Hey guys, Wanted to do an update to my surge the movie video.... I felt it was warranted. I know this video is extremely long, I felt it was necessary to cover everything this synth can do. I've chaptered it to make it easier to skip to the parts you want. I do recommend watching the entire video though as there may be some things in there you weren't aware of, I certainly found some new things while preparing this video! :) Thank you for watching and please leave a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe for more! :D In a video this long i am bound to miss some details so I will list anything i missed that is picked up here. *in Modern oscillator - with right click options you can set Triangle to other waveforms and change it into sub oscillator mode too. - Evil Dragon As always thank you so much to my patrons, I will have some extra surge sound design content for you guys soon... I'm working on it now
I have a dumb question. How do we actually play notes on the synth? You seem to have it so you computer keyboard can play notes or something. I can't get surge to play notes for the life of me.
@@MrMultiMediat0r in many daws you can play by computer keyboard / you can search if you can do this in lmms as well / other way is to use midi keyboard , or use another daw
Ironically, I actually started the video, then installed Surge XT and played with it, made a patch and figured out pretty much everything without watching. It has a UI that can be explained very quickly to a experienced synthesist. But then, I've programmed my own softsynth engines, so I probably know more than most ;) With the XT additions, Surge ranks among the most comprehensive "desert island" synths. It's almost easier to talk about what's missing than what's present. Pretty much everything in the gamut of standard synth timbres is possible, some of the most common ones often have a dedicated oscillator engine in "Twist", you can do modulations from the simplest envelope up to "code a procedurally generated sequence in a formula LFO and control it with MPE", and you can also do the entire FX chain on top of that. Your DAW could "plug in" to a complex Surge patch and just be used to trigger scenes and move macro knobs. It's not a multi-sampler, and it doesn't have complex physical modelling like e.g. Pianoteq or the AAS plug-ins, or complex additive synthesis like Harmour. It could always have more filter or FX modes. But it already covers so much that you'll never run out of sounds.
One of the most comprehensive, yet easy to follow overviews of any synth I've seen on youtube. I've been a little intimidated by this synth up til now. I 'm ready to dig into it.Thank you.
Fantastic walkthrough. Should probably be mentioned that it now has the Eurorack modules Clouds and Plaits included as fx & oscillators. Kind of a big deal for some.
@@alefnull For Plaits go to the oscillator section and next to the octaves it says Classic, click that and choose String or Twist (I think String is Rings and Twist is Plaits). Clouds is in the FX section as Nimbus.
@@alefnull Twist also has a Granular Cloud engine type letting you detune note grains and adjust how long they are; (a bit like FFT smearing, but now per note).
This is one very cool synth. I was able to make it actually count from 0 to 10 in the vowel/speech engine oscillator! And you've produced a great tutorial thanks a lot!
for someone who learns a lot through videos, this is the most informative and comprehensive single video I have ever watched. I started out as someone who knew nothing about synths and by the end not only do I understand Surge XT, I also feel I now know the basics of a synth. Thank you for this brilliant effort.
Great overview! You have sadly missed the right-click options in Modern oscillator - you can set Triangle to other waveforms and change it into sub oscillator mode too. :)
Yeah fantastic and super useful video, but for some reason it's in mono. Anyway, still a reference that was super helpful for me. We are so lucky to have this incredible synth for free. No excuses anymore !
There's also accessibility built into plug-in courtesy of Juce. Meaning those of us living in darkness, lol, can tab/click the ui like everyone else does?
@@lolilollolilol7773 BTW, Choose Stereo or Wide as your Filter Configurationd. Do Not Leave a scene's (A or B) Width control in the center. It Must Either Be at the Top (normal width) or Bottom (reverse width).
Thanks a lot for this goldmine of informations. Surge is a hell of a synth, simply one of the best on the market, perheape THE one, and the fact that it's totally free is just fabulous. This new XT extension brings it to another level of epicness !
All the better reason you should have a MIDI controller while playing with this synth? Say, something like Novation LaunchKey or Nektar Impact LX+ series.
Wow, absolutely EPIC Thanks 4 putting this together ! Man, I think surgeXT has 95% of all the functions possible in a synth. Anyone disagree ? I can only think of granular , samples , & wavetable editor off the top of my head
Did someone say samples? SST (SurgeSynthTeam) is carefully working on a sampler (ShortCircuitXT)... Just as SurgeXT it will be in Juce, so totally accessible to little blind brats (like me) and all the things you'd be wanting to do in a sampler you'll be able to do with ShortCircuitXT!
Very kind of you to put even more time into updating this tutorial. This is extremely useful. Looking forward to composing with this new XT version. Much appreciated! Salud, Mr. G!
