It's like putting shiny manufacturers' stickers on a flightcase (somebody we once knew dismembered Roland stickers to produce the unforgettable 'Ronald Poland'), or spray‑painting your keyboard day‑glo orange: modify it, and it becomes yours. Instead of getting their knickers in a twist, Propellerhead took a friendly interest in the proceedings, even posting customised Rebirths on their web site, and providing DIY instructions! Indeed, v2.0 comes with the necessary bits for customising Rebirth. So a group of enterprising hackers set about figuring out how Rebirth was put together, discovered how to replace its source 808 samples with 909 samples, and even tinkered with the graphics. With all this fabulousness on offer, you'd think it would be churlish to complain that the super‑hip TR808 simulation was not an even hipper TR909 simulation - but some did. MIDI, naturally, came as standard (unlike the originals), sync with any OMS‑compatible sequencer was assured, sequences were immediately savable to hard drive, and built‑in Delay and Distortion effects were a nice bonus. It could hardly fail, given that it was an accurate 16‑bit, 44.1kHz emulation of the sounds and many of the facilities of two vintage Roland TB303 bass sequencers and the classic Roland TR808 drum machine, with a beautiful, colourful graphic interface, all for a quid under £150. It lets musicians create sequences of staggering complexity at the drop of a hat, work simultaneously and easily with both MIDI and digital data, and instantly subject audio to the kind of torturous manipulation that would have taken hours, or even days, with a razorblade and tape.īut do you ever really covet software in the same way that you covet hardware? Do you regard your music program with the same affection as your Moog Rogue or Fender Strat? Can something which exists only in a computer's virtual environment inspire the same pride of ownership as, say, that small silver box called a TB303 Bassline? If it's called Rebirth, maybe it can.įor the uninitiated, Rebirth RB338 has been called "the ultimate techno software package" and was a considerable software success story of 1997. Modern music software, by and large, is fantastic. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser catch up with the latest version. Unlike the vintage equipment it emulates, Rebirth is getting more sophisticated all the time. Rebirth main screen with individual mix controls and effect control panels to the right, plus the new 909 at the bottom.
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