Surge XT Tutorial - Modulators |  

Thanks for all the great work your team has done on this synth! I'm looking forward to watching Surge grow and seeing where you plan to take it...

Please allow animation of parameters via internal sources, this looks and works great via DAW or Midi CC. Also I can't thank the Surge XT Avengers team enough, for this great plugin.

I agree, it would be great to have this. Although there's a lot of value to doing it all by ear, I find that synths that are more visual like Vital, Serum, and Pigments are easier to use and more fun. Since it is open source, I would imagine we'll have UI updates like this at some point in the future. It's a great synth with some powerful features; I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with it!

I really appreciate animated GUI's on powerful synths, that's why Vital is my all time favourite vst. Not only is it sonically alive but also visually alive. SurgXT is a very close second place because it lacks animation. When I use surge in my DAW I modulate it's parameters externally from my DAW or Midi CC. When SurgeXT is being externally modulated, it's parameters are animated so it should be possible to animate them when internally modulated..

I know of their modules from VCV Rack, and those do have some animated aspects. So it's not something impossible for this.

Appreciate it! Sometimes the details are important to get the sound you want. The more you know, the easier it is to discover cool sounds.

That's awesome! To be honest, the manual is (by far) my favorite thing about Surge XT. Most synths or plugins have limited to no documentation, and it's sometimes frustrating to understand what's going on and why things aren't doing what I expect them to do. However, Surge XT's manual is outstanding. It explains clearly what each parameter and feature does and has lots of extra details that a technical person like myself finds helpful. Easily the best manual I've seen so far, and I feel that it really helps to unlock the power of the synth. Great work! I'm looking forward to seeing what's to come!

Is this a vst or a stand alone?

Good question! I'm using it as a vst, but it supports both standalone and VST3, as well as the new CLAP standard.

Glad it was helpful!

Yeah, I get that a lot. No, that's actually my real voice. Maybe I should start doing impressions.

No problem! Glad to help!

Glad you enjoy it!

Thanks, appreciate the support! Maybe some day!

@@idlethoughtsmusic All the best!🙏

Glad it helped! Sound design takes a lot of practice and experimentation once you learn the fundamentals. Just be patient and you'll get there!

Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for checking it out.

Thanks! No, not official. But the developers have written a really good manual that does a great job at explaining the synth. It's really well integrated into the synth too (when you use the help options). You should check it out if you get a chance! I learned a lot from it.

Glad you found them useful! I've got a short surge XT sound tutorial coming very soon and a big one on the surge XT waveshaper in the works, so more on the way!

Glad they were helpful!

Hmm... There's some interesting modulation tricks in there. I'll have to look into that.

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

Yeah! If I were to continue this series, it would either be filters or effects next. There's a lot of good stuff in there...

That's a great question! I'm not 100% sure, but my guess is that it means "the modulators settings are down there". Since the most recently selected one changes color (to orange when using the dark theme), that probably means "this is the one that you're changing below".

Great question! It works the same as the other modulators. The MSEG part is the Raw waveform. There's actually a second envelope on top of the MSEG - that's the LFO EG at the bottom right. By default, the second envelope is configured to not affect the sound. If you increase the LFO EG's attack, for example, you'll see that it changes the overall shape of the (MSEG) LFO. You can change it to Raw only to use the MSEG component only (ignoring the LFO EG), or to EG only to ignore the MSEG and just use the LFO EG. The trick is that when you switch types, you'll need to reapply that LFO's modulation to the parameter you want to modulate (remove the old one and put it back on). Or, you can actually apply both types to the same parameter. For example, you can select Raw waveform for LFO 1 to apply the MSEG component to Oscillator 1's Level with a strength of 15 dB, and then switch to EG Only for the same LFO and apply it the Oscillator 1 Level by 10 dB or something. Be careful though because it can get loud doing this.

@@idlethoughtsmusic Thanks very much. Oh I see you have to reapply the lfo. It would be nice to make a video to demonstrate it.

Great question! The short answer is that the Return slider sets the gain for each Send Fx. Think of it like a volume knob to change the amount of reverb / delay / other effect without having to change the settings of the effect or adjusting all the send levels. The long answer is this: There are three locations to place the effects - "insert effects" (FX), which work on scenes A and B only, "send effects", where you have more control and can decide how much of the signal to send from each scene to each effect (and is applied after the insert FX), and "global effects", which get applied at the very end after everything else is applied. The Send FX are the 4 effects in the middle of the diagram. So let's say you set Send FX 1 to use a reverb and Send FX 2 use a delay. You can decide how much of the signal to send to each effect using the Send FX 1,2 Level sliders to the left of the effects. So basically, move Send FX 1 Level to the right and you'll get more reverb, and Send FX 2 Level to the right and you'll get more delay. Now let's say you configure both Scenes A and B with their own oscillators, filters, etc. and want to hear both at the same time (which you can do by setting the Mode to the right of the scene selection to "Dual"). You then use the Send FX Levels in each scene to send the amount of that scene to your Send FX 1 and 2 (Reverb and Delay). You now have both Scene A and Scene B's sound going to the same Reverb and Delay. This gets us to the Return slider you're asking about. It just changes the gain of the Send FX (your reverb, delay, or other effect) like a volume knob. All the way to the right and you have the full Reverb / Delay / FX amount. Lower the gain by sliding it to the left and all the Reverb / Delay / FX goes away. This is useful for testing your sound (temporarily remove the reverb and see how it sounds), or for adjusting the overall level if you already have the blend you like between Scene A and B, without having to go and adjust all the Send FX level sliders. In summary: Add effects to Send FXs as needed. The Send FX Level is used to "send" the audio of each scene to each effect (i.e. how much reverb do you want on Scene A's saw waves vs how much do you want on Scene B's low-end bass). The Return level can change the strength of the effect (i.e. turn the reverb down for both scenes in one handy slider, without changing the effect settings). Hopefully this makes sense. It's a little confusing at first and hard to explain in words, but once you see it in practice, it's not too bad to follow. At some point I'll make a video on the effects section but I haven't gotten around to it yet. There are some other good RU-vid videos out there that may be able to help clarify if this is still confusing. Good luck!

@@idlethoughtsmusicGood explanation, I understand clearly.Thanks for the reply. Great stuff.

Of course! Any parameter you can expose to Ableton can be automated (expand the device for Surge XT at the bottom of Ableton, hit Configure, and move the desired control in Surge XT to expose it). You can expose the macros and add a custom automation curve to it in Ableton, or even expose and further modulate Surge XT's modulation parameters, such as LFO 1's Rate. Hope this helps!