Surge Synth Team

A very versatile and great-sounding synthesizer. It features multiple synthesis engines and unlimited modulation possibilities. Creating a sound library with it is a never-ending, fascinating adventure. I've tried countless synthesizers, but each one lacked something: effects, a pleasing tone, or stability. Surge XT has all this and more (suffice it to say that there are nearly 30 effect types, including about 60 reverbs alone). It's a powerful tool that reveals new possibilities even after many months of use. I rate it higher than Vital because, firstly, it's much gentler on my CPU, and secondly, it's still being developed (convolution reverb was recently added, which sounds powerful). Many people say they dislike it because of its cluttered GUI; that's absurd. The workflow is sensible, and new skins are available on the Surge XT website; you can easily change the look to a modern one.

In summary, Surge XT is a great-sounding synth that can easily compete with many paid plugins. It sounds modern, is versatile, stable, and constantly being improved. I can't wait for version 1.4 and beyond. I sincerely thank the Surge Team for their hard work and passion in developing this amazing device.

Working GREAT on Linux Mint. Great interface and great sound potential. MANY presets for this thing. Cant wait to see more future development for it. Very close sounding with OBXD, But lacking good bass patches of the OBXD in my opinion.

I have been using Surge XT, and I have to say, it's a great synth. The sound quality is top-notch, and it's packed with cool features.

Absolutely ridiculously powerful free open source magic. Surge has become my go to for almost everything, even replacing my previous commercial plugins. Now I don't even need Wine for Linux and all the hassle that comes with that.

Surge's power starts with its six oscillators (3 per scene), which give you choices of your typical wavetable or classic analog sounds, but also a bunch of more experimental oscillators like strings that get you pretty close to physical modelling. It also comes with a wide range of filters and effects, everything from the normal (e.g., reverb) to the experiemental. But even for something like reverb, there are a wide range of presets to choose from, and it is quite easy to save your own presets as well.

Where surge really shines, though, is in modulation. Never have I found a synth so easy to modulate and with so many different accessible parameters to modulate as well. Another great feature is the wide range of presets that come with the synth by default., everything from almist perfectly modelled real instruments (seriously, the grand piano preset is amazing) to evolving atmospheres that never seem to end (in a good way).

Also, the synth is under heavy development, which means new features, all for free. And it's available for all major platforms and supports CLAP, which is arguably the future of plugins.

There are a few downsides, however, but they are relatively minor compared with the positives.

- Lack of a proper arppegiator - you can do modulation with the step sequencer but this cannot replace pressing a chord on a keyboard and having the notes played in sequence.

- Panning is a bit odd - sometimes it doesn't seem to work, perhaps because it comes much easier than effects in the processing chain, and so many effects just spread the sound out, cancelling the pan. To get around this, you can use your DAW's panning, but it would be so much easier to just have it all on a single screen.

- A sample oscillator would be a nice add, just for those few instances where you want something that's impossible to achieve with synthesis.

Overall though, this is far and away the best open source synth, the first synth to make me truly feel like almost anything I can do with £300+ Windows synths can be done on Linux.

I had tried it some time ago, but I didn't understand it well. A few days ago I tried it again, after reading the documentation, and I like it a lot. Top!! Thanks to the developers.

Surge XT is a really versatile synth that covers a lot of sonic territory....

It's a solid workhorse and it's getting better with every revision....

A great deal of gratitude and appreciation is owed to the team behind this synth....

Thanks guys....

This one's a 5 Star winner.

2025 UPDATE...The more I use this synth, the more I love it...I get the nightly builds and I am so grateful for all the work that the Surge Team put into this synth.

Clearly one of the best free VST synths along with "Vital", loads of usable presets both installed and from the community.

Personally I think sound is up there with top level paid vsts.

I think the GUI could be better and it is possible to crash it in sound design but do not let that put you off this is a must have vst.

One of the best free synths out there.

Super underestimated.

Dope sound and functionality.

Pro synth under the radar.