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 

=Peff

5 October 1998

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

25 September 1998

I'm just curious as to when these other great 1.5 mods are going to be updated to 2.0 RBM files. Until then, I think i'm going to go ahead and start adapting some of them for the creators so that the drum sounds can be used with ReBirth 2.0

With the forthcoming 2.0.1 update which will feature the "Vintage" ReBirth Sound on the 303, having the 1.5 sounds in the RBM format will be pretty cool especially for playing your RB1.5 MOD tracks on ReBirth 2.0

If you are a 1.5 mod creator and have something against me doing this, please email me. Otherwise prepare to be assimilated...well in this case "adaptor"ed!

hehe;-)

=Peff

Oh, one other thing: I've signed onto the V3 DNS fowarding service, so you can reach this site by navigating to this new domain address:

http://move.to/the-beat

22 September 1998

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

HD Crash!!!! Lost all my MOD Projects....Oh, well, good think i had just finished up AXIOM peace:-)

I lost all my webpage stuff, and email stuff. So I'm starting from scratch. Oh well, this is kinda nice --in a way. I get a new fresh start and other optimistic--bright side-crap like that.

Well, i have put an MP3 of "Peace for Sideways" online. you can download it from the AXIOM_peace splash screen page. But if you already have ReBirth 2.0 just download the mod. It sounds much better;-)

=Peff

19 September 1998

-=cIRCLE=- and i have been collaborating on a rebirth track.  He did some very nice drum work with the Axiom mod.  A bit of bad news came cIRCLE's way in the passing of his beloved canine, "Sideways".  This track is posthumously dedicated to Sideways. 

I worked out a little chord progression with strings and sampled them into the 808 section of the AXIOM Mod. This music combined with cIRCLE's drum tracks (i beleive he had a bit of help from another friend, Cipher--co creator of the FatBoy Mod) resulted in a very stunning track.  I can't beleive it's just rebirth 2.0!  I also dropped in a big waterphone sample and some other effects.  The results were quite amazing, IMHO (in my humble opinion) 

The piece is kind of an ethereal dnb track.  So download the AXIOM_peace.rbm mod and take a listen to "Peace for Sideways".

I will make an MP3 available soon too.

my condolences to Davey for his loss

=Peff

I've been busy fooling around with overclocking this new processor.  I had it clocked up to about 333MHz, but ran into some extension conflicts when booting into a normal system...oh well it still smokes at 300MHz:-)

Peff Edit of the Standard Components is available, and a demo MP3 is also online.  I ended up pitching a few of the 808 samples and Compressing the 909 kicks for the final edit version.  Feel free to check these out.

I also worked out another little track for the PhaseII Mod, and did some more graphic changes.  I'm trying to find an aesthetically pleasing look for the knobs without altering the background, but everything looks wierd and out of place with these square background frames and a round knob--the old round peg in a square hole problemmo.
Also, i can't seem to decide on a final soundset.  The latest sampleset should come with a parental warning with a mature content label.  Not that anything is explicit, but very suggestive.  I took a sample of a female voice moaning and put it on one of the tunable tom/conga's on the 808 and tweeking the pitch creates an interesting sound effect;-) 

Check out the track for yourself: PeffïDestiny.mp3

take it easy,

=Peff

2 September 1998

Just Upgraded my System! with a 300MHz/300MHz bus 1Meg backside Cache from PowerLogix, and this baby is rockin!!! Prices were just slashed-Ridiculously low on these puppies, and I couldn't resist! I guess the next generation of PPC 750's are going to be coming out soon so the prices are falling fast;-)

Anyways, Just to let people know, ReBirth 2.0 is Running amazingly fast on this sucker. It takes about 3 seconds to switch between mods! Unbeleivable just click and boom! Instant Love. ReWire is smokin too!

Oh, after installing the new processor i lost some of my authorizations and had to reinsert the ReBirth 1.5 CD and 2.0 CD to reauthorize the upgrade. So as a warning to people performing the upgrade, this might happen to you as well. I suggest pulling out those authorization floppies and deauthorizing your software from your system before you do this upgrade.

Well, I'm off to overclock this sucker!

Take it Easy,

=Peff

30 August 1998

I've been fooling around with different samples in the the Phase II MOD, I took some really clean Dry Tom Samples and compressed them externally for a nice round fat feeling. 

I've upped a little MP3 Sample of what the Phase II sounds like. It's mostly the Same Samples as the RedShift MOD but i'm changing the vocal samples.

