RBM:: (what? i thought ReBirth is dead!?). A few weeks before I left, Wolfgang and Thomas came up with the idea of making a special anniversary ReBirth Mod to give as a special gift to the props. It was a bit crazy but i managed to get a sample set together in about four days.I wanted to get a decent demo track together but my skills are quite rusty, and having to boot back and forth between OS9 and OSX was a bit too much. I forgot to pack a nice pair of headphones, so i didn't feel confident working on the track on the powerbook, so i left it as the 128 bar loop for the final version. In typical Jesuspark style, the graphics were finished at the very last minute.

Well, I barely made it back to London. I was in a haze yesterday having a mild hangover and only 3 hours of sleep. After a good rest, i ventured around to St. John's Wood to get some visual samples of the legendary crossing at Abbey Road. I was in a bit of tourist mode, but it was worth it. The rain came down pretty hard while I wandered around, but I managed to get a few decent shots... Definitely some handy material for John's Revolution site! It's pretty cool since people come by and write their names all over the signs and the wall in front of the studio.

CC.se:: At the last minute, the props decided to invite more people to the party, and we arranged a last minute Computer Controlled reunion in Stockholm. After years of correspondence, I finally had the opportunity to meet with Fabian Lidman who traveled up from Göteborg to Stockholm.

Fabian and I met up at the hotel and took a little walk back and forth across Södermalm until we met up with Hami and Jan, who just flew in from the UK. Fabian directed us towards a Chinese Restaurant. Jan ordered a beer, and not long after the first sip, the bottom of glass dropped off letting the fluids flush over the table.

I'm glad i ordered tea ;-)

I had to head back to the hotel to participate in part of the conference before the actual party started. Just as I was about to get ready to head out, the Merkles gave me a call saying that they couldn't get Modpacker working - they forgot about rebuiliding the desktop database. I let them use my powerbook to pack the ReBirthday Mod while I headed off to dinner.

Back down in the Lobby, I met up with Fabian, Hami, Ian, Jan and Paul. Tage was kind enough to invite all of us for the pre party dinner at Öst100.

Paul (left) spearheaded the Red Stripe ReBirth Mod project that really propelled ReBirth into a new commercial direction as part of his advertisement campaign for the UK brewing division. blah blah MF...He didn't want to tell me he was coming to the party until the last minute....

It must be one of newton's laws of party dynamics. The larger the group, the more slowly the enter a building an clog up the pedestrian flow.

At the start of the evening, we were served sparkling wine to toast the offical anniversary of Propellerhead Software. Then we were seated for a nice dinner of lamb. It didn't taste like lamb though. I think "lamb" is Swedish for Reindeer.

Nils Larsen of Evolution ,purveyors of fine MIDI controllers, is the man i have to thank for getting me seriously involved in writing for music technology. The chain of events he started eventually led to the publishing of Power Tools for Reason 2.5 :-) Oh i got an email today from my publisher, and it seems that they project a sellout of the first printing. I thought sales were slow and I was plesantly suprised to hear this.

Finally, I had the opportunity to meet Fredrick (aka /blank). We go waaaay back, as Fred improved the original splash screen for the Techno Box rebirth mod that launched the whole craze. It was great to finally meet up in person.

In true Bitplant form, the brothers Merkle came through and finished the ReBirthday Mod with just enough time to make it to the event and have some of the wonderful food. Although the gift was presented in a CD Tin, Wolfgang whipped out his powerbook to show everyone their amazing GUI work.

MC Ernst shows his skills on the mic with some Swedish rhymes...

Gaffaman! Brilliant electro performance with live sequencing (no Reason!), incredible costume design and a rats nest of cables all held together with gaffers' tape.

Click on the picture to see James B. help enhance the ambience with his own smoke machine ;-)

Leo Nathorst-Böös posing under the entry video screen. He's the young man who is incharge of various office duties at Phead HQ. Yes, he's also Ernst's Son.

The Midnight Monkeys...You've never seen Stefan until you seen him perform with his rock act! it's Stefan to the infinite power. They put on an amazing show with Stefan letting his showmanship captivate the audience. Some swedish label should definitely sign them ;) During dinner it was discovered that Stefan and his brother spent time in Beckshill - where Hami and Jan grew up. This really explains a lot about his personality! So where's the Drummer? He's sitting on the laptop as a reason sequence :-)

Regardless of how cold it got, we had to step outside to get a breath of air/smoke every so often. Group picture time with Robin, Ian, Johan, Dice, Hami, and Paul.

Sergej Auto - dressed quite smartly for work complete with briefcase containing his laptop performed a really nice live dance set. I had to fight my way back up to the stage to get a few shots of him performing.

By this time, the house was pretty packed with hundreds of Propellerhead fans having a great time.

Ms. Malström, Mr. Malström, and Mr. SubTractor. Scary Flash - put that damn camera away and have a drink! I was told that all night.

