The EF-303 destroys all sounds when you hear the line input sound with the phono switch turned on. Japanese noise lovers love it as the strongest destructive sound generator. I'm sorry for the poor English. From Japanese fans
I know. This guy's work ethic and results are mind-boggling. The funny and informative script, the cool music, and the original videos. On top of that, he now throws memes in all the time. All this is done by one person?
@@BachelorMachinesTV Just him having a fetish and lettin it hang out in the wind :-P I have gear I use regardless of it making sense or not. In part because I have them, but the fact that I do is far from logic on the map. I have a Roland SH-01 that I do all sorts of things with that it's not meant for. Yes that white thingimagog. I think thingimagog fits it fine as a category. It can do cool stuff, but you need obcuritis and a USB stick, and spells...
They're like the Cannon Films of gear...just make a bunch of stuff and some of it will be brilliant, a lot of it mediocre and some of it laughably bad.
Gotta love the EF-303 for its versatility. (I was lucky to pick one up super cheap while it was off people's radar... like about £25 cheap!) It's a Swiss Army knife of tempo-based FX, and the sequencer sends MIDI note data - I've used it to sequence arpeggios on a Yamaha EX5R, and it sounds like armageddon on steroids. Also, the voice changer manages the incredible feat of making me sound sexy, which takes some doing.
@@AudioPilz Indeed. And we'll have to play it backwards to look for subliminal satanic messages... or the TRUE recipe for the original Sachertorte! :)))
Yeah, I have my finger constantly poised on the spacebar for quick pausing. This is not a channel you casually watch while eating; you need your hands free for video transport controls.
I've had one of these since they came out, man I've literally used this thing on anything I could slam through it over the years, guitars, synths, bass, drums, microphones, it just does awesome stuff, I've even hooked it up into the effects loop of a dj mixer and used it with turntables, tons of fun, I still need to find a Roland DJ 2000 mixer for my collection of 90's gear, hope my comment from last week made you chuckle, cheers man!
I used to use it as the master clock with my old EHX 2880 and made it through a few short, 30 minute sets without any sync issues, I wonder if there are different firmware versions floating around.
I hope you'll get the chance to do the MC-808, eventually. As always, your videos are the MOST bingeable videos around town. Thank you for the wonderful work you do.
Several videos ago I requested more psytrance sub genres and my wish has been granted with your poetic description and deep insight of self referential wisdom that could only come from someone who understands the psytrance genre as you clearly do
@@AudioPilz I could imagine that, it is not that commond to find one. The same applies to the Electrix Range rack effects or the E-mu Command Station groveboxes.
The fact that English is a second language to you and I had to look up the definition of perfidious is a testament to how much I love this series and you. Whenever I have friends come over I talk about how much I look forward to Fridays and I show them your channel. You are deserving of many more views on your videos than mushrooms playing synthesizers they ain’t even that good at it like damn. Anyway another amazing upload.
I didn't know something like this even existed! This would have been awesome to have back in the day just for the supplementary sequential effects. The synth engine is a bonus!
@@gokugoma3258Using it with DR-202, SP-202/303 as fx. No prob with the MIDI sync listed here and it’s lasted years on the road. Someone is looking for the perfect all-in-one piece of gear? Get a laptop or tablet with BeOS 😂
i owned one of these for about 2 years until i traded it in for a roland SYSTEM-1, straight up. best deal to ever come out of a guitar center used item.
@@AudioPilz your viewers are missing out! It's the ugliest, most shoddily-constructed, worst -feeling keyboard on a great sounding instrument EVER in the history of electronic instruments.
Wow. you did it again. you made that final track transport me back to 1997 Goa Trance days, before I turned into a techno/drum and bass freak. in the right hands, not the left hand but the right hand, it sounds insane. I don't think I'll ever hunt one down, but you did it again.
Not really, was actually looking for one on ebay this week. But when I realized that I had too many effects, I decided to go with an RM1x in January. But the sequencer function brought it back into my focus. The first jam was really my thing, the finale was too crazy for the walls to my neighbors. "Uhhh I love that" (Quote: Woody Piano Shack)
So, i actually love this thing and I've been using for 15 years. I think its the best live bassline sequence experience, the "glide" parameter actually turns glide CC on and off. The synth actually has a boatload of CC parameters that can be tweaked via external midi, including envelope shapes, distortion etc...
Nice! Very interesting. I’ve never seen this unit. That fader per step is a really intriguing feature. You made it sound really good per usual! Don’t think this would dethrone the Kaoss Pad type device from Korg, but I’ll admit it’s pretty cool.
