ReBirth RB-338 Discontinued by Propellerhead

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One of the original software synths retired today.

Dear ReBirth user,

We at Propellerhead Software have made the decision to discontinue our product ReBirth RB-338. You are receiving this letter because you are a registered user and we wanted to inform you about what this means for you.

Why did Propellerhead make this decision?
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ReBirth was the first successful software synthesizer. It pioneered and shaped a lot of what we now take for granted in software synthesizer type products. However, it was designed almost ten years ago. Musical styles and music technology have both changed
dramatically since then, and we decided that the foundation for the product just wasn't valid anymore. We're a small company with limited development resources and we think it makes much more sense for everybody involved - even you as a ReBirth user - that we concentrate our efforts on our more current products and on future projects.

The practical ramifications of this decision are:

* All development on ReBirth RB-338 has stopped. There will be no future updates and no Mac OS X version.

* Personal customer support of the product will be discontinued. We receive very few questions from ReBirth owners nowadays, and all of the information we usually provide is now available in the FAQ section on the new ReBirth web site, see below.

* As of today, ReBirth is given away for free. Anyone can download and use ReBirth 2.0.1. The download and instructions are also available on the ReBirth site.

[..just in case you thought about selling your boxed software for $700 on ebay]

Flashback a few years:

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,11567,00.html

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Thursday, 1 September 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

As of today, ReBirth is given away for free

YAY!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 1 September 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Forgot this important piece of the email:

The ReBirth museum
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We have dedicated a complete new web site to ReBirth, called
www.rebirthmuseum.com. Here you can find articles, interviews, historical information, the ReBirth song and Mod archives, a discussion forum, downloads of ReBirth 2.0.1 and much more. Definitely worth a visit!

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Thursday, 1 September 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

Any famous tracks known to have used this software as opposed to "the real thing"?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 1 September 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

As a matter of fact...I'm pretty sure...this post-Gummo track by darknoerd the beholder ("Ferox II") used Rebirth to tribute Fulci zombie films.

http://www.thisishowifeel.com/darknoerd/darknoerdbeholder01-ferox_ii.mp3

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 2 September 2005 02:45 (twenty years ago)

This was the intro to an EP on Flapping Jet, the above was an outro.

http://www.thisishowifeel.com/darknoerd/darknoerdbeholder01-ferox_i.mp3

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 2 September 2005 02:51 (twenty years ago)

There was a long list of users -- NIN, various cheesers, who the hell knows. Looking it up, I keep finding more cool info:

Despite the growing popularity of the TB-303 through the 1990s, it was uncertain how producers and electronic music creators would receive ReBirth RB-338. With the exception of technologically-savvy producers, the Roland pattern programming system was not widely understood, and its use as the basis for song production in ReBirth was a gamble. To test the waters, Propellerhead Software launched their website in December of 1996 and invited visitors to download a free alpha version of the software. Webmaster Fredrik Hägglund - who had joined the company a few weeks earlier - went searching the web for individuals who were internet active fans of the TB-303, and Ernst Nathorst-Böös sent them an invitation email. This was the defining moment.

On the first day, downloads numbered in the few and garnered a handful of email replies. The second day yielded dozens more, and then the number of downloads exploded as word-of-mouth news about this innovative software made its way around the Internet. The immediate response caused the owner of the website hosting company to phone the Propellerheads on a Sunday night with the concern that some kind of illicit content was being downloaded. Within days, the website traffic exceeded their one gigabyte per month quota, roughly translating to 200 hundred copies downloaded. The number of ReBirth downloads continued at this pace - an incredible fact considering only the Macintosh version had been released. The Windows version had yet to be posted!

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 2 September 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

roland's bewildered fax to p-heads, which became a kind of legal disclaimer on RB and other products:

http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/img/exhibit_fax.jpg

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 2 September 2005 03:05 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha, is that a real Roland fax? It sounds like an endorsement!

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 2 September 2005 04:05 (twenty years ago)

No no, surely that's not sent across as a compliment -- that's sent attached to a letter from some lawyers that says "you must use precisely this language to credit Roland or else they will think about maybe taking some sort of legal action." Which of course they would never actually do, since the only part of ReBirth they could lay much claim to -- the actual appearance of the panels -- is the part that'd be easiest for Propellerheads to change; it's way better for them to have software out there that imitates every aspect of their hardware (along with a reverent disclaimer that says "oh, if you were cool and serious and stuff you'd have the awesome original box").

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 2 September 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh I see. I thought that was the entirety of the fax! Knowing Roland's history of humorously strange writing in their manuals I assumed that was their idea of a cease-and-desist order.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 2 September 2005 05:30 (twenty years ago)

Their site is now completely swamped with people downloading the free disk image, which is making it unreliable as all hell.

Anyone know how to resume a download with Firefox 1.0.6?

― chrisco (chrisco), Friday, 2 September 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

I recently read an interview with the Prop'heads that basically said "Roland were against Rebirth until they actually saw a working prototype, at which point they said 'Fine, go ahead - just use this description'."

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 2 September 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

Anyone who managed to get this want to put up a torrent?

― schwantz, Friday, 2 September 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

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ReBirth RB-338 Discontinued by Propellerhead - so long, squawker