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

[baconpaul]

weve already seen one user ask about an accompanying book, a great idea for a sound designer imo (ive tried to encourage another to do an ebook...)
ill bet theres a good market with something like surge or vital in this regard, high quality free synths (ok vital has the paid versions, but anyone can get hold of it just without the extras) as these are likely to be used by beginners.
id go for it if i was you

DataBroth did a set of surge free patches with 1.9 that are great; but he designed a lot of them in a livestream which shows his process which was also really popular and instructive with our community.

Oh and also we spend a lot of time on our manual although I know that is different!

[vurt]

weve already seen one user ask about an accompanying book, a great idea for a sound designer imo (ive tried to encourage another to do an ebook...)
ill bet theres a good market with something like surge or vital in this regard, high quality free synths (ok vital has the paid versions, but anyone can get hold of it just without the extras) as these are likely to be used by beginners.
id go for it if i was you

DataBroth did a set of surge free patches with 1.9 that are great; but he designed a lot of them in a livestream which shows his process which was also really popular and instructive with our community.

cool, as i mentioned in my post with this, it all helps grow the community, if its good sounds.
more resources, will keep the synth on most peoples top ten lists longer, keep you guys on your toes too

databroth does good stuff

[syntonica]

I see no problem with getting paid for your efforts. Even though Surge is free doesn't mean it's bad and a killer demo will attract buyers. Not everybody who uses free software is necessarily poor and you may make a few converts of those who turn up their nose at free.

[tactile_coast]

cool, as i mentioned in my post with this, it all helps grow the community, if its good sounds.
more resources, will keep the synth on most peoples top ten lists longer, keep you guys on your toes too

databroth does good stuff

Assuming there is only one 'New Loops' the OP is used extensively by Arturia, Kilohearts and Reason Studios in their official expansion packs which are excellent. I agree that it would do a lot to raise the profile/credibility of Surge and make it relevant to a wider audience.

[Biome_Digital]

cool, as i mentioned in my post with this, it all helps grow the community, if its good sounds.
more resources, will keep the synth on most peoples top ten lists longer, keep you guys on your toes too

databroth does good stuff

Assuming there is only one 'New Loops' the OP is used extensively by Arturia, Kilohearts and Reason Studios in their official expansion packs which are excellent. I agree that it would do a lot to raise the profile/credibility of Surge and make it relevant to a wider audience.

You are correct. thank you!

While I am at risk from even more head swelling here, I have tipped some people to buy synths based on my audio demos and presets so there is that way to look at it as well.

I think I could do at least 2 or 3 audio demos of the presets which would (hopefully) show off Surges sound too. That would help, community wise maybe.

[Biome_Digital]

I see no problem with getting paid for your efforts. Even though Surge is free doesn't mean it's bad and a killer demo will attract buyers. Not everybody who uses free software is necessarily poor and you may make a few converts of those who turn up their nose at free.

Sure thing!

[Biome_Digital]

So I wondered what people felt about paid presets for a free product?

My opinion is always quite unpopular but since you asked I'll give it then leave the thread.

I have a moral repulsion to people trying to sell banks for freeware synths. If the developers of the synths aren't making any money off of them then no one else should either. It goes against the sense of community.

If you can't afford to put the time in for free then spend that time making banks for paid synths, there are plenty of them.

Stop typing everyone I know you disagree and don't care one bit. Nothing you say will ever change my stance so don't waste your time.

I'm out and won't respond to any quotes.

I understand this opinion. Would it change if I told you I don’t mind at all if op tries to sell patches for surge (but would also happily welcome them as free?). Just like I wouldn’t mind if someone sold synth sound design classes using the tool or sold a record where surge made all the sounds. In fact all of these could be accretive the community.

Even if I did mind the synth is licensed so op could do this (assuming they sell original content and not just rehashed factory library stuff).

And of course op has to make sure their patches are better than the factory patches. Some of the ones in 18 19 and upcoming xt are pretty amazing. But that’s just the invisible hand at play.

There are activities which would be objectionable mostly around violating gpl3 but creating and selling original content is not one of them.

(For context I am one of the maintainers of surge).

Awesome, thanks!

[Passing Bye]

I would, but the bank should be on Luftrum/Arksun/The Unfinished level.

[felis]

No. It contradicts the community approach.

[jinxtigr]

Surge Synth Team doesn't accept donations, though But thanks for consideration!

Oh, yes you do… but not specifically in money form

love, Chris from Airwindows, a frequent donator

[baconpaul]

Surge Synth Team doesn't accept donations, though But thanks for consideration!

Oh, yes you do… but not specifically in money form

love, Chris from Airwindows, a frequent donator

Indeed we always welcome the time and efforts of testers, ideas, devs, sound designers, etc. and use a lot of other great open source which does have a monetary model like airwindows and more. And many vendors NFR us daws, and Microsoft gives us free compute and so on,

Just the surge team decided not to take contributions in money form.

[jinxtigr]

I can also add, as someone with a bunch of code in Surge (I revised my VST builds specifically to make it easier for baconpaul to import anything he likes, and I hang out with the Surge folks, they're my favorite music devs)

Feel free to experiment with the Airwindows stuff existing in Surge as part of the sound design. The Surge folks liked Galactic lots, which made me very happy, but there's plenty else and some of it is not what you typically see in effects. The Surge folks asked me nicely first before beginning to import stuff: saying, "you're using an MIT license. This would mean we are able to use anything we want, and we might use a lot. Are you sure you're okay with that?"

Of course I was, that's why I'd chosen that license (compatible with their GPL, too). In turn, Surge's needs as a project are very much that if you make your OWN fork of Surge, it has to honor the license. But making preset banks? That doesn't hurt the GPL license any more than you making a bunch of music using the synth. (or my plugins)

I feel like the community approach is a separate thing. I've got the occasional super-huge celebrity name using my stuff, not wishing to be outed, treating it as a 'secret weapon'. That's fine. It doesn't help me or any 'community', but there are those who work with their fellow musicians differently. Takes all kinds. I feel like community oriented folks can come up with their own energy and do their own, free, show-your-work presets and patches by which everyone can learn a little and it can be all cooperative.

But patches can be nearly as complicated as songs. When you get into the full range of it, even though I'm not aware of hiding what's inside a patch (doesn't it just show what you did, on the synth?) opportunity arises for someone with really good taste and a really good ear to curate a set of patches and sell 'em (or at least first access to them). I would even say it'd be damn rude to pirate such a package since there's plenty of free patches available. Let the person with the ear, who's trying to put in the work and curate something really special, do it the way he wants.

If I did such a preset bank it'd probably lean on deeper analog tones and more direct voices, it'd all sound pretty consistently 'Airwindows', and I wouldn't charge a dime… because I'm Patreon-supported, so I never do. And if people wanted more, they could ask. That's really the trick: will people want it so much they would pay?

[baconpaul]

Aww thanks for the nice message Chris! Back atcha of course. Airwindows are an amazing add, and I use galactic all the time in surge - somehow it just fits really well.

[drunken jesus]

I don’t think theirs a large market for soundsets for free synths because I haven’t seen many but with the active development of surge you could probably make some sales if you released whenever the new version comes out

What I really think is an untapped market is soundsets for cheap synths I’ve gotten a bunch of vsts in flash sales as I’m sure many people have but don’t use a lot of them because I don’t care for the factory sounds and I can’t really design patches besides basic leads and basses and angry robot noises, I’d definitely buy a soundset for memory mode or eight voice

[hoxclab]

Sure would but no super electronic sounds.

Cool!

So ambient, deep, cinematic type stuff?

Ya whoadie