Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

pudd86 wrote:

Jazzpunk wrote: Now the race is on-will the x0x inflate to 303 prices?

they already have
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=003

it is modded, but still...

Nah, that one just went for heaps cause it was mine, and Amos said I'm cool.

Jazzpunk wrote:I've been on the waiting list so long, I forgot I even wanted one!

I signed up for it ages ago, like years (i think) and never heard back about it. Oh well, not overly fussed, jsut going to drop the cash on a Devil Fish.

pudd86 wrote:

Jazzpunk wrote: Now the race is on-will the x0x inflate to 303 prices?

they already have
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=003

it is modded, but still...

303's are routinely hitting 2000 or 2500

At least we still have the FR Revolution. -And It looks like supply is keeping up with demand. While it's a bit pricey, it's still a worthy 303 alternative just like a x0xb0x.

What do you think the investment money/timewise would be to source one of these? Is it realistic?

I feel left out, I just found out about the x0x a year or two too late

But, I wouldn't mind sourcing one as long as I knew it could be done and wouldn't end up being parts sitting around never to be finished because of some transistor that I just cannot find...

I sort of saw this coming. as long as they stock the boards and panels I'll be happy. At least some of the rare parts you could go without - like the BA661 (although it appears alternatives are also rare?) and the headphone amplifier - you could always just not have an onboard headphone out or external mini amp circuit..

th0mas wrote:I sort of saw this coming. as long as they stock the boards and panels I'll be happy. At least some of the rare parts you could go without - like the BA661 (although it appears alternatives are also rare?) and the headphone amplifier - you could always just not have an onboard headphone out or external mini amp circuit..

the BA622a is the original roland part
the ba6110 is the part used in the x0x kit, and it's not difficult to find. i just had 20 sent to me. i believe there is even another alternative to that.

some of the other transistors are a bit trickier, but the entire lot of parts has been self-sourced by several people in less than 3 days.

I just self-sourced all the rare parts in about 2 hours. The only things I had to alt was ba6110 instead of the 662, and 2sc945 instead of 2SC536F. Now it's time for a mouser and digikey order for the rest of the parts .

th0mas wrote:I just self-sourced all the rare parts in about 2 hours. The only things I had to alt was ba6110 instead of the 662, and 2sc945 instead of 2SC536F. Now it's time for a mouser and digikey order for the rest of the parts .

Can I ask where you sourced them from? I have no idea where to start..

eucarya wrote:

th0mas wrote:I just self-sourced all the rare parts in about 2 hours. The only things I had to alt was ba6110 instead of the 662, and 2sc945 instead of 2SC536F. Now it's time for a mouser and digikey order for the rest of the parts .

Can I ask where you sourced them from? I have no idea where to start..

All from ebay. I took the list of rare parts from the wiki (http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/x0x/rareparts), and the x0xb0x BOM excel file (http://forums.ladyada.net/viewtopic.php?p=26907#26907) for QTY and cross-checking, and then started looking on ebay for each part. When I couldn't find the 24x2SC536F I googled and searched the x0xb0x forum for alts, and ended up removing a 'p' off the transistor 2sc945p that was shown as an alt, and I hope it's still compatible (i have limited internet and the datasheet was very terse for those transistors)

My next step, next paycheque is to do a digikey order and mouser order based on that awesome BOM.

Thanks for the links th0mas. I went ahead and grabbed all the rare chips. Didn't take long at all. But I can see why the kits were discontinued, as I'm going to be receiving 5 boxes from all over the world just for these few parts. The rest I'll order from the regular sources Digikey, Mouser, etc.

Wouldn't it be great if someone just developed a really accurate 303 digital (software or hardware) sequencer (step programmable complete with the weird glide and accent 303 functions) that outputted either MIDI or CV? Then you could just plug into any old analogue synth with MIDI/CV inputs?

The LP in particular would be great for this with its 3 pole ladder filter and built-in distortion.

You mean something like this?

http://www.tweakbox.de/index.html

I've contacted the guys behind it and they've got enough experience with the ML-303 to pull this project off. I'm excited to hear what it sounds like.

c1t1zen wrote:You mean something like this?

http://www.tweakbox.de/index.html

I've contacted the guys behind it and they've got enough experience with the ML-303 to pull this project off. I'm excited to hear what it sounds like.

From what I can gather from this German web page, yes.

Although I'd even go a step further and remove the sound source if that'll reduce the cost further, leaving it purely a sequencer that's designed to be used with another external synth.

OriginalJambo wrote:Wouldn't it be great if someone just developed a really accurate 303 digital (software or hardware) sequencer (step programmable complete with the weird glide and accent 303 functions) that outputted either MIDI or CV? Then you could just plug into any old analogue synth with MIDI/CV inputs?

The x0xb0x project could be used for this. It comes with CV/gate and MIDI out.

Or am I missing what you mean?