Would you buy a Surge sound bank? Now free!!

[Biome_Digital]

Would you buy a Surge sound bank? Please only answer if you A: actually buy presets, and B: would be interested in new sounds for Surge.

I ask because Surge is free, and there is a few free sound banks for it. However, as sound design is my job and income, I couldn't spend time on a free bank. So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

Discuss.

Edit: Thanks for all the input on this. After much consideration I have decided to make a small pack of 25 presets and give them away free.

Update: The presets are done and the audio demo is just finished.

New Loops - Free Surge presets done -

Download 25 free surge presets. No signup, no email, just download and use! https://newloops.com/pages/free-surge-presets

[hoxclab]

Sure would but no super electronic sounds.

[Biome_Digital]

Sure would but no super electronic sounds.

Cool!

So ambient, deep, cinematic type stuff?

[chk071]

I ask because Surge is free, and there is a few free sound banks for it. However, as sound design is my job and income, I couldn't spend time on a free bank. So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

I'm not buying presets, but, I see absolutely zero problem to create commercial presets for a free synth.

The question is rather if there is a market for it, considering many people probably will use the synth because it's free.

[Bartone]

Depends what’s in the bank?
If it’s filled with super saws and trap basses, nope.

But if it offers something “organic”, that would be interesting (then it comes to the quality naturally). Organic I mean something like orchestral sounds or rich cinematic sounds. Not just strange blibs and blobs called “cinematic atmosphere”

[Biome_Digital]

I ask because Surge is free, and there is a few free sound banks for it. However, as sound design is my job and income, I couldn't spend time on a free bank. So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

I'm not buying presets, but, I see absolutely zero problem to create commercial presets for a free synth.

The question is rather if there is a market for it, considering many people probably will use the synth because it's free.

Exactly my thoughts too, hence the post.

[Biome_Digital]

Depends what’s in the bank?
If it’s filled with super saws and trap basses, nope.

But if it offers something “organic”, that would be interesting (then it comes to the quality naturally). Organic I mean something like orchestral sounds or rich cinematic sounds. Not just strange blibs and blobs called “cinematic atmosphere”

Exactly, it would be electronic cinematic ambient type stuff (with no commas).

Presets that react to velocity, aftertouch, and modwheel. A bit like my new Repro-5 sound bank and the last Diva one I done, and omnisphere and the last Dune 3 presets. You can listen to the audio demos linked below.

[EvilDragon]

I see nothing wrong in wanting to be paid for one's work.

I'd suggest also - it'd be a missed opportunity if you didn't assign some MPE action too, with release velocity and MPE timbre modulators

[Biome_Digital]

I see nothing wrong in wanting to be paid for one's work.

I'd suggest also - it'd be a missed opportunity if you didn't assign some MPE action too, with release velocity and MPE timbre modulators

Need an MPE controller for that though.

[EvilDragon]

Well, for release velocity you might not even need one. Just depends if your MIDI controller sends release velocity or not. MPE Timbre is quite easy to assess even across all voices - that modulation just gets applied per voice instead, in MPE mode.

[Biome_Digital]

Well, for release velocity you might not even need one. Just depends if your MIDI controller sends release velocity or not. MPE Timbre is quite easy to assess even across all voices - that modulation just gets applied per voice instead, in MPE mode.

Something I'll need to look in too no doubt.

[vurt]

I ask because Surge is free, and there is a few free sound banks for it. However, as sound design is my job and income, I couldn't spend time on a free bank. So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

I'm not buying presets, but, I see absolutely zero problem to create commercial presets for a free synth.

The question is rather if there is a market for it, considering many people probably will use the synth because it's free.

Exactly my thoughts too, hence the post.

yup, while i don't buy presets or use surge...
totally agree with chk and mario, sound design is sound design, seperate from the synth.

some folk may not buy because it's a free synth, but f**k em, if the work is good, enough people will buy to make it worthwhile.

[Biome_Digital]

I ask because Surge is free, and there is a few free sound banks for it. However, as sound design is my job and income, I couldn't spend time on a free bank. So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

I'm not buying presets, but, I see absolutely zero problem to create commercial presets for a free synth.

The question is rather if there is a market for it, considering many people probably will use the synth because it's free.

Exactly my thoughts too, hence the post.

yup, while i don't buy presets or use surge...
totally agree with chk and mario, sound design is sound design, seperate from the synth.

some folk may not buy because it's a free synth, but f**k em, if the work is good, enough people will buy to make it worthwhile.

I am aware Surge was a paid product at one point too. I wonder why it was made free. It's actually really powerful.

[vurt]

didn't it go open source rather than freeware? (i know it's free to the user but there is a difference...) because he saw the potential for a better synth but couldn't commit to support and future development?

[Kazoo Marzu]

I am aware Surge was a paid product at one point too. I wonder why it was made free. It's actually really powerful.

IIRC, the author joined Bitwig team and couldn't continue developing Surge, but didn't want it to simply die like many other abandoned pluugins.

Back on topic, I would love to get a preset bank for any synth if it came with a book "how and why I did this bank". Reverse engineering others' patches is a good way to get better at making your own. Btw, for educational purposes the free synths like Surge, Dexed etc. are arguably better.