Surge XT

Surge XT is a really versatile synth that covers a lot of sonic territory....

It's a solid workhorse and it's getting better with every revision....

A great deal of gratitude and appreciation is owed to the team behind this synth....

Thanks guys....

This one's a 5 Star winner.

Clearly one of the best free VST synths along with "Vital", loads of usable presets both installed and from the community.

Personally I think sound is up there with top level paid vsts.

I think the GUI could be better and it is possible to crash it in sound design but do not let that put you off this is a must have vst.

For those of us not skilled in synthesizing, Surge has a lot of presets both installed by the installer and downloadable from communities. From there you can modify and customize sounds, even make your own with some practise. You'll have a hard time to find any better free synthesizer.

VA, Wavetables, FM based synth with multiple options of each type.

Massive amount of easy to use modulation .

Mutable Instruments Plaits & Clouds, OB-Xd filters, Oden II filters, Air Windows fx all built in.

It's one of the best, most flexible synths period ...that also happens to be free and open source.

Just surface scratches really stop reading this review and go Download it.

Amazing synth that is absolutely jam packed with features, including lots of stuff that is "under the hood". Many oscillator options and many great sounding filters with various sub-modes, tons of modulation options, wave-shaping, tons of FX; just had everything you really need.

It'll do EDM supersaws, vintage, dubstep growl, wavetable, fm, string, ambient/textural stuff, experimental and complex stuff. Really versatile and functional, well thought-out, and complex.

A huge thing is that is sounds excellent and has many features to affect the tone like oscillator pitch/drift variation, wave-shaping, oscillator brightness, random modulation (which can affect pitches, envelopes, etc), and insert/send FX to really give it a rich character and allowing to you make it sound "warmer" and more vintage, based on how far you want to go and the limits of your own abilities.

Comes with a lot of good presets, but this thing truly shines when you dig deep and learn it inside and out. It's easy to write off because of it's non-flashy but practical interface, by it's native presets, or by the fact that it's free; but it is really really amazing. The user manual is a must read to really get into the deeper aspects as there are features that aren't quite obvious right out of the gate.

I have personally narrowed down my digital synth library down to Surge XT and logic pro native plugins, to fit my personal goal of minimalism and creative limitation; focusing on full mastery of what is available rather than grasping for new plugins all the time. I could tell you that I really don't miss or care about using the other synth plugins anymore and have gotten rid of that "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" mindset, and that this synth serves as both my standard bread-and-butter synth and in situations where more complex modulation is required.

A+++++++ would buy if it costed anything

Ever since going open-source, Surge has been quietly accumulating more and more features. With the Surge XT release, it's blossomed into a real "Swiss Army Synth", covering nearly every category. OK, it doesn't have multisampled instruments - but it does, in fact, have a fair few samples buried in its numerous oscillators, which now include the content of the well-regarded Eurorack macro-oscillator "Plaits". Besides oscillators, more filters and effects are also present, giving it a huge timbral range. The architecture lets you layer, ring-mod and FM, waveshape, filter, and feedback, and modulation capability is effectively infinite because it now lets you execute Lua code as a modulator, on top of many standard LFO and envelope options. If you can't make the synth sound you want with this, you probably just don't know what you need to tweak to get there. (Hint: most synths get their distinctive character from oscillator EQ.).

While at a glance, the big panel it opens up with is intimidating, it's not deeply nested and presents just about everything in a few pages. It is intuitive enough to program if you've been working with synths for a while and grasp working with a modulation matrix, and in many cases it has a "more than one way to do it" quality that makes it simple for bread-and-butter sounds but also possible to switch your approach to something deeper. For example, you can start using FM by using the 2op and 3op oscillators which do FM synthesis directly; or you can use multiple oscillators and the FM signal path to create more complex uses of FM, incorporating other oscillator types. You can start with a simple waveform and add post-filter waveshaping to give it complexity; or you can switch to using wavetable synthesis. And so on.

All that and it's now free and open-source, no strings attached. So even if you don't have a need for a sound design tool, the presets available for it are plentiful.

Very good synth, its similar to KV331 Synthmaster1 and its free. It means that there is a lot of patches available. Sound is very good - it has 2 layers. FM is bit limited but with envelope modulation you can still do interesting FM sounds.

Its must have synth.

* sounds good to great.

* offers a effect VST with lots of effects for sound design.

* free.

I just downloaded this after the 1.9 update. I have to say this thing is powerful. i have tried so many plugins free and paid for. This one should be near the top! I think what intimidates users is the complexity of the layout but once you understand it and why it has all those options you will love it.

One of the best synths out there, extremely flexible and it sounds really good! Highly recommend it.

