RS007 MAM MB 33 Retro: German Squelch

(Re)released in 2015, the MAM MB 33 retro is a fun little machine and modern day (SMD parts!) recreation of the (discrete parts!) 1995 MAM MB 33 (aka the Freebase FB383 and NEXT! Spacebass 3.3). The unit was MAMs attempt to cash in on the 90s techno craze, 303 squelch and wobble were in high demand back then and the original ROLAND TB-303 had already become rare, sought after and most importantly very expensive in the early 90s. MAM ditched the sequencer and portability of the original TB-303 and went for a 1HE Rack unit, that seemed to fit pretty well with potential customers back then (also it was of course much more affordable and available to buy in local music stores). To recreate the original sound you can program accents (note velocity 120 and above) and slides (by playing notes legato) but because the MB 33s design was (and in case of the Mb 33 retro still is) a fully analog affair, the pots provide direct control over the parameters and are therefore non record-able via MIDI. The 24db filter doesn‘t squelch as dirty as the 303s 18db filter, but you can recreate typical acid sounds without much hassle, also the clean, unfiltered sound of the machine packs quite a punch too. Another very nice feature of the MB 33 is that it has a filter input socket that lets you send sounds through the filter and amp (use it as a gater!). The best thing though is, that with the advent of the both cheap and great Behringer TD-3, both the original MB33 as well as the MB 33 retro are going incredibly cheaply these days (as second hand units). I‘ve seen machines go for less that 60€ (MB33) and 80€ (MB33 retro) recently on eBay. At this price point, both are a steal! 0:00 Introduction 0:45 Square Wave 1:15 Sawtooth 1:34 Waveforms mixed 1:53 Accent 2:16 Resonance 2:50 Env Mod 3:04 Env Decay 4:00 Filter Input 5:35 Remix 5:59 Conclusion 6:25 Outro