Distortion pedal for a MAM MB33 (or other 303/clones)

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I got a MAM MB33, beautiful bassline paired with my Digitakt, I love it.

I purchased a RAT 2 with it, and while it is ok, I’m not in love with it. It seems that the drive is nothing at minimum (fine), gets useful to me at the beginning of the course, but quickly gets to a sound where changing the filter cutoff on the bassline has almost no effect.

When resonance is high, yes, but with low resonance, the signal is distorted, and cutoff isn’t much relevant.

I wonder if you people have experiences to share with distortion/overdrive for 303 like instruments.

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#2

Just saw good things said about Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, any experience here?

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#3

Sendind the signal thru a DI box before the pedal significantly improved the results. It’s better to feed the RAT with a low volume signal. MXR distortion+ is nice too.
On the plugins side, I like the audio damage fuzzplus

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#4

I don’t know anything about DI boxes… active or passive for sending synths to guitar pedals?

Ive got a Rat 2 and a TD3 plus a couple Nux delay pedals I use.

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#5

Interesting. I don’t know much either about DI boxes. Would it serve mostly as a gain staging step? Would it be “the same” if I lower the output volume on the MB33?

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#6

I’ve had satisfying results with Analog Drive.

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#7

The cheapest i like is the Big Muff Bass Pi. It has a mode where you can set the wet amount of the overdive.

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#8

I was really disappointed by the RAT pedal, and I don’t know where I found this DI stuff on internet.

For the price, I tried and it was much better. Better course on the drive knob.

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#9

On the cheap side the Boss DS-1 is a very good one, I’ve used it to great extend for some years. You just need to set the output volume of the synth about halfway in order to balance your clean tone with the distorded one in a live situation.
I recently picked up a RML Electron Fuzz, not the same budget at all but there is so many incredible sound to get out of this combo !

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#10

I love the Moog MF Drive with my Moog Sirin. I don’t know how it will react with a 303, though.

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#11

I tried a lot of distortions on my 303, and I always came back to the OG RAT. I know you lose accents and bass but it brings things out in the slides like nothing else I think!

Other folk love the MXR +, I had one for a bit and it’s definitely has more subtle range than the RAT. I always wanted more distortion out of it so passed it on.

I’ve never tried (but would like to) analog Renaissance/cask strength acid screamer or TSX303, both specific distortions for 303 that correct the issues of accent/slides. I think both of these are out of production though.

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#12

I can recommend this one too! Has a tone control and a CVable filter, so it‘s quite flexible to shape its character.

I‘d also recommend to somehow hit overdrive guitar pedals with a lower level, just to get the knobs into a more usable „full“ range, but that‘s been discussed above. I used a mixer inbetween for that so far.

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#13

Yes this was exactly what I wanted to say: lower the Mb33 volume. It has an internal overdrive circuit built in already and often it sounds much better to send it cleaner to the rat. I have both as well and love the combination!

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#14

This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but an iPad with the Fabfilter Saturn 2 AUv3 can take you really far for synth processing. I’ve really enjoyed the Analog Drive, MT-2, Big Muff etc, but the sound quality and versatility of Saturn 2 is phenomenal.

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#15

I 2nd the Analog Drive (at least with my TD-3).
Only downside is the size if you are trying to be portable.

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#16

Boss blues driver was one of my favourites.

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#17

To illustrate my later comment, here are some audio exemples for you taken from some of my jam video using my Xoxbox.

Xoxbox into Boss DS-1 -and a lot of reverb:

Xoxbox into Moog MF-101 filter with a lot of drive:

Xoxbox into RML Electron Fuzz pan left with delayed signal panned right for stereo:

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#18

+1 for FabFilter Saturn on iOS. Great for the master out on a hardware setup as well. Honestly, I’d listen Saturn as a top 5 plug-in of mine easily. The range of its sonic palette for saturation, overdrive and distortion are fantastic. Not to mention it basically eliminates the need for an extra EQ plug in.

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#19

I happened to watch this yesterday:

Or there’s this overkill:

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#20

If you want a lot of options then there’s this:

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