26 August 1998 

Hmm, no new mod ideas, yet...so i've put links up to other ReBirth 2.0 MODs Pagez around the internet.

Actually, that's not completely true, i've been tweeking out the standard components for a track. It's all the same samples, just different tunings on a select few so that the overtones harmonize when run through the distortion:) 

And i've been messing around with the RedShift Graphics and exploring the wonders of high res graphics for the ReBirth 2.0 GUI. 

Side Note: I got ahold of a copy of MacOS 8.5b7 and ReBirth 2.0 Runs great on it But I guess nothing less should be expected! 

=Peff 

24 August 1998 

RedShift Mod is online and ready for Download. The oversized graphics check out on Both Platforms. 

It seems that rebirth checks the graphics by taking the total horizontal length of the jpeg then divides it by the number of steps. It also takes into account for a 1 pixel separation between each frame. The Vertical size is arbitrary, and the active area for mouse control is the entire frame, not just the area of the original graphic:-) 

enjoy RedShift 

=Peff

I've Uploaded a new screenshot of RedShift MOD for ReBirth 2.0. It's pretty much done, but because of the resized graphics, I'm asking a few friends to test it out first before i release it.

There is an undocumented feature of rebirth 2.0 mods seems to allow one to change the button and knob graphics to various sizes. I'm not sure if this feature works fully cross platform yet, so until i'm certain that it will work without problems on Windows machines, it wont be available for download. 

Until then, you can take a listen to the MP3 demo that i just threw together using the mod;-) Click on the RedShift Splash Icon to view the GUI and download the MP3 file. 

Take it easy, 

=Peff

18 August 1998

I have finished the graphics -- whatever that means -- for the RedShift MOD. Now I'm just tweeking the samples out. I've sorta learned my lesson. I'm not going to release versions until i'm really satisified with the product. One interesting note about RedShift...It requires 24bit graphics capabilities to see the detail. (Millions of Colors) anything less will look kinda crappy. I might go back and dither all the graphics down to 16 bit...eh but why bother! It's almost Y2K and if you're using rebirth 2 you should have a system that will view in 24 bit graphics! 

17 August 1998

I've made a couple of versions of the "Alpha" MOD for rebirth 2.0 available for download from here. (for those of you who haven't grabbed it from the ftp site directly). These are still kinda rough. I'm not quite satisfied with the sample sets just yet, but feel free to play with them and let me know what i can change. The graphics are pretty much done. This MOD is really rudimentary with very little labelling and simple graphics. 

Also, Dejenerate_Oxydized version has had a minor graphics update. The 909 knobs weren't locking in quite right.

The RBM Autotyper Utility for MacOS has been stuffed so there should be no problems with downloading it from the ftp. Sorry about this problem before. You can also Download a copy by clicking here:

The Autotyper is a drag and drop utility for changing the type/creator codes of downloaded .RBM files so that they have the proper icon and are recognized by MacOS. (Note: RBMs with the netscape icon should still work fine on ReBirth 2.0 for MacOS)

You might also consider adding the .RBM and .RBS extensions to your Internet Config setup or your MIME types in your Browser so that your system will automatically recognize them when you download them. You can even configure IC to automatically start up ReBirth when you download an RBS file. Another thing you can do is to write an applescript which moves a file to your MODs folder, and configure IC to run the applescript when you download .RBM files

Well, back to the drawing board for me:-) Ive gotta finish up some graphics!

=Peff

16 August 1998

RedShift MOD GUI Graphics update screenshot...Check out how progress is coming along;-)

15 August 1998

Got a New Mod in Progress "RedShift" Not much to say about it since it's not finsihed yet. I was working on a sample only mod and got the itch to modify the graphics on it. Preliminary GUI sample is here

Peff

12 August 1998
Heh, and I thought ReBirth Really Rocks! 

Living in California, USA, one has the opportunity of experiencing nature's own Superphat SubSonic Basslines which literally "Rocks the House"!!! This morning i was rocked out of bed by an Earthquake! 

Looking at the Earthquake data, and from personal experience, this is an analogy of what it felt like this morning: Imagine a 5Hz Sine wave filtered down gradually opening up with the filter resonance rising to a peak very quickly. Now imagine this tone pumping through 54000 watts of power, hehe :-P

Most Importantly! no equipment was damaged! and power and utilities have not been severed. All systems are still go!

