March the 3rd is here once again, and we thought it'd be a perfect time to speak to Om Unit, creator of the Acid Dub Studies series; three albums focused on and influenced by the Roland TB-303. We caught up with him to find out about his relationship with the world's most iconic Bassline synthesizer, which models he recommends, and how he uses it in his music. Press play [ or RUN/STOP ] below to listen along... 

Can you recall the first time you heard a 303? 

I can't but the stand-out track from when I was a kid has to be the really very obvious 'Higher State of Consciousness' by Josh Wink. I had a hard techno record around then that had some blistering distorted acid sounds and I remember hearing DJ Producer playing insanely fast stuff on tape packs as a kid too, all around the mid to early 90's.

What standout 303-laced tracks first inspired you? 

All the above stuff really - I'm not one for geeking out on artists or labels or even specific tracks as I have raging ADHD and if I'd had the money back in those days, I'd be able to pull records to help me answer this question. 

Obviously Luke Vibert stuff, I remember hearing Phuture tracks on Colin Dale mixes, but again, hazy memories to be honest! I was more of a Beats, Breaks, Hiphop and Jungle kid but I've always appreciated proper House music, so I'd say probably those tape packs and maybe a bit later listening to Hard House and Acid Breaks stuff; Lee Coombs or Bushwacka, and on the harder side I flirted a bit with Hardbag and Trance for a minute so there was 303 bits in there for sure too.

When did you first use a 303 and what was that like? 

I wasn't a rich teenager so it was probably Propellerheads Rebirth software. I didn't buy my first synth till the late 00s either as I was always properly skint. Rebirth was great though so I used to mess about with that a lot. I finally got a Cyclone Bassbot around 2016 or so which was the first clone I actually got my hands on. It wasn't what I expected; I realised that you have to be refined in how you tweak these things due to the nature of the harmonics - learning the sweet spots with the envelope/decay and the cutoff as well as the accent/decay thing too. It's actually quite a serious learning curve to be fair. 

What do you think gave the TB-303 such an incredible lifespan and journey? 

It's incredibly versatile for starters, despite the idiosyncratic nature of it and the fact that it's a monosynth. I think that the punch and character is timeless and unique - it's in a world of its own. People on a dance floor will always react positively because it's like an old friend turning up to party with you. It's just fun and if done right, funky as fuck!

Modular Outboard FX rack 

Can you explain your Acid Dub Studies series, and how it came about? 

Well, I wanted to focus on the 303 sound but try and find a new way of framing it that felt like my own - which felt like maybe a shit idea or a tall order - but in combining it with some fun outboard gear and in this very spaced out downtempo style, I think it sort of allowed for the voicing to come through differently.

Most of the voicing is actually MIDI controlled as well, as honestly, I hate the sequencer (despite the fact that the slide seems to work much better with on-board programming) and I was interested in seeing if I could play the 303 in less idiosyncratic way, much like TM404 did with his acid dub work. I wanted a more Reggae, Dancehall and Bass music style to kind of bring it into my world so to speak and it turns out it worked quite well. 

I initially was inspired by my mate Missterspoon who had her Aria 303 hooked up to a delay pedal on her coffee table one day when I went round. Apparently, I got up abruptly and said "I'm off to the studio" and disappeared. I gave her the x0xb0x I made studies 1 + 2 on as a bit of a birthday/thank you present.

Midas Venice F16 Mixing desk
 

What kind of 303 or 303-influenced machines do you have? Do you have a go-to machine?

I've had a Cyclone Bassbot mk.1 but sold it as I hated the knobs on it. I currently have 1 x0xb0x by Mode Machines, as well as another x0xb0x which was totally modded to death by Finn Shakespeare from Future Sound Systems and has been dubbed the 3-om-3. It's got some nutty mods on it and has become a beast of its own. 

'3-OM-3' custom x0xb0x by Finlay Shakespeare

I also have another unmade x0x kit which I'll keep for a rainy day and a Din Sync RE-303 which is really the daddy of them all in my opinion, it's so incredibly punchy. For my live show I used a slightly tweaked Behringer TD-3 as it sounds great, it's portable and easily replaceable.

My fave out of all of them is probably the x0xb0x though. That's what's on all the Acid Dub Studies albums. I tune the cutoff trim down a little bit to get more of a deep 'wow' in the low end on the accent. I think it's also the easiest to program on board, it seems more straight forward to use than the original 303 and the Din Sync model anyway.

Om Units Din Sync RE-303 built by Klang Generator

What kind of processing do you like doing on 303 sounds? 

For the Acid Dub Studies stuff  it's been paired up with traditional dub FX like space echo, spring reverb and digital delay. But for me, the kind of 'sonic identity' of that project is really the digital delay which is the Bugbrand PT Delay; a really unique PT 2399-based delay which is over-clocked which creates a kind of jittery fuzz on the longer delays but also has saturation and HP/LP filters so you can create parallel layers of texture with it on top of your original signal. When it's repetitive it kind of adds an extra melodic layer if timed right. 

Other than that I've used the Prophecy-Sound PI-Phase MK2 on some tracks, and some modular gear like Mutable Clouds and the E560 DEFLECTOR SHIELD module which is a fun ring mod/phase shifter.

Typical FX send/return units for Acid Dub Studies: Bugbrand PT Delay, Prophecysound Pi-Phase II' , Strymon Blue Sky

What has been the most influential use of the 303, would you say?

For me personally, it would have to be Andreas Tilliander for sure whom I collaborated with on 'in the afterworld' on Acid Test records. Have to mention again Luke Vibert of course too who is an absolute virtuoso of the machine. Honestly though none of us would see the 303 for what it is without Phuture's first records which contextualised the thing into something people could really think about as a dance music tool, so it would have to really be him and his early works for sure, speaking objectively.

Here's that album they worked on in full:

Here's an interview with electronic music artist Andreas Tilliander aka TM-404 / Mokira. And the latest installment of the Acid Dub Studies series:

Thanks to Om Unit for taking the time to speak to us. It's great to see the 303 inspiring people, over 40 years since it's release as a guitar accompaniment module promoted by Oscar Peterson:

Listen to Om Unit's Acid Dub Studies collection here. 

 

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