I was this every week and it amazes my how many pieces of gear I’ve actually owned that have been on this program🤣 some good gear ,some bad ,but all definitely worth a mention ,keep up the great work 👍🏼
Once again, you push the bad gear through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole and pop out some jam bangers! The show must go on - so much more bad gear to see and hear! Brilliant. Keep it up! 👍🏼
Great review, as always. "Owl told him a very long story about an aunt who had once laid a seagull's egg by mistake, and the story went on and on, rather like this sentence, until Piglet went to sleep quietly and naturally." ~A.A. Milne
04:37 "my unit" You crack me up, man! Wery wery funny! I've already watched a bunch of your wideos, each one featuring a unit (I'm talking about my electronic music instruments here) that I've prewiously owned. I've gotta tell my friends about your channel.
I think I had one of these for a while, but I can't remember. I think I bought this and the SH-32 at the music store at the same time. Anyway, great episode once again.
This thing looks awesome despite it's glitches. It looks like it has the same knobs as the MC-505, which is a shame. I had to get rid of my 505 because so many of the knobs stopped working in the way you described here. After researching fixes, which required full knob replacement, I opted to sell the machine which still haunts me to this day. If it weren't for these obvious quality shortcuts Roland was making back then, I'm sure most of these instruments would be at a legendary status like their 80s predecessors, as they do something weird and unique that hasn't been adequately matched since.
What on earth are people doing to their knobs? My 505 underwent probably 5yrs of solid use and gigging two beer spills and vomit... I replaced 2 display screens but even after I gifted it to my 16yr old niece everything was working even after an additional 7yrs of wear!
The EF 303 reminds me a lot of the MX1, which has a respectable load of hate comments (in particular in the daw integration dept) and would me it a great candidate for review !!!
@@AudioPilz Just picked up one of these mint (no box or adapter) local (so straight up) for $250 CDN ($178.29 Euro). I'm breaking out the old mc's for a dance party.
A few of these were for sale locally on Marketplace for $250CAD. I skipped on it because I thought it was too limited. Now that I think of it again it would probably be fun to use the effects with the Uno drum.
Still have mine. Even back in the late 2000s it commanded some cash. If I recall correctly, it may have costed me 250 USD. EF-303 + MC-09 = Heaven! Wish I didn't let go of the MC-09 :(
@@AudioPilz OK, mind blown! But truth be told I'd much rather have Florian the Mushroom be the fungus that's more popular than me on RUclips than some random pink oyster connected to MIDI Sprout.
Schöne Folge! Ich kannte die EF-303 auch gar nicht, so einbißchen wie das Kaoss Pad nur mit einem anderen user interface. So eine Stereo Desktop Effekt Maschine in aktuell wäre doch mal nice, gerne könnte ich da auf Synth und Drums verzichten. thx for making!
I like that. I don't know that I like it to the tune of £400 on eBay, especially not as an owner of two other 303 clones (yes, a problem is developing), but I like it. The effects are very much of their era but that was my era too and they sound good. Are the timing/sync issues a general problem or peculiar to your unit do you think? If there's a dealbreaker in the equation that's probably it.
I had to do the first jam several times bc I had to figure out the time the machine needed after switching to align the sequencer for the beat-synced FX
this piece of gear is iconic in its pure badness, it symbolises everything which is wrong about 90's dance music we need to cherish this janky X box EDM contraption :)
This was Roland being confused and 'confident' at the same time. They were trying interesting ideas, but merging a vague ethic of Fisher-Price level design-cluelessness with cynical corporate re-hash to cash in on former glory ALSO.
Hi Florian, I'm so glad you did this one - I suggested it about a year ago! Back when this was a current product I was doing an improvised live ambient+groove thing, and MIDI clock was king - it kept my TR-909 in time with the bass player's Oberheim Echoplex looper. I was looking desperately for anything else that could be a good addition to our rig, something that would let me tweak a running sequence live and get good/interesting results. I rented the EF-303 for a month and tried to use it in one of our shows. I found that it wouldn't sync up reliably, and there was always this slew/glide between the sequencer steps that I could not get rid of. The effects that I got from it were always too tame and very lacking in upper mids, which is typical of Roland COSM fx of the era. After auditioning some stuff, the late 1990s came along and I ended up with a Korg MS-2000 (which I still have). It got some hate on the internet back in the day but it's totally NOT bad gear. The 16-step mod sequencer on that thing is a live experimental tweaker's dream. The EF-303 is possibly the most interesting concept in a small box by Roland from that era, but failed on execution like so much Roland stuff over the last 3 decades.
