Wavetable synthesis with Europa

Version 10 welcomes this charming, animated synth into Reason’s orbit. Here’s how to get the most from it

01 > Start Europa up on an Initialised patch. At the top-left, only Engine I is on. We’ll keep it that way. In the Wave section, browse the dropdown menu of waves and turn the Shape knob to see how the sound morphs through the types of wave.

02 > Let’s get an LFO involved. In the matrix, there’s a Source set up for LFO 2. Set that row’s Destination to Engine 1 >> Shape, and turn the Amount dial up to 100. Now mess with LFO 2 itself to modulate Engine 1’s Shape.

03 > The Modifier selectors in each engine are mostly made up of distortion processes, but there are some Unison treatments in there too. The effect of whatever you do here is reflected in the waveform graphic to the left.

04 > The Spectral Filter is a digital processor, and you get one for each Engine. The Harmonics function changes the filter’s response in more interesting, musical ways. The Unison section lets you thicken the engine’s sound in a number of ways for a unique spread.

05 > And that’s just the sound of one Engine! There are two more to set up, and the three can be mixed, levelled and panned before being put through filter and amp envelope stages.

06 Europa has some interesting modulation Sources: Random assigns a new value with every note; MW and CV Latched sample the value of the mod wheel or a CV input when a note is played; and other options include Envelope and LFO signals multiplied together.