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

[Guenon]

@baconpaul: yeah, this is totally understandable, and it's the right way to go about it imo, given Steinberg's stance on new VST2 development. This whole project has a distinct "quality operation" vibe stamped all over it so I'm not surprised you are taking this route with it. To be sure, I'm not asking for any "official" VST2 builds, distributed by the actual Surge project, or wondering why VST2 isn't available

[baconpaul]

Haha, in case I manage to do something OSC-relevant, maybe it's in order to ask, just to be sure (and I have a feeling it's been me who has asked this on multiple occasions over the years, sorry ) .... ah, what's the current consensus on factory wavetable content like the stuff included with Surge? Okay to use in an OSC track / not okay? Hnnnnng?

Edit: sure enough, I asked the same thing during the previous Surge round ... Included wavetables were okay back then, with baconpaul chiming in that they "are absolutely critical to the working model. So I'd encourage the best results would allow you to use them if there's a question. WIth just the 7 generator oscillators you are missing 99% of the action." So... Factory content, green light?

Good to know you are consistent! I don’t make the rules, but my view is the wavetables are still a critical configuration for the oscillator, not factory content. If we compiled them in and made them non-user-switchable you wouldn’t ask etc...

There’s lots of other factory content (I think we ship > 1500 presets with 1.7.1) which would be off limits, but the wavetables binaries on their own are really just oscillator configuration data.

That said, if you want to make your own wavetables the surge wiki has loads of information about how, and since the last OSC, we’ve modified surge so that it can load serum compatible wavetables (as well as a lot of other formats) no problem. Just drag and drop them onto the oscillator (except on linux where you need to open them with the menu entry). And there’s some cool python scripts that go from math formulae to wavetable binaries in the repo and stuff.

[baconpaul]

This whole project has a distinct "quality operation" vibe stamped all over it

Thank you! It’s a great team that’s assembled around the synth. Appreciate your kind words.

[baconpaul]

Oh and (last note for this morning I promise) one feature we added in 1.7.0 which we think will be super helpful as you learn the synth is context sensitive help. Since OSC may bring new people to Surge I thought I would highlight it.

If you Right click on any component in the synth you will see a menu and the first item will be (say) “[?] OSC 1 Pitch”. If you see an item with a [?] at the outset, clicking that item will jump you to the point in the manual for that feature. It’s context sensitive so if you change oscillators or fix the targets change. So basically if you want to know what something does, click on it and get sent to the right spot in the manual right away!

[photonic]

Hi, got a question to the version!

I see on the download site the version 1.7.1 (32bit version). When I load it , I see also in the EXE-file the version 1.7.1. But when I run Surge and look in "About" in the menue, I see 1.6.0 from April 2019.
Is this information just not updated?

[Guenon]

But when I run Surge and look in "About" in the menue, I see 1.6.0 from April 2019.

Checked it over here, and the version information is updated in the about screen. If you already had the 1.6.0 version installed on your system, double check that you are indeed loading the new VST3 instrument instead of the old VST2 version of Surge? (In your chosen host, that is, not just on the website )

[baconpaul]

But when I run Surge and look in "About" in the menue, I see 1.6.0 from April 2019.

Checked it over here, and the version information is updated in the about screen. If you already had the 1.6.0 version installed on your system, double check that you are indeed loading the new VST3 instrument instead of the old VST2 version of Surge? (In your chosen host, that is, not just on the website )

Yeah the about screen is always correct. We bake it into the dll automatically at build time. If you see 160 you are running 160! (And a million things have changed since then).

Is your daw set up to scan vst3 from program files(x86)\common files\vst3? That’s where the new synth will live

[] Peter:H []

Oh and (last note for this morning I promise) one feature we added in 1.7.0 which we think will be super helpful as you learn the synth is context sensitive help. Since OSC may bring new people to Surge I thought I would highlight it.

If you Right click on any component in the synth you will see a menu and the first item will be (say) “[?] OSC 1 Pitch”. If you see an item with a [?] at the outset, clicking that item will jump you to the point in the manual for that feature. It’s context sensitive so if you change oscillators or fix the targets change. So basically if you want to know what something does, click on it and get sent to the right spot in the manual right away!

You guys really rock! I've already started to love this feature. When I find a help link that has the wrong target - open a Bug on github, right?

[EvilDragon]

Yes, GitHub is the place for all such reports

[photonic]

But when I run Surge and look in "About" in the menue, I see 1.6.0 from April 2019.

Checked it over here, and the version information is updated in the about screen. If you already had the 1.6.0 version installed on your system, double check that you are indeed loading the new VST3 instrument instead of the old VST2 version of Surge? (In your chosen host, that is, not just on the website )

Yeah the about screen is always correct. We bake it into the dll automatically at build time. If you see 160 you are running 160! (And a million things have changed since then).

Is your daw set up to scan vst3 from program files(x86)\common files\vst3? That’s where the new synth will live

I had to uninstall the old version. After I run the exe-file again,I got the new version. THANX!

[Eauson]

Nvm

[] Peter:H []

Before I file a bug - Has somebody experienced problems with "Dual Scene" mode? I've tried to build a patch and route scene A left and scene B right. But only scene A is playing in dual mode ... Am I doing something wrong?

And 2nd thing I'm puzzled about - I try to modulate LFO1 rate by Env2. But I'm not able to setup this mod routing. Can somebody point me to the section in the manual.

Thanks
Peter

[schiing]

Before I file a bug - Has somebody experienced problems with "Dual Scene" mode? I've tried to build a patch and route scene A left and scene B right. But only scene A is playing in dual mode ... Am I doing something wrong?

I panned a patch like that yesterday - no problem here (Win 64).

[RichardSemper]

Announcing: Anonymous: $100 prize (via paypal) to one lucky winner! Thank you anonymous person!

[baconpaul]

Before I file a bug - Has somebody experienced problems with "Dual Scene" mode? I've tried to build a patch and route scene A left and scene B right. But only scene A is playing in dual mode ... Am I doing something wrong?

And 2nd thing I'm puzzled about - I try to modulate LFO1 rate by Env2. But I'm not able to setup this mod routing. Can somebody point me to the section in the manual.

Thanks
Peter

In dual mode you need to send on midi channel 1; channel 2 and 3 trigger independently. Maybe that’s it? Also the vst3 has 6 outputs (joint, a and b). Are you sure you are on the right output?

Activate env2. Press the little orange arrow on lfo1. Modulate rate. Does that not work for you? But also right mouse on the mod button and it will jump you to the manual