Damn that goa trance number goes really hard, love that mid-late 90s FX vibe. This looks almost like a 90s version of the MX-1 but much more stripped down.
Just picked one of these up for "cheap" in rough shape, but after a good cleaning and some minor re-soldering of bad connections it is back among the "living" and I am really enjoying it hands-on sound mangling capabilities!
I watched this on a projector... that video for the main jam nearly destroyed my brain, in an enjoyable way. I will admit, I never knew of this devices existence and thankfully its a piece of older Roland gear I can resist. Right, going to watch jam 2 from the previous video again, so I can destroy my brain through my earholes rather than my eyeholes this time.
OMG!!, keeps getting better and better. It’s the Ef303!! Once you have covered all my equipment that sits in a cupboard eating into my conscience, whilst the gazillion power supplies, midi cables, jack leads and patch cables in their tangled mess desperately stuffed into a sports bag to stop their spread threaten to destroy me every time I try to find the one power supply for the one bit of kit I think I’ll set up, whilst each once in a blue moon evening of ambition to make some good music degenerates to poring through a manual followed by some dejected filter sweeps over a whisky before I pass out from the exhaustion of just setting everything up,…….once you have covered all my gear I’ll watch your videos back to back, then, surely, inspired by the fact that you get such good stuff out of all bad gear, I’ll come up with a masterpiece that makes the ridiculous amounts of time and money I spent buying bad gear between 1997-2010 worth it!! Roland MC-303, D2, SH-32, Ef-303, Yamaha DX200, Alesis Ion, Moog Little Phatty stage, home-built Paia modular with d.i.y Polyvoks filter, Lexicon effects rack, home-built Oakley TB3031, Korg Wavedrum mini, Alesis IODock for IPad 1 bought 1 month before Apple (and developers) stopped supporting Ipad 1 everything. All that gear I never made anything good with 😭😭😭😭 I dreamed of being the next Orbital 😭😭😭 I just ended up with a mess in my house 😭😭😭😭 And became a one note non twiddler in prog rock bands instead of the techno legend in my dreams 😭😭😭😭😭I gave up, took up acoustic guitar and buoyed by the ease at which I could make music, gave up my dreams in exchange for singing Bob Dylan covers in empty pubs. I only had one relapse to buy a Korg monotribe, which I remember made me feel so darn good at sequencing, but then left me wondering how my dear Roland could mess up their gear so bad and not do a groove box with a monotribe style sequencer. Still the former addict and dreamer, perusing RUclips channels like yours. Looking at prices for the Digitakt than slamming shut the laptop……..
Over the years, I've bought and sold a lot of devices covered on Bad Gear, especially as a just-out-of-high-school wannabe techno god back in the late 90s and early 00s. Every once in a while, I think "maybe I should look for an EF-303... I remember being so excited to own it, then becoming terribly disappointed by a few nagging limitations & returning it a week later." This review was helpful. It is a box that promised a lot, and delivered most it (but with exactly the kind of unpredictable assortment of annoying limitations and WTF design choices that characterize the MC-303 experience, for example). I suspect I'd feel the same way about it in 2022 as I did in the year 2000: I want this to be what it looks like it should be, but sadly it is not. I thought the monosynth sounded pretty great though. IIRC, Roland made a big deal out of it including some very cutting-edge method of modeling TB-303 internals. ::shrug::
The EF-303 destroys all sounds when you hear the line input sound with the phono switch turned on. Japanese noise lovers love it as the strongest destructive sound generator. I'm sorry for the poor English. From Japanese fans
Great technique, thanks!!!
Japan tips looks smarts :D.
But for me its stay a Bad product, and im French lol. My poor english language is sorry.
@@sporn23 I admit it's a bad product
Use it as a toy modular sequencer lol
@@FAZExOUT ;D
I wonder if this could be achieved with any phono preamp into any FX/sampler processor 🤔
How the same brain manages to both think up this show and reliably put a show out each week is beyond me 🧠🔀
It's like in that Venom movie;)
I know. This guy's work ethic and results are mind-boggling. The funny and informative script, the cool music, and the original videos. On top of that, he now throws memes in all the time. All this is done by one person?
Me:
Every Bad Gear video: you should get a Digitakt.
