Analog Bass Synthesizer and Sequencer, Donner B1 Controller with 128 Patterns, Saturation & Delay Effects, LED Display and MIDI IN/OUT

Product Information

Behringer has wasted no time in announcing faithful clones of the Sequential Prophet VS (appearing as the Pro VS Soul), the Oberheim OB (appearing in monophonic form as the UB-1 Spirit) , the Roland Jupiter-8 (appearing as the Saturn), Moog Minimoog (appearing as the Model D Soul), Roland JP-8000 (appearing as the JP-4000 Spirit), and the Korg Monotribe (appearing in a new synth 'inspired by' the original unit, the Hirotribe Soul). Finally, there's the big B's take on the EMS VCS3 which was one of the first portable synths. However, compared to Behringer's AKS Soul it’s a giant. Oh, and it's got a delay. Acid lines sound great with that effect, and Donner seems to have thought ahead there. Sound-wise, the delay isn't as aggressive as you might think, but if you're out doing a DAWless gig, it's excellent to have that right there and ready to go. Again, Donner seems to have done their homework on what the TB-303 needed to have. Donner is (I believe) a Chinese manufacturer of musical instruments with warehousing in the USA and Europe. The company has been in business for a decade. It’s built up a range of own-brand musical gear, including guitars, drums, strings, wind and keyboard instruments. The B1 looks like its first entry into the synthesizer market, and it’s pretty nifty. B1 is Donner’s first Synthesizer. It is an analog bass Synthesizer with a single oscillator. The alarm bells are going off: single oscillator design, could this be a 303 clone? It could be because: you can choose two wavefroms either sawtooth or square and modify the pitch. Like on the original Roland TB-303.

Sometimes when pressing the keys when a pattern is playing it will transpose, other times it will clear a note, seems like a bug. Then, the signal flows into a filter with cutoff, resonance and depth controls. On the modulation side, you get a simple decay envelope. Also similar. At this point, all we have to do is play notes on the keyboard and they will get added to our sequence. 16 steps and hit play, and just like that, we have a pattern.Donner have optimized the sequencer of this synthesizer to be easier and more intuitive to use. Easily edit your own sequences with 128 sequence presets covering a range of musical styles, and 128 user programmable presets. The 303 is a legendary tiny synth and sequencer that was released in 1981. It was originally marketed as a replacement for a real live bassist, the idea being that between the Roland 606 drum machine and the 303 bass synth, you could have an entire rhythm section that just consisted of two boxes. Once I've got my pattern playing, I can switch patterns and it will wait till the end of the pattern before switching. So it's not like it's going to suddenly switch you to another pattern. In this way, you can kind of build up songs. And your set would consist of switching between different patterns. This release comes as something of a surprise. Donner is of course a company that specializes in very inexpensive music gear: guitars, violins, you name it. Anyway the B1 is their first-ever analog synth. It appears to be their own design so I'm pretty curious.

So as we've already said the B1 is an analog mono synth and it takes its inspiration from the classic TB303. If you don't know what the 303 is, here is a one-minute history.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Flexible and Versatile Music Studio at Your Fingertips】The B1 controller has MIDI IN/OUT interface connects the B1 to your external MIDI devices for sequencing or as a MIDI controller. Connect external sound sources using the 1/8” audio input. The 1/4" TS mono Main Out carries the main output signal. Next to that we have the filter section with three knobs, which is probably the main way you'll modify the sound and spend most of your time twiddling. The cutoff determines which sounds are allowed to pass through the filter, right for high pass, left for low key. Resonance controls the intensity of the filter, turn left for a more subdued sound, right for more… squelch. This is affectionately known as the squelch knob. Lastly is the depth knob, and this gives you a punchier, jumpy sound.