Surge vs top free/paid synths

[whassup]

My opinion: I could live for the rest of my life with Surge and wouldn't have to be unhappy, if I had to.
As I don't have to, I use it when I want the sounds that I like that Surge does good. It's a good synth with certain characters. Very usable. Some other synths do things differently and I prefer some others for certain things.
In the end it's your taste. Check it out and compare. Get some demos of the commercial synths. Compare. If it's good for you then it doesn't get any better. No matter what the KVR collective or the super star says or not.
Enjoy!

[audiojunkie]

For those with more experience across the board with software synths: how does Surge compre with other big free and paid names (e.g., Vital, Pigments, Massive X, etc..)?

Do you own any of these or other payware synths? My advice would be to see for yourself. I tried Surge and Surge XT out a couple of times over the years, and never found that it gives me something sonically which is comparable, or even better than the payware I frequently use (Spire, Massive X, Largo, Pigments, Sylenth1).

By the way, what you will surely get with this thread will be a lot of people telling you how good it is, and that it's every bit as good as any payware out there. Which is fine, opinions and stuff. But, it won't get you a single step further with your question. Only you can decide whether or not it's worth to spend (or waste) your time with it. And, if you're intersted in heraing experience: I wished that I wouldn't have wasted my time with freeware when I started out seriously (I used to download warez 25 years ago, but, you can't really call that serious). My first payware, which isn't even ma favorite by any stretch, z3ta+, really opened up my times in terms of free stuff vs. paid stuff. Especially the stuff which is frequently mentioned as better payware is absolutely fantastic, and by far better than anything free I ever used.

Well, there you have it, an opinion. And what do you do with it now?

This is very good advice! I hope the OP takes it to heart!

[audiojunkie]

I think chk071 has a point. There are many cases where you get what you pay for, and when it's finally time to buy a pro-grade tool you'll know the difference.

However! Freeware has come a *long* way in 25 years. Some free stuff out there today is without question just straight up better than some payware stuff from that era. Valhalla Supermassive is an enormously capable and almost universally appreciated reverb for example, and it's free. I've tried *many* reverbs that cost way more that aren't necessarily way better.

So about the actual synths: It could be debated whether Surge XT is on a level with some of those payware synths. But without a doubt, it's fully capable quality-wise. Work with its strengths, and you get great quality results for sure. And if a tool is at least that good, the one thing that matters more than anything else is how well you know the tool.
I get way better results with Surge XT than with Pigments. That's not because Surge is better but because I know it so well, whereas Pigments I'm only beginning to explore now.

And btw, you say you don't hear it mentioned that often. That may be true, but Surge won the "best free softsynth" category of the KVR awards this year. So without a doubt it's very popular.

This is very true. Being a Linux user, Surge-XT is fantastic, and would be seen as one of the best synths around (paid or otherwise) ten years ago. For Linux, it is still one of the best available. At the same time, however, I have and use Diva rather than messing around with the other basic subtractive synths that are out there. Sometimes it's worth it to buy the best and be done with it.

[Igro]

I use only three synths - Pigments, Surge XT and Vital. They are on the same level. Surge XT is probably more advanced than the other two. OSC quality vice, Pigments and Surge are vey similar. Vital obviously has a cleaner OSC's.
Surge XT got very nice filters btw. Better than the the other two. GUI - it has actually a very logical layout on its own. But improvement are welcome.

[chk071]

I use only three synths - Pigments, Surge XT and Pigments.

[Igro]

I use only three synths - Pigments, Surge XT and Pigments.

thanks, fixed.

[EvilDragon]

Surge is a fine synth, but is many years old. If you like the sound, use it, but most of the payware out there arguably has better-sounding, newer filters and oscillators.

Don't forget that not everything in Surge is old. It also has newer filters and newer oscillators and newer FX, that are demonstratably higher quality than what was in Surge originally...

(Exception being the Alias oscillator but that one is intentionally made to do what it does!)

[syntonica]

(Exception being the Alias oscillator but that one is intentionally made to do what it does!)

We've come a long way since oscs were labelled specifically as non-aliasing. Now we have to label them _as_ aliasing?

[EvilDragon]

Yes! But the clincher with this one is - it's actually 2x oversampled (since the whole Surge voice until it hits the FX is 2x OS). It sounds better than it should, as a consequence. High quality crud

As we say in the manual: "The Alias oscillator purposefully ignores a few decades of research into making digital signals with low or no aliasing, and does all the things you shouldn’t do, so it purposefully sounds digital, gross, broken, terrible, yet awesome all at once."

[sQeetz]

orcs had labels?

[sQeetz]

I have Surge XT installed, but it somehow is never a go-to at whatever sound I'm trying to reach....
It's nice, it has all the features.... but it somehow is, most of the time, not what I'm looking for

[Boy Wonder]

I just finished producing my last album. It took me four months. In my quest to get tracks down, I often reached for synths that already had sounds close to what I heard in my head and, with a bit of tweaking, can get me what I wanted.

I reached for Surge a few times as I had become more familiar with it during the OSC this year. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to give me the sounds in my head. I'm sure if I'd spent more time with it, I would've succeeded. But when I'm anxious to lay a part down, the last thing I want to do is lose my inspiration by a delay.

BTW, I have no doubt Surge can "get me there". As synths go, it's chock full of modules, more than in many commercial synths.

[whassup]

Yes! But the clincher with this one is - it's actually 2x oversampled (since the whole Surge voice until it hits the FX is 2x OS). It sounds better than it should, as a consequence. High quality crud

As we say in the manual: "The Alias oscillator purposefully ignores a few decades of research into making digital signals with low or no aliasing, and does all the things you shouldn’t do, so it purposefully sounds digital, gross, broken, terrible, yet awesome all at once."

Yes, funny kinda how we on the one hand try to be so analog, non-alaising, smooth and what not sounding and then slam it through a bit crusher of choice. Makes total sense to have an aliasing oscilator. Another cool Surge feature.

P.s. don't forget your high quality dithering in the end...

[syntonica]

P.s. don't forget your high quality dithering in the end...

Hey! I do that!

...when I'm trying to decide which synth to use, and fail miserably....

[sQeetz]

Drums need to be dirtied up. There is no option