Europa User Wave Uses?

[Creativemind]

Hi All!

On Europa, we have the ability to load in our own user waves.

In the menu we have User Wave and User Wave Smooth.

I was wondering what uses this loading your own user waves has?

What colourful ways have people used this section?

Thanks!

[Oquasec]

It's the typical result. Making jazz with synths & whatnot becomes easier to do with synths that let you load custom waveforms.
Europa's predecessor is Zebra.

[Creativemind]

It's the typical result. Making jazz with synths & whatnot becomes easier to do with synths that let you load custom waveforms.
Europa's predecessor is Zebra.

So Europa is more capable than Zebra?

[scratchnsnifff]

While I hope they add user waves in all 3 engines. The ability for user waves simply lets me use all my add on wavetable packs from serum. This lets me use the unique Europa features with the powerful waveforms from serum, or any other synth I feel like sampling

I try to look at synths with user waveforms as a new way to resample and mangle.
Grain is great if you want something similar to the original recording, or by using the tape mode you can just play the original recording. But inside of Europa you get the benefit of all of its additive power one wavetable with two modifiers can change the sound drastically

I think they only put one user wave because they probably figured something along the lines of “users will have enough sound shaping at the oscillator level, that one sound can be turned into 3 all with different pitch, FM, or anything else”

However even if one sound can be 3. I love combining wavetables and the only way to have 3 separate samples is to have 3 chained europas. Which is quite the task when we could just have 3 sample loading engine :p

[Creativemind]

While I hope they add user waves in all 3 engines. The ability for user waves simply lets me use all my add on wavetable packs from serum. This lets me use the unique Europa features with the powerful waveforms from serum, or any other synth I feel like sampling

I try to look at synths with user waveforms as a new way to resample and mangle.
Grain is great if you want something similar to the original recording, or by using the tape mode you can just play the original recording. But inside of Europa you get the benefit of all of its additive power one wavetable with two modifiers can change the sound drastically

I think they only put one user wave because they probably figured something along the lines of “users will have enough sound shaping at the oscillator level, that one sound can be turned into 3 all with different pitch, FM, or anything else”

However even if one sound can be 3. I love combining wavetables and the only way to have 3 separate samples is to have 3 chained europas. Which is quite the task when we could just have 3 sample loading engine :p

Putting Serum wavetables into Europa sounds interesting.

[mjxl]

The other day i recorded my mate on discord, put his voice in Europa, best growls ever.

Basically one shouldn't ask what to put in that thing, rather, what haven't i put in there yet.

Also if you want to do multiple wavetables in one instance of europa, just slap those wavetables in the sequencer, join them together, and then slap the longer wavetable in Europa
Make them start on 0, 33 and 66 % respectively (if the tables are around the same size)

Also every now and then i take Europa/Grain or Malstrom for example, put a long ass note on the sequencer, slap a bucnh of effects on it and let it play for 5 minutes.

The outcome i just cut in like 30 pieces to be recycled lol, you can find some gold in there.

[scratchnsnifff]

The other day i recorded my mate on discord, put his voice in Europa, best growls ever.

Basically one shouldn't ask what to put in that thing, rather, what haven't i put in there yet.

Also if you want to do multiple wavetables in one instance of europa, just slap those wavetables in the sequencer, join them together, and then slap the longer wavetable in Europa
Make them start on 0, 33 and 66 % respectively (if the tables are around the same size)

Also every now and then i take Europa/Grain or Malstrom for example, put a long ass note on the sequencer, slap a bucnh of effects on it and let it play for 5 minutes.

The outcome i just cut in like 30 pieces to be recycled lol, you can find some gold in there.

Another fun tip is using something like rob papens quad!
The phase distortion and wave shaping is such a great starting point

And if you add wave shaping and phase distortion on oscillator one and leave oscillator two dry, you can then use the phase modulation in a subtle amount. This creates a crazy timbre, then adding effects like distortion, filters, or flanger effects. The end result is a crazy moving batch of weirdness.

I like what you said about not asking what works. But rather what haven’t I tried yet an explorers way of saying it

[mjxl]

The other day i recorded my mate on discord, put his voice in Europa, best growls ever.

Basically one shouldn't ask what to put in that thing, rather, what haven't i put in there yet.

Also if you want to do multiple wavetables in one instance of europa, just slap those wavetables in the sequencer, join them together, and then slap the longer wavetable in Europa
Make them start on 0, 33 and 66 % respectively (if the tables are around the same size)

Also every now and then i take Europa/Grain or Malstrom for example, put a long ass note on the sequencer, slap a bucnh of effects on it and let it play for 5 minutes.

