One Synth Challenge #138: Surge (MrKarolus Wins!)

[MalToné]

@MaZe 6000
30€ an hour sounds fair, ha ha! I better up my price...

I like the piece as a whole, and to that end: my ears want to hear the end notes of 1 lengthened to connect to section 2, or maybe that little gap shortened. Time is running short, I know, and I wouldn't normally offer such advice unsolicited, and at the last minute, but if it were easy to do, that small change might make a real difference in perception of the two pieces really being a single entity...

[ELEX]

Submission for OSC138:

https://soundcloud.com/elex101/elex-chiaroscuro-2-life

made using REAPER with the very cool Surge (35) as:

INST -- saxinet (4) ; trumpet (2) ; flute ; e-guitar ( those also feature as FX ) ; woody mallet ; metallic mallet ; woody bass mallet ; synth bass ; pads (2)
PERC -- kick ; stick ; brushy snare ; toms (3) ; clap ; snap ; cymbals (3)
FX -- reverse noise ; flutter / ratchet ; creaky-croaky ; noise (2) ; chimes - up & down ; trickle - up & down ; drip

And also: ReaVerb ; Oril River (7) ; Limiter No6 (2) ; Ozone Imager ; HOFA tilt eq ; BlueARP (4) ReaEQ (5) ; NastyDLA ; JS chebyshev filter (4) ; JS MIDI chorderizer (7)

[Leonard Bowman]

My submission:
https://soundcloud.com/anotherbenjamin/rare-earth

This idea came to me a couple of days ago and wouldn't let go. I kept the mix fairly raw because I didn't have enough time to get a detailed mix while preserving the nature of the piece.

Made in REAPER 6.13

29 instances of Surge 1.7 (using one of the nightlies from early this month)
a few factory or third party presets used & modified to taste
3 instances of ReaEQ
2 instances of ReaComp
1 instance of ReaXComp
1 instance of ReEQ (an impressive JS effect)
1 instance of GClip
1 instance of OutdoorVerb
1 instance of Dragonfly Hall
and my usual mastering / analysis chain:
Limiter No6, SPAN, and MLoudnessAnalyzer

I'll post my patches soon, after I add a few macros and tweak them to be more 12edo compatible.

note - Yes it's microtonal, yes some notes might sound out of tune, and yes it was intentional. Enjoy the lovely 3rds of 34edo.

[chaosinism]

Hi all,

I am a new learner of synths, and this is my first time participating OSC. I would greatly appreicate any feedback.

My submission:
https://soundcloud.com/chaosinism/chaos ... ing-garden

Made in Cakewalk
6 instances of Surge 1.7
1 instance of MEqualizer by MeldaProduction

[MalToné]

@Leonard Bowman
It's fascinating that it did not sound microtonal or like an alternate tuning to me, it just sounded musical.

But I'm curious, say if you listened to music or compose with non-traditional tunings like 34edo or others, can you recognize them when you hear them as you might learn to recognize chord types or intervals in more traditional harmony? I suppose that you would since microtonal and alternate tunings have been around for centuries and are just considered "normal" if that's what' you learn and play.

Some people are said to have perfect pitch, but if pitch and octave division is a cultural or aesthetic construct, do people with perfect pitch hear unfamiliar tuning systems as something horribly out of tune, or do they just hear it and appreciate it for what it is?

Well, it's cool stuff that got me thinking, brain hurt now...

[MalToné]

Hi all,
I am a new learner of synths, and this is my first time participating OSC. I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Welcome to the OSC!

I really like the Asian sound and instruments. I thought in a couple of places the instruments in the mid to mid highs were competing. I would still try keep all of the instruments, but maybe let one have more prominence in the mix in those places, just with levels, before trying anything heroic with EQ or compression.

[chaosinism]

Welcome to the OSC!

I really like the Asian sound and instruments. I thought in a couple of places the instruments in the mid to mid highs were competing. I would still try keep all of the instruments, but maybe let one have more prominence in the mix in those places, just with levels, before trying anything heroic with EQ or compression.