I've never used a synthesizer in my life before. But literally... for someone who has never used one before... this is a monster hahaha. I'm amazed by how many buttons there are. You could create anything you want with this if you understand how it works. I'm a noob so it's hard for me but with just playing around with it I'll get a long way.
My fave things so far are waveshaping and key-track filtering. Does very twisted things to sounds depending on the Filter Configuration and the Type/Sub adjustments. Then toss in a splashing of linked resonance... Wow?
A fortnight may be all you need to make peace (or war) with Surge. While I'm at it, unison note... Use odd-numbered voice counts to keep at least one voice always in the center at the root note (minimum of 3, maximum of 15)!
And LFO? That's just simply... sick? Especially when any parameter can be modded by another one? KeyTrack the LFO rate? or possibly KeyTrack the Deformation slider? That can be done.
Thank you for this! I learned so much, in a much more engaging format than reading the manual. It's a crash course that goes surprisingly deep. I feel like the control surface no longer is full of mystery, just an endless supply of awesome possibilities.
Somebody has probably mentioned it already, but the Twist oscillator mode is indeed taken from something, in that case an Eurorack module (Mutable Instruments Plaits).
You are awesome. :D Was wondering if you'd do the XT edition and was not disappointed. Great work and detailed walkthrough as always. Surge is really becoming a powerhouse! Cheers
I was floored the minute I saw Waldorf wavetables. This thing is a monster and I thank you for explaining everything. I plan on mastering this synth to understand and improve in synthesis overall
Master? This thing? A night's gonna come where you hear a sound in a dream you swear you never heard before and you'll run to your computer to hope to - actually try - pulling it off?
Almost - did... A Discord friend of mine had a generic edition of Yamaha's XG MIDI "StarDust" patch; The dream gave me clarity to white-wash it in the AirWindows>Galactic reverb effect. I ended up layering it two to three times, yet changing the chorus rate on each one to be a tiny bit faster then the previous one. I also tweaked some filters, key-tracked them and added wave shaping to the mix to get what I really wanted.
The Window-thing looks and sounds kind of like what Bazille's Fractalize-thing do, this is the first time I see that Fractilize-thing in a plugin other than Bazille, it kind of Sync-ish sounding but still a different flavor, which I think is nice.
Excellent work man, thank you. How in the living blazes the Surge team have given this to us for free is incomprehensible. I have a good few very decent paid synths but at just under an hour and a half in on this video and I have already had quite a number of WTF moments. A getter and keeper undoubtedly. Top stuff all round.
I started with a korg minilogue, then moved to vital, now learning this, it feels like every step has been exponentially more sound possibilities. I cant even fathom how far the rabbitthole of sound goes.
Very helpful! Just started out with using synths. Although the UI is self explanatory (for an electrical engineer anyway), this video covers everything that would otherwise take so much time to figure out. Thanks for taking the effort to make it!
Hi. I just stumbled across Surge XT yesterday. After installing it I was really impressed, -and a little intimidated as well. After watching your video I'm even more impressed but not as intimidated. Thank you for taking the time and energy to help other people finding their way around this amazing piece of free software. I really appreciate it. 🙌
Very good and clear walkthrough! Its unfortunte that (at 22:00) the waveform display doesn't show the modulation of the wave, so _what you see_ is no longer _what you hear_ as soon as you use LFOs, etc. But surge seems so mighty, that I still want to continue watching/learning.
As far as I can see, there is still no stereo spread or width parameter for unison voices. The unison is mono. The addition of this feature, which is commonplace in modern soft synths, has been delayed for over 4 years.
Unison is stereo for only LR filter configs. (Stereo, Wide). Even then, the scene's Width control Can Not Be Left at the Center. Then it's all mono. Try putting Width at the top (or bottom) for reverse stereo.
Thank you for these videos, man!! I've watched the previous surge video/movie, and I'm watching this one from start to finish because I think they are super interesting. I like the way you explain things
Thanks a lot for your effort!!! Great introduction in SURGE XT... helps me (as an absolute beginner) much understanding this great plugin and synths in general... 🙏🚀
The Almighty Emperor of Freeware Synths. The features set is frankly insane, unbeliavable, and you can spend a lifetime creating new sounds every hour of a day (also avoiding the import of new waves). With the massive voice stack and detune for each oscillator, and two layers, immensely fat pads, textures etc are easy to create. The modulation options are insane too, with tons of highly configurable LFOs/MSEGs/Step Seqs etc. And all of this is freeware, high quality and very CPU efficient. Totally overkill. The only (light) downside are the effects (imho) : lots of them are far from top notch, and act weird, with confusing controls (no big deal... I use external effects and I am done).
