Behringer TD-3 Analog Bass Line Synthesizer Silver

So the Behringer TD-3 is definitely fun when you get the hang of it but it also misses the mark on a couple of features. First off I have never used a real TB-303 so I'm not comparing it to that. I'm just commenting on this as a unique piece of gear. First off this thing sounds great AND fat. I found that the square wave oscillator is almost always better sounding the then saw. The controls are very intuitive and really are just asking to be tweaked in a live take. I found that for my purposes it was more useful to set the accent, decay, envelope, & resonance at my desired levels and just tweak the filter cutoff. Speaking of the knobs, I have to take off a point for the decay knob. I can barely hear an envelope decay of the filter with this thing. It is VERY fast and I really couldn't hear much difference between the completely closed and open values. This misses the mark even if it's exactly modeled after the 303. Also I know Behringer were going after making a faithful recreation of the TB-303 but the method for inputting notes is very cumbersome. Apparently it is exactly as it is on the 303 but it is not intuitive at first use. You have to enter all your notes first and then enter their lengths & any rests. It's not so bad after you get the hang of it but it leaves something to be desired compared to the modern Roland TB-3 which is a pretty great and intuitive sequencer. I take another point off the TB-3 for its horrendous USB MIDI. In short it is unusable. It creates a digital hum that of course you could mostly remove with notch filtering or something like iZotope RX but it should simply not be there. Standard din MIDI however does not have this problem and I can't see why the analog sync wouldn't be exactly the same. For the money the TD-3 delivers strong & powerful bass with pedigree. The various hardware color options make it fun finding the perfect counterpart to your studio or live setup. Honestly I hope to never part with mine and I truly have zero gear lust for a real 303. There may be flaws in comparison that I just have no concept of but I've recorded and jammed with the TD-3 and it simply is fun to use.

This thing is awesome! Not easy to use, but extremely fun. Controlling the sequencer over usb make a world of a difference when using this. The manual sucks though, but watch some videos on YouTube and you'll get the hang of it in no time!

I can wait to use with my other equipment

First and foremost, it sounds amazing. And, ultimately, I guess that's what's truly important. What I _didn't_ know was just how fiendish it is to program. The documentation (which irritatingly is online only) does cover how to do things, but a lot of it is pretty byzantine and I'm having a hard time remembering. Having used a number of app versions of 303s, I was expecting something a bit easier. (For instance, there is no real-time entry of pitches.) But, at the price (and given how great it sounds) its a bit hard to criticize.

I use it get that 303 classic sound

so much better and cheaper than getting a recreation 303 by roland! this one is very full size, very accurate recreation of sound, and insane value. this is exactly what roland should've done but never have.