ReBirth for iPad: the legendary Techno Micro Composer has been resurrected
"ReBirth is back! Propellerhead Software's legendary Techno Micro Composer has been resurrected and customized for the iPad. ReBirth faithfully emulates dance music's three backbone devices: The Roland TB-303 Bass synth and the Roland TR-808 and 909 drum machines. Combine these with FX units, fully featured pattern sequencers and a gorgeous-looking interface and you're ready to make killer tracks on your iPad. Share your music with friends on Facebook, Twitter and more using the built in sharing features."
(Apple Inc., 2011)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music
"The story of Electronic Music, from the sound experiments of the 1950s through the digital revolution to today, is one of invention and innovation. Developed with a team of electronic musicians, our exhibition charts this history with examples of music making technology spanning more than 50 years. ...
The story begins with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Electronic Music Studios (EMS), two organisations that broke musical boundaries in the postwar years. Objects from this era include the EMS VCS3, the first portable synthesiser.
Also on display is the Oramics Machine, a revolutionary music synthesiser that was created in the 1960s by Daphne Oram, founder of the Radiophonic Workshop. Daphne created this visionary machine that could transform drawings into sound, and it was recently acquired by the Science Museum in co-operation with Goldsmiths, University of London."
(The Science Museum, 2011)
Fig.1 "Oramics to Electronica", Directed, Produced, Filmed and Edited by Jen Fearnley & Nick Street, Commissioned by The Science Museum, London.
Fig.2 "Daphne Oram", Mick Grierson, Director of Creative Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Director of the Daphne Oram collection.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Andy Warhol: The thing that I like most about doing this kind of art on the Amiga is that it looks like my work
"'Long term Amiga users will remember the unveiling of the Commodore A1000 on July 23rd 1985 at the New York Lincoln Centre. As part of the demonstration of the Amigas ability Commodore invited Andy Warhol to create a portrait of Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie using Island Graphics Graphicraft. This was accompanied by a full score synthesised by Roger Powell and Mike Boom, author of Musicraft."
(Gareth Knight)
Fig.1,2 Amiga world premiere launch of Amiga 1000, July 23rd 1985 (including Andy Warhol painting Debbie Harry on an Amiga)
Fig.3-8,9 Guy Wright and Glenn Suokko, photography by Edward Judice. 'Andy Warhol: An Artist and His Amiga'. AmigaWorld Magazine, January/February 1986: p.16-21.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Chris Marker: Memory's Apostle
"If in these respects Sans Soleil looks back to Marker's earlier incarnations, it also heralds his growing interest in computers and digital multimedia, which would become an important platform for his work during the eighties and nineties, resulting in the multimedia gallery installations Zapping Zone (1990), Silent Movie (1996), and Owls at Noon (2005), the interactive CD-ROM Immemory (1998), and the pivotal role played by the Apple Mac computer in both the narrative and the creation of his 1996 feature film Level Five. In Sans Soleil, the avatar of this fascination with digital imagery is Krasna's Japanese friend Hayao Yamaneko, who designs video games and, as a sideline, obsessively feeds film images into a synthesizer, so that they are transformed into flat, shifting fields of vivid, pixelated color."
(Catherine Lupton, 25 June 2007)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
ReBirth RB-338: legendary electronic music emulator discontinued
"Propellerhead Software's ReBirth RB-338 pioneered a new era of music instrumentation that merged the principles of 'virtual reality' with historic synthesizers and drum machines. This concept seemed impossible at the time, but has since become a common trend in music software.
Since its introduction in 1997, ReBirth has influenced numerous companies to take advantage of contemporary technology by incorporating computer simulation into the latest generation of products.
The world has come to embrace the sound of electronic music, thanks to a long tradition starting in the 1960s with the popularization of Moog Synthesizers. It deepened in the 70's and 80's, and the sound of drum machines was introduced in music as electronic instruments adopted microprocessor technology.
As technologies continued to evolve in the 90's, the subsequent role of computers in music ushered in a digital age of composition and recording. Early in the decade, trends in electronic music and their significant effect on popular culture converged with the rich heritage of synthesizers, drum machines, and computers in the software application known as ReBirth. ...
While there have been plans to resurrect the 338, far too much time has passed, and realistically, the economics of software development prompted the decision to terminate ReBirth. Even after a decade of operation, Propellerhead Software is a relatively small company, and must focus their efforts on future technologies. The company contemplated outsourcing ReBirth, but quickly determined that those plans would consume valuable time and energy best spent on priority projects. Finally, ReBirth was discontinued with the parting gesture of making it publicly available. Ernst Nathorst-Böös stated the following:
'We think we serve the community better by concentrating the small development efforts we have on creating new exciting stuff than keeping what we feel is essentially a stale concept alive. ReBirth was a great achievement in its day and we're very proud of it.'"
(Propellerhead Software)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