After waking up at 6:45 and running down to the gym with James (which was pretty cool since it was the local health center and not one of those measly hotel gyms), I ventured over to the software synthesis mecca - Propellerheads Headquaters! Yes this was the first time i've had the chance to visit their offices, yet everyone there was surprised that this was my first visit.

I had a chance to catch up with Tage, Marcus, Kristoffer, Johan and Ernst, and the opportunity to meet Ola, and Leo, Micke.

The office is spatious with workstations for the company personnel downstairs, and a really nice kitchen area. This is where I learned the secret of what makes the company tick. The really strong coffee from the high tech coffee machine! It's like coffee stew - thick and chewy so you can eat it on a stick!

Tage took me upstairs to Propellerheads Area 51 where the developers reverse engineer alien coding and apply it to their software products...and play Doom. Dan E. had some scale model replicas of some of the alien beings they have captured for study. He specializes in decompiling alien robotic code which is then applied to Reason.

No developer should be without toys...Pelle had a tray of juggling balls sitting outside of his office!

I made it back to the hotel with just enough time to check emails before the official program of the day started. The Props arranged a bus tour of Stockholm. This was probably the shortest bus tour in history and only took about 50 minutes before we headed to Props HQ for a bit more of that coffee and some swedish baked delicacies.

Pictured - Ola and Robin Sarac Pose while Dice and the others look out at something...

After the pit stop at the Props HQ, they bussed us over to Cosmos Studio. This was a really impressive space which was originally the EMI Sweden facility. I looked around but i didn't find any REDD.37 or REDD.51 desks
:-)

With several Reason workstations setup around the studio, The group was divided into smaller sections and given the task of writing a 90 second reason song in 90 minutes. I chose to go into the dub group with Stefan as the project leader, but we were stuck in this airtight voiceover room with absolutely no ventilation...it got pretty damn hot and stanky in there.

The Bitplant entourage was leaving London today, but I had the chance to meet up with Sandra and Wolfgang at the PLASA Lighting and Sound trade show at Earl's Court Exhibition centre. There was a lot of cool lighting systems, spotlights, lasers, etc. as well as PA and live sound gear. There were these computer controlled tile lights that were really cool. Naturally everything is still a blur due to jet lag. Suprisingly i managed to get six hours last night.

Sandra and Wolfgang introduced me to Arndt of Digidesign who gave us a private viewing of the new "Venue" live console. Yes a modular live sound system that features TDM plugins and automation like a studio system. It's quite interesting because they have placed several safeguards in the system to prevent critical problems that can and probably will occur with a computer based live console, plus you can connect a computer running Pro Tools to the Venue and track the show live. Bitplant was commissioned to design the GUI for the Venue and it definitely has the style reminiscent of the old Red Stripe Mod.

I finally met up with my friend, Su, who now works for Harman. She was recently hired to organize the booth for this trade show, and she looked as if she's fed up with these things. She introduced me to a gentleman from Studer who i asked about tape machines. Studer has let go of about 200 employees who specialized in engineering and machining, and no longer makes tape machines. Mr. Hill also recalled some stories about the Beatles and their Studers. One story was about how George Harrision had broght in his 4 track, and he told the young employees to be especially careful because it belonged to George Harrison... The kids had no idea who he was.

As usual, my trip has started with a really bad case of Jet Lag which came as the result of not sleeping on the flight over. As it turns out, the Bitplant crew was in London to see the unveiling of latest project. Running on little sleep, I met up with Nina, Sandra, Thomas and Wolfgang as well as Vicky and Hami. We eventually made it out to Liverpool Street where we met up with Thomas' friend Axel to go out for a curry somewhere on Brick Lane. I had this Duck Masala that was really outstanding. Being the tourists we were having a bit of fun with our digital cameras all over the place.

I love the exotic sounds of Indian music and i had the rare chance to hear a Sarangi performed live as well as the amazing performance from Hariharan. His voice was a perfect tone that fell perfectly between pitches the hi and low tablas. The musicians would create these interesting drones with the Harmonium and a Synthesizer, and the vocals would find harmonies on microtones which created beautiful textures. When he would reach those perfect quarter tones or half tones, the crowd would let out a groan of approval, knowing that he hit it.

It was a really brilliant experience, and even though i didn't get home until 4am, I'm glad i went.

Seems that I was the only one with a Still Camera, and everyone wanted a picture taken with the Master!

Reason:: I received a copy of Computer Music special for beginners that features that monster of an article I wrote a few months back. It's actually a nice resource for anyone who is just getting started in the crazy world of making music on their computer, as the issue covers a broad range of tools with language focused on those who are unfamiliar with the terminology. Thanks again to Matt at Loopmasters for allowing the use of a few of their samples for my example files on the CD-ROM. I used a few of their drum loops to develop the tutorial song file.