Reasons to be Refill

By Paul Dakeyne

March 25, 2009 | Posted in Music Technology

A recent offer on Propellerheads’ major bang for buck Reason Premium Edition (available now with a free laptop bag) got me thinking about the mysterious Swedish company and their innovative legacy products; you just gotta give them ‘props’ (I know, I’m sorry). Why? Well, for a start, they were probably the first ‘Web 1.0′ era devs to encourage the formation of an online community, sharing sounds, collaborating and exchanging creative energy. They did this with focus on the classic ReBirth product.

ReBirth in its most basic form, was 4 stacked modules (very much pre-dating the whole Reason stacked hardware look) which accurately emulated the sound of not one, but two Roland TB303 bassline/’acid synth’s, and their seminal drum machines, the 808 and 909. Sounds good now? Back then, this was truly amazing. But by promoting the spirit of an online community (this was the late 90′s remember), Propellerheads also gave those with the capability of using a re-skin program the tools to make their GUI (graphic user interface) look very individual. Fair enough you may say, but when those tools extended to allowing the stock Roland sounds to be replaced by new, different and sometimes downright wacky percussive’s, noises and fx, the ReBirth ‘Mod’ was born.

I remember downloading these Mods as and when they appeared, often with the enthusiasm of a kid collecting football stickers! Good news in 2009 is that ReBirth itself, although discontinued as a standalone app, not being available on Mac OSX and with no further support from the Props themselves is however available free as a downloadable ReFill for Reason. Plus, by visiting the ReBirth Museum, you can get the best released Mods to bolt onto this bloomin’ marvelous software.

Check out the videos below of just 2 of the best all time best records utilising the TB303 acid sound with those kick ar*e Roland drums – all pretty much replicable in Reason/ReBirth..

About Paul Dakeyne

Paul Dakeyne has written 592 post in this blog.

Paul Dakeyne is a DJ/Producer who has dedicated the past two decades of his life to dance music production and DJ'ing. For six years, he toured globally for the world famous Ministry of Sound and has played DJ sets for the likes of U2 and for the legendary, Kraftwerk, Although remixing around 250 records in his career, as an artist in his own right, Paul landed one of dance music's seminal crossover moments with his "18 Strings' monster hit by Tinman - scoring a UK top ten in 1994. He also co-wrote and produced the music for BBC's Watchdog and Crimewatch when they were both revamped in 2001 and '06 respectively. His other career highlights have included an A&R stint for Mercury Records, lecturing in 'DJ culture and music technology' and creating mash-up mixes for Radio 1's, Chris Moyles. Paul joined the DV group in 2003 leading to his role as blog and feature author here at the DV Mag.

• View all posts by Paul Dakeyne →
• Blog

Tags: 808, 909, acid house, hardfloor, phuture trax, propellerheads, reason, reason edition, ReBirth, ReBirth Mods, ReFill, roland, tb303, web community

No Comments