One Synth Challenge #208: OB-Xf by the Surge Synth Team (Voting Started!)

[Starsickle]

Voted! Tried to shed some of my 3s to the 2s and 4s this time. Good job, everyone.

I really like what I made this time, and altogether I think I'll be keeping OB-Xf around despite its limitations. With external effects it can retain its own flavor, and I think that is super important for any plugin.

[Aleksey Zhehanov]

For OSC voting, you need to use your (like for the original OSC app), not KVR’s

tell me how I can get OSC credentials? I currently only have a KVR and a SoundCloud account.

[FrogsInPants]

For OSC voting, you need to use your (like for the original OSC app), not KVR’s

tell me how I can get OSC credentials? I currently only have a KVR and a SoundCloud account.

Follow the registration link under "Here's How Voting Works" on the first post. https://onesynthchallenge.org/signup

[maxym.srpl]

these are the same as you should have for https://onesynthchallenge.org/
If you never been there, then follow official OSC instructions, eventually contact the osc organizers.

I do not maintain database of voters nor votes. The app is just another frontend for original OSC system using its backend.
Maybe I should add this info to the docs

[Aleksey Zhehanov]

Thanks a lot, everything worked out.

[Aleksey Zhehanov]

Voted

[TobiasMiller]

Care to share the details about those weird things?

This one took a bit to track down and find a way to reproduce it consistently. Here's one way -

1) Load preset Organs->Haunted Reeds
2) Raise the VCA Attack to about 2.5 seconds.

This instance is now broken. Any duplicates and saved presets will be broken too. But we can't tell... yet.

Click Init.

Notice Init inherited the slow attack, despite the UI showing a short attack. Manually lowering the attack time can fix the sound, but the instance is still corrupt, and more things will likely go wrong over time as presets are saved and reloaded.

That's just an easily reproduced example. It can affect any of the parameters (often several at once), and in extreme cases, sounds can completely change at random, even during playback.

While that doesn't seem like much, it became bad enough for me to scrap my first OB-Xf OSC project, delete my saved presets, and start over.

Code: Select all

Version: : 1.1.0.31aca96
Build Info: : 2026-06-15 @ 14:53:49 on runnervm30ugi with MSVC-19.44.35227.0 using JUCE 8.0.10
System Info: : Windows CLAP on AMD Ryzen 7 2700 Eight-Core Processor          , 16 GB RAM
Host: : Reaper @ 44100 Hz

Hopefully this will help to track it down.

Issues aside, Surge Synth Team did a fantastic job on the synth, and it has earned a place in my toolbar.

[EvilDragon]

Mmmm ok that seems to be FXP specific for whatever reason. It certainly doesn't happen with all patches. Curious.

If you have a list of other patches that exhibit similar issue, let us know.

[EvilDragon]

It's actually not patch-specific, there was a FIFO overflow which silently discarded parameter updates in some cases. Nice catch!

[jsandas]

Voted, will maybe go back and adjust my scores a bit later.

I liked OB-Xf and will keep using it, here are some features that I noticed:
-responds really well to velocity from my midi keyboard
-I like the voice variation knobs, easy and intuitive way to add some life to a track
-mod wheel is very aggressive, goes from "nothing" to "too much" almost immediately. I assume this can be adjusted but I didn't look into it

I also like the way the plugin looks, but after a while I got tired of the realistic shadows in the Default theme and switched to Default Vector.

[EvilDragon]

Modwheel range is not adjustable as it stands, no. I wouldn't say it's too aggressive, frankly. It has an exponential curve applied to it, too, so that it eases into things.

[EvilDragon]

Next nightly should fix the FIFO overflow issue, so Haunted Organ patch should now be just fine and init patch afterwards would really init completely.

[jsandas]

Modwheel range is not adjustable as it stands, no. I wouldn't say it's too aggressive, frankly. It has an exponential curve applied to it, too, so that it eases into things.

All right, I guess that I'll give it another try and see if I get used to it. Thanks for all the work either way, I like everything else about the synth

[maxym.srpl]

What an edition. So many productions I would score 5.
I need to do the 2nd pass of listening.

[z.prime]

...Default Vector.

Default vector is the way, very clean; same thing I did.