Surge XT Oscillator Tutorial |

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  • Опубликовано: 29 окт 2024

Комментарии • 91

  • @hwitmore92
    @hwitmore92 15 дней назад +2

    wow, thought I already knew how to use surge but there is so much more to it than I thought!
    very very informative video thanks

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  15 дней назад

      Glad it was helpful! There are definitely a lot of features in there that were a surprise to me. It's amazing what you can learn when you start doing a deeper dive into these synths.

    • @hwitmore92
      @hwitmore92 15 дней назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic yes i find the fm on surge waaaaay easier to use than dexed for example!

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  14 дней назад +1

      Yeah, Dexed is definitely more challenging to do FM in, but it is pretty powerful. Synths like Surge XT, Vital, and Serum use an easier (but more limited) FM implementation. A lot of the time, that's exactly what you need, and the ease of use makes a huge difference (and lets you add FM to more things)!

  • @oath4231
    @oath4231 2 года назад +11

    best synth plugin of all time

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад +6

      It is pretty awesome, yeah. I can't believe it's free!

    • @oath4231
      @oath4231 2 года назад +5

      @@idlethoughtsmusic thanks for the tutorial sir

    • @ramalshebl60
      @ramalshebl60 Год назад +1

      not saying i disagree, just saying it's only the best if you know how to use it...

    • @straighttalk2069
      @straighttalk2069 Год назад +2

      Vital just beats it for me but these two are all I need in the VST synth world.

    • @CuriousPassenger
      @CuriousPassenger 8 месяцев назад

      @@straighttalk2069 VItal is good, but Surge is a competely different beast. With all its weird oscs, filters, waveshapers, effects, routing options it provides so much character.

  • @prosaschleuder
    @prosaschleuder Год назад +13

    Very informative, no blabbering and not trying to make yourself the more interesting content. I like that.
    What I find very remarkable about Surge is its frugal use of CPU power. On my system Surge rarely exceeds 1%.
    My original thought was to use some synths like Synth 1 or one from Fullbucket for the simpler stuff and Surge for the more sophisticated sounds. But after doing some very unscientific comparisons with the help of the task manager I can't see a reason to not use Surge for everything.
    Btw, Vital on my system: 15-20%, when minimized at around 7%...

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      Glad you found it useful. Sometimes it's best to get straight to the point.
      Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, Surge is pretty remarkable for its low CPU usage. It's hard to beat!

  • @jamesberry5968
    @jamesberry5968 Год назад +4

    love this synth.
    it’s also possible to import audio wavs as wavetables but breaking with initial time and pitch restrictions using the window option. you can even assign key tracking to formant in the modulation setup, then adjust it so that each key doesn’t formant shift. better synth options for this, but still gets some fun results for free.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      That's a good use of the formant option!
      It would be nice to have more capability in the wavetable editor (and support for 24 bit files), since it's a bit limited there. But you could always load your audio into Vital and make your wavetable, export it as a WAV file in the wavetable editor, and then load it into Surge XT.
      You can make some really fun sounds in Surge. There's a lot of cool features in there for shaping your sound and adding modulation, especially for a free synth.

  • @bluefire9113
    @bluefire9113 Год назад +6

    You can also type the pitch note in the filter if you're interested in keytracking and stuff

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +3

      That's right! There's some nice key tracking features in there. I'm looking at making a video on Surge's filters sometime within the next few videos, so stay tuned...

  • @irpacynot
    @irpacynot 10 месяцев назад +1

    Absolutely excellent tutorial.
    Thank you

  • @marcoose777
    @marcoose777 6 месяцев назад +1

    An excellent overview, thanks.

  • @trevor_mounts_music
    @trevor_mounts_music 2 месяца назад +1

    I started using this for big lush pads because it doesn't cook my CPU like Serum can tend to. Underrated synth!

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 месяца назад

      Totally agree, that's one of its best features! It's a great synth and I'm surprised it isn't more well known.

  • @apatsa_basiteni
    @apatsa_basiteni Год назад +1

    Holy# this thing is powerful yet CPU efficient. Thanks dude!

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      Yeah, no problem! It's a great synth. More Surge XT videos in the works!

    • @apatsa_basiteni
      @apatsa_basiteni Год назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic Awesome!🙏

  • @vantablack9701
    @vantablack9701 Год назад +1

    Thank you for your videos, please continue💌

  • @michailluuko3909
    @michailluuko3909 2 года назад +1

    Splendid explanation! Good for you!)

  • @aspirativemusicproduction2135
    @aspirativemusicproduction2135 8 месяцев назад +1

    Thanks for explaining all this 🙂

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  8 месяцев назад

      Not a problem! Hope it was helpful.

