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

Product Information

One positive thing to note is that devs actually care about this product and have released several firmware updates not just to fix bugs but to add new features. The most recent update gave a song mode – something that I’ll probably never use but it’s reassuring to know that Donner care enough to keep updating this after the sale. In the same field, you can find additional keyboard controls including octave up/down, an arpeggiator, and a hold function. Connectivity

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.Recently a video went viral on YouTube by the famous composer and music tutor David Hilowitz (YouTube channel: David Hilowitz Music). His review of the Donner B1 bass synthesizer is one of the most detailed on the internet. " How did I JUST find out about this channel? ", as a comment under the video says. Versatile Connectivity】You can connect the Essential B1 to your DAW using the USB Type-C, serving as a MIDI controller to speed up your music production process. Two full size 5-pin MIDI I/O and Sync I/O allow easier communication with other hardware devices. First off, let me say it looks pretty nice. It's got good size. It's about the width of like a 13-inch laptop. The knobs feel pretty solid. The chassis is plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap. Also, I don't think you can tell because the way I shot this video is trying to make it look good in a top-down shot. But this is actually on an angle which makes it much much nicer to play. 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. 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.

There're several different dimensions you can actually change. For example, all of these right now will have a gate length of four. Gate Length is how long the note is. Let's say that we wanted the first note to be a bit longer. What we would do is we would hit Gate Length. 4 is the sort of middle value that means that the note is 50% of the length. 8 is the highest. Behringer has wasted no time in announcing faithful clones of the Sequential Prophet VS (appearing as the Pro VS Soul), the Oberheim OB (appearing in monophonic form as the UB-1 Spirit) , the Roland Jupiter-8 (appearing as the Saturn), Moog Minimoog (appearing as the Model D Soul), Roland JP-8000 (appearing as the JP-4000 Spirit), and the Korg Monotribe (appearing in a new synth 'inspired by' the original unit, the Hirotribe Soul). Finally, there's the big B's take on the EMS VCS3 which was one of the first portable synths. However, compared to Behringer's AKS Soul it’s a giant.Okay. So thus far we've only talked about the internal sequencer. But this actually has MIDI ports. It's got a MIDI input MIDI out port and a USB port. When it's plugged in via USB, it's a class-compliant MIDI device. It's worth noting that it does not run on MIDI USB power. It just uses that MIDI port for MIDI stuff.

Where the B1 differs more dramatically from its inspiration is in the sequencing workflow. The original TB-303 used a small button-based sequencer with an awkward workflow that involved inputting pitch and timing – note triggers, rests, slides, accents and octave jumps – separately. This led many users of the original to rely on blind experimentation as much as careful composition when it came to programming patterns. Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Donner’s take simplifies this significantly, coming with a two-octave pad keyboard, which allows the synth to be played chromatically. Sequencing is more straightforward too; steps are input one by one, allowing users to select a pitch and then input note length and assignslides or accents before moving on to the next step. The layout of the B1 is straightforward, with the synth controls up at the top, a rubberised silicone keyboard which doubles up for sequencing, and a separate sequencer section off to the right. The synth aspect itself is very simple, and extremely close to the setup of the TB-303, albeit not exactly a clone. Like the 303, the B1 is monophonic, meaning it can only play one note at a time (a common approach for analogue synths). You have a choice of sawtooth and square waves for different basic tones, which then feed into a resonant low-pass filter. An envelope decay control works in tandem with the Depth control in the filter section to modulate the decay time and filter cutoff, and that’s the extent of your options. It’s about as simple as a synth gets, but perfectly sufficient to get those classic acid squelches and deeper, low-resonance basslines. 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.Chinese low-budget guitar pedal and music tech manufacturer Donner has launched B1, it’s first 303-style analog bassline Synthesizer with sequencer. Here's how it works. The first thing you do is hit the Record/Edit button and that gets you into Record/Edit mode. Then if you've got a pattern loaded in memory, it'll show up here. Like it does here.