Anyways, the media likes to hype up these kind of events and make it sound like there was some kind of major disaster, and it's kind of funny to see national news raising a bunch of hype about the small humble community of San Juan Bautista, where i reside. But the effects of the earthquake are not as severe as many people might be led to beleive. (no bridges collapsing or sky rises tumbling down, no buckling roadways, no derailing trains, or any other phenomena associated with major natural disasters)

Basically this earthquake was centered directly below where i live;-) This information on the internet is amazing! Here's a report on the quake from the US Geological Survey, who has a seismic sensor on my property used for triangulating the location of earthquakes:
 
 

Some Notes about how to protect your equipment in situations of earthquakes:

Don't stack up your gear too high, try to keep it below 5ft. This keep the center of gravity low to the ground, making it less likely to topple over.

I have some keyboards on ultimate support systems single pier stands which have held up with no problems in earthquakes. Other Keyboards on Quick-loc stands which are also in good shape.

Most importantly, insurance on your gear, just incase it's really bad

well, back to rocking with ReBirth:-) 

11 August 1998

How i do my knobs:-)

After seeing Trin's posting on the official Propellerhead's message board and from getting several inquiries about how i do them, i've written down some basic notes about how i create some of my knobs. Click on the knob icon on the left for a reprint of my posted reply.

=Peff
 

7 August 1998

What??!! Another One? Well not really, I'm cheating by reusing the same old GUI for the Techno Box, but this time i've adapted the original Techno Box by Mac Junkie for ReBirth RB-338 2.0. The 909 Section contains the TB-909e Samples while the 808 Section has the original set of MJ's Techno Box samples.

I'll make the mod available soon without a finished demo song. As far as the GUI goes, i think most people already know what it looks like ;-)

A bit of Background info on the Original Mac Junkie Techno Box: 

This was probably the 3rd mod of ReBirth to emerge, and the second mod to completely change the GUI of ReBirth v1.0. The First mod, (that i had seen) was created by "ma baker", which had 909 samples replacing the 808 samples. The second mod was created by "po[ar" which used loops and miscellaneous sound effects. 

Mine was the first 808 GUI modification (not really sure about this), but "Breaker" was the first to competely modify the interface for the "ma baker 909". 

After Finishing the original Techno Box, I made the variation of the TB-909e, which thanks to Acid Mother, was adapted to the Win95/NT platform, and finally accepted by the Propellerheads with the "Official" status. (They were pretty strict back then, one of the criteria being that the mod needed to work cross-platform)

Well after about a year of doing this stuff, I'm pleased to announce the official Re-Introduction of the original Techno Box for RB-338 2.0 

It will be available very soon;-)

=Peff

P.S. "Axiom" is under a big revision at this time...The aliasing on the fonts really has me irritated, so i'm going to redo all of the text, however the samples are set.

4 August 1998

Still Hot Here!!! but Hami has finished the Dejenerate Oxydized edition. Ready for Download :-) Check it out, it's quite impressive looking, in my opinion. The demo song leaves something to be desired - i tried using the pcf filter frequency to simulate scratching. 

Also a bit of news for MacUsers there's rumored to be a rebirth 2.0 MOD UNPacker floating around in the works for Mac OS. It will also extract PICT and AIFF Resources from ReBirth 1.5 Mods for RePacking into Rebirth 2.0 MODs or for General Unpacking of ReBirth 2.0 MODs for image heisting and AIFF Sample Stealing:-) Now this would be something cool! if you see this, please email me!

ReTake it easy,

Peff <cooling off from the heat> 

3 August 1998

It's a Hot One here today! Rarely do i need air conditioning, but today is an exception...I guess i'll go get some sun instead, but I have posted a copy of AXIOM(b4).rbm Graphics are still the same, but the samples have been slightly modified/changed.

any suggestions before i make it final?

Email me at [email protected]

1 August 1998

I've finished a "very" rough version of AXIOM, but the sound set is not finalized. I started digging out some other gear to sample for it -- not good since i get easily distracted playing with the stuff...

In the meantime, ive put together a list of some of the equipment i use to record samples for the mod. However, ReBirth Seems to be replacing quite a bit of it based purely on the ease of use and amount of productivity derived from it:-)

Click on the Ring Logo to see my List

29 July, 1998

AXIOM Mod is coming along:-) I'm touching up the graphics and finalizing the sound set. I might have an MP3 demo up soon.

I've gotten some emails asking about a ReMaker for Mac, however as far as i know, no one has yet to create such a thing. However, I have had success using remaker under Emulation using Real PC running OSR2. Any Codewarriors out there want to take a shot at it? 

