AVALON bassline NEW TB-303

SEM cartidge is by far my favorite. R:OTA is also good--almost turns the Avalon into a 101. The ladder is pretty bland to my ears next to the other 2 cartidges. Can't go wrong with the SEM if its available.

This thing looks pretty excellent.  I'm happy with my x0xb0x (since I upgraded it with an x0xlarge board and installed n0nx0x - the stock firmware is awful  and the third party firmware that can run on a stock x0xb0x is a big improvement but still doesn't do it for me; n0nx0x just makes me happy every time I use it) but if I didn't have that and was in the market for a 303 style synth and money was no object then this would be the first thing I'd look at.

OTOH it's really, REALLY expensive.  The x0xb0x with NOS components plus the CPU upgrade, custom front panel, high quality sealed tact switches and milled aluminum knobs was around $350-$375 at the end of the day, and would have been less if I hadn't been upgrading it a bit at a time as new options showed up.

I guess it's economies of scale, but everything on that website seems pretty expensive for what it actually is.  $40 for a standard, off-the-shelf switching power supply that's only 1.2 amps? Is it really that expensive to get one customized with your company logo? Because the same thing can be had for about $7 from any big box store, or maybe $1 on AliExpress.

The one you get for $1 on AliExpress might destroy that expensive piece of gear you power with it, though. That said, it still makes sense to get something off the shelf in a regular shop.

  On 11/6/2018 at 8:08 AM, Stickfigger said:

What's the best value clone ?

put some sample packs of real 303s into your Digitakt ;D ;D ;D

  On 11/5/2018 at 11:35 PM, trappywappy said:

SEM cartidge is by far my favorite. R:OTA is also good--almost turns the Avalon into a 101. The ladder is pretty bland to my ears next to the other 2 cartidges. Can't go wrong with the SEM if its available.

Might pull the trigger on a SEM in that case, the adjustment wheel looks neat. Hope he does another run of the R:OTA. I guess the wasp is next though?

Running a Monomachine thru the Avalon is pretty fun I must say. 

  On 11/6/2018 at 3:28 PM, Crossword Enthusiast said:

 

  On 11/5/2018 at 11:35 PM, trappywappy said:

SEM cartidge is by far my favorite. R:OTA is also good--almost turns the Avalon into a 101. The ladder is pretty bland to my ears next to the other 2 cartidges. Can't go wrong with the SEM if its available.

 

 

Might pull the trigger on a SEM in that case, the adjustment wheel looks neat. Hope he does another run of the R:OTA. I guess the wasp is next though?

 

 

Running a Monomachine thru the Avalon is pretty fun I must say. 

 

The wheel on the SEM makes it--I've got some awesome sounds with it. The R:OTA does pop up on eBay/Reverb from time to time. Might be worth an email to them to see if they plan on doing another run. I'm hoping anything is next, they've been pretty radio silent about new cartridges since the R:OTA released. 

I've run a Grendel Grenadier through the Avalon, using the Avalon to sequence it, and it sounded awesome.

  On 11/6/2018 at 3:37 PM, trappywappy said:

 

  On 11/6/2018 at 3:28 PM, Crossword Enthusiast said:

 

  On 11/5/2018 at 11:35 PM, trappywappy said:

SEM cartidge is by far my favorite. R:OTA is also good--almost turns the Avalon into a 101. The ladder is pretty bland to my ears next to the other 2 cartidges. Can't go wrong with the SEM if its available.

 

 

Might pull the trigger on a SEM in that case, the adjustment wheel looks neat. Hope he does another run of the R:OTA. I guess the wasp is next though?

 

 

Running a Monomachine thru the Avalon is pretty fun I must say. 

 

 

The wheel on the SEM makes it--I've got some awesome sounds with it. The R:OTA does pop up on eBay/Reverb from time to time. Might be worth an email to them to see if they plan on doing another run. I'm hoping anything is next, they've been pretty radio silent about new cartridges since the R:OTA released. 

 

I've run a Grendel Grenadier through the Avalon, using the Avalon to sequence it, and it sounded awesome.

 

Good idea, he seems to be not great at comms in general. Anyway I just ordered the SEM from Schneiders. Woop woop.

  On 11/6/2018 at 7:58 AM, thawkins said:

The one you get for $1 on AliExpress might destroy that expensive piece of gear you power with it, though. That said, it still makes sense to get something off the shelf in a regular shop.

True, although most of that stuff is coming out of the same factories as the full priced alternatives. 

It's more something I threw out because I usually find that the price of a power supply can be a pretty good indicator of the kind of markup you're seeing on a piece of gear.

But regardless, this thing does seem really nice and I appreciate the use of Gameboy cartridges for the filters (although again, $100 seems like a lot for clones of existing designs made with surface mount components).

  On 11/6/2018 at 11:57 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 11/6/2018 at 7:58 AM, thawkins said:

The one you get for $1 on AliExpress might destroy that expensive piece of gear you power with it, though. That said, it still makes sense to get something off the shelf in a regular shop.

 

 

True, although most of that stuff is coming out of the same factories as the full priced alternatives. 

 

It's more something I threw out because I usually find that the price of a power supply can be a pretty good indicator of the kind of markup you're seeing on a piece of gear.

 

But regardless, this thing does seem really nice and I appreciate the use of Gameboy cartridges for the filters (although again, $100 seems like a lot for clones of existing designs made with surface mount components).

 

FWIW, the thing is built like a tank and has been nothing but solid for me since day one. It's a joy to play, too.

I'm honestly not sure what a fair price would be for the filter cartridges, but with a click of a button I can switch from 303 to a completely different sounding synth, and hot swap in another, and then switch between filter modes to get totally different tonal characters. The love that seems to have gone into building the thing, along with the extra features (extra envelope, filter tracking, frequency range, sub osc) seems well worth the price to me. You can definitely get a different clone for a lot less, but I'm not sure now that I've had mine for a long while that I'd want to give it up.