[sdiy] AS3394E: Practical power supply?

Mon Nov 22 16:32:05 CET 2021

Yes the 303 obviously came good for them in the end, but at the time they were losing money hand over fist, not just on the 303 but on lots of other half-completed designs they flooded onto the market in an attempt to survive.   They had a huge bank loan and the interest payments were high.

He did stop production in the early 80s to clear inventory, but I heard it built back up again very quickly later on.  In the 1980s the Japanese were the experts as manufacturing, even more so than China is now, and so as soon as you turned on a production line you invariably had a glut of products.  JIT always seemed to apply just to the end of the production line, not to the poor dealers trying to sell the stuff.  We have seen the same thing nowadays with car manufacture, fields full of vehicles because despite JIT and so on, it’s impossible to turn off the production flow.  Or if you do, you can’t restart it, as the current semiconductor shortage is highlighting.

It’s not quite accurately documented in Sound on Sound’s five part History of Roland which is well worth a read
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/history-roland-part-1

Obviously anyone in the business back in the 80s has a story to tell of what they (and everyone else) seemed to get wrong, and sometimes get right.  To me it was the electronic pianos that saved them even though also to me the Yamaha’s sounded better.  But others may have different opinions on how Roland turned things around.  Their accounts are as clear as any Japanese company’s, so we’ll never really know the whole truth.

From: mark verbos [mailto:markverbos at gmail.com]
Sent: 22 November 2021 15:06
To: Mike Bryant
Cc: Adam Inglis (synthDIY); synth-diy at synth-diy.org
Subject: Re: [sdiy] AS3394E: Practical power supply?

Did Roland really lose millions on it after repackaging the sounds and concept a million times? It seems they can barely make a product without referencing this”fiasco” in one way or another.

Mark

On Nov 21, 2021, at 12:31 PM, Mike Bryant via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:

Well I suppose somebody must have bought one before Roland canned the fiasco (and lost millions doing so apparently).   Bet the band made more selling the thing a decade later than on this record.

So long ago now but was it Studio Sound that reviewed it on its release and couldn’t see the point of it ?  Afraid I still don’t.

From: Adam Inglis (synthDIY) [mailto:synthdiy at adambaby.com]
Sent: 21 November 2021 00:54
To: Mike Bryant
Cc: chris; synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] AS3394E: Practical power supply?

Ah, c'mon Mike, stop being such a fuddy-duddy !

You’ve clearly never heard this 303 masterpiece

https://www.discogs.com/release/2108668-Charanjit-Singh-Synthesizing-Ten-Ragas-To-A-Disco-Beat

A

On 21 Nov 2021, at 6:46 am, Mike Bryant via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:

No you're right.  The TB-303 was utter crap and few bands actually used it when it was released, and rightfully discontinued a couple of years later.
Quite how and why it then gain popularity is one of the great mysteries of our time, and shows how fast music went downhill as the last century progressed.

-----Original Message-----
From: Synth-diy [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org] On Behalf Of chris
Sent: 20 November 2021 18:34
To: synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] AS3394E: Practical power supply?

On Fri, 19 Nov 2021 17:47:47 +0100 cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com<mailto:cheater00social at gmail.com>> wrote:

On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 7:07 PM chris <chris at chrismusic.de<mailto:chris at chrismusic.de>> wrote:

I think the word of caution is not against smps in general, but
w.r.t. a filthy +5V going to a micro controller, including all
current/voltage spikes coming from digital operation.
Before you know it, you may hear something like a software LED
refresh rate on the supply line.

Are you saying the TB-303 does not have The Sound? Blasphemy!

Oh, now I understand. The TB-303 never had an oscillator. It just used LED bleed as a sound source. And since the processor wasn't fast enough for higher refresh rates, it was marketed as a bass machine. Now it all fits together...

Actually, I never cared for 303s at all. I wasn't even tempted to get me a VA emulation for some 300 bucks.
So I'm not just blasphemic, I am the opposite of a real believer.
Ok, now I can expect the Spanish Inquisition to come after me.
(Even though they say "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!")

Chris

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