Minimod is near completion! Check out the GUI. The samples are a collection of various “Garage” style Synths, including the Casio CZ-101/1000, the Korg M1, Roland Juno-106 & TR-909 (new samples) and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.

I’ve also posted some new songs, including the Propellerheads ReBirth Christmas Song Challenge Winner, The little Drummer Boy (lil dnb mix). I’m considering doing a rewired version and posting the MP3 version at sometime… Plus a new track, Experiment in G Major, done in collaboration with WiSK.

If you’re like me, you’re probably busy doing your taxes for 1998, so that you can have a real Happy Holidaze and spend those extra profits on new equipment purchases before the beginning of the New Tax Year. hehe;-)

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday, and check under my christmas tree for a present on Christmas morning.

=Peff

ps. I really don’t celebrate the holiday, but that doesnt mean I don’t get caught up in the spirit of things. Check out some of my holiday E-mail Greeting cards from my friends.

I have uploaded some new tracks of mine. Please check them out. Comments criticisms are always welcome.

Minimod is taking some shape in terms of sounds. I’ve opted not to give it an entirely moog sound, but there will be some nice analog samples in it. I’m trying to track down a font called “Digital” which i had but lost some time ago.

Technobox mkII is online and is now available for download. This mod will work with 1.5 technobox songs but has a different 909 than the other techno box variations. This mod has been submitted to the propellerheads for their scrutiny, and pending “officialization”, Techno Boxsong makers may be able to send in their tracks for the official Propellerhead’s Song Archives.

Hami has published some more of the tip and tricks/technical advice pages that I put together on the Computer Controlled website. Some information about RBS making using the PCF for some fancy filter work, Audio info, and some tips on Knobs for Mods.

=Peff

I have put some of my rbs songs online here. Click on the little RBS icon to go to the download page.

The Technobox series of mods has yet another revision: The Technobox mkII. I think i will send this one off to the propellerheads for their scrutinization and possible submission into their collection of Official Mods. Especially since they have reopened the old 1.5 rbs archives. This version incorporates a best of sample drums to date as well as the 808 set of samples from the Technobox TB-909e. This mod will be available from here soon.

There was a slight modification made to the RSP 1200 mod. The 808 Clave and 808 Clap sounds have been replaced. the Clave has been replaced with the SP1200 Finger snap samples, and the 808 Clap has been replaced with a more authentic sounding SP1200 hand Clap. There might be a second version of the RSP1200 which has more Authentic Tom Samples on the 909 section. I will keep ya posted.

The minimod’s graphics are almost done, but i have yet to start the sample set. I’m deliberating on whether or not to create a whole set of moog percussion samples on my memorymoog+. This might be kinda handy, but it would be one of those out-there utility kind of mods rather than an all purpose cool composition tool type of mod like the Axiom peace.

=Peff

RSP 1200 is available:-) The demo song needs some work but the sounds are all in there. This is a pretty cool sound set. Thanks again to Zou-Zou for putting together this set of samples.
New Project in the works: the minimod. Along the lines of the RB-SEMx, the minimod is styled after a classic vintage analog synthesizer. This has been a pet project of mine for quite a while, and i’m finally getting around to bringing this idea into reality.

I’ve been busy making some tracks lately. Some of my latest AXIOM Peace tracks are in the latest song packs on the propellerhead’s site, and some Tracks for the Trancer Mod are available onCybernetique’s Trancer Mod web page.

The recent interest in “DnB” style of percussion sounds has me changing some of the Quantum Bass Mod samples. Getting the right tone is kinda difficult, but these types of Big Bass Drum Sine wave sounds work well with the Alpha Jungle 808 kit in the QB mod.

Also, i’ve been working on some new tips and tricks for rebirth and stuff which can be found on The Computer Controlled Website. Some PCF tips; Some words about Copyrights; Knob Graphic Tips; and Audio Tips… This stuff has kept me pretty busy this week. All that Turkey has kept the trytophan levels pretty high, and my consciousness level pretty dull ;-p
 
=Peff

Hey a quick word before i clear the news here for November. the RSP1200 mod is near completion. The GUI interface is done…Now i’m just obsessive complusively tweeking on the last minor details, and waiting for HD space to upload it to the ftp. In the meantime, take a sneak peak at the near finished GUI:-)

The Computer Controlled Website is now up! Hami has done a LOT of work to get this sucker going. Please visit there for more in depth info about the different mods available. We try to stay on top of the ones currently available, both official and unofficial.