Roger Linn sent me here (indirectly) :) I have a Linnstrument and I'm looking forward to trying Surge in MPE mode with that. Thank you, this was a really comprehensive video! I have just a handful of extra questions, but I'll check out the manual.
I have to say tht I have been trying different daws and instruments for some time now and also mainly on linux but couldny get this to load on my latest distro. I finally went back to an old windows laptop and managed to load it straight away onto my waveform daw. Convinced I now need very little else to have a full working setup. Half way through watching this but thanks again.
@@GarronsMusic BaconPaul and a few others contribute regular patches to SurgeXT; They've also got a Discord server should you be interested. For anyone curious enough to dare doing it, drop your patch offering/s in the "Surge Content Sharing room. If your patch is shockingly out-of-box enough, it just may be plucked into a future release?
Oh, man! I'm not new to synths by a long shot but this one has been difficult for me to get my head around. I tried simple things and getting a good sound is definitely not an automatic thing like my analog synths or even my digital hardware. This video has totally opened this up for me. I'm watching the part on the effects now and hoping you go into the macros and assignments for LFOs and the like next. I love the flexibility of a good routing matrix but this synth is wildly overcomplete and beefy without even going there, I'm stunned. Thanks for a great video! Watching it in bytes when I'm not in the studio or teaching music.
Thanks to you and Venus Theory, I'm gonna save a lot of $! I was planning on buying a Hydrasynth Explorer, but Surge XT does even more! I just like creating sounds. (Bought a really nice laptop with 16 gigs of RAM for cheap. Surge runs smooth on it.) Thanks so much!
Thanks for the video, man, I'm starting on sound design and this is extra helpful. I just realized that I don't need to buy any of those riser VSTs to have a riser that adapts to the song's timing because I can just time anything musically on Surge, just set the amp to immediate attack, full sustain and immediate release and LFO the gain to a musically timed saw shape(deformed to a smoothed curve I stead of the linear) on inverse motion. I guess you saved me some bucks so take my like and sub.
"OK! WE FINISHED THE MULTI SEGMENT ENVELOPE! ANYONE CAN DO ANY SHAPE THEY CAN IMAGINE!" "but wouldnt it be really cool if you could code shapes?" "shit you're right" - surge hq probably
This video was very helpful, as I have just downloaded this synth to my computer. As I watched, I was amazed at the power of this synth. Thanks for making this video!
The only thing Ive been having problems with so far (other than the wave shaper type menu not staying open) is the MPE aftertouch setting is just way too sensitive with my controllers and midi keyboards. I cant figure out how to turn down the sensitivity and even when I barely press a key or pad it just uncontrollably cycles through like 9 or waves at once at a very rapid pace like a second or something. I tried uninstalling reinstalling but it’s still going crazy . It’s actually better for me when I disable after touch on my controllers because that way it at least stays on one wave shape instead of going crazy hyper cycle mode.
First of all, wow you know your synth inside out. Second to that you did a great explanation of the layout of it. I'm around lower intermediate level of understanding synthesis and sound design. I prefer to tweak a preset. I thought Dune 3 was hard to get my head around. It's my favourite synth to use and the fx's in the synth sound great. Would I right in saying that Surge has pretty much every synth going in one plugin? I never seem so much going on in one synth. I will watch this tutorial again and then think about downloading it. As a rule I don't like having too many plugins & synths to learn. I prefer to get what I can out of what I have, understand it better. I didn't download Vital for that reason. I want to have something I already understand and can work with.
You'll actually be getting two (2) VST's: the SurgeXT synth itself (one ridiculously sick synth) and the SurgeXT Effects StandAlone Vst (one ridiculous effect rack for audio torturing in/out of SurgeXT).
@@BlindLibrary I don't know about the FX part to it. I'm watching this tutorial through again. I'm surprised how well thought out it is. Far too advanced for someone like myself b ut I can learn slowly I guess. My favourite sounding synth is Dune3. Surge looks like it outclasses even that synth
In that case, You'll definitely be enjoying SurgeXT then. There's a lot to swallow, but try taking it in small bites at a time. Play with one feature now and another later. Say, osc unison or wave shaping (don't touch the filters yet) now and then filter key-tracking later on. And if you're really adventurous, apply an LFO to a patch and make it so that the higher the note, the faster the LFO rate? Then if you're feeling froggy, apply the two features together. That's when synthesis gets awesomely sick!
@@polznbladz3242 I don't think you can do multiple fx slots (send, insert, global) in the audio version like you can in the synth version. I'll have to ape with that though.