The outcome i just cut in like 30 pieces to be recycled lol, you can find some gold in there.

Another fun tip is using something like rob papens quad!
The phase distortion and wave shaping is such a great starting point

And if you add wave shaping and phase distortion on oscillator one and leave oscillator two dry, you can then use the phase modulation in a subtle amount. This creates a crazy timbre, then adding effects like distortion, filters, or flanger effects. The end result is a crazy moving batch of weirdness.

I like what you said about not asking what works. But rather what haven’t I tried yet an explorers way of saying it

Well for now I haven't even made anything remotely close to what resembles a song or whatever, I've bought full V10 end of November

I have limited time because my work is in shifts, and I also have different hobbies

For now i've been just trying as much random things as i can think of, putting random sounds in all the synths, routing cables from here to there, etc etc Xd

A lot of stuff really worked out great lol.

So my advice to OP, shove as much stuff as you can find in these beasts in Reason (Europa, Grain, hell even NNXT etc could do a lot of good stuff with your own random creations).

Record a bunch of words, put those in Europa. If the words are said with good volume and attenuation, you will find super good wavetables for extreme growls and stuff.
Take the outcome, throw it towards Grain.

Hell, I've loaded a sample from a game where a guy says "I heard they are hiring at tasty burgers." Put that in grain, and within literally a minute I've had a sound fitting for exactly what I want to make lol (later, when I'm grown up LOL)
The outcome from Grain made me decide to buy Reason ASAP haha.

[scratchnsnifff]

Another fun tip is using something like rob papens quad!
The phase distortion and wave shaping is such a great starting point

And if you add wave shaping and phase distortion on oscillator one and leave oscillator two dry, you can then use the phase modulation in a subtle amount. This creates a crazy timbre, then adding effects like distortion, filters, or flanger effects. The end result is a crazy moving batch of weirdness.

I like what you said about not asking what works. But rather what haven’t I tried yet an explorers way of saying it

Well for now I haven't even made anything remotely close to what resembles a song or whatever, I've bought full V10 end of November

I have limited time because my work is in shifts, and I also have different hobbies

For now i've been just trying as much random things as i can think of, putting random sounds in all the synths, routing cables from here to there, etc etc Xd

A lot of stuff really worked out great lol.

So my advice to OP, shove as much stuff as you can find in these beasts in Reason (Europa, Grain, hell even NNXT etc could do a lot of good stuff with your own random creations).

Record a bunch of words, put those in Europa. If the words are said with good volume and attenuation, you will find super good wavetables for extreme growls and stuff.
Take the outcome, throw it towards Grain.

Hell, I've loaded a sample from a game where a guy says "I heard they are hiring at tasty burgers." Put that in grain, and within literally a minute I've had a sound fitting for exactly what I want to make lol (later, when I'm grown up LOL)
The outcome from Grain made me decide to buy Reason ASAP haha.

It’s funny that you view it that way! I had the same opinion when the reason 10 synths came out lol.

While a lot complained about the hitch in the marketing of 10 I was excited for some modern stock synths in my favorite platform

The two reason 10 synths have been such a great help since release. Europa is a go to for any sound because of its unison and modifiers (both were not seen in stock Reason beforehand) and grain is literally like malström 2.0 but with one oscillator. The trick up the sleeve is that you get multiple ways to play back the grains. These issues are solved by a line mixer and combinator
Even if they left the reason 10 synths as is I’d be happy, I’d just like some insight at some point as to if they are finished adding to them.

I highly recommend taking more time for Reason, once you get a grip on all the complex routings and also when you figure out which Res you like, the platform of Reason becomes second to none

[mjxl]

It’s funny that you view it that way! I had the same opinion when the reason 10 synths came out lol.

I highly recommend taking more time for Reason, once you get a grip on all the complex routings and also when you figure out which Res you like, the platform of Reason becomes second to none

I've already messed around with Reason beforehand, but it's years ago when I got hold of some warez cd back then, so I know about the routings and stuff (not quite everything, but most stuff is doable at this point)
So for me it's not persé getting to know Reason, but more inspiration/motivation to look at music theory related stuffs.
There's a LOT of stuff I didn't see before, since i only tried Reason 5, and back then I didn't know anyting, basically I rubbed my mouse over the attack slider at the envelopes of thor thinking that I would get a fatter sound. Has to be Attack right? lol.

Now with players, all the instruments (Klang, Humana, Pangea), the effects like The Echo and Synchronous. Oh man...

So just because I randomly checked what was up with that "music program thingy" that I tried back then, I went ahead and purchased it.