    • @aspirativemusicproduction2135
      @aspirativemusicproduction2135 8 месяцев назад +1

      @idlethoughtsmusic I am sure it is. This synth isn't exactly intuitive. It's hard to figure out anything by myself. Without instructions I am lost.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  8 месяцев назад

      Yeah, there's definitely a learning curve to most synths. Once you figure out the basics, it's not too bad. I learn better when there's a quick tutorial to get me started, so I tried to make a few...

  • @Volksinformant
    @Volksinformant 13 дней назад

    What I really like about Surge XT is that it is Open Source! Open Source is the future because it will outlast proprietary software and instruments. Surge XT also has a very wide range of functions.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  12 дней назад

      Open source does have some nice advantages. They've been able to pack a lot of nice features in there, for sure!

  • @lucazfc
    @lucazfc 2 года назад +4

    Awesome video! Please, cover any of these in the future: zynaddsubfx 3 (zyn-fusion), odin 2, dexed, helm, cardinal

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад +2

      Thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into those some more.

  • @sugarpuppies
    @sugarpuppies Год назад +2

    Great review and tutorial. I'd like to suggest a similar video with the amazing Vital.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

      Thanks! I have a few Vital tutorials up, and although they're more focused on making specific sounds, they do cover some Vital features along the way. I plan on making more Vital tutorials. I'm actually working on a Vital filters one right now, which should cover things like the difference between ladder and diode filters, and so on.

  • @solo9334
    @solo9334 2 года назад +3

    Great video, thank you 🙏, I was having difficulties with setting simple LFO, for some reason the the lfo waves don’t sync very well, also envelopes are kind of tricky to work with, a tutorial about that would be much appreciated, also couldn’t find any video or documentation about this issues.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад

      Glad you found it useful! If there's enough interest in the Surge video(s), I'd like to do a series of videos explaining the different parts of the synth. If that works out, I can make the modulators video next in the Surge series (before the filters). There's a bit of a learning curve, but there's some powerful features in Surge, especially in the modulators. The manual was very helpful for getting me started with them.
      I'm curious about your LFO syncing issue. Were you synced to tempo (right click on the rate slider at the bottom and select Tempo Sync)?

    • @solo9334
      @solo9334 2 года назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic yes it happened when synced to tempo, its like every few waves there’s a different wave (longer) coming up.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад +1

      @@solo9334 Huh. I'll keep an eye out for that!

  • @genuinefreewilly5706
    @genuinefreewilly5706 2 года назад +4

    I love and hate this synth. Its a good tutorial to go deeper, tnx for that, A couple patches blew me away first time I played around with the presets. 'Rather Low' was one of them, I thought there was an earthquake, the cats freaked out. I think its still among the best patches I try to keep that effect for certain spots in a mix. The cathederal organ is pretty convincing and frightening as well
    However taming the Surge beast is not so easy for myself. I end up going into the netherworld pretty fast but I should spend a few hours and read the literature

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад +4

      I never thought about that, but that makes total sense that the cats would freak out about that (and to be honest, if you're like me, you might have enjoyed that more than you should have). Hopefully they didn't freak out when I played it in the video (13:12). I probably should have paid more attention to the lows when working on that section of the video; I tend to work on headphones most of the time.
      Surge does have some great presets, but as you've seen, there's a bit of a learning curve to the synth. There's some powerful stuff in there. I've been digging through the manual and trying to learn it better myself. It has a great manual! If there's enough interest, I'm considering making a series of videos sharing what I've learned. Let's tame that beast!

    • @genuinefreewilly5706
      @genuinefreewilly5706 2 года назад +2

      @@idlethoughtsmusic The cats are my among my best listening critics Its hillarious what they react to
      There are some unique pad sounds I find myself coming back to and tweek or mimic. Loving your tutorials, and yeh I will keep picking away at Surge and figure it out eventually
      Just me but most modern wavetable vsts and hardware still sound like old 6 operator DX7s but easier to use and move sounds whereever you like in the stereo field. Yamaha made tons of them, Ive had numerous incarnations over the decades. The simple 4 operator synths were great lead instruments, and they made excellent bell and chimes and of course these days one may use them to beef up a more nuanced sample
      I hope I am somewhat sympathetic and not inclined subjecting my pets to what I experiment with and can drive any creature to madness :)

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  2 года назад +1

      @@genuinefreewilly5706 Your cats sound like a lot of fun! I'm sure they're confused with some of the interesting sounds you make.
      Pads are really fun and can really set the atmosphere for your music. The more you play with them, the more you learn and the better you get! I haven't had the opportunity to play with any hardware synths like DX7s, but maybe one day I'll have the space and time to do that. I'm looking forward to that. For now, I use controllers and software synths. You can do some amazing stuff with soft synths these days.
      Glad you're enjoying the videos, and thanks for the feedback!