You are so knowledgeable that I'm reluctant to ask you a very basic question. But here goes... Some of the patches are very quiet, and the global output slider isn't working for me. Other patches are very loud. Do you think there might be something very simple that I need to do to fix it, and especially how to make volume louder? Thanks for your effort in making this tutorial.
well, as an owner of serum, and a lover of surge, the difference isn't the sound (surge is actually warmer, and that's personal taste pref.) but it's the interface. serum is waaaaay easier to use than surge's interface, i like both, personally. i rented to own serum,, through splice, bth , for ten bucks a month...
So I downloaded surge xt and I was like... huh... I cant really figure out what most of this even does. Well... with a plugin this big, there is probably going to be dedicated tutorials. This shouldn't take to long.... *type type type* YO WHAT THE DUCK I mean... shit, I'll watch it. Thanks for making it. For real.
Thanks for making this video, which really helped a lot. Love the accent too. On another note, I've never understood the need to categorize 3rd party patches per author. If I need a bass sound that is not in the factory patches I need to wade through all the 3rd party names to find one.
Dude kinda did the cardinal sin: a retrospective deep dive onto a product, but did not leave a link to said product in the descrition. Good job showcasing tho.
wow what a brilliant presentation. Thanks again - I finally found a great vst that does it all. Heading to your track put together. Can you point me to the putting it together as a song etc. Had a look on your site but cant see which one it is.
Hey guys,
Wanted to do an update to my surge the movie video.... I felt it was warranted.
I know this video is extremely long, I felt it was necessary to cover everything this synth can do. I've chaptered it to make it easier to skip to the parts you want. I do recommend watching the entire video though as there may be some things in there you weren't aware of, I certainly found some new things while preparing this video! :)
Thank you for watching and please leave a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe for more! :D
In a video this long i am bound to miss some details so I will list anything i missed that is picked up here.
*in Modern oscillator - with right click options you can set Triangle to other waveforms and change it into sub oscillator mode too. - Evil Dragon
As always thank you so much to my patrons, I will have some extra surge sound design content for you guys soon... I'm working on it now
I have a dumb question. How do we actually play notes on the synth? You seem to have it so you computer keyboard can play notes or something. I can't get surge to play notes for the life of me.
@@MrMultiMediat0r what DAW are you using?
@@inn5268 LMMS. I've also tried using the synth standalone
@@MrMultiMediat0r in many daws you can play by computer keyboard / you can search if you can do this in lmms as well / other way is to use midi keyboard , or use another daw
Can you do tutorial on Cardinal sir
This synth and its funcionalities should be taught in every electronic music school/academy
Thank you for putting in the effort to do this twice. That's some real love and dedication to the craft. 🌻
Thank you 😃
Ironically, I actually started the video, then installed Surge XT and played with it, made a patch and figured out pretty much everything without watching. It has a UI that can be explained very quickly to a experienced synthesist. But then, I've programmed my own softsynth engines, so I probably know more than most ;)
With the XT additions, Surge ranks among the most comprehensive "desert island" synths. It's almost easier to talk about what's missing than what's present. Pretty much everything in the gamut of standard synth timbres is possible, some of the most common ones often have a dedicated oscillator engine in "Twist", you can do modulations from the simplest envelope up to "code a procedurally generated sequence in a formula LFO and control it with MPE", and you can also do the entire FX chain on top of that. Your DAW could "plug in" to a complex Surge patch and just be used to trigger scenes and move macro knobs.
It's not a multi-sampler, and it doesn't have complex physical modelling like e.g. Pianoteq or the AAS plug-ins, or complex additive synthesis like Harmour. It could always have more filter or FX modes. But it already covers so much that you'll never run out of sounds.
1:42:20 that is so beautiful 😭
Then to go from that to complete harsh noise,
SXT will definitely do it!
One of the most comprehensive, yet easy to follow overviews of any synth I've seen on youtube. I've been a little intimidated by this synth up til now. I 'm ready to dig into it.Thank you.
You're going to seriously enjoy this beast?
from the softest fantasies to the harshest of noise, SXT does it all!
Fantastic walkthrough. Should probably be mentioned that it now has the Eurorack modules Clouds and Plaits included as fx & oscillators. Kind of a big deal for some.
really? where can i find these modes? i've been searching all over the plugin and can't see them anywhere.
@@alefnull For Plaits go to the oscillator section and next to the octaves it says Classic, click that and choose String or Twist (I think String is Rings and Twist is Plaits). Clouds is in the FX section as Nimbus.
@@frakfeem ahh thank you. i was looking for them by name.
@@alefnull Twist also has a Granular Cloud engine type letting you detune note grains and adjust how long they are;
(a bit like FFT smearing, but now per note).
Rings is the inspiration behind Twist's ModalResonator.
From innocent metal to schoolbells to carillion bells, you're covered here.
I ran my guitar into my DAW and used the Surge ring mod effect and WOW!
The "Twist" OSC is based on Mutable Instruments "Plaits".
