ReBirth song player: play and convert .rbs files.
ReBirth RB-338 was the 1997 program that put two acid bass lines and two drum machines on a PC screen, and thousands of songs written for it are still passed around as .rbs files that nothing current opens. Drop one here and it is rendered by the engine of OpenRB-338, an open-source reimplementation that reproduces the original's output exactly. Listen, read the author's notes, and save it as WAV, FLAC or MP3. Nothing is uploaded.
drop a ReBirth song (.rbs)
Add your drum kit file (.rbm with its key, or .orbkit) in the same drop or later, for the 808 and 909.
The song's own text
At a glance
| Reads | ReBirth RB-338 songs (.rbs) from ReBirth 1.x and 2.x |
|---|---|
| Engine | OpenRB-338's engine (GPL-3.0), 313 KB of WebAssembly: two TB-303s, a TR-808, a TR-909, mixer, delay, distortion, PCF and compressor |
| Accuracy | Identical, sample for sample, to OpenRB-338's native export on all 150 songs compared; the project itself reports its export equals the original ReBirth's byte for byte |
| Output | 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo, as the original: WAV, FLAC or MP3 |
| Drums | Need the drum kit file, which you supply; without it the bass lines and effects still play |
| Length | The song's loop, or bar 1 to the last note; 20 minutes at most |
What ReBirth was
Propellerhead Software released ReBirth RB-338 in 1997. It drew two Roland TB-303 bass synthesisers, a TR-808 and, from version 2, a TR-909 on screen, with a mixer, a delay, a distortion, a compressor and the pattern-controlled filter that gave it a sound of its own, and it ran them in real time on the Pentium PCs of the day, which was new. Acid techno could suddenly be made on a home computer by turning pictures of knobs. A song was saved as an .rbs file of a few kilobytes: every pattern, every knob movement, no audio. Those files were swapped on the web for years, and the program was retired long ago, so they have been stranded.
How this page plays them
OpenRB-338 is an open-source reimplementation of the program, published in 2026 under the GPL. Its authors rebuilt the audio engine to match ReBirth 2.01 exactly, and report that a song's exported loop equals the original's export byte for byte across more than a thousand songs. This page compiles that engine, unchanged, to WebAssembly. We compared the WebAssembly build against the project's own native renderer on 150 songs covering all five file versions, and every sample was identical. The engine's output is 16-bit at 44.1 kHz, as ReBirth's was, so the 16-bit WAV you save here is the same audio the original program would have exported.
A ReBirth song has no stated length: the program simply played on to bar 1,000. What it could export was the stretch between its two loop markers, and that is the default here, as it is in OpenRB-338. Many authors set the loop around the whole song, but many left it on a few bars, so if the result is only seconds long, switch "Render" to "From bar 1 to the last note", which runs to the last recorded note or knob movement. Either way the page stops at 20 minutes.
The drum kit, and why you bring it
The bass lines, the filters and the effects are synthesis, and the engine contains all of it. The 808 and 909 are different: ReBirth played 46 recorded drum samples, and those recordings belong to Propellerhead (now Reason Studios). They are not ours to give out, so they are not in this page, and neither is the small key file ReBirth used to scramble kits. Drop a song without them and you hear it with its drum machines silent; the page tells you when that has happened.
If you have the kit, drop it with the song or afterwards. The page takes a ReBirth mod file (.rbm) together with its 2,047-byte key file, or a clear .orbkit made with OpenRB-338's tools. A file with "standard" in its name is used as the standard kit; any other kit file is treated as the mod for the song in hand. ReBirth "mods" were alternative drum kits that a song could name, and when a song names one that is not loaded the page says which, and plays the standard kit in its place if you have given it one. Whatever you drop is held in this tab's memory until you close it. It is not stored and not sent anywhere. The OpenRB-338 project's own download includes the standard kit, and its documentation explains how the kit and key files relate to an original ReBirth CD.
Limits
This is a player and converter, not the instrument: there is no panel to turn knobs on and no editing. For that, install OpenRB-338, which has the whole machine on screen. Songs are rendered in song mode over the range chosen. A mod changes the drum sounds only. A damaged file is refused with a message. And the page cannot find songs for you: bring your own .rbs files.
ReBirth RB-338 is a trademark of Propellerhead Software (Reason Studios); TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909 are Roland's. This page and OpenRB-338 are not affiliated with either company. For tracker modules from the same years, see the module player; for a synth to play live, the DX7-style FM synth; and for the list of rebuilt studios, open-source DAWs.
FAQ
How do I convert an .rbs file to WAV or MP3?
Drop the .rbs file on the page. It is rendered in a few seconds; then choose WAV, FLAC or MP3 and press "Convert and download".
Why are the drums missing?
ReBirth's drum sounds are recordings owned by Propellerhead, so this page does not include them. Drop your own kit file (.rbm with its key, or .orbkit) and the song is rendered again with drums.
Why is my song only a few seconds long?
By default the page renders the song's loop, which is what ReBirth itself exported, and some songs were saved with a short loop. Set "Render" to "From bar 1 to the last note".
Is the sound really the same as ReBirth?
The engine is OpenRB-338's, which its authors report matches ReBirth 2.01's export byte for byte. Our WebAssembly build was identical to their native renderer on every one of 150 songs compared.
Does it play songs that use mods?
Yes, if you drop the mod's .rbm file with the key. Without it, the song plays on the standard kit if you have loaded that, and the page names the missing mod.
Is my file uploaded?
No. Songs, kits and keys are read and rendered in your browser tab and are gone when you close it.