@@BachelorMachinesTV Just him having a fetish and lettin it hang out in the wind :-P I have gear I use regardless of it making sense or not. In part because I have them, but the fact that I do is far from logic on the map. I have a Roland SH-01 that I do all sorts of things with that it's not meant for. Yes that white thingimagog. I think thingimagog fits it fine as a category. It can do cool stuff, but you need obcuritis and a USB stick, and spells...
He's got to have his mom helping him
Bad Gear and Roland - the team that just keeps on giving!
It will never stop!!!
They're like the Cannon Films of gear...just make a bunch of stuff and some of it will be brilliant, a lot of it mediocre and some of it laughably bad.
Next do the Fantom 6
@@heavysystemsinc. And some of the stuff initially reviewed as laughably bad goes on to become epic.
Gotta love the EF-303 for its versatility. (I was lucky to pick one up super cheap while it was off people's radar... like about £25 cheap!) It's a Swiss Army knife of tempo-based FX, and the sequencer sends MIDI note data - I've used it to sequence arpeggios on a Yamaha EX5R, and it sounds like armageddon on steroids. Also, the voice changer manages the incredible feat of making me sound sexy, which takes some doing.
I only achieved that Exorcist vocal style;)
It’s a great piece of gear!
Interesting machine.
Bad Gear - the only audio gear review show you have to watch frame by frame, so you don't miss any of the cool memes and puns 😁
Yup, many frames in 10 minutes;)
I wish they were longer
@@AudioPilz Indeed. And we'll have to play it backwards to look for subliminal satanic messages... or the TRUE recipe for the original Sachertorte! :)))
Yeah, I have my finger constantly poised on the spacebar for quick pausing. This is not a channel you casually watch while eating; you need your hands free for video transport controls.
@@RCAvhstape maybe we can beg audio pilz to extend them couple a frames more
I've had one of these since they came out, man I've literally used this thing on anything I could slam through it over the years, guitars, synths, bass, drums, microphones, it just does awesome stuff, I've even hooked it up into the effects loop of a dj mixer and used it with turntables, tons of fun, I still need to find a Roland DJ 2000 mixer for my collection of 90's gear, hope my comment from last week made you chuckle, cheers man!
Absolutely;) DJ2000 is a classic!
My buddy had one in the early 2000s. He was making house music on a 2000xl and using this for effects. He was a monster with this box
lol Why not...
I was wondering when this would be on Bad gear! Well done sir, well done indeed!
Thanks!!!
you should totally make an album out of all these final "whatever im calling it this time" jams. great stuff.
Thanks! Let's see when I'm going to find the time for that;)
@@AudioPilz maybe some financing through crowdfunding?
+1 for that!!
It will be an album that ticks all the boxes
I am perpetually amazed at the jams you just throw together for every episode.
Thank you!!!
The timing issues are heartbreaking, I'd love a unit that does all of this for live tweaking
Yeah, it's a tragedy...
I used to use it as the master clock with my old EHX 2880 and made it through a few short, 30 minute sets without any sync issues, I wonder if there are different firmware versions floating around.
You know it's Friday when RUclips suggests a new episode of Bad Gear
That's also very kind of YT;)
I hope you'll get the chance to do the MC-808, eventually.
As always, your videos are the MOST bingeable videos around town.
Thank you for the wonderful work you do.
Thank you so much!!!
Great episode, great gear. And a great end song! German hardtrance that wouldn't have sounded misplaced on Trancemaster 10.
Thanks for reminding me, just hit play on TM10;)
You never fail to surprise me with obscure Roland gear that I haven't heard of until I see your video!
Yeah, that one is pretty rare...
Several videos ago I requested more psytrance sub genres and my wish has been granted with your poetic description and deep insight of self referential wisdom that could only come from someone who understands the psytrance genre as you clearly do
Thank you!!! Psy4life!
Ooh, you finally found one to make a video about! Long awaited.
Yeah, that one took a little longer!
@@AudioPilz I could imagine that, it is not that commond to find one.
The same applies to the Electrix Range rack effects or the E-mu Command Station groveboxes.
Something like this, a MIDI based multi effect, really needs to have smooth changes between effects. That absolutely kills the unit.
So true!
Right on time. I was just looking for the upload. Sure you´re not from Switzerland?
Austria 🥰
No but close;)
Great show as ever mate. Yip, 90s drug music in a silver and red nutshell. Happy New Year from Berlin
Bärlin!!! Thanks!!!
This episode was a lot of fun! I especially loved that first jam, as well as the one at the end!
Thank you!!!
