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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n