Has lots of adjustments. I have no process, except random tweaking of knobs till I find a strange sound. Haven't done any music in 4 years. Mix pc died, so I'm on a free version of Waveform 11, and putting a few plugins in it. Not disappointed in the Synth. I'm a fiddler and tweaker. It's what makes it fun. You can check my Soundcloud, gonna put some unmixed stuff on there. I like making spacy experimental stuff that makes your head feel weird.

This should have a 5-star rating, hands down. It is ridiculously powerful, with an intuitive and efficient interface. People I've told about this synth, who actually use it, love it... as do I.

Well done, I pulled back my words, this update its fantastic!!!, had a lot of new features especially the MSEG and various type of filter, this synth is an absolute monster!.

Fantastique synthé, qui permet des sons d'une variété incroyable.

Mon meilleur instrument, sans aucun doute .

At this point in time Surge is (by far) the most versatile free polyphonic synthesizer:

• many versatile oscillator options, including suboscillator, wavetables (with import), shaping, horizontal + vertical skewing, saturation, selfsync, unison with spread and FM).
• mixer with Gain (over)drive before the filter section (and AM).
• noise generator with a dedicated own HP/LP filter slider for noise "colour".
• great (dual) filters of different types, slopes and characteristics (features a separate global HP filter too).
• several Wave Shaper functions.
• various audiopath routings (with feedback).
• several MONO modes (with or without legato and/or amp/filter envelope retrigger).
• 3 operator/oscillator FM matrix (and 2 or 3 operator in the FM2/3 oscillators).
• almost any continuous parameter can be modulated (including oscillator shapes).
• great and versatile modulation sources (that can modulate each other too).
• ADSR envelopes with different curves (and more complex DAHDSR envelopes in the multiple (G)LFO sections).
• even has audio input.
• various FX in chains.
• Win, Mac, Linux, 32/64-bit.

Not much you can really not achieve with Surge. Sure, specialists will be better at their speciality. But versatility is Surge's strongpoint.

Hopefully it will live long and prosper in the hands of the open source community.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Just thought I should give the reviews found on this forum a little balance as many give this synth 5 stars.

To me a 3 star is a very good synth, so Surge is very good, period. However, for better synths that cost zero I think I rather choose Synth1 and then perhaps some of the synths that comes in a stripped/limited version with Computer Music, the mag, like Dune CM. Not exactly free then, but at least close.

Compared to things like Diva, Omnisphere and Serum, Surge does not have a chance when it comes to ocilator sound and programability.

Somewhere in between, pricewise, there is Fathom. To me the "best synth" ever, all things considered. It is not that sophisticated as the three mentioned and it stills struggles a little with CPU load (version 2.3) but at that price!!.

Surge will never be my main synth, but it has a quality that makes me not to delete it from my plugg list. Some of the factory presets are quite good, and there is a bunch of good presets to be downloaded from KVR. Programming on your own is quite easy and the manual is fairly good. However you need good eyes or fresh spectacles as the interrface is tiny and for some people it can be cumbersome.

One of the best things with Surge is that it is open source so a load of peple can contribute to future development. Open source and a lot of people can however also be a challenge as there might be different opinions on directions for development. Those who lives will see.

One of the best software synths available free or paid period. Wasn't even going to find out how powerful it was because of the confusing GUI until I read the manual and realized that it's despite actual graphics used for it, the GUI is actually flawlessly laid out for fast and easy use. This synth has been a revelation in helping me cope with G.A.S. as well. And sonically in a mix, it's indistinguishable from any of the bigger named synths yet maintains a kinda of sharp character about it all the same.

Surge is a very powerful synth that can do amazing stuff. It also is very processor efficient.

It provides multiple methods of synthesis with lots modulators and routing options.

You can do some real sounding acoustic instruments as well as electronic sounds that are hard to create with other synths.

I tend to use it more than any other synth anymore.

You do want to read the manual to understand how powerful it is.

The best MPE compatible synth around. Since it was open sourced the development is faster than most commercial synths. In that regard its also the project with the highest potential for the future...

The number of good presets inherited from its commercial times is tremendous. I wish all developers who, for whatever reason, stop themself developement would open source their babies...

Really good synth, the open source status is awsome. I love seeing how this synth is getting new features, and really hope its community will grow.

Holy crap! This thing is sweet! The number of presets it comes with is amazing, and the sound quality is not what I expected from a free plug. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with this one.

just a 'bump' as this is a brilliant softsynth. i seem to be using it more than ever these days.

i have gotten more interesting sounds out of this than practically any other vsti i have used. I mean banks of all sorts. the modulation features are spot on.

the interface is a superb example of how to mix form and function.

if i was to restrict myself to just a few vsti, this would absolutely be on the list.