We’ve added some tech tips sections to the site as well, including some new hacking tips for ReBirth 2.0.1. Unfortunately, i’ve lost all my old pages, but if someone out there happens to have the tech info pages from my old members.aol.com/tb909e web pages, I would really appreciate it if you could email them to me.

New in mods: I’ve just been taking a bit of a break from the latest collaborative effort with another friend, nicknamed, zou zou, who has put together a really cool sample set of SP1200 drum samples. In an effort to NOT make an OFFICIAL MOD, i am blatantly violating the rules in calling it the R-SP 1200 Mod and making it have the look of the old SP 1200 by E-mu Systems.

I have also had a request for the Alpha Jungle Mod 1.5 to be brought to the 2.0 platform. So i’ve incorporated the Alpha Jungle Samples into a new mod. This one is still being ironed out but is available for download. Check out the Quantum Bass Mod (UVJ.rbm)

Again, please send me any feedback about these mods, i’m always open to suggestions and critiques on how to make them better;-)

=Peff

Niftywerks is now hosting this website. Man, the Xoom servers have been sucking big time lately. So I’ve moved the site to a private server. Hopefully things will be faster and more accessible. The site is hosted on a Supermac S900 with a Powerjolt G3 running MacOS 8 and WebStar 3 If anyone is interested in setting up a site hosted on a mac server, this is definitely the place to check out.

DO NOT CALL or VISIT The Offices of Niftywerks for Technical support for ReBirth or for assistance for Mod making.

Thanks to Ennis and the rest of the Niftywerks guys for being so generous this past year and a half in hosting the Computer Controlled Hotline/FTP server.

Factory 188 Real Audio Server, is also part of Niftywerks, and this is a shameless plug to help bolster net traffic to their Real Audio Broadcasts. Check it out, since they do play some really cool music 24/7.

ReBirth version 2.0.1 update has been released. Featuring the Vintage 303 synth mode, and I must admit the sound is different and has been somewhat missed. I guess there are going to be a few problems with this version and compatibility with old RBIs files, nothing severe, but just another minor inconvenience. One bug that I have found is with the delay–you cannot get 32 full steps of delay, it stops at step 26 or step 27.

MacOS 8.5 seems to be quite compatible with ReBirth RB-338 V2.0.1. But 8.5 is a RAM hog. My System Memory consumption jumped from 20Megs in 8.1 to 38 Megs in 8.5. Even in a very small installation (basic extensions) 8.5 still consumes about 11mb of Ram. So if you’re considering the upgrade, make sure you have the extra ram to spare. For Example: My old PB “Flaming” 5300c has 48megs of RAM, and I usually set ReBirth’s memory setting to about 24 megs…So I barely have room (not to mention the init extensions) to do anything but ReBirth on it. If you’re running a newer model PowerBook, make sure that you’ve got the RAM before you consider installing 8.5 and using ReBirth.

As far as ReBirthmarks go, based on some of my own rough unscientific tests, there really is no difference in the result based on the OS you are using with rebirth. The scores are pretty much the same, so it seems that upgrading to a newer OS doesn’t actually improve the performance of the application. ReBirthmarks, as far as macs are concerned seem to be wholly based on the hardware performance of your particular machine.

Now the latest in mods:
Due to the tremendous response and interest, thanks to THE STORM, et al., AXIOM_peace.rbm has undergone a total revision. In AXP rev 2, The graphics have been redone, and some of the samples have been changed or edited (the earlier version had some really quiet percussion samples that needed some dynamics increase) This Mod has been submitted to the Propellerheads in Sweden, for Officialization, and should appear on their website in the near future. If you really can’t wait, it is available now from

ftp://ftp.spiral.dk or ftp://rebirth.niftywerks.com

Recommended Listening for AXP Rev2:
“Peace for Sideways” - AXP demo.rbs “Electronic Bird of Paradise”

The “digital xt4c” mod is also online featuring some killer vocal samples from an old session I recorded. The mod reuses the UV gui used in the the ReVerb+ mod. It’s definitely house music…and a little more;-) I have to admit i’m pretty pleased with the little 303 riff’s I pulled off on the demo track “Phunxtacy”

PhaseII, believe it or not is still in the works. One of these days, I’ll get around to it. Also the original dejenerate mod, too. Winter’s coming, so there’s more darkness which usually helps in doing these projects…

As usual, I hope you enjoy the stuff, and if you have a gripe, please e-mail me:
=Peff

Ah it’s been a while….over a week, and back to pacific standard time as well! standard time is the best… it gets dark early.

