303_LINE Glossary
Acid and TB-303 glossary
The words behind the sound, explained simply.
- Accent
- A louder, brighter note. On the TB-303, accented notes also push the filter harder, giving the bite in acid lines.
- Acid
- The style of electronic music built around the squelching, resonant sound of the TB-303. Acid house began in Chicago in the mid-1980s.
- BPM
- Beats per minute, the tempo. Acid house usually sits around 120–135 BPM, and acid techno runs faster.
- Cutoff
- The frequency where a low-pass filter begins to remove brightness. Sweeping it is the main acid gesture.
- Decay
- How long the filter envelope takes to fall back after each note.
- Envelope modulation (env mod)
- How much each note's envelope opens the filter. More gives a stronger squelch.
- Filter
- A circuit that removes part of a sound's frequencies. The TB-303 uses a resonant low-pass filter.
- Resonance
- A boost at the cutoff frequency that gives a whistling, vowel-like quality when turned up.
- Sawtooth and square waves
- The two oscillator shapes on the TB-303. Sawtooth is bright and buzzy; square is hollower and rounder.
- Slide
- A glide of pitch from one note to the next, giving the 303 its rubbery, liquid movement.
- Step sequencer
- A pattern editor that plays a row of steps in order. The TB-303 has 16 steps, and so does the emulator on this site.
Try these ideas in the free TB-303 emulator.