Propellerhead

Reason 3.0

It's been a long time since the last regular SpyCam update and that time has mainly been used to finish Reason 3.0 and prepare for the 3.0 launch. Without further ado, here's what's been going on lately:

Since the main part of creating Reason 3.0 consists of skinny guys sitting very still in front of their computers, it's pretty hard to get exciting photos of it. This part of the job makes for better photo opportunities though; Ernst works on the plans for the program (and most probably, Pelle and Marcus are somewhere to the left, drawing things on the whyteboard).

The post-it planning meetings result in this - a working plan for the programmers to work from (well, we do write more thorough specifications too, we don't just hand a few post-its to the programmers and tell them to get cracking).

Lately, we've upped security a bit at the office. Not only do we now have a handful of thick metal doors, motion detectors and stuff, we also have this little paper stop sign in the staircase to the developers' floor that says "authorized personnel only". That should stop any evildoer dead in his tracks, right?

For those of you who have been enjoying Dan's plan file, here's what all those figures where about; number of bugs left in Reason 3.0.

Here's Stoffe, working hard on another important part of the new Reason version: the new Sound Bank. The finest musical brains in the world have been making Combi patches, demo songs and other stuff and Stoffe have been in charge of it all.

One of the new features in Reason 3.0 is Remote, so in order to create and test that, we needed a few controllers.

Well, actually, we needed a LOT of controllers.

Here's Leo, testing how well Remote can move the faders and switch the lights on and off.

With all the new live features in Reason 3.0, here's all you need to gig - a mini Mac running Reason a Korg to control (or should it be Kontrol?) it.

This is a photo of two very happy and relieved guys. Ludde (product manager) and Dan (project manager) have the finished golden master in their hands and can finally relax.

And here it is! The traditional photo of the golden master being handed over to a taxi driver who will take it the first part of the way towards the CD pressing plant. (Yes, the taxi driver is the guy to the right, who looks more like a garbage truck driver or something. What happened to those snappy uniforms they used to have?)

As people have been complaing about their racks looking very empty since they started using Reason and sold their hardware on Ebay, we made some Reason cut-outs to replace them with and handed them out at NAMM. Here's our old ReCycle sample rack with an NN-XT in it (a prototype, the final cut-outs looked even better).

Around the office

Here's a bunch of photos taken in the office and elsewhere during the last few months, no real theme to them, I'm afraid.

Once again, we've spiced up a part of the office. This time it's the entrance that got more of a welcoming look. Normally, we'd get someone to do this for us, but apparently, Ernst was so sick of the ugly photo film on this plastic panel, he and Patrik had to take the matter in their own hands.

Now, Ernst and Patrik didn't do all the work, but here's what it ended up looking like anyway, complete with propellerhead hat and our Bob Moog signature theremine.

This sign says "please don't put pago bottles here". Nice try Leo!

This sign says "if you can see these words, please put more soda bottles in the refrigerator". Another one of Leos little signs that seems to be working great!

The box for our blimp said something about it being a toy for "30 year old kids". Well, we've got plenty of those here and here's another toy for them. Marcus unpacks his Airzooka.

And Patrik tries it out. It's a device that shoots a ball of air, usually at an unsuspecting innocent bystander.

Micke gives Joakim (one of our new developers) a hand with changing a fuse in a MOTU interface that someone hooked up to the wrong electrical current.

Someone decided to attach Leo's keyboard, headphones and mouse to his monitor, using rubber bands. Mature, very mature...

We recently joined forces with Line 6, for them to distribute all Propellerhead products in the U.S. Here's Ernst and Line 6 CEO Mike Muench shaking hands over a Variax guitar, very symbolic!

And here's that same Variax in the hands of Patrik, who is already a devoted Line 6 customer - he's got a Vetta, a Variax (the fancy version, mind you), a Pod, a Guitarport and god knows what else. Nobody would be surprised to find out he's got a Line 6 tatto hidden somewhere where you can't see it.

Guitars aren't all that common among the Propellerheads but bringing one to work usually draws out a few wanna-be guitarists. Here's Ernst, testing Olas Gibson 335 studio and reminiscing about his Pushtwanger days.

We've had a safe sitting here forever and no one could remember the code for it and Ernst had a hunch there was something important inside it. So, we had a guy come and drill it for us (very exciting) and it turned out that the only thing in there was the bolt you were supposed to attach the safe to the wall with!

Spanish TV came by one day to do a feature on Propellerhead Software. Here's Tage being interviewed.

We had some new cabinets installed and here's a photo taken after the craftsmen had carried them inside. Look at the fax and the printer to get an idea of what is up and what is down in the photo. Now look at the red label. Yes, "upp" means "up" in Swedish...

Christmas may seem like a long time ago, but here is a (obviously much delayed) report from the Propellerhead Christmas dinner.

To make sure everyone would have a healthy apetite, we started off with going to the go-cart race track for a marathon race. Time to find out what Propellerheads look like in ugly racing gear.

Before we could get racing, we had to be informed of all the rules and dangers. Somehow, everyone seemed to go deaf when we were told the rules about hitting other cars.

Ernst still looks happy and anxious to get into his cart.

Lunkan also seems to be enjoying his new look.

Micke, Dan and Loui throw some cool racing poses.

Don't know what Andreas is doing. Some sort of "I believe I can fly"-gesture maybe?

Patrik has a dangerous look in his eyes - you don't want to race against this guy. Maria, in the background, has a more relaxed look but she turned out to be one of the fiercest drivers of us all.

Speaking of grim looks, Ludde does his best Charles Bronson impersonation. This might be the closest thing we've ever come to a nudie picture in the SpyCam!

Ok, people are lining up for the start. Apparently, this is how they used to do it in big Grand Prix:es. The thing is to run to your car and drive away as fast as you can. It may seem obvious, but keep in mind that some of us had never ever driven anything with a motor on it before!

And they're off! Check out the cool speed photo!

We were driving in teams, so while one person was driving, the other four members could only watch, bite their nails and... be silly. Here's Stefan.

Here's one of our new developers, Peter, and... well, let's all pretend we don't recognize him, ok?

Here's the winning team, from right to left: Stoffe, Peter, Tomas and Maria (remember I told you she was a fierce driver?). Congratulations!

We tried to get Ernst to buy it for us, we really did, but for some reason he wouldn't get the Propellerhead platinum card out.

Once we were done racing, it was time to head over to restaurant East in the center of Stockholm, for a Japanese buffet. Lunkan once again looks happy, this time about his food.

Markus makes a customary Japanese peace offering of lettuce.

Markus and Mellow-David waiting in line for the buffet. David is looking happy and has no idea he and the SpyCam photographer both are about to be food poisoned.

So, with a photographer withering in pain, the camera was handed over to Dan, and this is the first picture he got. Notice the difference?

Here's Dans photo of Andreas. I'm not sure people are getting more drunk but they sure LOOK more drunk!

Wow! Magnus is shooting rays of electricity with his eyes. Markus looks slightly alarmed.