MFB’s founder Manfred Fricke identifies the MFB-301/II as the company’s first music product, introduced in 1979. In a later interview he recalls building it after making Elektor’s 1976 IC Drumbox, simplifying the circuit until the 301’s entire board was about the size of one Elektor instrument. The account gives the new machine 32 preset rhythms and a 175 Deutsche Mark price; it is founder testimony, not a surviving 1979 price list.
More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Reported association
Boytronic / Original MFB-301 use reported; no individual release identified
A 2019 Sequencer.de report names Boytronic among artists who used the original MFB-301.
Read Moogulator, “MFB 301 Pro – Klassiker-Drummachine wieder da!” ↗The little box from West Berlin
In 1979, rhythm machines were usually imported equipment or furniture-sized companions to an organ. Manfred Fricke’s MFB-301/II arrived from West Berlin in a plain grey plastic case with a large selector, five toggles and a start switch. The contrast was deliberate: it was made to put an electronic accompaniment within reach, without asking its buyer to make room for another piece of domestic furniture.
Manfred Fricke interviewed by Amazona.de, “MFB 40 Jahre-Jubiläum” ↗
Period press
MFB-301/II in Manfred Fricke’s MFB history interview
Front-panel photograph visibly marked “MFB 301/II,” showing the binary preset toggles, rotary selector and start switch.
From a magazine circuit to a smaller machine
Fricke says he began by building Elektor’s 1976 IC Drumbox from the published plans. Its complexity pushed him toward a different solution. The 301 reduced the circuit until its complete board was, in his account, about the size of a single voice circuit in the Elektor machine. That is the useful origin story here: not a claim of invention from nowhere, but an engineer stripping a public design down to something a small company could actually sell.
Manfred Fricke interviewed by Amazona.de, “MFB 40 Jahre-Jubiläum” ↗
Thirty-two patterns by code
The panel does not present a tidy row of named dances. Five toggle switches set the first half of the binary address; the large rotary selector supplies the rest. Together they choose 32 presets, including the expected waltz, cha-cha and bossa nova alongside rock, disco, reggae and blues variants. It makes the act of choosing a beat feel like setting a modest instrument, rather than browsing a menu.
Manfred Fricke interviewed by Amazona.de, “MFB 40 Jahre-Jubiläum” ↗
175 Deutsche Mark, and a soldering iron
Fricke recalls a 175 DM price and calls the reception a “small sensation” in hindsight; the same interview says that more than 1,000 units sold in Germany within a few months. The figure is a retrospective account, but the production detail is vivid: he soldered early boards himself, and some machines were sold as kits. When the MFB-501 followed, production moved to outside firms because one person could no longer carry the work.
Manfred Fricke interviewed by Amazona.de, “MFB 40 Jahre-Jubiläum” ↗
A reported Boytronic connection
A 2019 Sequencer.de report on the later MFB-301 Pro reissue names Boytronic among the artists who used the original. It does not identify a record, a session or a part, so the connection belongs here as reported cultural history rather than a track-by-track credit. It still suits the machine: a low-cost Berlin drum box finding a life in the electronic music made around it.
Moogulator, “MFB 301 Pro – Klassiker-Drummachine wieder da!” ↗
Sources
The visual archive