Analog Bass Synthesizer and Sequencer, Donner B1 Controller with 128 Patterns, Saturation & Delay Effects, LED Display and MIDI IN/OUT

Product Information

The Donner B1 comes equipped with an 8-mode arpeggiator, providing musicians with a wide range of improvisational possibilities. This arpeggiator can automatically play complex arpeggio sequences, allowing performers to create diverse music effects and enhance their expressiveness.

Oh, and it's got a delay. Acid lines sound great with that effect, and Donner seems to have thought ahead there. Sound-wise, the delay isn't as aggressive as you might think, but if you're out doing a DAWless gig, it's excellent to have that right there and ready to go. Again, Donner seems to have done their homework on what the TB-303 needed to have. Then, the signal flows into a filter with cutoff, resonance and depth controls. On the modulation side, you get a simple decay envelope. Also similar.Let's look at the next dimension. There's Ratchet here, which is kind of cool. It allows you to hit a note two or three times in rapid succession.

That said, while the B1’s sequencing offers extra flexibility, the synth engine itself is still as bare bones as any other 303-alike, and without features like a full amp envelope, additional oscillator or variations in filter mode, the sonic range is effectively limited to a single – albeit very desirable – style. Okay, enough about the 303. Let's actually hear the synth We've got in front of us. First, let's hear the sawtooth wave. Now, the square wave. Sounds really nice. You can really tell it's analog. Of course, we won't really know anything until we've got a pattern going. To clear that, you hold down the clear button for like a second or two seconds. And as you can see, all the lights went off except for the first light. And that basically means it's waiting for input. In V1.1.0 firmware update, we added SONG MODE, where you can chain up to 16 patterns to extend the sequencer from 16 steps to 256.Sometimes when pressing the keys when a pattern is playing it will transpose, other times it will clear a note, seems like a bug. This unit is slightly easier to program than the original 303 but pretty similar. All the patterns are 16 steps or less. All notes are entered using the step sequencer. There's no live recording mode or anything like that. let's turn the saturation on. Right now the drive is all the way down. I'm going to turn it up a bit. You can see it gets a little bit more aggressive.

For the price it is great! Construction feels solid enough, and it sounds very nice. There are a few small issues which stopped me giving 5 stars which are related to it being a TB-303 clone, which I will go into below, but I will preface this by saying that it delivers its own nice take on the acid sound. Firmware updates also resolve various issues, such as the Sequence Edit Glitch and Slide Issue, ensuring the Essential B1's stability and reliability. These fixes provide musicians with a smoother and more seamless playing experience, avoiding synchronization problems and other irregularities. Overall I’m really impressed. I’m building a live guitar/synth setup and the B1 is tiny yet does everything I want. Hopefully we’ll see some more synthy products heading our way so I can spend the money I saved on this! There's a tone knob. I'm going to turn it all the way to the left so we get it all bassy. So that's the most bassy it can go and then I'm going to go all the way to the right distortion is of course a very subjective thing I like this quite a lot. I think it adds to the grimness of the sound. The general idea is to tell people that our products are full of potential and will be getting even better via firmware updates. We are glad to hear from our users, and provide synthesizers that musicians and sound designers truly love and glad to use. Instructions on SONG MODE

Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary. Control Buttons: UP and DOWN, TRANSPOSE, PATTERN, TEMPO / TAP, PLAY / STOP, CLEAR, WRITE, BAR, SIGNATURE, DOTTED No tap write or realtime record, and no ability to record slides or accents in realtime, the TB-303 does not have some of these features but a lot of other clones do. In the same field, you can find additional keyboard controls including octave up/down, an arpeggiator, and a hold function. Connectivity