Phoscyon

Back in 1981, the Roland Corporation released a bass synthesizer called the TB-303. The instrument was designed to simulate a bass guitar, and even though it could do that, its sound was deemed too unrealistic. As with other instruments released by Roland at the time, the 303 was a commercial failure. Nevertheless, many emerging musicians of the time fell in love with its “squelching” sound and used the TB-303 in the development of the house subgenre known as acid.

Even today, the 303 acid sound is unmistakable and used widely in various electronic dance music styles. Obviously, the Roland TB-303 inspired many clones, both physical and digital. Today we’re going to take a look at an emulation called Phoscyon.

As with most D16 Groups synths and effect plugins, Phoscyon’s design is smooth and polished. And while it certainly tries to stay faithful to the original TB-303, the virtual synth expands its interface in order to accommodate new features and parameters. If you’re looking to add classic acid sounds to your compositions, then Phoscyon can certainly help you in this aspect. Like the original 303, Phoscyon's oscillator can produce either a sawtooth or a square wave which can then be modified via tuning, cut off frequency, resonance, and accent, just to name a few. But Phoscyon offers other exciting possibilities as well.

Firstly, there’s the arpeggiator unit which allows you to choose different chords, modes (including a randomizer), and to adjust the octave range. Secondly, there’s the distortion unit which allows you to distort those typical acid sounds in new and creative ways.

Phoscyon comes with many presets, but you can always create your own once you learn how to use the plugin. When using the internal sequencer, you can actually trigger presets and preset banks with the keys, which may help you get creative with your song structures.

Though I haven’t tested a 303 clone or emulation before, I liked the sounds that Phoscyon can generate and found the synth fairly easy-to-use, which is why I will recommend it to anyone who wants to add some powerful acid sounds to their productions.