Well, i’ve taken the “UltraViolet” GUI concept and combined it with ReVerb, into the ReVerb+ mod. New on the ReVerb+ is also a set of effected 808 samples as well as the 909. They are still all based on the AIFF files included with ReBirth Mod Packer. I changed the two of the 909 kicks to have more of a gated sound. I’ve already revised the 909 snares twice, and i ‘m still not exactly certain about their sound. One nice thing about the ReVerb mods is that converting the track to a standard version is really easy;)

Last Saturday the friggen power went out after a brief rainstorm, So i had some time to ummm. clean up and other stuff like that… the kinds of things you can’t do glued to a computer screen. And i came across some old session DATs with some nice vocal bits on it. I had to borrow some AA batteries, but poped that tape into a DATMan and started marking some nice outtakes to pop in to a mod!

“digital XT4C” will be a house kit. No question about that, since that’s what these vox samples were intended for. House 909 sounds, some funky acoustic drum bits and BIG Girl Vox samples! Don’t bother asking me to email you these;)

I found some other session scraps and bits that seemed interesting to pick up on again, as well, but was rudely interrupted when the power came back on, so i left those other tapes in the old junk drawer…winter is coming, and my power will probably be going out regularly, if we get floods again–So I’m saving that project for that day.

Also, “Bluefish[a]”, and “DR-330[a]” adaptors have been added to niftywerks ftp server.
Other bitz of news: MacOS 8.5 is pretty damn cool, things are faster than 8.1 but for the most part it runs really nicely. ReBirth 2.0 and 1.5 seem to work fine on it. And for GUI freaks, i just installed GoMac, the equivalent of a task bar in Windoze9x. It’s pretty handy not only does it auto hide, but you can import control strip modules into the task bar as well. It even has a “Start” button …hehe.

=Peff

I’ve been working on some Photoshop Actions for the knob kit, all you have to do is run it and it will do the resize calculation:) Another knob for the 808 instrument selector is also added, and some other images to help clarify the process of using these templates. The new archive is bigger now. Approximately 8.6 Megabytes - in a stuffit archive. I know these will work on a mac, but they have yet to be tested on a Windoze system yet. I will probably have them available on Hotline by the end of the week.

Added some new 1.5 Mods to the adaptor collection. VoxBox[a], Pitch White Edition[a], and FatBoy[a].

Some other cool things in the works: I have started on a new GUI “Ultra Violet” –no idea what its going to sound like just yet. I may use the UV GUI on the new version of dejenerate or toss it on ReVerb or something, but i’m still not certain. For the first time im acutally taking some preplanned steps and trying to automate a lot of the repetitive tasks of mod making. The only problem that I see the lack of diversity in this process–eh but who knows. Anyone can tell that i usually draw upon ideas from previous mods in creating new ones. Be it the knobs or the transport buttons or typeset, samples etc.

Speaking of which, cIRCLE has borrowed some of my samples for a mod, “Blade Runner”, for a nice dnb type of sound. It’s sample only! for now. But we shall see about that:-) It has also opened me up to the possibility of making the samples available.

Several people have asked me for specific samples from some of the mods–(probably more have already taken some!) But I am open to the idea with a bit of trade in consideration..I’d like to receive an original RB2.0 Mod in return - one that sounds good preferrably with a ReBirth Song demo file:) That will be made publicly available. I don’t really care if it’s sounds only… Or if you have some samples you want packed into a mod, send them my way and i’ll pack it…(probably edit it too,hehe)

=Peff

P.S. Sorry about lagging connections, the host has been a mirror for the new Mac TV Commercial Advertisement, so at times the bandwidth gets spread thin. But hey…i can’t complain since it’s free space and a fast connection:)

Moving the Website involved more work than i thought. Since I lost the original documents in a Hard Drive Crash, I downloaded the site from the geoshitty server. As it turns out each page was plagued with the geocities Java Script, so i basically had to reformat new pages for all of the HTML documents. What a pain… A problem with doing tedious stuff like that, i have a tendency to get bored and look for ways to make it more interesting, so I’ve been working on changing the pages around a bit.