Amazing video as always! Please make “Welcome to bad gear” merch 😄
Thanks! Still trying to figure out world wide shipping
The fact that English is a second language to you and I had to look up the definition of perfidious is a testament to how much I love this series and you. Whenever I have friends come over I talk about how much I look forward to Fridays and I show them your channel. You are deserving of many more views on your videos than mushrooms playing synthesizers they ain’t even that good at it like damn. Anyway another amazing upload.
Thank you! You know what "Pilz" means in English?;)
@@AudioPilz I could imagine it’s something that pairs well with a 303 and 909 ;)
Maybe English was his first language and he just has a strong Austrian accent from living in NYC
I own 3 units and wait for over a decade. Now it’s time to put them to Reverb. Thanks Badgear! Thank you!!
It's like crypto;)
I didn't know something like this even existed! This would have been awesome to have back in the day just for the supplementary sequential effects. The synth engine is a bonus!
A nice way to integrate these oldschool DJ FX into a setup!
This came out in the late 90s.. how did you miss it? Roland couldn't give this thing away
@@gokugoma3258Using it with DR-202, SP-202/303 as fx. No prob with the MIDI sync listed here and it’s lasted years on the road. Someone is looking for the perfect all-in-one piece of gear? Get a laptop or tablet with BeOS 😂
i owned one of these for about 2 years until i traded it in for a roland SYSTEM-1, straight up. best deal to ever come out of a guitar center used item.
Ah, I've yet to try the System 1!
@@AudioPilz you should review it, it can sound great but the keyboard-shaped buttons are atrocious. feels like a laptop keyboard.
@@AudioPilz your viewers are missing out! It's the ugliest, most shoddily-constructed, worst -feeling keyboard on a great sounding instrument EVER in the history of electronic instruments.
Wow. you did it again. you made that final track transport me back to 1997 Goa Trance days, before I turned into a techno/drum and bass freak. in the right hands, not the left hand but the right hand, it sounds insane. I don't think I'll ever hunt one down, but you did it again.
Thanks! Not a big Goa head but nothing wrong with a little psytrance from time to time...
Great usage of the DB Impact. The EF303 worked well with it.
Thanks! I liked that duo a lot!
Not really, was actually looking for one on ebay this week. But when I realized that I had too many effects, I decided to go with an RM1x in January. But the sequencer function brought it back into my focus. The first jam was really my thing, the finale was too crazy for the walls to my neighbors. "Uhhh I love that" (Quote: Woody Piano Shack)
There is no such thing as too many FX;)
@@AudioPilz ok it is rather too little space.
Oh and maybe interesting for the show - (no Roland) Zoom 1204, rack effect with vocoder!!! (Costs around 40€ to 50€)
Love it when the gear gets all anthropomorphic... So cute! Would love to see a jam featuring the Casio WK 1200
Never used that Casio - I'll have a closer look, thanks!
Dear AudioPilz thanks for this video, there are a couple of crappy demos of ef303 on youtube but still this is the only real serious video about it.
So, i actually love this thing and I've been using for 15 years. I think its the best live bassline sequence experience, the "glide" parameter actually turns glide CC on and off. The synth actually has a boatload of CC parameters that can be tweaked via external midi, including envelope shapes, distortion etc...
ruclips.net/video/PQym18XCo5I/видео.html&ab_channel=andrewhlynsky
Midi implementation is surprisingly good on this one!
The Porsche 909 is amazing! Great video as always!
It's a BERGSPYDER!!! Thanks;)
@@AudioPilz This stuff feels like it's straight out of Street Racer!
Nice! Very interesting. I’ve never seen this unit. That fader per step is a really intriguing feature. You made it sound really good per usual! Don’t think this would dethrone the Kaoss Pad type device from Korg, but I’ll admit it’s pretty cool.
Thanks! You can play this one via midi notes;)
@@AudioPilz you can play a Kaoss pad via midi CC
ok I’ll wait for the boutique version…Good work! Like always
Thanks!!!
I was this every week and it amazes my how many pieces of gear I’ve actually owned that have been on this program🤣 some good gear ,some bad ,but all definitely worth a mention ,keep up the great work 👍🏼
Thank you!!!
Once again, you push the bad gear through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole and pop out some jam bangers!
The show must go on - so much more bad gear to see and hear!
Brilliant. Keep it up! 👍🏼
Thank you so much!!!
