{"id":462,"date":"2025-05-08T18:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/crow-hill-company-creates-vaults-acid-synth-as-an-homage-to-the-revered-roland-tb-303\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T18:30:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:30:23","slug":"crow-hill-company-creates-vaults-acid-synth-as-an-homage-to-the-revered-roland-tb-303","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/crow-hill-company-creates-vaults-acid-synth-as-an-homage-to-the-revered-roland-tb-303\/","title":{"rendered":"Crow Hill Company creates\u00a0VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH\u00a0as an homage to the revered Roland TB-303"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Crow Hill Company\u00a0has announced the\u00a0availability of\u00a0<em>VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH<\/em>as the latest entry into its lengthening line of free and accessible virtual\u00a0instruments arising from company co-founder and composer\u00a0Christian Henson\u00a0effectively opening his \u2018vaults\u2019\u00a0for everyone to enjoy \u2014 this time creating an homage to the revered Roland TB-303 Bass Line, launched with\u00a0high hopes in 1981 as a so-called Computer Controlled bass synth by the Japanese giant of electronic musical\u00a0instrument manufacturing responsible for its creation before being deemed a commercial failure and\u00a0discontinued quite quickly thereafter, though it was later instrumental in driving Acid House into the musical\u00a0mainstream as a whole new EDM (Electronic Dance Music) genre and associated cultural movement, the\u00a0popularity of which triggered a dramatic rise in the price of used units \u2014 as of March 19\u2026<\/p>\n<p>It is fair to say that when Roland released its TB-303 Bass Line in 1981 as a so-called Computer Controlled bass synth with the intention of\u00a0mimicking the characteristics of an electric bass guitar, there were far fewer tools to create electronic music available. But buyers of the\u00a0TB-303 Bass Line were possibly swayed by the fact that it could be time-synced \u2014 using Roland\u2019s proprietary five-pin DIN sync interface (later superseded by MIDI) \u2014 to its contemporarily-released Computer Controlled sibling, the TR-606 Drumatix drum machine, making for an\u00a0affordable rhythm section that could conceivably fit into a small briefcase as a beautiful backing combination for the solo gigging musician,\u00a0further helped by both devices being battery operated as an attractive alternative to their (included) AC adapters\u2026 or so Roland had hoped.<\/p>\n<p>Though the engineers involved tried their best to imitate the sound of an electric bass guitar with the technology of the time, the TB-303 Bass\u00a0Line fell short in capturing its subtleties as an instrument, sadly, so it was discontinued within a couple of years, with Roland cheaply selling off\u00a0the last of the 10,000 units manufactured. Now, normally this would be the end of the story, yet something incredible happened\u2026<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ACID SYNTH - Our Homage To A Classic That Launched A Genre\" width=\"810\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WIZ58TymQB8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Helpfully, for the benefit of anyone not already in the know,\u00a0The Crow Hill Company\u2019s\u00a0Theo Le Derf\u00a0picks up what is an incredible story in itself:\u00a0<em>\u201cDJ Pierre and his band called Phuture found a used TB-303 in a music shop in Chicago for a bargain price. They started experimenting with\u00a0the bass sequencer and a drum machine while playing about randomly with the filter and resonance knobs. The sound they produced was so<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>unique and, frankly, weird that they decided to commit the jam session to tape. With the release of this experiment on Trax Records in 1987,<\/em><em>they unwittingly birthed a new genre: Acid House. This slimy, hypnotic, subversive sound subsequently built a cultural movement, and was the\u00a0<\/em><em>soundtrack to many illegal warehouse parties of the late Eighties \u2014 all of this from a tiny synth that was used \u2018incorrectly\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to\u00a0<em>VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH<\/em>\u2019s GUI (Graphical User Interface) being as intuitive as always, correct \u2014 or \u2018incorrect\u2019 \u2014 usage of the virtual\u00a0instrument in question comes quickly.\u00a0<em>\u201cThe first large dial \u2014\u00a0CUT OFF\u00a0\u2014 is a 24dB lowpass filter that controls what high frequencies you cut out,\u00a0and it is automatically assigned to MIDI CC1.