BB1 · BB–37 · COMPÁS · STUDIO · BB–23 · BB-BOBTHE BIG BEATBB–37 / WRITTEN FOR THE M-VAVE SMK-37 ELITE
Forty factory sounds from the 1982 manual, on proper keys.
And Dillo, our 303, right next to it.
BB–37 turns the SMK-37 into Telegram, our take on the SH-101, and Dillo, our take on the TB-303, with an 808 to play against. 112 Telegram patches and 329 phrases. 106 Dillo sounds and 1,136 patterns. Pick one and play, or turn a knob and make it yours. No computer needed.
Written for the Elite. Not ported to it. Telegram’s 101 voice, every screen, the controls and the Band were built for this keyboard: its thirty-seven keys, its eight knobs, its sixteen pads. Nothing was squeezed on from another box. Dillo and the 808 share their sound engine with Big Beat Studio, which is why they sound like family.
01 / THE FACTORY SCHOOL
In 1982 Roland printed forty sounds in the SH-101 owner’s manual. Each one is a chart of slider positions, with a note saying the positions are approximate and your ears should finish the job. We took every chart, had it read twice, and set Telegram from it. Flute to Thunder, on banks 5 to 7, with eight patches readers sent to the magazines in the eighties.
Cutoff low, saw up, a little growl from the modulator.
AUTO glide and legato, the way Roland asked.
Cutoff, resonance and envelope fighting it out.
The filter screaming on its own, tuned against the oscillator.
Noise, hold, and a train leaving.
Cutoff is critical; VCF MOD controls growl depth.
Cutoff changes colour; VCO MOD changes vibrato depth.
Cutoff/resonance and pulse width must be balanced together.
Small changes in VCF ENV alter brightness; refine the brass colour with envelope depth and cutoff.
Set cutoff while listening; VCF ENV supplies subtle brass-colour changes.
Use transpose DOWN; envelope attack is critical; refine VCF ENV.
Cutoff moves from soft to hard; use AUTO portamento around 3 and triangle-wave vibrato; adding saw changes the impression.
Use transpose DOWN; cutoff and filter-envelope depth establish the character.
Pulse width changes the colour drastically; compare LFO- and envelope-driven PWM.
Cutoff and VCF ENV determine colour.
VCF MOD controls growl depth.
Source-mixer proportions and cutoff both matter.
Cutoff and resonance are critical; Roland suggests two simultaneous keys with the arpeggiator on.
The VCF modulation setting creates tremolo.
Tune cutoff and resonance carefully and play in the highest octave for the most convincing result.
Coordinate cutoff with envelope decay and release.
Try triangle or square modulation, VCF MOD near 5 and a high modulator rate while playing.
Saw level changes the impression; perform bend and LFO modulation.
Cutoff and VCF ENV produce wide colour changes.
Create key click by putting ADSR at zero, using envelope control of the VCF and setting click level with VCF ENV.
Treat filter self-oscillation as another sound source and tune it against VCO/sub at an octave, third or fifth.
Work with decay and release.
Noise modulates VCO pitch; VCO MOD controls the amount.
Use non-legato articulation; Roland proposes decay 3 and sustain 2 as an alternate character.
Cutoff drastically changes the colour.
Cutoff again makes the decisive change, within a different resonance/envelope state.
Cutoff, resonance and VCF ENV interact strongly.
Set cutoff to taste and try a little portamento.
Use triangle-wave vibrato and consider slight portamento.
Sustain around 7 creates a howling rather than clipped bark.
Slowly move the modulator RATE slider up and down.
Turn HOLD on; resonance changes the impression.
Turn HOLD on and adjust VCF MOD and VCF ENV.
Turn HOLD on; cutoff, VCF ENV and the played key change the result.
Cutoff and resonance require delicate tuning by ear while the sound runs.
Try envelope attack at 10.
Turn HOLD on; raising saw in the source mixer changes the impression.
The lowest key produces the most realistic engine sound; refine the VCF.
Roland printed the chart and no instructions. Play it low and let it roll.
The random modulator writes the tune. Hold a key and listen.
Charts drawn by us from the factory settings. Controls Roland left blacked out are marked ANY: set them where you like.
02 / NEW TO THESE TWO?
Roland’s SH-101 was a small, affordable synth with one oscillator, one filter and a grip so you could wear it on stage. Easy to learn and hard to make sound bad, it became a lead and bass voice of synth-pop, house and techno. Telegram is our take on it.
Roland built the TB-303 Bass Line to play along with guitarists. Hardly anyone wanted it. Then Chicago producers found secondhand ones, turned the knobs too far, and the squelch they got became acid house. Dillo is our take on it.
03 / THE SYNTHS
One oscillator with saw, pulse, sub and noise on a mixer, the way the original did it. A four-pole filter with real bite. Pulse width from the LFO or the envelope, gate and trigger modes, auto glide that only slides when you play legato, an arp and a 100-step sequencer.
The saw and that odd square. The filter that sounds like nothing else. Accent that hits the filter harder the more of them you stack, and slide that glides into the next note, not out of it. Two Devilfish extras on the knobs: slide time and accent decay.
Sixteen sounds, synthesised live, from the kick to the congas. It keeps time while you play the synths. Next to an FM-1 running BB1, the FM-1 is the drum machine and BB–37 is the synths.
Cue a Telegram, Dillo or 808 part and it changes on the next bar. Save a setup, bring it back mid-song.
Host renders of the firmware’s own drawing code. Not photographs of the hardware.
04 / THE LIBRARY
Every Telegram and Dillo sound from Big Beat Studio is in here, with the phrases and patterns to go with them. Spin K1 through the shelves and each one tells you what it is and how to play it. Start with a preset, then take it somewhere else.
Roland’s forty 1982 factory sounds, eight period magazine patches and 64 of our own.
Lines from the BB1 songs and Big Beat Studio.
From hollow dub to full Devilfish scream, with every Dillo voice from Big Beat Studio.
Acid lines, song basslines and era studies.
Telegram, Dillo and 808 together, from the BB1 songs and eras.
05 / THE SCREEN
Big type you can read from the back of the room. Turn a knob and the screen shows the sound changing. Hit a pad and it flares. Dillo is on every page, because somebody has to supervise.
06 / HEAR IT
Three Acid Duets from the Library, rendered by the BB–37 firmware itself. Dillo underneath, Telegram on top. Nothing added.
07 / NEXT TO BB1
BB1 turns the FM-1 into two drum machines. BB–37 is where the 101 and the 303 live, on proper keys. They share the same Dillo, the same Telegram and the same Big Beat songs, so the two were made to sit side by side.
Meet BB1 →08 / THE CONTROLS
Everything sits on the knobs, pads and keys you already have. The strip at the bottom of the screen always says what the eight knobs do.
09 / GET BB–37
Connect your SMK-37 with a USB data cable to a Windows, macOS or Linux computer and open the installer. It identifies the keyboard and installs the matching BB–37 package. No Terminal, nothing to set up first.
Install BB–37 →BB–37 supports the SMK-37 Pro, SMK-37 Elite and MKE-P37.
10 / CREDITS
BB–37 is free software under the GNU GPL v3. Source code (GPL v3). Screen type: Picnic by Taylor Rushing. Acid Tabs phrases by J. McConaghy / Acid-Tabs.com (CC BY-SA 4.0); Acid Voice pattern charts used with permission. M-VAVE, SMK-37, Roland, SH-101, TB-303 and TR-808 are trademarks of their respective owners. BB–37 is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by them. No warranty: you install it at your own risk.
The machines, their stories and the records they made.