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AVALON bassline NEW TB-303


THIZZLECP

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Guest bitroast

ooo sounds nice. had a look at site and see it's only on backorder.

was recently looking at x0xb0x prices/options and now this coming in to muddle up my choices even more.

acid box would be VERY nice :)

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All right I finally got to check out more demo vids. Man... This is the clone+ that the world didn't even know they wanted. Really solid. Would've been nice to have onboard distortion/overdrive, but it still seems great.

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Guest bitroast

cool thread = https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/982480-abstrakt-instruments-avalon-analog-bassline.html

 

ok guys, we just got done at NAMM. If we don't sleep for 3 days straight the official press release will go out Monday for those of you who weren't able to attend NAMM and get a demo in person. There will be more content coming as everyone starts to upload more pics and edit videos. For those who can't wait for the NAMM content and debut of the website here are some bullet points of the basics.

  • The avalon bassline synth is an analog monosynth based on the TB-303. It combines a 100% mirror of TB-303 RevD mainboard together with a panel board containing additional analog and digital circuitry.
  • Uses all original spec parts of the original TB-303 (transistors, caps, IC's, diodes, transformer, etc..) together with a BA6110 VCA with current gain calibrated to match the original BA662.
  • Fully backwards compatible with the original TB-303 (actually works with an original TB-303 CPU).
  • Sub oscillator has saw, sqr, and tri both -1 and -2 oct.
  • The cartridge slot is for filter carts which can be hot-swapped and used in place of the internal TB-303 filter.
  • Additional analog controls include sub/ext level control, filter tracking, accent decay, vca decay (goes full off), AD utility envelope with bi-polar modulation of the VCA and VCF.
  • I/O on back includes CV & Gate In/Out, accent sweep cv out (amplified and normalized to 0-5V), filter cv input. Audio out consists of saw and sqr out (+/-5V), external input, and vca & filter outputs.
  • Sequencer control has TB-303 pitch/time modes as well as a new realtime mode making use of the the step led switches (yes those are switches). Too many features to list - browse the panel to get an idea. patterns can be 64 steps in length with numerous time signature options. There are 448 internal patterns and 56 tracks. These can also be saved and loaded via sysex.
  • Sync modes are internal, MIDI and DIN, and it outputs both MIDI and DIN Sync. Also has USB-MIDI, and synth can be played externally.
  • Extremely high build quality including custom pots, german key switches, and 4-piece steel enclosure.

/////

Originally Posted by Altitude909 viewpost.gif
Why use old parts? Both the TT and x0xheart are all modern part based..

hi this is Brian again. I won't be able to answer all questions but I will answer this one Altitude as it's a good question and may be of interest to the many technical people that lurk here.
The Avalon doesn't use old parts it uses through-hole parts. The reason for this is that it's necessary to achieve the exact sound of the original bassline.

  • The layout is a mirror of the TB-303. Whether or not this is necessary to achieve that raw 303 sound is debatable, but I will say we never got 100% there until we did.
  • If one follows the lineage of the semiconductor manufacturers they would find that all of the original parts are still available even as of today. For example, the fab for 2SC536 from sanyo was passed to motorola and then merged to what became ON Semiconductor. The current part 2SC536NF is the exact same part with ROHS certification.
  • Another example is the 2SC1583, if you're a design engineer and spec parts for a living you will find quickly that there is another component from the same fab that is end-of-life but ROHS compliant and still readily available. It comes in a SIP5 case as opposed to ZIP5. It is just as cost effective as the SMD counterpart.
  • Just like the transistors, the original electrolytic capacitors from United Chemi-Con are also still available, and are about the same price as SMD parts. The only question is why wouldn't you use them.
  • We found that using the original transformer and power supply design is critical, so we spec'd it and had it remade. The part is very cheap. In fact using the original transformer along with corresponding diodes, resistors, transistors and caps to faithfully reproduce the discrete boost converter is cheaper than implementing a DC converter IC. Again the question is why wouldn't we?
  • It was important to use carbon film resistors to achieve the exact 303 sound we required, and there isn't an equivalent in the SMD world. This was actually one of the major factors in going through-hole. I will say as the design engineer I don't have any emperical evidence per se as to why except as to say A/B'ing various designs convinced me it was necessary.
  • There are SMD equivalents for the common base and common emitter transistor pairs but they are not sorted, and in a few places it is critical to use the correct part to achieve the correct sound without having to adjust resistors. We would have to measure each one on our curve tracer and sort them. Why bother when through-hole exists for the same price?
  • Any hardware repairs or modifications will be easy now or in the future with through-hole.


Those are just a few bullet points.

and viddy

Yess... this thing is looking incredible.

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Guest bitroast

WAY BETTA DEN x0x!!! ouch!! :diablo::diablo::diablo::diablo:

:mu-ziq:

 

only came across this thing after you posted the thread !

took a wee while to try and get up to speed with how it compares to other clones but man i think you are 100% right on this one : >

 

i saw on facebook the dude has run into a few manufacturing issues here and there but seems to be on top of it in identifying the issues and making sure the boxes get sent out working condition. there was vid posted on yt of someone receiving a unit that wouldn't power on, and he apparently got a personal phone call straight after, did troubleshooting and eventually organised a replacement.

 

i have faith in this unit !! : >

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Guest Chesney

Weird how people make sequences. To my ears that sequence starts on step 13. I just can't hear the sequence he made starting at step 1. I can't break from the seq I hear starting at 13.

Sometimes happens to me when I have made one and I listen to it the next day and have to shift the sequence as I hear a totally different sequence than I made the night before.

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Weird how people make sequences. To my ears that sequence starts on step 13. I just can't hear the sequence he made starting at step 1. I can't break from the seq I hear starting at 13.

Sometimes happens to me when I have made one and I listen to it the next day and have to shift the sequence as I hear a totally different sequence than I made the night before.

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/84743-losing-the-one-in-tracks-and-knowing-it/?fromsearch=1

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Wow that swappable filter cartridge stuff is really cool. Never heard of any classic synths doing that but I'm sure you folks can name some..?

 

no vintage synths had that, but studio electronics' atc synth had swappable filters, and the omega/code has factory-swappable filter cartridges.

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Yeah, I have a devilfish, and its super sick,

 

but the avalon is like having a new 303 with Mods, fresh metals, fresh sequencer, wow!!!

 

The devil fish is super nice for filtering chords, so you can get accented stabs with melodies and things,

 

I wonder how the avalon works in that situation, I hope you can turn off all the OSC's

 

OH bOy

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Weird how people make sequences. To my ears that sequence starts on step 13. I just can't hear the sequence he made starting at step 1. I can't break from the seq I hear starting at 13.

Sometimes happens to me when I have made one and I listen to it the next day and have to shift the sequence as I hear a totally different sequence than I made the night before.

 

Heh, I can't stop thinking it starts on step 10.

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  • 3 years later...

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