haha ingemar, i'm a bit pissed too on red wine, staying in tonight !
so i need to comment on the 303.
i have to admit there was a time when my friends and myself were totally in awe of the TB303, there was even talk of it being extra-terrestial, no joking !!
to us at the time (1989 - 1995) we believed it was the machine to save the human race, that it had a message for us all, to come together and dance instead of killing and ripping each other off.
Ok we were doing lots of MDMA and psychedelics and there was a mood in the air, we were sick of the way the world was going. this new music would save us all.
my first techno releases were under the name 3000003, the first 12" i put out under that name had 3 actual TB303's and 2 overdubbed 303 tracks (hence the 5 '0's in the name)
it was banging acid techno, to dance to under the stars at raves in fields, the UK Free festival scene, and big illegal raves in warehouses in defiance of the UK government who were trying to crush our spirit. They were scared of our message because it didnt involve banks and corporations making profit out of the proletariat.
so you can see the TB303 is a sacred machine to me.
there was a time when i would sit for hours and listen to a simple loop on a 303 and be totally mesmerised, it has a magic that no other machine has or will ever have, it can hypnotise you in a way that is hard to explain. I'm not really talking about the squidgy noises, its the deep rumbling bass that moves in myterious ways, it shakes your soul, moves you body, trips out your mind.
ive owned several hardware and software clones, and you have to believe me when i say, they are not the same, ask any 303 freak, it has to be the actual silver box with the old electronic components - that machine has SOUL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but of course you cant go on forever using the same machine in the same way, so i moved on, i stopped using my last remaining 303 in about 1997, but brought it out of retirement for my last live gig at Freerotation 2011, and it was so amazing to hear it in action again, you absolutely cant do any wrong with the TB303 in a live environment- apart from too many squidgey noises of course
ive said too much