Great review, as always. "Owl told him a very long story about an aunt who had once laid a seagull's egg by mistake, and the story went on and on, rather like this sentence, until Piglet went to sleep quietly and naturally." ~A.A. Milne
❤️❤️❤️
@@AudioPilz I hoped you’d like this quote 😉
Random Late 90's Drug Music, literally says it all about 99% of the gear reviewed on this channel.
Maybe;)
04:37 "my unit" You crack me up, man! Wery wery funny! I've already watched a bunch of your wideos, each one featuring a unit (I'm talking about my electronic music instruments here) that I've prewiously owned. I've gotta tell my friends about your channel.
Thank you so much!!!
I think I had one of these for a while, but I can't remember. I think I bought this and the SH-32 at the music store at the same time. Anyway, great episode once again.
Thank you!!!
you are in your musical element with the EF303; sweet tunes 'Pilz
Thank you!!!
now it's officially friday
TGIF!!!
I remember seeing this in the 90's. The 1 fader per step caught my attention instantly. Nice video! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!!!
Keep Roland, Roland, Roland, Roland
The one and only!!!
I suggested this one 2 years ago. cool to see your review of it.
Thank you!!!
This thing looks awesome despite it's glitches. It looks like it has the same knobs as the MC-505, which is a shame. I had to get rid of my 505 because so many of the knobs stopped working in the way you described here. After researching fixes, which required full knob replacement, I opted to sell the machine which still haunts me to this day. If it weren't for these obvious quality shortcuts Roland was making back then, I'm sure most of these instruments would be at a legendary status like their 80s predecessors, as they do something weird and unique that hasn't been adequately matched since.
I will have to do the knob replacement and I'm NOT looking forward to it 🙄
What on earth are people doing to their knobs?
My 505 underwent probably 5yrs of solid use and gigging two beer spills and vomit... I replaced 2 display screens but even after I gifted it to my 16yr old niece everything was working even after an additional 7yrs of wear!
You pack so much into your videos! I had to rewind and pause many times to get a better look at the visual stuff you add. 😆
Thank you!!!
The best part of the day is watching the new episode of Bad Gear.
❤️❤️❤️
this final jam blew me away
Thank you!!!
Great jam this week. Streets of rage style to my ears.
Thanks!
Roland's 50th this year! I can't think of a better or more affordable way to celebrate!
Agreed! Roland must be celebrated!
The EF 303 reminds me a lot of the MX1, which has a respectable load of hate comments (in particular in the daw integration dept) and would me it a great candidate for review !!!
That one comes up quite often - great idea, thanks!
Gran torino snearing at the rca jacks was hilarious
Dirty Harry knows his stuff;)
i've always wanted one of these
So did I - not so sure now;)
@@AudioPilz ha yeah, it really does sound bad ;)
@@AudioPilz Just picked up one of these mint (no box or adapter) local (so straight up) for $250 CDN ($178.29 Euro). I'm breaking out the old mc's for a dance party.
That sequencer can send MIDI out and was my go-to for playing in automation into Logic.
A few of these were for sale locally on Marketplace for $250CAD. I skipped on it because I thought it was too limited. Now that I think of it again it would probably be fun to use the effects with the Uno drum.
Certainly a great addition to the UNO
demonstrating effects with the actual explanation of the interface is brilliant
Thank you!!!
This thing looks like a sonic maximizer and 303 had a baby
...they locked in the basement where it organized raves;)
Legitimately love the intro tune with this unit running the show. I kind of want a boutique version of it now you mentioned it
Thanks! I'd buy that for a dollar too ;)
Still have mine. Even back in the late 2000s it commanded some cash. If I recall correctly, it may have costed me 250 USD. EF-303 + MC-09 = Heaven! Wish I didn't let go of the MC-09 :(
Yeah, these two go together well (don't they have the same drums?)
I'm not sure what's my favourite, your 'reviews' or your super tasty jams! either way, keep them [both] coming xD.
love the content brother!
Thank you!!!
I've always wanted one of these, I'm a big fan of effects units. i missed out on 2 when I was broke and now they're more expensive.
Make sure the knobs work;)
The 'Smoothed out' Danny Trejo at 2:48 made my day 😂😂😂🤣
Smooth cha cha;)
the interface is nice. with more modern DSP could really be something.
Agreed!
Florian, you killed it once again!
Thank you!!!
Great jams! 🪐
Thanks!
The throwaway comment about mushrooms playing synthesizers having more views than my videos was heart-breaking. And true. Harsh 🖤
You know what Pilz actually means?;)
@@AudioPilz OK, mind blown! But truth be told I'd much rather have Florian the Mushroom be the fungus that's more popular than me on RUclips than some random pink oyster connected to MIDI Sprout.