Got surge yesterday, looked very intimidating but now I feel I know how it's structured. Thank you!
I can't believe the "Follow me I'm delicious" guy has such synth knowledge. This is amazing.
As a complete noob I massively appreciate the effort that has gone into this video. Fantastic. Every section is a rabbit hole!
This is one very cool synth. I was able to make it actually count from 0 to 10 in the vowel/speech engine oscillator! And you've produced a great tutorial thanks a lot!
for someone who learns a lot through videos, this is the most informative and comprehensive single video I have ever watched. I started out as someone who knew nothing about synths and by the end not only do I understand Surge XT, I also feel I now know the basics of a synth. Thank you for this brilliant effort.
Great overview! You have sadly missed the right-click options in Modern oscillator - you can set Triangle to other waveforms and change it into sub oscillator mode too. :)
Awwwhhh dammnnn I knew I’d miss something 😂
Yeah fantastic and super useful video, but for some reason it's in mono. Anyway, still a reference that was super helpful for me. We are so lucky to have this incredible synth for free. No excuses anymore !
@@lolilollolilol7773 Make sure you use one of the stereo filter configurations :)
There's also accessibility built into plug-in courtesy of Juce.
Meaning those of us living in darkness, lol, can tab/click the ui like everyone else does?
@@lolilollolilol7773 BTW, Choose Stereo or Wide as your Filter Configurationd.
Do Not Leave a scene's (A or B) Width control in the center.
It Must Either Be at the Top (normal width)
or Bottom (reverse width).
Thanks a lot for this goldmine of informations. Surge is a hell of a synth, simply one of the best on the market, perheape THE one, and the fact that it's totally free is just fabulous. This new XT extension brings it to another level of epicness !
Surge XT is unbelievable. You could just use it by itself forever!
All the better reason you should have a MIDI controller while playing with this synth?
Say, something like Novation LaunchKey or Nektar Impact LX+ series.
Wow, absolutely EPIC
Thanks 4 putting this together !
Man, I think surgeXT has 95% of all the functions possible in a synth. Anyone disagree ? I can only think of granular , samples , & wavetable editor off the top of my head
Did someone say samples?
SST (SurgeSynthTeam) is carefully working on a sampler
(ShortCircuitXT)...
Just as SurgeXT it will be in Juce, so totally accessible to little blind brats (like me)
and all the things you'd be wanting to do in a sampler you'll be able to do with ShortCircuitXT!
I appreciate that in all your talking about things, you're not cussing and swearing. It's clean. Again, I appreciate it.
Amazing, and somehow even better than the last one. Well done! 🙂👍
🙏
Very kind of you to put even more time into updating this tutorial. This is extremely useful. Looking forward to composing with this new XT version. Much appreciated! Salud, Mr. G!
So glad you found it helpful! Thank you 😃
I've never used a synthesizer in my life before. But literally... for someone who has never used one before... this is a monster hahaha. I'm amazed by how many buttons there are. You could create anything you want with this if you understand how it works. I'm a noob so it's hard for me but with just playing around with it I'll get a long way.
Same here. The only one I've ever used is the stock synth in Waveform 11 and that's simple compared to surge 🥲
Peaceful monster - or war room monster;
Take your pick...
It's taken me 2 weeks, but I've finally managed to watch it all. Thanks for the tutorial - I actually learned some stuff!
Thank you! I’m glad it was helpful!!
My fave things so far are waveshaping and key-track filtering.
Does very twisted things to sounds depending on the Filter Configuration and the Type/Sub adjustments.
Then toss in a splashing of linked resonance...
Wow?
A fortnight may be all you need to make peace (or war) with Surge.
While I'm at it, unison note...
Use odd-numbered voice counts to keep at least one voice always in the center at the root note
(minimum of 3, maximum of 15)!
And LFO?
That's just simply...
sick?
Especially when any parameter can be modded by another one?
KeyTrack the LFO rate?
or possibly KeyTrack the Deformation slider?
That can be done.
Oh and I think hour showing all these stuff around in Surge XT was really great!
Thank you for this! I learned so much, in a much more engaging format than reading the manual. It's a crash course that goes surprisingly deep. I feel like the control surface no longer is full of mystery, just an endless supply of awesome possibilities.
Somebody has probably mentioned it already, but the Twist oscillator mode is indeed taken from something, in that case an Eurorack module (Mutable Instruments Plaits).
If I remember right, the "Modal Resonator" engine (that can be chosen under the "Twist" oscillator type) is paying omage to the Rings hardware module.
You're awesome! Thank you for all your sound design videos.
Thanks for watching 😃
You are awesome. :D Was wondering if you'd do the XT edition and was not disappointed.
Great work and detailed walkthrough as always.
