One Synth Challenge #122: Surge (schiing wins!)

[Guenon]

20,000 surges with random patches playing a c major scale

That's a name for an OSC entry right there

[baconpaul]

Haven't been able to get the nightly build popping yet! Whoo!

Awesome. If a few more of you report success with the nightly I will probably tag it as beta 8 so there’s a stable version for OSC.

[baconpaul]

20,000 surges with random patches playing a c major scale

That's a name for an OSC entry right there

Right. Do I have to use a DAW in the OSC? That’s a serious question!

[schiing]

Is there a chance installing the latest build will affect sounds and presets in my ongoing projects? I usually like to finish my current work before I start messing with the dll's, but it would be great to get rid of those bursts.

No. With all the 1.6 we are keeping patch streaming compatibility. So unless I blew something up it should just work. I tested exactly the scenario you mention and got identical sounds (except no random pops).

Phew, nightly build installed - and as you promised: No pops, identical sounds! Thanks again, Paul!

[schiing]

20,000 surges with random patches playing a c major scale

That's a name for an OSC entry right there

Right. Do I have to use a DAW in the OSC? That’s a serious question!

It's all about the synth and the sound, so I can't imagine it to be a problem. As long as you have a format that you can share with the moderators if they doubt the authenticity of the piece, I think you're on safe ground.

[functionform]

That worked great, thanks!

Let me just say thanks in advance for working on this synth guys, and I apologize for my future newbie Surge questions.

[esaruoho]

Looking forward to seeing what kinds of tunes people make with Surge

[Guenon]

What specific parts of the Surge factory content are off limits for use in the OSC, btw? Or is it all fair game? This is something that always comes up, I know ...

Last month, I just steered clear of pretty much everything that smelled like sampled and so on, hah, and only used the "pure" generated oscillators as a starting point (as it was an Any Synth round and I didn't feel the need to talk Surge just because I happened to use it). Now that it's an official all-Surge month, a roundup of everything allowed/disallowed that comes in the factory installation would be cool. I know there's some stuff in there I'd love to mangle further if it's all good

[baconpaul]

What specific parts of the Surge factory content are off limits for use in the OSC, btw? Or is it all fair game? This is something that always comes up, I know ...

I don't know the rules for OSC but for Surge, the wavetable oscillators (which use the pre-generated wavetables - basically short bursts of oscillator configuration) are absolutely critical to the working model. So I'd encourage the best results would allow you to use them if there's a question. WIth just the 7 generator oscillators you are missing 99% of the action.

[Guenon]

So I'd encourage the best results would allow you to use them if there's a question. WIth just the 7 generator oscillators you are missing 99% of the action.

I tend to agree. It's the sort of discussion that has popped up from time to time, for example in the Thorn round and also in the Diodow round. Cases where there is included content in the installation that sort of "makes" the synth, but doesn't quite fit the literal OSC rules. In Surge's case, I guess the potentially problematic stuff is, if there are effectively actual samples in the factory banks that are being morphed frame by frame, not just single cycle imports. And if these are ruled out, the participating user needs to spot those (unless there's an explicit list of what to avoid).

For the record, also for the sake of convenience but mostly just for "letting Surge be what it is" and having a level playing field in any case (everyone has the exact same factory material anyway) I'm of the opinion that anything installing via the actual installer is fair game and after that, just don't import any custom stuff that goes against the literal rules.

[TheNeverScene]

No pops here after the nightly build. Thanks for that!

[baconpaul]

So I'd encourage the best results would allow you to use them if there's a question. WIth just the 7 generator oscillators you are missing 99% of the action.

I tend to agree. It's the sort of discussion that has popped up from time to time, for example in the Thorn round and also in the Diodow round. Cases where there is included content in the installation that sort of "makes" the synth, but doesn't quite fit the literal OSC rules. In Surge's case, I guess the potentially problematic stuff is, if there are effectively actual samples in the factory banks that are being morphed frame by frame, not just single cycle imports. And if these are ruled out, the participating user needs to spot those (unless there's an explicit list of what to avoid).

For the record, also for the sake of convenience but mostly just for "letting Surge be what it is" and having a level playing field in any case (everyone has the exact same factory material anyway) I'm of the opinion that anything installing via the actual installer is fair game and after that, just don't import any custom stuff that goes against the literal rules.

The longest wavetable is 1024 mono samples. There’s no one shot drum fills or any such thing. Most are generated I think and even the sampled ones are cycles not samples. Surge is not a sampler. Hope that helps

[Guenon]

Surge is not a sampler. Hope that helps

Yeah, thanks, I know . OSC is pretty specific on these things, though, and for example last month the official word was: "If you're using a wavetable synth, single cycle samples are ok, hand drawn waveforms are ok, and morphing between single cycle samples is fine. If necessary allow maximum of two imported single cycles per wave table." So if this is the case now a month later as well, anything that has more than two imported single cycles in a single morphable/scannable wavetable would be a no no this month as well, unless it's explicitly agreed upon that the factory content is still okay to use, no matter how many imported cycles there may be per some particular included table.

[TheNeverScene]

I've got a wip that I'm having some fun with blasting back to 1992 Surge is rather astonishing.
https://soundcloud.com/the-never-scene/ ... -3/s-iQB4x

[Guenon]

I've got a wip that I'm having some fun with blasting back to 1992 Surge is rather astonishing.

Yes it is , and that's a terribly cool wip!

Alas, I'm not in such luck. After what I uploaded last month, I temporal shifted into Berlin 20 years later, and this was all that was going on in the streets

https://soundcloud.com/guenooni/berlin- ... er/s-B9lT2

Wah