Schöne Folge! Ich kannte die EF-303 auch gar nicht, so einbißchen wie das Kaoss Pad nur mit einem anderen user interface. So eine Stereo Desktop Effekt Maschine in aktuell wäre doch mal nice, gerne könnte ich da auf Synth und Drums verzichten. thx for making!
Besten Dank!!! Da gibt's in der Gitarrenwelt inzwischen richtig gute Sachen...
@@AudioPilz und nach kurzem Überlegen, die neue 404 MK2 ist natürlich ne Effekt Waffe.
Have one arriving tomorrow.. looking forward to it !!
I like that. I don't know that I like it to the tune of £400 on eBay, especially not as an owner of two other 303 clones (yes, a problem is developing), but I like it. The effects are very much of their era but that was my era too and they sound good. Are the timing/sync issues a general problem or peculiar to your unit do you think? If there's a dealbreaker in the equation that's probably it.
I had to do the first jam several times bc I had to figure out the time the machine needed after switching to align the sequencer for the beat-synced FX
@@AudioPilz Haha - doesn't sound like it's the most user friendly.
There is one going for 222€ on ze German eBay now.
I remember when this came out, right along side the Roland SH 32, and the JX-305 keyboard.
I really need an SH32;)
💣💣
❤️❤️❤️
Verdict. If Audiopilz ever releases a late 2000s trance song, I'm in!
this piece of gear is iconic in its pure badness, it symbolises everything which is wrong about 90's dance music we need to cherish this janky X box EDM contraption :)
What's wrong about 90s dance music? ;)
@@AudioPilz Nothing its the 90’ equivalent of the McCheese .. With the pickles ☺️.... and who doesn’t secretly love them 😂
This was Roland being confused and 'confident' at the same time.
They were trying interesting ideas, but merging a vague ethic of Fisher-Price level design-cluelessness with cynical corporate re-hash to cash in on former glory ALSO.
lol :D you have a cool sense of humor, great videos and music pieces, very entertaining, thanks!
Thank you!!!
This is one of the pieces of gear I wanted but never got a hold of... I always though it had a creepy vibe to the sound.
Some of the FX are pretty nice!
Hi Florian, I'm so glad you did this one - I suggested it about a year ago!
Back when this was a current product I was doing an improvised live ambient+groove thing, and MIDI clock was king - it kept my TR-909 in time with the bass player's Oberheim Echoplex looper. I was looking desperately for anything else that could be a good addition to our rig, something that would let me tweak a running sequence live and get good/interesting results. I rented the EF-303 for a month and tried to use it in one of our shows. I found that it wouldn't sync up reliably, and there was always this slew/glide between the sequencer steps that I could not get rid of. The effects that I got from it were always too tame and very lacking in upper mids, which is typical of Roland COSM fx of the era.
After auditioning some stuff, the late 1990s came along and I ended up with a Korg MS-2000 (which I still have). It got some hate on the internet back in the day but it's totally NOT bad gear. The 16-step mod sequencer on that thing is a live experimental tweaker's dream.
The EF-303 is possibly the most interesting concept in a small box by Roland from that era, but failed on execution like so much Roland stuff over the last 3 decades.
Thanks for the suggestion back then! I'd love to see an updated version of that one!!!
FIRST!
GODDAMNIT!!!
Hell yeah!!!
Sorry bud, i and someone else beat you .... with meaningful comments ;)
Damn that goa trance number goes really hard, love that mid-late 90s FX vibe. This looks almost like a 90s version of the MX-1 but much more stripped down.
Thanks! Yeah, the MX1 comes to mind!
I loved your little nod to a certain penal colony in the Southern Hemisphere.
Does it exist?;)
Superb video. As always. THE best gear head video merchant on RUclips. Bar none. 🎹🎛
Thank you!!!
yep this is some of the gear I lusted over back in the late 90s/early 00's
Yup, I really wanted to have one of these back then!
Your reviews are so much on point that I would really love to see the format being applied to regular gear and not restrict to only "bad" one.
Thank you!!! Working on it!
Lol, the NICE meme 😂
Pretty funky episode, bro!!!
NICE;)
Happy Friday Florian!
Have a nice weekend!!!
Just picked one of these up for "cheap" in rough shape, but after a good cleaning and some minor re-soldering of bad connections it is back among the "living" and I am really enjoying it hands-on sound mangling capabilities!
