feel Irie.