5 Reasons to Try Surge XT

Here are 5 quick reasons to try Surge XT, a free and open-source synthesizer!

[@XzGOLDENzX]

Imagine a top 5 synth that can go toe to toe with massive, serum, dune 3, diva, well this one is free and can get you any sound you can imagine, worth having and learning to use, the synths manual is the most comprehensive I’ve ever seen, no other synth comes close to what you get here, there’s a standalone fx part to it as well, blown away by how good this is ❤

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

You about summed it up! It's also very CPU efficient. People should definitely give it a try!

[@pineapple_on_cheeseburger]

Surge is my favorite FM synth

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

It's pretty good at FM, and you can't beat the price!

[@JXQU3]

Surge is underrated. Surge is great! And even if you don't like sound design, it comes with more than 2500 presets by default, and 700 wavetables. And I love that you can use the effects in another instruments or clips, I really like the reverb!

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

It is pretty powerful! There's some really amazing presets in there too. I just found a new favorite yesterday (The Fabulous Chippy FM West Coast Lead by Kinsey Dulcet).

[@adamarmstrong9408]

Surge is a beast! We are so lucky these days to have powerful synths like surge and vital

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

Yes it is! They're really good synths and a great way to get started into sound design!

[@leinexkeith291]

Let me check sound design videos via Surge XT. I hope you have those tutorials where you start from nothing (initial) to a finished and ready sound

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

Well, so far I only have one start to finish sound design tutorial in Surge XT, but I do have two "how to use it" tutorials, and more on the way!

[@Prodgvr]

ive been producing for 7 months and have been using surge xt in prolly a third of my beats and i havent even gone through any sections other than leads and pads and ive prolly only use 5 presets

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

It's pretty useful! I have a few favorites as well. Dig around in there and you'll find some inspiring presets in there!

[@freddymercury2259]

I saw a comparison between vital and serum, and serum had a noticeably warmer sound. Can you do a comparison with serum synth and surge?

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

That's a good idea. I'll add it to my list of video ideas and see if I can put something together on this at some point. I think its interesting to compare how each synth sounds and compare how clean or dirty each synth's oscillators are. Both styles have their uses...

[@nihiqallam5616]

Sequencer??

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

It has a step sequencer LFO type. You can use that for all sorts of interesting modulation effects, including pitch modulation. Good question!

[@Pedozzi]

yes, but it's unpossible to learn and use

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

It seems a little intimidating at first (like most synths), but when you get to know it a bit, it's actually not too bad to use!

[@carlosmspk]

I got out a pretty interesting soundwave using filters, envelopes, and a combination of two waves after 4 hours of messing with it. I'm not minimally educated in music, and it was my first time using anything music related. I didn't even know what a DAW was or why I needed one, much less how to include a VST plugin (also didn't know what that was). All in all, 4 hours seems like very little time for the sheer amount of stuff that I needed to do, and I'm not particularly bright I started off with this channel's Oscillator and Modulator tutorials, maybe you can start with that, feels a lot less intimidating after watching those (pro tip: follow along, don't just watch)

[@idlethoughtsmusic]

@@carlosmspk Thanks for sharing! A synth is pretty intimidating at first and they're so much to learn with using a DAW and sound design. It's not as hard as people think to get started, if you're willing to put in some time. Sounds like you have a great start! I agree that the Oscillator and Modulator tutorials are great to start with. One of these days I'll put together a "getting started with synths" video, but that's a big topic and challenging to make into short videos. And I definitely agree that you'll get much more out of it if you follow along. Thanks for watching!