Also, for anyone who is wondering why MP3? because it sounds good. If you can't play MP3 files on your computer, then you wont be able to run ReBirth Either

I have a new email address, please send correspondence here rather than my old hotmail address:

[email protected]

28 July, 1998

Working on the MODs a little bit more, but spreading myself thin. I might have to quit the day job:-) RB2.0 has been pretty integral lately in production of stuff so there's not much time for obsessing over mods.

I started up a demo of Cubase VST/24 4.0 with ReWire and ReBirth 2.0 and I can honestly say that this is really really amazing. Even if you don't run any effects with VST, or even add midi sequences or extra audio tracks, having the power to individually pan the sounds is so cool! I mamaged to get all rewire inputs running fairly smoothly on my 604e/233 with no additional audio hardware. Even with some dsp effects running, i still managed to use VST and ReWire fairly easily. Now I definitely have a G3 or a G3 upgrade processor on my wish list!

One special note - VST and ReWire didn't crash :-) but bear in mind that i wasn't programming a sequence. I was just mixing one down from a preset sequence. Check out Fred's cool mix on the ReBirth 2.0 CD

I've taken some screenshots of ReWire and VST. Mind you i'm a long time Logic Audio User, and I don't really like Cubase 3.5, but Cubase 4.0 is much faster and ReWire is so worth the investment (Thank goodness for the competitve upgrade plan)

This has a lot of potential...Especially with multichannel I/O cards and MDR's like ADATs and DA-88's. My next project might encompass taking a rebirth track, and tracking it to ADAT, then Mixing it down on my Neotek Series II console. Ah, but i need to get a I/O Card first:-P

I've also switched to Netscape 4.5 Preview Release 1... Which is a hell of a lot more stable than 4.05 i highly recommend it.
 

26 July, 1998

Changing the site graphics around a bit...I'm getting tired of black :-o

started working on a new mod, too, AXIOM. I scrounged up some Proteus Samples which seemed pretty handy. And using a new idea for knobs where the indicator changes color as you rotate the knob... I'll have a screen shot posted sometime soon. 

Denjenerate Oxidized edition... has the sounds pretty much finalized. I'm just waiting for Hami to finsih the graphics.

If you haven't checked out my friend moldy's Real Audio Server, I recommend that you pay it a visit. We are planning to encode some rbs files to mp3 and broadcast them on the automated real audio mp3 jukebox:-) who knows what you might hear on there. Those guys at Niftywerks have really eccentric tastes. Don't be surprised if you hear aphex twin mix into so some reggae / trip-hop boomin basslines. Squarepusher seems to be the flavor of the month.

I also came up with a new model for a vernier knob. I'm trying to get it to look like a vcs-3 (putney) and will create a panel that imitates one. This time i think i'm going to take images and paste them into the mod rather than try to conceive the whole thing from scratch.
 

22 July, 1998

I've revised the Graphics on Alpha3 a bit, took AnthonyEID's advice and made the 808 and 909 frame accurate numbers. BUT the sounds still need to be set, so i don't suggest downloading this one.

Hami (binary edit/rhythm ace) likes the dejenerate mod so much that he's going to be revising the GUI and were collaborating on a general version. I've inserted some very realistic sounding Drums on the 909 which sound great with shuffle. They have a nice balance with ambient reverberation. These samples are from the Bob Clearmountain Drum Series. They are normally Stereo Samples which sound phenomenal, but even in mono on rebirth they are pretty cool. Check back to see when it's ready for download. Ive uploaded a track called "OXIDE.MP3" which is a rough...really rough demo of this mod.

I've Added the TB-909e KodeVoder mod. Which has the standard TB-909e interface and a bunch of Vocoder Samples off of a Korg VC-10. There's an MP3 demo available of this mod.

18 July, 1998

Welcome fellow ReBirth V2.0 users. Here are a few glimpses of MODs currently available or in development. Heh, this site is still being put together since i'm a total novice still. Trying out Dreamweaver from Macromedia (this application is frggin great!). 

The MODs are Free for your enjoyment. However some of the MODs are ones that i have created for the development of songs and remix ideas. Use of the MODs for commercial song development may violate some copyright laws, but if you wish to publish your own remix of a particular track from one of my work mods, please contact me. 

Click on the splash screen to get more information on the ReBirth 2.0 MODs. Screenshots and some Sample MP3 files are available for you to listen to. Not all are fully complete, but they can be downloaded and used.

Please Contact me if you come across some problems with the particular mod. You can email me at [email protected].

I'm always interested in hearing tracks, too. Please send me some that you create on my mods.

Thanks and enjoy,

Peff