Acid House Origins

September 17, 2005 2:30 PM

Bassline Baseline is a video essay that investigates the invention, failure and subsequent resurrection of the mythic Roland TB-303 Bass Line music machine in the last two decades of the 20th century. (15.9mb quicktime, 21 minutes)
posted by hypersloth (12 comments total)

Sorry, it's a double.
posted by zsazsa at 2:44 PM on September 17, 2005

Bah, the 303 was never more than 37.5% as good as an 808.
posted by furtive at 2:47 PM on September 17, 2005

From the video: "...sawtooth or sinewave..."

... that should be sawtooth and square wave.

Just sayin'.
posted by basicchannel at 2:47 PM on September 17, 2005

Arggh. I tried a few different searches - got nothing.
posted by hypersloth at 2:55 PM on September 17, 2005

If you go to the next project, you can hear about how much samplers and the amen break kick ass all over the 303 sound. And how they are an example of the failure of today's economy over a freer and looser style. It's pretty much the true story of today's world told via dubplate. Or something.
posted by nervousfritz at 3:53 PM on September 17, 2005

I couldn't even get past the introduction.

The monotone. Gimmick. You. Are. Doing. With. Your voice. Is. Extremely. Annoying.
posted by secret about box at 6:26 PM on September 17, 2005

It's good. The voice over guy's humanoid monotone fits the theme of the computery, synthetic tones of the 303.

I found it interesting to meet Mr. Takahashi, the mastermind behind music gear mega-corporation Roland. So that's the guy...
posted by wsg at 10:52 PM on September 17, 2005

Download ReBirth here.
posted by Vidiot at 11:54 PM on September 17, 2005

My god, that narration was truly horrible. I guess there's a reason that quality voice actors are in high demand, because the alternative is this mind-numbingly bad monotone crap. And the first two minutes of intellectual wankery with no video needs to be cut without a doubt.

Ignoring those flaws, it's a nice piece with a good story to tell.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:59 AM on September 18, 2005

Mythic = "imaginary or fictitious".

Words mean things.
posted by spincycle at 2:40 AM on September 18, 2005

I think "the voice fits" is a poor excuse for terrible narration. Yes, you can make rather cold music with the 303, but does that mean you should narrate your entire piece in a stunted, non-dynamic voice?
posted by secret about box at 3:17 AM on September 18, 2005

The guy also uses horribly pretentious wording. His movie about the Amen Break (a stretch of a few bars of drumming from an old sould record that has been sampled to death) is just the same. Is he a sociology student or something?
posted by w0mbat at 2:49 PM on September 18, 2005