About Frank Reitz / The CreakBox story STILL CURIOUS.
reitzwerk
analogue inspired audio software.
From “Do You Want A TB303?” to CreakBox V2.1.
My name is Frank Reitz. I am a Danish software developer and technology leader, and the creator of the original CreakBox and CreakBox V2.
Do You Want A TB303?
- 2000Shared research
- 2003The VSTi demo
- 2004Source released
- 2014Community projects
- 2026A new instrument
I wanted one.
So I started
learning.
The story began with a small website I called Do You Want A TB303? I created it because I wanted a 303, couldn’t afford one, and wanted to program one from scratch. My idea was to gather information about the TB303 through the site and give the result back for free.
What started as a website became my introduction to digital signal processing, oscillator design and digital filters. Instead of merely using electronic instruments, I began studying what made them behave as instruments: the interaction between oscillator, filter, envelope, sequencer, slide, accent and nonlinear response.
A shared resource.
In June 2000, I closed the original standalone website and moved its content into the collaborative TB-303.org resource.
The original
CreakBox.
The early project used the development names Silverbox and CB303 before becoming CreakBox Bassline.
I programmed the original sound engine as a standalone, non-real-time instrument. Bioroid later converted it into a VSTi, released under the Bioroid name. My original instrument and Bioroid’s work bringing it into the real-time plug-in environment belong in the same story.
Made With CreakBox.
CreakBox was already being used to make music before the familiar plug-in chapter. Early tracks were listed on MP3.com, and other musicians were invited to submit music to a station called “Made With CreakBox”.
These were not just descriptions of a synthesizer. They were examples of it being used in actual acid, club and hard-trance tracks.
CreakBox reaches
the VST world.
-
CreakBox Bassline 1.0 — the demo.
On 2 October 2003, KVR reported the release of Bioroid’s CreakBox Bassline v1.0 demo for Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X.
It combined a saw or square oscillator, resonant filtering, Accent, Slide and a built-in, five-octave step sequencer. The demo stored one pattern.
It was deliberately immediate: create a pattern, start the sequencer and shape the sound while it played. The announcement was specific: this was a demo release.
- Saw / Square
- Resonant filter
- Accent / Slide
- Five-octave sequencer
- One stored pattern
-
An unusually direct verdict.
On 21 October 2003, Dancetech reviewed the original Bioroid CreakBox and opened with an unusually direct verdict:
“This has to be THE BEST FREEWARE TB303 plugin you can get!”
10/10 Dancetech / 21 October 2003
Review of the original Bioroid CreakBox
Not just
a silver box.
The objective was never merely to reproduce the appearance of a familiar silver box. I wanted to understand the musical system behind the sound — why it is so special and sought after.
How does accent change the character of a note rather than only its volume?
How does slide behave differently when it is part of the sequencer?
How do small nonlinearities turn a technically simple synthesizer into something that feels alive?
Those questions took me deeper into DSP and digital filter design. They also established a principle that still guides my work:
A convincing instrument is created by the interaction between its systems — not by copying a front panel or matching a list of specifications.
Refine the loop.
Share the source.
-
Getting the loop to feel right.
Version 1.0.1 fixed unwanted noise when stopping the sequencer in Cubase SX2, an octave-button display problem and Slide across the pattern boundary, from step 16 back to step 1.
That last detail belongs in the story of a pattern instrument: the phrase has to connect at the end of the loop as well as between the notes inside it.
-
A source-released afterlife.
On 15 June 2004, active development of the original Bioroid plug-ins ended. I decided to make CreakBox’s source code publicly available, giving something back in return for the help I had originally asked for.
Bioroid released the CreakBox source code together with code for other projects. That made the original implementation available for other developers to inspect. The accompanying development notes explained that the code could be continued by others or used as a learning resource.
That gave CreakBox a life beyond its official development period.
Still part of
the conversation.
A decade after the source release, Wavosaur included the independently extended CreakBox Bad Boys edition in a round-up of free TB-303 software. The article also asked readers whether they wanted a 64-bit CreakBox port.
In comments from 2014–2016, Wavosaur also reported working on 64-bit builds of the old code. These were separate development efforts, not the later reitzwerk rebuild.
Not a port.
A new beginning.
More than two decades later, I returned to the original idea.
CreakBox V2 is not a port, a graphical update or a repackaging of the old code. It is a ground-up rebuild for modern 64-bit Windows production environments, developed under the reitzwerk name.
The idea continues: create CreakBox V2 and return something to the community.
The new instrument retains the immediacy of pattern-driven acid bass, but expands the concept with circuit-modelled synthesis, multiple resonant filters, per-step note, gate, slide, accent and attack control, analogue-modelled distortion, tape processing, tape echo and a dedicated Circuit Bend section.
CreakBox returns under the reitzwerk name.
Rekkerd covered CreakBox V2 as a newly rebuilt 64-bit Windows VST3 instrument. This was a new codebase, not a new skin for the old plug-in or a 64-bit port of the Bad Boys edition.
That first V2 chapter combined acid bass and synthesized drums. V2.1 “Just Bass” is the subsequent bass-focused direction, so the older V2 coverage and the current instrument should not be confused.
JUST
BASS.
Back to the bass.
Back to the community.
CreakBox V2.1 “Just Bass” is the giveaway to the acid community: a capable free 303 VST3 emulator, with a paid version that expands that sound into a bigger, fatter bass synth.
“Just Bass” brings the focus back to the bass instrument. It combines four sound models, expressive sequencing, the IDEA workflow, distortion, tape echo and Circuit Bend in a modern Windows VST3.
Whether you arrive looking for a free TB303-style instrument, a 303 VST or a different approach to a 303 emulator, the free FLT1 voice gives you a practical place to start. CreakBox is an independent instrument inspired by that sound, not a claim to reproduce every aspect of one vintage machine.
Beyond the
original machine.
My professional work has since expanded from programming into systems, business technology and IT leadership. Audio software remains the point where my technical and creative interests meet.
The original website asked a simple question:
Do You Want A TB303?
The question behind reitzwerk today is broader:
What becomes possible when we understand the circuit, the interaction and the musical intention — and then allow ourselves to go beyond the original machine?
CreakBox V2.1 “Just Bass” is my current answer.
Frank ReitzCreator of CreakBox and founder of reitzwerk
Hear where
it has led.
CreakBox V2.1 / Just Bass / Windows VST3