Monday 27 January 2014

TB 303 - New Order - Confusion - Pattern

Just mucking around with my old 303.
I still love it after all these years.
So decided to try a remake of  an old New Order track - "Confusion".
It dates from around 1983.

Gear used:
Roland TB 303 (Acid Bass)
Roland TR 707 (Drums)
Roland RE-201 Space Echo (Reverb)

The remix I really like was done by Pump Panel and was used in the opening of the
cult vampire flick "Blade" from 1998.

I've tried to keep this mix close to the one used in the movie .
The pattern is very simple. It uses just 2 notes: G & A#

Step   Note     Transpose     Accent     Slide    Time

01      G           No               No           No      Note On
02      G           No               No           No      Note Held
03      G           Down           No           No      Note Held
04      G           No               No           No      Note On
05      A#         No               No           No      Note off (rest)
06      A#         Down           No           No      Note On
07      A#         Down           No           No      Note On
08      A#         No               No           No      Note Off
09      A#         Down           No           No      Note On
10      A#         No               No           No      Note off
11      A#         No               No           No      Note on
12      A#         No               No           No      Note held
13      A#         No               No           No      Note on
14      A#         No               No           No      Note on
15      A#         No               No           No      Note off
16      A#         No               No           No      Note on

7 comments:

  1. Yo, how do I get a copy of this? I wanna play this track when I open for VNSSA next month!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great cover version. Btw Confusion by New Order was recorded in 1983 - not 1995.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Except the Unknow is dead wrong.

    The track you redid is the Pump Panel Reconstruction that was indeed released in 1995. It was done by Pump Panel (Tim Taylor and Dan Zamani) and has very little to do with the original (some sampled vocals). The bassline notes might have been inspired by a bassline hook played by Peter Hook at the very end of the track but only slightly.

    The track really bares no semblance of the 1983 New Order - Confusion. Go and listen to the original online and see for yourself.

    What you should have done is not change the year, but the name of the track (what you redid was the Pump Panel track, not New Order one).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd guess it came from them having the drum pattern for Confusion and accidentally sending it to the 303 at some point, the kick and snare line up with the notes played in the Pump Panel track. If the 303 reacted to a transport start command from somewhere while in Write mode it might have been in a good mood and not only played the notes it thought it was being asked, but also remembered them in its weird electric mind. I can never tell what that thing is going to do from one day to the next. Would also explain why they decided to say it's a remix because in a way it is, it's a TB-303 sequencer's interpretation of what the track's kick and snare note mappings mean, like weird lyrics only the machines ever see (unless you have a midi monitor open to eavesdrop on the juicy gossip, did you hear about cc55? 127?!).

    ReplyDelete