I bought this synth in 2013. I love this synth. I've played around with a lot of other synths and I just always come back to surge. Why? I actually have fun programming sounds. I don't want to open up a synth and feel like making something is a chore. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much power a synth has if I'm fighting with the interface. It seems like today people are so obsessed with the next big thing and power, that simplicity and ease of use is seriously overlooked.

Surge has it's own character. You either hate it or love it. I'll admit at first I was a little put off by its harsher sound, but with a little tweaking you can definitely get some warmth from it. I find it's incredibly flexible and a great all rounder synth.

The other thing that's great is Surge finds a balance between being too heavy in a mix and too thin. When I design sounds I want them to fit. When previewing a patch alone in surge it might not pop out at you, but 9/10 it'll fit in the mix with minimal tweaking. I'm not a fan of the presets that sound amazing on their own, but eat up the whole spectrum that happens a lot on other synths. With Surge it's like fitting pieces of a puzzle together and when the track comes together it's sonically beautiful.

This synth strikes the perfect balance between being complex enough to make some awesome sounds and being user friendly enough so you spend more time making music and less time fighting with the software.

If you're thinking about buying Surge, don't hesitate. This is a beautiful synth with so many possibilities and an interface that just makes sense.

I've owned Surge for quite a few years.

I bought Surge as a replacement for Z3ta+, which I found I was missing after switching to OS X. In particular, I missed the ability to modulate the wave-shape the way Zeta used to. Surge is not as flexible as Zeta in this regard, but it's nice to have some of those features back. I also liked the wavetable capabilities.

That said, I found that I really loved the straight saw sounds out of Surge: they are "crispy"... and while they have a slightly digital feel to them, I really like the tone. Dial up the "Happy" patch for an example. (And though Surge offers three variants of tone toward the top of the interface, I never truly found this tweak to make a big enough difference to be worth using.)

Surge is also adept at handling a myriad of other "digital" sounds... particularly FM. Though this won't replace FM8, it does have some great capabilities in this department, making it my second-favorite FM synth.

The presets are good... though they are not going to make you jump out of your seat, they cover a lot of territory, including basic sounds and really far-out stuff. Claes did a good job, here.

The UI is reasonable. Strange colors, a blocky, windows-like feel... but puts most of what you need in a very small space. I don't especially enjoy editing the FX, however (and by and large, I don't like the FX compared to other synths). Modulation routing is brilliant... one of my favorite synths for this kind of editing. Modulation in general is Surge's trump card: great possibilities with strong LFOs, good envelopes, a decent step-sequencer, and other tricks up its sleeve. The two synths that I find Surge most comfortably compares itself to (at least that I own) are Massive and Largo. ...another two wavetable synths. I own both, and I find myself reaching for them more often than Surge largely because of their UIs. Largo also sounds better, in general (better filers, particularly with drive), and is more flexible. Massive has a larger bass presence, but sounds much more digital than Surge. Massive's modulation routing is also one step up from Surge's, since you can see destinations immediately rather than having to click on each source. ...That said, Surge is capable of modifying the same destination with more modulators, if you need that sort of thing.

The sound of Surge is, overall, good. Not stellar, and it has a hard time competing with more modern synths. As a result, I've really stopped using Surge much. I still have a couple of weird sounds waiting to throw into a track here and there, and I certainly haven't uninstalled it, but I generally don't find Surge capable of keeping up with its competitors. I think it sounds about as good as Massive (though not for bass, where obviously Massive wins). Largo sounds better (again: it's the filters), but when you put Surge next to the most modern synths (Diva, ElectraX, Dune, Zebra, etc)... it's just not as "sweet".

That said, there are a few "weird" lead sounds that I really love in Surge and would be hard to reproduce in other synths ("Back to Tyrel", for example), and will probably make me keep it installed moving forward. ...I also just find Surge "fun". :) It's a synth with an attitude of its own, and I respect that.

Lastly, I'll say that of all the synths I own (about 20), Surge is in my top three for the number of patches I've written for it. It's a synth that invites editing.

I'm glad I own it. ...But I'm afraid I would steer people away from it, unless you're already well-stocked with the better modern synths. If you're looking for something quirky to add to an already-robust collection, then I heartily recommend it: Surge has a character and "spunk" that I'm sure you would enjoy.

FWIW, you can hear Surge presets being used in some of Infected Mushroom's more modern stuff, to give you an idea of how professional it can sound. ...if you like that kind of thing.

I should also mention that I've never had Surge freeze or crash on me, even though I've certainly put it through its paces.