The Europa Reason
I was trying to come up with a nice title for this post, but let’s not play a word game and instead create some awesome noises and timbres with Propellerheads latest VST offering.
Where it all began
If you want to read all about how ReBirth RB-338 and later Reason came to life, be sure to check out their respective Wikipedia pages without me quoting and reiterating it all for you. Don’t miss the Propellerheads entry either. It’s a sweet trip down memory lane so I encourage you to read it.
Reason
Reason was some sort of a closed system until recently. You could only use what Propellerheads had provided for you — not any third party VST’s nor AU’s. But using their protocol ReWire you could control and incorperate it in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and hence use it together with other software instruments. But on its own? Not so much. Roughly a year ago, however, they gave Reason new life with their version 9.5 update now supporting VST; Virtual Studio Technology. In short, VST is developed by Steinberg and is a framework for both instruments and effect units in the virtual world. So you’ll have them “in the box” instead of as an outboard effect in the rack on the floor next to you.
Drum Sequencer
I picked up the full version of Reason during their rebated run in April and it’s already starting to pay off. First I was awarded with a VST version of Europa and then they gave away Drum Sequencer for free too.
Europa
Europa was one of the new instruments added in Reason version 10 earlier this year and its full name is Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer. Europa doesn’t have oscillators — it has Spectral Engines. But you can think of them as oscillators. That’s more convenient. Are you ready? Good. Here we go.
Europa has three Spectral Engines. Each with the same subset of 34 engine models and wavetables which you can shape, first with a Shaper and then with a Spectral Filter, hence Shapeshifting. You also have the possibility to load your own samples into this thing. Yes, I’m trying hard to not refer to it as a “beast” — but it’s actually hard not to. Each of the engines also have a dedicated Unison. All the three engines will then be mixed and go through a Filter and lastly into the VCA. It has the normal set of (virtually) voltage controlled modifiers; 4 Envelopes and 3 LFO’s. It also has an 8 slot modulation matrix where each slot has 1 source and 2 destinations with separate level control, just like a dedicated VCA. Every modular junkie will love this. You can’t have too many VCA’s.
Sound design trick. Add LFO’s to the Shape parameter and the Spectral Filter frequency for everything from subtle to extreme results. Follow it up by letting one of the Envelopes to control the Spread of the Unison. You’ll then have a sound that starts wide and big and then is getting more narrow as it decays. Try modifying more parameters in the same way and see what happens.
Some modifiers have a dedicated slot next to it so you won’t have to waste a row in the matrix, and I welcome this. Even though it gives the complete sound design slightly less usability for a quick overview of the patch, I often feel like I’m running out of slots in the modulation matrix when I’m creating sounds.
Of course, the VST version doesn’t have the expanded features like the Reason version does where you can flip it around and access a plethora of connections just like a modular synth, but having access to palette that Europa provides is really nice.
Propellerheads have even made a web version of the full instrument. And it’s not a dumbed down version — it’s the complete thing with MIDI integration so you can play it from your keyboard to. Go here and launch the player.
I urge you to try it out and spend some time with it. It can feel like a deep well in the beginning, but it’s actually rather quick to tweak when you’ve got your head around its structure and layout.
I’ve grown so fond of my hardware Eurorack and patching stuff in Reason that I actually miss the possibility to have access to the CV ports when I’m using virtual instruments in Studio One. If only…
The Three if’s and One but
- If you have Reason you probably have tested Europa already.
- If you’re still on version 9.5 I’d say that Europa alone is worth the upgrade to version 10.
- If you don’t own Reason at all, give the VST version a run and who knows — you might soon be a Reason user.
- But if you already have Reason 10 you can download the VST version of Europa for free.
Sweet ending
Now, dear Propellerheads, can we have Grain as a VST instrument as well? Please, please, pretty please, with sugar on the top?