Out of curiosity, i’m wondering if anyone is seeking knobs. I remember SLiCE or someone had mentioned that they were going to be creating some knob graphics for people to use on their mods. If anyone knows more about this please email me and let me know.

I made some basic knobs for others to use as templates in creating customized ReBirth V2.0 knob graphics. The archive has the 3Dmodels, Quicktime Animations, and the fullsize Photoshop Documents with layers, so that you don’t have to go through all the stuff I did, and you will get some pretty descent knobs with smooth, motion. I will probably include all the relevant files so anyone who is interested in learning about the techniques involved, and try them out for your self:-)

So if anyone is interested in getting ahold of these files, please contact me, and i’ll make them available for download, or email them or something, but please note that it’s a bit of a hefty file. 5 megabytes compressed which expands to 22 megabytes. The Big files are the 4 Photoshop 5.0 documents which have the different parts masked and layered–before they have been reduced. I will post up a small Jpeg only version soon for anyone else to use.

=Peff

P.S. Get TRANSIT, i’m not getting an edorsement or anything, it’s just the best MacOS FTP Client Application that i’ve ever used–for any Mac Users out there who still use an FTP client to access info-mac hyperarchives or your web site host, (yeah, i know, Hotline is has made life so much easier, but it still doesnt do everything yet). Accessing my new web site is a piece of cake with this sucker, and the file transfer is quite quick too:-)

I just had a crazy idea of a something that would probably be really handy. I suppose that i’m not the first person to think of it, but i have yet to see any other mods out there quite like the concept that i have. The New Mod is called “ReVerb”

ReVerb uses the standard components of ReBirth but i’ve added some dsp effects and changed some of the tunings on the percussion sounds. It’s pretty cool to hear some of your old favorite RBS Tracks with drums with a bit of the old reverb on it.

I will probably make the samples themselves available too, so if you want to customize your own RBM file

I’m having some problems with the snare drums, so the version that is available is not final…as usual. And there are no big graphics changes…it’s like the Peffedit.rbm

Wow, seems like it’s been a long time since i’ve updated! A lot has happened in the last week, and i’ve been going crazy with all sorts of new stuff! 

I was listening to something on TV when i heard this song which had a little cheezy electronic drum loop mixed in. Every time i hear those distictive percussive sounds, it reminds me of my very first electronic keyboard–A Casio VL-1. It has a small white plastic keyboard with a built in speaker and the chiklet piano keys with numbers and rhythm pattern names labeled on it–the numbers are there when you need to switch it to calculator mode

So I sampled It, and I programmed the demo RBS with the same rhythm patterns preset in the VL-1. There are only 3 sounds used for these rhythms combined with the monophonic lead sound. It’s more a less a novelty, but one never knows when they need some cheeze. It seems like people use it occasionally on their tracks:-) 
The CHEZIO VL-1 rbm only modifies the 808 section. There is also an “adaptor” version, which will be available soon.

As far as the mod “adaptors” go, i’ve done a whole bunch of them. I really liked LoopTech 1.5, so i started to fool around with mixing and matching the 909 sections from 2.0 mods with it. Orbit 2.0 really complements LoopTech well.

There were a few very cool “unofficial” 1.5 mods that i liked, “Blackfish” and “Binary” and “Fatboy” to name a few. Through all this i’ve noticed one thing. All the mods sound better with the new RB2 909. The combination of sound pallettes is really fantastic. 

If you haven’t already tried this, I recommend converting some of the old 1.5 mods over to RBM’s. Use ReNovator or whatever, and drop the samples into a MOD folder and for the 808 graphics, make sure to get 12520.jpg - 12525.jpg and include them in the mod folder. I’ve been reducing the 1.5 splash and have incorporated it as well into the adaptor mods.

Since there are already about 10 of these that i’ve packed, i’ll put a list of links on the adaptor page for download.

PhaseII mod is put on hold indefinitely since the components for it were lost during my HD Crash. This is unfortunate since it seemed to be quite promising as a “useful” type of mod, too.

Dejenerate MOD has had some sample updates, however i’ve been having problems with the demo song. Something happened while i was cutting and pasting loops in song mode which made the file grow to about 230K in size. The synth samples have been compressed and equalized a bit so that they aren’t so loud and bassy. The loops have been adjusted a little and they sync better now. I will post it as soon as i can retrack the demo song.

=Peff