Roland TB-03, TR-09 & VP-03 Hands-On Demo

At Knobcon 2016, we talked with Roland’s Peter Brown and got a quick demo of their latest Boutique boxes:

Each of the new Boutique boxes is inspired by a vintage counterpart, but Brown also highlights the things that these boxes can do that the originals can’t – ranging from modular connectivity to DAW connectivity and even a few surprises, like the sample sequencing of the VP-03. 

While the TB-03 and TR-09 will probably get the most attention, because they emulate such popular originals, Brown calls the VP-03 his favorite of the bunch – and demonstrates it has some interesting capabilities for sound design and rhythmic sequencing.

Pricing and Availability

The new Boutique gear is ‘coming soon’, priced at US $399 for the TR-09 drum machine and $349 for the TB-03 synth and VP-03 vocoder.

11 thoughts on “Roland TB-03, TR-09 & VP-03 Hands-On Demo

  1. I really don’t understand why Roland have released these only 2 years after the TR-8 and TB-3. Surely anybody wanting 909 sounds in hardware would either A: Pay £2000 for an original TR-909 on Ebay, or B: Go for the TR-8, purely because you also get the 808 kit as well, and the user interface is much better. Same for the TB-3, there’s over 100 sounds in the TB-3 and it’s just a much better modern design. These units that are part of the ’boutique’ line are incredibly small – they’re nothing like the originals. I can’t see these selling very well myself. I think the System-8 is a winner though.

    1. Anybody complaining about the size of the TB-03 clearly hasn’t used a 303.

      The TB-03 is almost the exact same size – actually a little bigger. The knobs on an original 303 were cramped, because they weren’t designed to be tweaked in realtime. And the 303 is all plastic, where the TB-03 has a metal face.

      These things are for people who’d love to have the original but would be happy with something that sounds about same for a quarter of the price.

      1. knobs on the 303 are spaced apart more. Honestly one of the things that bugs me about the boutique line are how much wasted space there is on the front. There’s a ton of wasted space on the left of all the boutique synths. No ones gonna use the stupid touch strips. The tr09 is the worst, 8 buttons comprise 1/4 of the units front panel.

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