Surge is really becoming a powerhouse!
Cheers
Thank you! Glad you found the videos helpful!
Surge is epic!
I'd say SurgeXT's putting a lot of other synths on notice...
I was floored the minute I saw Waldorf wavetables. This thing is a monster and I thank you for explaining everything. I plan on mastering this synth to understand and improve in synthesis overall
Master? This thing?
A night's gonna come where you hear a sound in a dream you swear you never heard before and you'll run to your computer to hope to - actually try - pulling it off?
@@BlindLibrary 😯 That's some Stevie Wonder stuff. ✨ Has it happened for you yet?
Almost - did...
A Discord friend of mine had a generic edition of Yamaha's XG MIDI "StarDust" patch;
The dream gave me clarity to white-wash it in the AirWindows>Galactic reverb effect.
I ended up layering it two to three times,
yet changing the chorus rate on each one to be a tiny bit faster then the previous one.
I also tweaked some filters, key-tracked them and added wave shaping to the mix to get what I really wanted.
@@BlindLibrary Nah, I try and stick to my own sounds.
The Window-thing looks and sounds kind of like what Bazille's Fractalize-thing do, this is the first time I see that Fractilize-thing in a plugin other than Bazille, it kind of Sync-ish sounding but still a different flavor, which I think is nice.
Oooooo I remember Bazille.
I was using the beta for the longest time xD
Ended up picking up Cardinal to get my free modular synth fix
Excellent work man, thank you. How in the living blazes the Surge team have given this to us for free is incomprehensible. I have a good few very decent paid synths but at just under an hour and a half in on this video and I have already had quite a number of WTF moments. A getter and keeper undoubtedly. Top stuff all round.
I started with a korg minilogue, then moved to vital, now learning this, it feels like every step has been exponentially more sound possibilities. I cant even fathom how far the rabbitthole of sound goes.
Best synthesizer movie I've watched. Thank you!
Very helpful! Just started out with using synths. Although the UI is self explanatory (for an electrical engineer anyway), this video covers everything that would otherwise take so much time to figure out. Thanks for taking the effort to make it!
Thanks Garron again for this video. It is comparable to a college degree. I have learnt a lot. Cheers
I’m so glad to hear that!
Thank you!
Don't feel bad.
YOu won't need the college degree (or high school diploma) for this.
If it sounds good to your ear it's a definite like.
Hi. I just stumbled across Surge XT yesterday. After installing it I was really impressed, -and a little intimidated as well. After watching your video I'm even more impressed but not as intimidated. Thank you for taking the time and energy to help other people finding their way around this amazing piece of free software. I really appreciate it. 🙌
❤️
This synth will take time to swallow.
Mind blowing this exists at all.
Thanks for the video. The LFOs now have separately addressable outputs for the entire modulator, the raw shape, and just the EG.
I can't thank you enough. This video got me going with programming my own sounds and actually understanding what I was doing
Great video! I have been using Surge with VCV Rack for about a year and love the modules but this is a gamechanger! Awesome1
thank you for sharing this! Best synth movie I've ever seen 😃👍
Thank you very much for the second installment! 🙏 Haven’t had time to watch this one yet but soon yay.
Finally, watched! Thanks again!
@@05degrees Small warning:
You're gonna get lost in the noise of what you create in SurgeXT...
Excellent and very informative video, thank you for creating and sharing it!
Perfectly explained, I don't even think I had any doubts, awesome job making this video!
Very good and clear walkthrough!
Its unfortunte that (at 22:00) the waveform display doesn't show the modulation of the wave, so _what you see_ is no longer _what you hear_ as soon as you use LFOs, etc.
But surge seems so mighty, that I still want to continue watching/learning.
As far as I can see, there is still no stereo spread or width parameter for unison voices. The unison is mono. The addition of this feature, which is commonplace in modern soft synths, has been delayed for over 4 years.
Unison is not mono, please watch the filter routing section where I explain how the filter routing interacts with the master width control
I'd like to see the individual strings in the
"String" oscillator type be able to be panned left or right?
That's gonna "Wide"-en the filter a lot?
Unison is stereo for only LR filter configs.
(Stereo, Wide).
Even then, the scene's Width control Can Not Be Left at the Center.
Then it's all mono.
Try putting Width at the top (or bottom) for reverse stereo.
Thank you for these videos, man!! I've watched the previous surge video/movie, and I'm watching this one from start to finish because I think they are super interesting. I like the way you explain things
Thank you so much! So glad to hear that!
Amazinggggg thanks so much for this ♥️🐈⬛🎶
🤘🍀
Best Synth tutorial ever!