Nice!!!
Every friday is a Roland day
Every day is Roland day;)
I am waiting for the day AudioPilz has reviewed every single music gear in existance, so he can make a Bad Gear episode about the Prophet 10.
Minimoog episode when???
You might have got my old trashed one. Your jacked up 303 issues are ticking all my former units boxes. 🖖
No hard feelings;)
The only moment i saw you, dear flowryan chill in a roland episode was today. You in that hammock-gave me the chills.
Oh and by the way: i love you
❤️❤️❤️
I watched this on a projector... that video for the main jam nearly destroyed my brain, in an enjoyable way. I will admit, I never knew of this devices existence and thankfully its a piece of older Roland gear I can resist. Right, going to watch jam 2 from the previous video again, so I can destroy my brain through my earholes rather than my eyeholes this time.
The human brain can take quite some damage;)
I got one and the EF-303 never gets old. Gonna pair it with the Behringer MS-1, Pro-1 and Neutron & Crave for some fun! Great Video!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Classic!
OMG!!, keeps getting better and better. It’s the Ef303!! Once you have covered all my equipment that sits in a cupboard eating into my conscience, whilst the gazillion power supplies, midi cables, jack leads and patch cables in their tangled mess desperately stuffed into a sports bag to stop their spread threaten to destroy me every time I try to find the one power supply for the one bit of kit I think I’ll set up, whilst each once in a blue moon evening of ambition to make some good music degenerates to poring through a manual followed by some dejected filter sweeps over a whisky before I pass out from the exhaustion of just setting everything up,…….once you have covered all my gear I’ll watch your videos back to back, then, surely, inspired by the fact that you get such good stuff out of all bad gear, I’ll come up with a masterpiece that makes the ridiculous amounts of time and money I spent buying bad gear between 1997-2010 worth it!! Roland MC-303, D2, SH-32, Ef-303, Yamaha DX200, Alesis Ion, Moog Little Phatty stage, home-built Paia modular with d.i.y Polyvoks filter, Lexicon effects rack, home-built Oakley TB3031, Korg Wavedrum mini, Alesis IODock for IPad 1 bought 1 month before Apple (and developers) stopped supporting Ipad 1 everything. All that gear I never made anything good with 😭😭😭😭 I dreamed of being the next Orbital 😭😭😭 I just ended up with a mess in my house 😭😭😭😭 And became a one note non twiddler in prog rock bands instead of the techno legend in my dreams 😭😭😭😭😭I gave up, took up acoustic guitar and buoyed by the ease at which I could make music, gave up my dreams in exchange for singing Bob Dylan covers in empty pubs. I only had one relapse to buy a Korg monotribe, which I remember made me feel so darn good at sequencing, but then left me wondering how my dear Roland could mess up their gear so bad and not do a groove box with a monotribe style sequencer. Still the former addict and dreamer, perusing RUclips channels like yours. Looking at prices for the Digitakt than slamming shut the laptop……..
I feel you!!!❤️❤️❤️
best moment of the week!!! your video!
Thank you so much!
I especially liked the last live jam! Thanks again for the episodes.
Thank you so much!
Wow! A piece of Roland Gear, I haven't heard about. :) Great video, as always.
Thanks! Believe me, I find pieces of Roland gear I have never heard of every day and I do this for a living;)
@@AudioPilz And we are thankful for it! :) Weiter so.
Losing your train of thought coming up with a genre title? I'm here for it.
It happens to the best;)
Over the years, I've bought and sold a lot of devices covered on Bad Gear, especially as a just-out-of-high-school wannabe techno god back in the late 90s and early 00s. Every once in a while, I think "maybe I should look for an EF-303... I remember being so excited to own it, then becoming terribly disappointed by a few nagging limitations & returning it a week later."
This review was helpful. It is a box that promised a lot, and delivered most it (but with exactly the kind of unpredictable assortment of annoying limitations and WTF design choices that characterize the MC-303 experience, for example). I suspect I'd feel the same way about it in 2022 as I did in the year 2000: I want this to be what it looks like it should be, but sadly it is not.
I thought the monosynth sounded pretty great though. IIRC, Roland made a big deal out of it including some very cutting-edge method of modeling TB-303 internals. ::shrug::
Yes, this one is a mixed bag (and will remain to be one;)
Lovely! Great episode, and now I want this 😂
Thanks! It's addictive!
those jams were great! that late 90s sound is hard to top. (i'll be 40 soon holy crap!)
Yeah, instant flashback!