Classic ReBirth Tracks

The glory that is YouTube recently helped me rediscover a small part of my lost youth. I figured it might be nice to share, but first a little background.

My first experience with making music was with ReBirth, the original software music application from Propellerheads. If you’re unfamiliar with the software, it was basically an emulation of two TB-303 bassline synths along with two TR-909 drum machines. All the sequencing was done using chained step sequences.

The software really took off when prolific geek guru Kurt “Peff” Kurasaki hacked the software to allow for custom samples in the drum machines. This led to a whole breed of modders who, supported by the company, formed a community of artists.

One group of musicians from all over the world formed, called Elektrisches Descent (ElekD). Their collaborative songs were tight, catchy, and often beautiful, especially considering the limitations of the software. I spent hours dissecting the song files in an attempt to figure out how they could get so much out of the software.

ReBirth is no more, and I assumed those songs were gone as well, but luckily someone had the good sense to post a few songs on YouTube. Here’s one of my favorites, which actually uses my all-time favorite mod Axiom-Peace as well.