    • @genuinefreewilly5706
      @genuinefreewilly5706 2 года назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic Absolutely

  • @thelittlepotcompany
    @thelittlepotcompany 4 месяца назад +1

    Wow I thought the sine wasnt pure the other day, didn't understand but now i know. I guess id have to use a filter to get a pure tone in future

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  4 месяца назад

      Yeah, it's hard to find a sine wave that's super pure. If that's what you're going for, pay attention to your waveform selection (and filter selection), and of course, any effects you add on it. Even your speakers and especially room acoustics will have an effect. A lot of the time, people go for an impure sine on purpose because of the extra color or analog style sound it gives. Just depends on what you want to use it for. Know what you have and how your processing affects it, and get the sound you want for your music! If it sounds good...

  • @CatFish107
    @CatFish107 9 месяцев назад +1

    Never mind ableton, the vcv rack version makes routing audio or modulation signals easy peasy.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  9 месяцев назад

      I haven't had a chance to try that out yet. It looks pretty awesome!

    • @CatFish107
      @CatFish107 9 месяцев назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic they are some of the slickest, best thought out, most useful modules in the library. SurgeXT ftw

  • @Diremension
    @Diremension Год назад +1

    6:17 How did you change the display?
    Tried looking it up myself but I can't find anything. Also tried clicking on it while having various keys pressed but nothing happens :/
    I would really appreciate your help :)

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

      All you need to do is click on it. The trick is, it you need to be in the wavetable (or window) oscillator to change the display. Most of the time if it's not working, it's because I forgot to switch from Classic.

    • @Diremension
      @Diremension Год назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic Thanks for your quick answer, I really appreciate it :)
      Turns out it was just a bug and a update to a newer version fixed the issue ^^'

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

      That's good to know! You aren't the first person to run into this behavior, so I'll remember that as a potential cause...

  • @shakesMcJunkie123
    @shakesMcJunkie123 17 дней назад +1

    What program is the sound spectrum visualizer?

  • @yousifaldailami4241
    @yousifaldailami4241 Год назад +1

    This is what i wanted to see thank you! I have a question, how do you have 3D wavetable view?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      Glad it was helpful! To get a 3D wavetable view, you only need to click on the wavetable view window. It'll switch back and forth between 2D and 3D. You could also right-click and tell it to switch between 2D and 3D in the popup menu.

    • @yousifaldailami4241
      @yousifaldailami4241 Год назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic I probably need to update then. Ye it worked. But i guess i was on a classic oscillator before updating.. 😂😂

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      I did the same thing at first, until I realized I was still on classic...

  • @typingcat
    @typingcat Год назад +1

    So, all the sound effects I heard in 1970/80 animations/movies were made with waveforms?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

      Not necessarily. Some sound effects may be made electronically, but many sound effects are made by recording and processing real sounds (Foley sounds). There are some really interesting videos on RUclips on how they make these sounds. On the other hand, arcade and video games (especially older ones) use a lot of electronically generated sounds. It's pretty clever how they come up with these sounds. A lot of it depends on the technology available at the time (and what was popular).

  • @liamkoehler8820
    @liamkoehler8820 Год назад +1

    Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how do I "play" in Surge XT? You skipped over how to actually generate sound. Is it a keybinding? A 'play' button hidden somewhere in the UI?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      So there is no play button - instead, Surge XT, like other virtual synths, runs as a plugin within a DAW (Ableton Live in my case). The DAW sends the MIDI information to Surge XT when play is pressed in the DAW, and Surge XT returns audio back to the DAW which is then further processed and then sent to your speakers.
      Now, Surge XT does have a standalone version, which is probably what you're using. In this case, I assume it gets the MIDI from any controllers you may have plugged into your PC, and would then return the sound to your speakers. So in other words, you would play notes on your MIDI controller (probably a music keyboard) and hear the sound on your speaker. If you don't have a MIDI controller, I'm sure there are standalone programs out there that can generate MIDI from your computer keyboard. If you're just getting started, I'd recommend looking for a DAW if you don't have one yet. Although Surge XT is free, most DAWs are not and some are very expensive. There are some less expensive ones out there so do your research and find the one that fits you. Just make sure it can load in plugins, like Surge XT.

