There’s no new hardware from Roland for 303 Day, but what we get instead is music – a minisite, a mix, a vinyl pressing (really), and records that double as control vinyl for Serato. It comes with sounds courtesy artists J. Rocc, Fast Eddie, Shadow Child and DJ Haus. And if you just want to have your own 303 party right now, there’s a mix from J. Rocc.
Roland has released a multi-language promo site for 303 Day, which rounds up history, music, and links.
https://www.roland.com/global/promos/303day/
Gotta love this electronics shot:
As before, you can use designer Yuri Suzuki’s free Roland 50 Studio to play in your browser with a 303, 404, 101, and TR machines, too:
I had to read the Roland/Serato announcement twice, as first, I thought I was looking at normal Serato control vinyl with some Roland branding. But, no, the B-side has control signal, and side A is all music. There’s one record each for the TB-303 and TR-606, with Fast Eddie and DJ Haus providing music for the 303 and Shadow Child and turntablist J. Rocc reinventing the TR-606’s drum patterns. They’re set up so you can actually play the two records together as if you’ve got a 606 and 303. (Now, of course, you could just get a 303 and 606, available in multiple forms from Roland alone. But it is a fun collectible, at least.)
And kudos to Roland and Serato here for giving proper artistic icons some space.
THE DROP: THE 303 AND 606 ARE BACK IN VINYL FORM [Serato]
No need to buy anything, though, if you just want to crack a beverage and listen to some 303. If you’re in that celebratory 303 Day mood, it’s hard to go wrong with this free 303-themed mix from the legendary J. Rocc, founder of Beat Junkies.
Serato is hosting the release. And yeah, this is likely a remnant of Roland-Serato collaboration before the Pioneer DJ (erm, AlphaTheta) acquisition – or maybe it signals some positive Roland-AlphaTheta relationship; we’ll see.
Also out now – A Guy Called Gerald has done a full set of new 303 patches for the Roland Cloud TB-303 (which is a respectable model of the original).
TB-303 Patches and Patterns by A Guy Called Gerald
Meanwhile, in Japan, Roland is doing more celebration than we’re getting here in the West. That included an event at Roland Store Tokyo – and Japanese Twitter/X is as busy as always:
Happy 303 Day!