Reason Studios (Propellerhead)
More info
- Creator
- Ernst Nathorst-Böös, Marcus Zetterquist, Peter Jubel
- Released
- 1994
- Type
- Company (audio software)
- Website
- reasonstudios.com
The Stockholm company that built an entire studio rack in software — cables on the back included — and went by Propellerhead until 2019.
Its first product, in 1994, was ReCycle, which sliced drum loops so they could follow a new tempo. ReBirth RB-338 (1997) emulated a Roland TB-303 and a TR-808 on an ordinary PC, and ReWire (1998) let applications share audio and sync with each other. Reason followed in 2000: synths, samplers and effects bolted into a rack that you flip round with the Tab key to patch virtual cables.
For years Reason was a walled garden. No VST plugins allowed, only the company's own Rack Extensions from 2012 onward. The gate finally opened in 2017, and in 2019 the company renamed itself after its product. A rare Swedish export in an industry otherwise run from Hamburg and California.