    • @liamkoehler8820
      @liamkoehler8820 Год назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic Thanks so much for the answer!
      I actually reached out to the Surge XT guys and got a resolution. Let me explain what I did:
      1) The first step was getting Surge XT to do "anything". This is most easily done using the 'Menu' -> 'Workflow' -> 'Virtual Keyboard' option, and pressing some notes that way.
      2) The second step is to hook up a DAW, a physical keyboard, or a midi editor. I chose to use something called 'Loop' to create virtual midi ports between 'Midi Editor' software and 'Surge XT'
      Hope this helps anyone on their own journey :)

  • @deppam
    @deppam 8 месяцев назад +1

    Great, How do you change the hase of the oscillator?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  8 месяцев назад

      Actually, you're not the first one to ask this question. It's a good question!
      I'm not sure if you can set the phase directly, but the oscillator's Retrigger button (located between the waveform display and the octave buttons) cause all voices of the oscillator to always start at the same phase position (or all oscillators using a right click option). This is like setting the random phase knob down to 0 in Serum or setting the phase randomness to 0 in Vital. This doesn't let you control the amount of randomness of the phase or set the exact value like you can in Serum or Vital, but allows you to disable randomness in your starting phase, which is nice for sounds that need to sound the exact same every time.

    • @deppam
      @deppam 8 месяцев назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusicYour videos are great . Thanks for the explanation. But it would be a nice feature to have.

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  8 месяцев назад +1

      It would be useful. You can always go to the surge xt discord group and ask the developers about adding it. They're pretty responsive to questions.

    • @deppam
      @deppam 8 месяцев назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic Ok cool I will

  • @vout23
    @vout23 9 месяцев назад +1

    Is there a way to change the phase of the oscillator?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  9 месяцев назад +1

      I'm not sure if you can set the phase directly, but the oscillator's Retrigger button (located between the waveform display and the octave buttons) cause all voices of the oscillator to always start at the same phase position (or all oscillators using a right click option). This is like setting the random phase knob down to 0 in Serum or setting the phase randomness to 0 in Vital. This doesn't let you control the amount of randomness of the phase or set the exact value like you can in Serum or Vital, but allows you to disable randomness in your starting phase, which is nice for sounds that need to sound the exact same every time.

  • @Xscor98300
    @Xscor98300 25 дней назад +1

    My surge XT is making no noise 😕

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  24 дня назад +1

      That could be due to a few reasons... If you were to replace it with another plugin, do you get sound (is it a DAW or speaker issue)? Is anything muted in surge? Are the volume levels up? Anything bypassed? Have you tried putting a spectrum analyzer on the output to verify that it's not a weird frequency issue?

    • @Xscor98300
      @Xscor98300 24 дня назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic I just started making music and I don’t know what any of that is, where do you reckon a should start to learn all this because I downloaded arminator2 and it won’t even open it’s just in my browser, I’m struggling with plugins and vst stuff rn

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  24 дня назад +1

      Welcome to music production! The first step is to find a DAW (digital audio workstation) - this is the software where you'll do most of your work. Start with something inexpensive or free, or with a trial of a paid one (Ableton live, FL Studio, ...). You may already have one (Garage Band if on a Mac). Then, find some tutorials or online classes on how to use your DAW. RUclips has lots of good videos to help you get started, and if you want a more organized class, Udemy has some really good cheap classes (only buy when on the frequent sales). Once you learn your DAW's basics, then you'll find that plugins like Surge XT or arminator2 will be easier to work with. It takes a little bit of work to learn, but it's worth it, so don't get discouraged!

    • @Xscor98300
      @Xscor98300 24 дня назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic thx u man I appreciate it.

  • @nihiqallam5616
    @nihiqallam5616 Год назад +1

    Does it have sequencer

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

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

    • @nihiqallam5616
      @nihiqallam5616 Год назад

      @@idlethoughtsmusic how does modulation work it the most confusing part about this vst like it work sometime other time it doesn't change anything

    • @nihiqallam5616
      @nihiqallam5616 Год назад

      @@idlethoughtsmusic also another question is the step-sequencer is comparable to serum Lfo sequencer

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад

      I have a video on surge xt's modulation that should help. It's similar to serum's LFO. Serum has a single customizable LFO that's easy to use and mix lfo styles, and surge is more broken out into different types if you're looking for something quick of a specific type with extra tools to help. You can make completely customizable LFOs in surge like in serum, but it isn't quite as intuitive. It's very powerful though and both have features the other one doesn't.

  • @ramalshebl60
    @ramalshebl60 Год назад

    unrelated question: why can i not watch this video in 240p?

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      That's a good question. I upload in 1080p and RUclips converts it automatically. I just tested it and it works on my computer in 240p, but maybe it doesn't work on some phones or some browsers or something?

    • @ramalshebl60
      @ramalshebl60 Год назад +1

      @@idlethoughtsmusic strange... youtube has really been making some bad decisions lately, i'm thinking of completely deleting the app off my phone, but creators like you are the only reason keeping me on this platform

    • @idlethoughtsmusic
      @idlethoughtsmusic  Год назад +1

      Yeah, who knows what they're up to. Things are always changing one way or another and it doesn't always work out. Appreciate the support!

  • @YanSerov-vn5ob
    @YanSerov-vn5ob Год назад +1

    👌🤌👍