This soft synth is together with vital a real synth-marketplace-crusher... - Thanks for this most complete tutorial. cheers*
Thanks a lot for your effort!!! Great introduction in SURGE XT... helps me (as an absolute beginner) much understanding this great plugin and synths in general... 🙏🚀
"i'm not the man they think I am back home;
oh no no no;
I'm a RocketMan"
Elton John
The Almighty Emperor of Freeware Synths. The features set is frankly insane, unbeliavable, and you can spend a lifetime creating new sounds every hour of a day (also avoiding the import of new waves). With the massive voice stack and detune for each oscillator, and two layers, immensely fat pads, textures etc are easy to create. The modulation options are insane too, with tons of highly configurable LFOs/MSEGs/Step Seqs etc. And all of this is freeware, high quality and very CPU efficient. Totally overkill. The only (light) downside are the effects (imho) : lots of them are far from top notch, and act weird, with confusing controls (no big deal... I use external effects and I am done).
Thank you for this. I love your dedication.
Roger Linn sent me here (indirectly) :) I have a Linnstrument and I'm looking forward to trying Surge in MPE mode with that. Thank you, this was a really comprehensive video! I have just a handful of extra questions, but I'll check out the manual.
Manual should have you covered.
Otherwise me and other Discordians on the SurgeSynthTeam server can help you become a...
SurgeonXT!
Excellent tutorial / walkthrough! Thanks.
I have to say tht I have been trying different daws and instruments for some time now and also mainly on linux but couldny get this to load on my latest distro. I finally went back to an old windows laptop and managed to load it straight away onto my waveform daw. Convinced I now need very little else to have a full working setup. Half way through watching this but thanks again.
What an amazingly comprehensive video. Thank you!
Thanks so much! 🙏
@@GarronsMusic BaconPaul and a few others contribute regular patches to SurgeXT;
They've also got a Discord server should you be interested.
For anyone curious enough to dare doing it,
drop your patch offering/s in the "Surge Content Sharing room.
If your patch is shockingly out-of-box enough, it just may be plucked into a future release?
If you don't mind a moving day in the caves or a plinking moving pad, BP's got you covered.
Although as it now,
the patch library for Surge at installation's just insane;
Something on the order of 3000+ patches from all sorts of people?
Thanks to Surge XT, I turned my wife's Casio CTK-710 into a Moog!
yuuuuuup garronnnnnnn been trying to get my head around surge, looked up a tutorial and its my fellow fenian, its a rarity
Oh, man! I'm not new to synths by a long shot but this one has been difficult for me to get my head around. I tried simple things and getting a good sound is definitely not an automatic thing like my analog synths or even my digital hardware. This video has totally opened this up for me. I'm watching the part on the effects now and hoping you go into the macros and assignments for LFOs and the like next. I love the flexibility of a good routing matrix but this synth is wildly overcomplete and beefy without even going there, I'm stunned. Thanks for a great video! Watching it in bytes when I'm not in the studio or teaching music.
The MPE is a riot with a Jamstick Studio midi guitar.😁🎵🎸🎹🎶Play On
This is a great free synth, just as good as Vital
Thanks to you and Venus Theory, I'm gonna save a lot of $! I was planning on buying a Hydrasynth Explorer, but Surge XT does even more! I just like creating sounds. (Bought a really nice laptop with 16 gigs of RAM for cheap. Surge runs smooth on it.) Thanks so much!
Thank you for the video, very helpful!
Thanks for the video, man, I'm starting on sound design and this is extra helpful. I just realized that I don't need to buy any of those riser VSTs to have a riser that adapts to the song's timing because I can just time anything musically on Surge, just set the amp to immediate attack, full sustain and immediate release and LFO the gain to a musically timed saw shape(deformed to a smoothed curve I stead of the linear) on inverse motion. I guess you saved me some bucks so take my like and sub.
Saw both your Surge movies which are simply amazing!
Can we do an ODIN II, ANTHOLOGY movie next? 😅
Oh wow Am really
impressed by this
Thanks alot man
Just getting into sound design and this had helped alot
"OK! WE FINISHED THE MULTI SEGMENT ENVELOPE! ANYONE CAN DO ANY SHAPE THEY CAN IMAGINE!" "but wouldnt it be really cool if you could code shapes?" "shit you're right" - surge hq probably
This video was very helpful, as I have just downloaded this synth to my computer. As I watched, I was amazed at the power of this synth. Thanks for making this video!
Вот это да!
Огромное спасибо за видео, колоссальная работа!
I just downloaded this and im a complete noob so i was very lost haha u saved me thank u so muuuch
Fantastically clear and informative. Thank-you!
It's became my favourite synth VST. The only feature I miss is modulation of the filter cutoff frequency by one of the audio oscillators. Filter FM.
Excellent video, recommended it to my friends
Great channel in general!