Now I just love how messing around with sounds reminds me kinda when we sat on the floor hours on end building lego's. There's just no ending to it

[Oquasec]

It's the typical result. Making jazz with synths & whatnot becomes easier to do with synths that let you load custom waveforms.
Europa's predecessor is Zebra.

So Europa is more capable than Zebra?

They are similar, but europa feels like it's both serum & zebra.

[scratchnsnifff]

It’s funny that you view it that way! I had the same opinion when the reason 10 synths came out lol.

I highly recommend taking more time for Reason, once you get a grip on all the complex routings and also when you figure out which Res you like, the platform of Reason becomes second to none

I've already messed around with Reason beforehand, but it's years ago when I got hold of some warez cd back then, so I know about the routings and stuff (not quite everything, but most stuff is doable at this point)
So for me it's not persé getting to know Reason, but more inspiration/motivation to look at music theory related stuffs.
There's a LOT of stuff I didn't see before, since i only tried Reason 5, and back then I didn't know anyting, basically I rubbed my mouse over the attack slider at the envelopes of thor thinking that I would get a fatter sound. Has to be Attack right? lol.

Now with players, all the instruments (Klang, Humana, Pangea), the effects like The Echo and Synchronous. Oh man...

So just because I randomly checked what was up with that "music program thingy" that I tried back then, I went ahead and purchased it.

Now I just love how messing around with sounds reminds me kinda when we sat on the floor hours on end building lego's. There's just no ending to it

One piece of advice I can give regarding finding inspiration is to try to take an hour out of a few days a week and try to think of it as a virtual band practice.
I don’t really play my Xbox anymore and I’ve watched all the worthwhile Netflix series, so When I get out of work I usually take an hour or two and just try to quickly create a song

Sometimes it just ends up as a repeating theme, but sometimes il find new ways to chain effects.
(Fun tip I learned in 2018)
take a bass sound after the bass synth put an EQ, or a peak filter. Now add a saturation like a scream 4 on tape mode or tube mode.
Make the bandwidth of parameter 1 the widest it can go, and give it about a 4-8 dB boost. Now sweep the peak from 0 to about 800hz in the eq. If you program it in a combinator you would set a rotary from 0 to somewhere around 500ish

This creates a crazy distorted sweep that’s not so overbearing. You can do this concept in Europa by using the distortion then use the eq and sweep that.

it’s interesting how all of us go about this music stuff

(kiloheartz filter has a peak mode and the air raid elements distort has one in its distortion and the elements distortion even has a env follower and you can achieve this exact concept but in the box)

[Marco Raaphorst]

Here's what I did:

[ab459]

Hi folks, do i right understood that the different user wave can't be loaded for each of 3 oscillator (engine) ?
(I.e. here use single user waveform for all 3 engine simultaneously)
Just not found any mention\info about this detail in user manual.

[WongoTheSane]

Yes, there's only one custom sample shared between all three oscillators.

[ab459]

WongoTheSane Tanks for reply. Another moment - i noticed that in RE version of Europa can't open (not dropdown by click) full list of user waves, and it's can be browsing only by clicking to UI little arrows, while in VST can be open full list, that quite conveniently, so, this is expected difference ? (not a bug ? i mean).

[WongoTheSane]

It can open the full list in the RE version as well: click on the little folder next to the arrows and the browser should open and show samples. Is this not what you're seeing?

samples.PNG (146.33 KiB) Viewed 2184 times

[ab459]

WongoTheSane Oh really, i understood. Just, i meant dropdown list exactly thru synth UI, but really in RE it can has other solution, didn't think about it. (As well it seems it depends from checkbox setting "Load default sounds in new devices" in prefences). Ok i see.
But, i see that the user waves factory list is different (has different samples collection) in RE compared VST, not a big deal though, but it not mean that there is difference in factory presets quantity or other difference in presets ?

[MrBlue]

If there is not enough, you can look here: Clic !

[ab459]

MrBlue Oh my god. Frankly i already have a bunch of, but that collection impressive. (Though my question was not exactly due to deficit of samples, but thank you anyway, added to bookmarks).

[WongoTheSane]

Oh gotcha, sorry, I misunderstood your question! No, you can't show the samples as dropdown lists (because as you can use any sample on your hard disk, including your own, it has to have a navigation system, which would be hard to do in a dropdown).

All the samples used in the patches are available (and identical) in both VST and RE versions of Europa, so the patches themselves sound exactly the same. There seems to be a couple more wave files in the VST version but I they're not used in the patches themselves. But they are not located in the same place: in the VST version, they are in the "Samples" folder that's in the patches folder, while in the RE version, they're in the "Other Samples/Wavetables" folder inside the Factory Sound Bank.