This month, Propellerhead Software announced they have exported their Europa synth – previously available as a proprietary part of Propellerhead’s flagship Reason – as a VST/AU plugin.
The decision raised a few eyebrows, as proprietary synths like Europa are one of the main “lock-ins” for DAWs – people are less likely to entertain the notion of switching to Pro Tools or Ableton, for instance, if they are going to have to scramble to find some familiar sounds and techniques for synthesizing them. You can sample a few of Europa’s sounds here:
… Or you can stop fucking around on Words With Friends and play with Europa directly in your browser. Propellerhead has also released a free web version which plays directly in Chrome, Firefox or your browser of choice. With obvious limitations, this is actually pretty addictive and gives you an idea of the kind of synthesis Europa is capable of.
The Europa plugin is free with Reason 10 (obviously), and available for $99 (34% off) until June 30 2018. Check it out at and click on “Launch Europa Player” for the web version.