Thank you! I started too late this time and maybe cannot achieve further improvements. But I will definitely pay more attention to mixing the next time.

[baalisoda]

I have re-uploaded my track with a very minor modification in terms of mixing.

Request all to consider listening to the newly updated track (details of which are same as before, given in the14th page of this thread).

https://soundcloud.com/baalisoda/ecstasy

Sorry for the inconvenience caused, if any.

[z.prime]

I got a thing sorted out a bit for this, hope you enjoy!

z.prime - Expectations
https://soundcloud.com/z_prime/zprime-expectations

Made en Bitwig
Surge x100 (probably only using about 50% of them)

Bitwig FX:
EQ+
Delay-2
Saturation
Compressor
Limiter
Dynamics
Tool

Other FX:
TDR Nova
Limiter no6
FreeClip
KSHMR Essentials Kick
MCharmVerb
MConvolutionEZ
Melt
OTT
Proximity
Supermassive
Wider

[exponent1]

Hey everyone, so I found some time yesterday and came up with this. Here's my submission:

https://soundcloud.com/theexponent/resurgence

DAW: Reaper 6
Surge: 41 instances
Native FX: ReaComp, ReaEQ
3rd Party Free FX: Oril River, TAL Reverb 4, GClip, LoudMax, Quick Haas, OTT, Cocoa Delay, A1 StereoControl, Tal Filter 2,
Mastering: JS: DC Filter, TDR SlickEQ, TDR Nova, TDR Kotelnikov, GClip, LoudMax
Metering: SPAN, Youlean Loudness Meter 2

[RichardSemper]

Here's my entry for this month (phew just in time!)

Made using One Instance of Surge: just one patch, only the synths built in fx used, no external fx, used seven of Surge's built-in macros, and modwheel, along with MPE controls. Used Sensel Morph MPE controller (production overlay)
DAW used - Bitwig Studio 3.2.6
Only got the morph and bitwig just this month, so had a lot to learn beside the synth. So I have literally just finished it (not even been to bed yet!)

The project file and the patch can be downloaded here for anyone who is interested:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xt8aex0vp6klt ... h.zip?dl=0

https://soundcloud.com/richard-semper/r ... -one-surge

[functionform]

My entry, Bitwig seems really slow at rendering...

https://soundcloud.com/functionform/confusion

Bitwig 3.2.7
22 instances.

Compressors, OTT, Dynamics, HeadcrusherFree, ModernLostAngel, ThrillseekerLA, BassProfessor mk2
Reverbs, TAL suite, suddenly got really bored of Dragonfly and epicVerb, so bizarre...
EQs: EQ+, IIEQPro
Delay: Cocoa Delay (no pitch modulation used)
A1StereoControl
TAL Filter 2

So I heard Bitwig was started by one of the original Surge developers. I have to say, I find my frustrations with both very similar so I'm not that surprised. It's really late so I don't want to put those thoughts out there right now, and maybe my brain is just scrambled so I won't say more right now so I don't go negative. I will say this - I was underwhelmed by the filter and unison modes. Just me, just my 4 am ramblings, sorry.

Good luck everyone!

[EvilDragon]

Hey everyone, so I found some time yesterday and came up with this. Here's my submission:

https://soundcloud.com/theexponent/resurgence

Best song title in this OSC, hands down.

[EvilDragon]

I will say this - I was underwhelmed by the filter and unison modes.

The filter code is over 10 years old, you shouldn't expect Diva level quality out of it since it's a basic biquad with some clever tricks to make it accept a bit faster modulations (since Surge's LFOs go to 500-ish Hz).

As for unison, yeah this is not Dune 3. But also if you wanted stereo unison, you need to use L-R or Wide filter configuration. Or are you talking about detuning offsets?

[MaZe 6000]

@MalToné Those soundcloud spammers are really annoying... I don't know what offends me more, that they comment without listening or that they delete their comments when you answer them.

I guess it's too late to make any changes to my track and as my tracks tend to do it suffers from serious flaws in my "workflow" I hope I can improve that some day...