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>So starts\u00a0Theo Le Derf\u00a0by way of an appropriately quick guided tour, before continuing:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cRESONANCE\u00a0determines the peak of the filter as it opens and closes, which creates that characteristically \u2018squelchy\u2019 sound that the synth is known for. The small dials are more concentrated effects \u2014\u00a0MOD\u00a0controls how much voltage is being sent to the filter, so you can get some\u00a0really interesting sounds by adjusting the\u00a0CUT OFF\u00a0dial and\u00a0MOD\u00a0simultaneously;\u00a0DECAY\u00a0controls the decay for all the envelopes; and, ofcourse, there is also our standard\u00a0ECHO\u00a0and\u00a0SPLOSH, with the\u00a0SPLOSH\u00a0being an algorithmic imitation of a cave, which suits this synth so brilliantly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is as easy as that, though\u00a0Theo Le Derf\u00a0is keen to add:\u00a0<em>\u201cAnother thing to mention is that you can obviously play staccato, but when you playlegato \u2014 MIDI notes overlapping with one another, you get a glide between the notes. This glide effect is another characteristic that the \u2019303\u00a0is renowned for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No need, necessarily, then, to risk dropping a bank-balance-busting four-figure sum on a decades-old Roland TB-303 Bass Line when\u00a0The CrowHill Company\u2019s \u2018tribute\u2019 truly captures the essence of its distinctive sound for all to enjoy for literally nothing. Notes\u00a0Theo Le Derf, ending on a\u00a0high note:\u00a0<em>\u201cThe story arc of this synth is so amazing \u2014 from its unpromising beginning to completely defining a genre and an era, it\u2019s so exciting to have this celebrated instrument at my fingertips for free!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH\u00a0<\/em>is free for everyone \u2014 as are all\u00a0<em>VAULTS\u2026\u00a0<\/em>releases from The Crow Hill Company \u2014 from here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/millermusicandmedia.dmanalytics2.com\/click?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthecrowhillcompany.com%2Fvaults%2F%3Futm_campaign%3DThe%2520Crow%2520Hill%2520Company%2520VAULTS%2520-%2520A%26utm_term%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fthecrowhillcompany.com%2Fv%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddirectmailmac&amp;i=5&amp;d=FYB8lXsBRUWUdEovgVD-Aw&amp;e=damion%40decodedmagazine.com&amp;a=AZWv0_ggd_ivMeAOngS7wA&amp;s=4MmV68_o8qU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/thecrowhillcompany.com\/vaults\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH\u00a0<\/em>installation and activation requires installation of\u00a0<em>The Crow Hill App \u2014\u00a0<\/em>an easy-to-use app designed by the best in the business to provide seamless download, installation, integration, calibration, and organisation\u00a0of The Crow Hill Company tools \u2014 available for free from here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/millermusicandmedia.dmanalytics2.com\/click?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthecrowhillcompany.com%2Fcrow-hill-app%2F%3Futm_campaign%3DThe%2520Crow%2520Hill%2520Company%2520VAULTS%2520-%2520A%26utm_term%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fthecrowhillcompany.com%2Fc%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddirectmailmac&amp;i=7&amp;d=FYB8lXsBRUWUdEovgVD-Aw&amp;e=damion%40decodedmagazine.com&amp;a=AZWv0_ggd_ivMeAOngS7wA&amp;s=VIgFYhUv2Zo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/thecrowhillcompany.com\/crow-hill-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.decodedmagazine.com\/crow-hill-company-creates-vaults-acid-synth-as-an-homage-to-the-revered-roland-tb-303\/\">Crow Hill Company creates\u00a0VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTH\u00a0as an homage to the revered Roland TB-303<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.decodedmagazine.com\/\">Decoded Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Crow Hill Company\u00a0has announced the\u00a0availability of\u00a0VAULTS \u2013 ACID SYNTHas the latest entry into its lengthening line of free and accessible virtual\u00a0instruments arising from company co-founder and composer\u00a0Christian Henson\u00a0effectively opening&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,162,163,164,160,157,165,152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acid","category-acid-house","category-acid-techno","category-electronica","category-freeware-and-samples","category-music-production","category-roland-303","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}