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MAM | MB 33 mkii

Description

The MB 33 is a rack-mounted TB-303 clone released in the mid-nineties by German synth maker MAM (Music And More). It's basically identical to the Freebass 383 (which had a different front-panel design). It is a true analog monophonic bass synthesizer with MIDI implementation so you can create 303-like bass lines from your sequencer. Its single VCO offers the same two basic waveforms as the TB-303: a sawtooth and square wave. But in the MB 33 they can be mixed together for a more interesting tone than the 303 could originally produce.

Additional knobs control the VCO tuning, filter frequency cutoff, resonance, envelope mod amount, envelope decay time and accent intensity - the same controls found on the TB-303! The 24dB lowpass filter can also produce the characteristic sound of the 18 dB filter used in the original 303. There's also an auto-slide function (4 octave range) for producing those 303-style slides and a separate input for filtering external signals through it. Unfortunately there is no program storage.

The MB 33 mkII (pictured above) released in 1998 adds a few more features. The 24dB filter has been replaced by an 18dB filter just like the original TB-303 used. A new sub-oscillator was added and can be mixed with the other two waveforms for even meatier mono-bass sounds. A new distortion effect is also present and can be dialed-in to dirty things up - sounds great when resonated at high frequency cut-offs! MIDI can send/receive controls for the cutoff, resonance, ENV mod, accent, decay, distortion, and autoslide on/off.

Whereas the original MB 33 and Freebass 383 before it sounded very much the same as the TB-303, the newer MB 33 mkII adds even more possibilities for creating your own unique 303-like sounds - and at a fraction the cost of an original 303!

BrandMAM
ModelMB 33 mkii
DeviceSynth
TypeRack
Engine TypeAnalog
EngineVCO
Voices (max)1
Multitimbral1
Oscillators1
Sub1
Engine Detailed1 VCO with mixable sawtooth and square waveforms.
Filter (VCF)18 dB/oct lowpass filter with cutoff-frequency, resonance, ENV-modulation controls
Envelope (VCA)Decay-time (200 ms - 2,5 sec.) VCA separate ENV-generator with non controllable voltage assignment. ACCENT pot for accent-intensity; can be activated at velocity parameters greater than 120.
FXDistortion
Keys0
Key typeN/A
VelocityN/A
AftertouchN/A
MidiI-O-T
Produced:1998 - 1998
Legend: Obvious Y: Yes, N: No, N/A: Not Applicable
VCO Voltage Controlled Oscillator DCO Digital Controlled Oscillator
LFO Low Frequency Oscillator Sub Sub Oscillator
VCF Voltage Controlled Filter VCA Voltage Controlled Amplifier
Velocity As with a piano, the harder you hit a key, the louder the sound, unlike most organs which always produce the same loudness no matter how hard you hit a key. Aftertouch Pressing a key after you activated it. Channel Aftertouch, no matter which key, it will send a Channel message. Poly Aftertouch, sends the pressure per key instead of the whole channel.
Values for OSC, LFO, Filter, Envelope are per voice unless stated otherwise.

Manuals, patches etc.

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