Europa, just as cool as the Grain synthesizer!

[KirkMarkarian]

OK, I mentioned before how much I love the Grain synthesizer, so I began giving Europa a solid run-through of it's functions. Once again, blown away at the ease-of-use; the immediacy of the sounds I can create. Yes, I own Expanse and Zero. Both just beat the living daylights out of my CPU, and while I'm sure that it is quite possible to coax the sounds I'm getting out of Europa with Expanse, I'm just gelling better with Europa. I've been synthesizing sounds for about 20 years, it's not a new concept to me, but the layout of the synth - it just makes sense. Similar to Expanse, it somehow allows me to get to the point quicker. Combined with Grain and Parsec, I'm putting tracks out at lightning speed.

Europa alone can create an entire ambient track, although a hair sparse. The amount of modulation paired with the near endless amount of pad sounds I can pull from it - it's like being in a candy factory for me!

My only wish(es):
1. Let me run audio through it's processing chain?
2. Put these modulators on the Grain synth?

It's just too good of a synth for me to not use. It's replaced Thor for me, and the pads... Man, the pads I can make, all those sounds that I hear in the music I love, it's like being given a Ferrari. Here's a set of tracks I made with Europa, Grain, Parsec, and sometimes Kong. Lots of percussion comes from Grain processing my home-recorded tape hiss sounds, voices come from TTS.

[moneykube]

cool tune... which synths used?
zero and expanse beat up my cpu as well

[KirkMarkarian]

cool tune... which synths used?
zero and expanse beat up my cpu as well

Europa, Grain, Parsec, and sometimes Kong, mostly Europa and Grain.

[jayhosking]

I love Europa. And like you, there's something about the workflow of Europa that makes me reach for it for patch design sooner than I'd reach for eXpanse. That said, I love eXpanse and the things I can do with it, but when I want to whip up a patch from scratch, I've found Europa to be more approachable and the modifiers to be much more responsive.

Interestingly, it's almost the exact same thing that's happened for me with Grain, which has replaced Proton for generating sound ideas quickly.

[jayhosking]

Here's a set of tracks I made with Europa, Grain, Parsec, and sometimes Kong.

These sound really stellar, by the way. I'd love to see some of these Europa and Grain patches in Reason, if you wouldn't be averse to sharing them. I'm always curious as to how people build their sounds, and I'm only getting to know Europa and Grain still.

[moneykube]

very nice... sorry read to fast... you did say it lol ^^^^

[Voyager]

Europa is great indeed but as someone said already the gui is too agressive to the eye for my like, can be tiring..

[KirkMarkarian]

Europa is great indeed but as someone said already the gui is too agressive to the eye for my like, can be tiring..

I getcha - it's not too hard on my eyes, but I'm getting older and most things are getting duller! That being said, it couldn't hurt gathering an opinion of the group and asking for faceplate options. Also, if you're not glued to Reason, Bitwig has a really nice dark color scheme, as well as Sunvox.

[KirkMarkarian]

Here's a set of tracks I made with Europa, Grain, Parsec, and sometimes Kong.

These sound really stellar, by the way. I'd love to see some of these Europa and Grain patches in Reason, if you wouldn't be averse to sharing them. I'm always curious as to how people build their sounds, and I'm only getting to know Europa and Grain still.

I'll do 'ya one better. I'll give you a basic "how to". It'll be pretty simple, as I expect you to explore the sounds of the synth yourself

0. Reset the synth

1. Lay out an 8 bar single note in the sequencer and turn the BPM down

2. Starting with Engine 1, set the wave to FM Ratio 1:1, take the "Shape" knob and move it up to 12.5.

3. To the right of the "Shape" knob, you'll see the option to set the modulator. It'll be "ENV1", change it to "LFO1". Turn that value up to 25%

4. Go to LFO 1, turn on "Beat Sync", change it to "4 Bars".

5. Repeat this 2 more times with Engine 2, changing the LFO timing to 8 bars for LFO2

6. You should now have some timed "movement" going on in the sound area. Adjust the Shape and LFO -> Shape knobs to your liking

7. For Engine 3, we'll do a similar thing, but instead of using the LFO, we'll use ENV1. The ENV's are (to me, at least) mini-sequencers. I usually choose the preset with a reverse saw shape so I can flatten it out easily with no curves. The initial ENV1 will give you a curved line, so it's easier to just change the shape and then adjust for linearity.

8. You'll notice the ENV1 has a set of 16 steps, although it's quantization is for 64 steps. Do your best to make a set of triangle shapes that are of some sort of rhythmic pattern, like the teeth of an actual saw blade, adding pauses/rests where you see fit. Set ENV1 to Beat Sync, and choose 4/4

9. Going back to Engine 3, you may want to choose an oscillator type that gives you some sort of "soft noise" aspect, as it'll get kind of annoying if you're using an FM waveform, at least, not harmonically pleasing for a gentle pad. Taste is everything, though, and yours may vary. Using the ENV -> Shape knob, set it low so you'll get some sort of modulation happening; keeping it from being obtrusive.

10. At this point, you should have a nice, moving pad sound. Choose a chord structure and bliss out for a bit.

11. I've negated using rack effects for this and am using Europa's Reverb, Delay, and Phaser settings. Salt to taste.

12. That should give you a general idea of what to do, and I'll stop here. The rest of the modulators are just top notch, and you'll need to spend the time adjusting those (or not). I'm usually going for a sound with a vaporwave aspect, although space-ambient is pretty much right around the corner with chord structure. I am looking to see how far I can take the synth to being a complete track in and of itself. That's where your exploration of the modulators may come in handy - I'd spend the time seeing how much you can extract from the synth on it's own. The Unison portion of the synth does a lot to offer a wider set of movements.

[jayhosking]

I'll do 'ya one better. I'll give you a basic "how to". It'll be pretty simple, as I expect you to explore the sounds of the synth yourself

This is great. Thanks. I've been exploring the sounds of the synth aplenty (mine tend to veer more to analogue sounds with a gentle breaking-down aspect), but it's always fun to see how other people build sounds with the same tools. I'm going to recreate this now!