Will Systems MAB-303 review

The Will Systems MAB-303 is a true analog bass synthesizer designed to emulate the famous Roland TB-303. The oscillator has 3 different waveforms: saw, square and a pulse wave. It has 5 flimsy knobs that control filter cutoff, resonance, envelope modulation, envelope decay time and accent. However, these knobs don't transmit control data. In fact, the MAB-303 has no MIDI out at all, just a MIDI in and thru. The MIDI implementation is quite weak but it does support pitch-bend, EnvMod, filter cutoff, velocity, accent and a few other things. There's also an adjustable auto-glide setting that can be altered in five steps. As an added bonus there is a LFO that modulates the pitch and gives a bassline a really freaky acid feeling. I believe there's also some sort of filter cutoff key tracking but I'm not sure since I've no manual and the 2 digit display gives rather cryptic messages. On the left side of the display are a Function and Midi button. With these you can change the MIDI channel, accent, velocity and aftertouch response, filter key tracking, auto-glide speed, pitch modulation LFO depth and a number of other things I haven't deceiphered yet.

The Sound

Personally, I really love it's sound. I've never owned a real TB-303 but a few years ago I did had the chance to play with one for a week or two. From what I remember of it I think the MAB-303 sounds pretty much the same. Lovely burbley square sounds, sparkeling resonance, snappy envelope response times, it has it all. I particulary like the sound when the resonance is set to the point right before self-oscillation, instant gorgeous burbly 303 sounds! The only thing that's not entirely like the TB-303 is the resonance at full self-oscillation. It comes very close but it's just a bit different (but definitely not bad!). I love tweaking the cutoff knob, the sound is just so organic. As always, this synth also has a few bad points. A lot of noise hearable when you play a sound, especially when the cutoff is set to a low value. I don't know if the noise is 'normal' (in a sense that the TB-303 has the same noise) or that it's a production error (or maybe it's just my particular model). The synth also seems to have a long release time. If you quickly press and release a key you can hear the oscillator fade away. Again, I'm not sure if that is normal TB-303 behaviour or that my machine is faulty. I must add though that I only noticed it over my earphones so it's very subtle. The tune knob at the back of the machine is very sensitive, even a gentle touch of it can completely detune the synth.

Conclusion

The MAB-303 is pretty hard to find these days. I've rarely seen one on Ebay or other online marketplaces. If you see one you should be able to get it for quite a low price. Get it while you can, the TB-303 emulation is really good and it's a great bass synthesizer on its own!