The only thing Ive been having problems with so far (other than the wave shaper type menu not staying open) is the MPE aftertouch setting is just way too sensitive with my controllers and midi keyboards. I cant figure out how to turn down the sensitivity and even when I barely press a key or pad it just uncontrollably cycles through like 9 or waves at once at a very rapid pace like a second or something. I tried uninstalling reinstalling but it’s still going crazy . It’s actually better for me when I disable after touch on my controllers because that way it at least stays on one wave shape instead of going crazy hyper cycle mode.
First of all, wow you know your synth inside out. Second to that you did a great explanation of the layout of it. I'm around lower intermediate level of understanding synthesis and sound design. I prefer to tweak a preset. I thought Dune 3 was hard to get my head around. It's my favourite synth to use and the fx's in the synth sound great. Would I right in saying that Surge has pretty much every synth going in one plugin? I never seem so much going on in one synth. I will watch this tutorial again and then think about downloading it. As a rule I don't like having too many plugins & synths to learn. I prefer to get what I can out of what I have, understand it better. I didn't download Vital for that reason. I want to have something I already understand and can work with.
You'll actually be getting two (2) VST's:
the SurgeXT synth itself (one ridiculously sick synth)
and the
SurgeXT Effects StandAlone Vst (one ridiculous effect rack for audio torturing in/out of SurgeXT).
@@BlindLibrary I don't know about the FX part to it. I'm watching this tutorial through again. I'm surprised how well thought out it is. Far too advanced for someone like myself b ut I can learn slowly I guess. My favourite sounding synth is Dune3. Surge looks like it outclasses even that synth
In that case,
You'll definitely be enjoying SurgeXT then.
There's a lot to swallow,
but try taking it in small bites at a time.
Play with one feature now and another later.
Say, osc unison or wave shaping (don't touch the filters yet) now and then filter key-tracking later on.
And if you're really adventurous, apply an LFO to a patch and make it so that the higher the note, the faster the LFO rate?
Then if you're feeling froggy, apply the two features together.
That's when synthesis gets awesomely sick!
@@polznbladz3242
I don't think you can do multiple fx slots (send, insert, global) in the audio version like you can in the synth version.
I'll have to ape with that though.
Get what you can out of what you have.
Set aside the rest of your life then, lol...
thank you so much!! now it’ll get way easier to engineer my own sounds/instruments in surge 🙃
45:40 DEFENDER!
Wow amazing tutorial thank you! 😍
Surge XT is the only synth you need.
You are so knowledgeable that I'm reluctant to ask you a very basic question. But here goes... Some of the patches are very quiet, and the global output slider isn't working for me. Other patches are very loud.
Do you think there might be something very simple that I need to do to fix it, and especially how to make volume louder? Thanks for your effort in making this tutorial.
Excellent show and tell video
After installing surge i realized how powerfull vst it is and its suprisingly free. I don't understand how serum costs 200$ and this one is free
well, as an owner of serum, and a lover of surge, the difference isn't the sound (surge is actually warmer, and that's personal taste pref.) but it's the interface. serum is waaaaay easier to use than surge's interface, i like both, personally. i rented to own serum,, through splice, bth , for ten bucks a month...
@@jimmythebold589 Of course serum has a user-friendly interface and functionally more advanced but SURGE is FREE :) .
lá fhéile Pádraig sona :) Thanks for putting this up and taking the time.
best movie remake !
Surge also has modules for vcvrack.
So I downloaded surge xt and I was like... huh... I cant really figure out what most of this even does. Well... with a plugin this big, there is probably going to be dedicated tutorials. This shouldn't take to long....
*type type type*
YO WHAT THE DUCK
I mean... shit, I'll watch it. Thanks for making it. For real.
Thanks for making this video, which really helped a lot. Love the accent too.
On another note, I've never understood the need to categorize 3rd party patches per author. If I need a bass sound that is not in the factory patches I need to wade through all the 3rd party names to find one.
Thats the best tutorial Imhaver seen! Thank You.
Alwayz was interested in microtuning.I would appreciate a video on tuning in SurgeXT...
doing god's work
Dude kinda did the cardinal sin: a retrospective deep dive onto a product, but did not leave a link to said product in the descrition. Good job showcasing tho.
Very big heartedly thanks for your effort
dude, holy shit, thank you
Thanks, That is so great !!
Really thorough and useful walk-through but the constant wild flicking of the cursor around the screen gave me a headache....
Great video man! Cheers! :)
Thank you 😃
this is amazing
wow what a brilliant presentation. Thanks again - I finally found a great vst that does it all. Heading to your track put together. Can you point me to the putting it together as a song etc. Had a look on your site but cant see which one it is.
Many thanks for this
Excellent walk-through, thanks!