Surge – Free Synth For PC, Mac & Linux

Surge is a digital synth and makes no bones about it.

If you have used it in the past, it will be like welcoming an old friend back into your life. If you are new to Surge, welcome to the party. Come on in, the water is fine.

Thanks to the generosity of @Kurasu (owner of Vember Audio), Surge has been open sourced and lives on GitHub.

SYNTH SPECIFICATIONS

Synthesis method: Subtractive hybrid

Each patch contain two ‘scenes’ which are separate instances of the entire synthesis engine (except effects) that can be used for layering or split patches.

Quick category-based patch browser

Runs on a variety of operating systems, plugin formats, and architectures

FACTORY SOUNDS

• 1725 patches
• 523 wavetables

OSCILLATORS

• 3 oscillators per scene.
• 8 versatile oscillator algorithms: Classic, Sine, Wavetable, Window, FM2, FM3, S&H Noise and Audio Input.
• Classic oscillator is a morphable pulse/saw/dual saw oscillator with a sub-oscillator and hard sync.
• FM2/FM3 oscillators consist of a carrier and 2 or 3 modulators and various options.
• Most algorithms (except FM2, FM3 and Audio input) offer up to 16-voice unison at the oscillator level.
• Oscillator FM and ring modulation between oscillators 1-2 and 2-3.
• Most oscillator algorithms (except FM2, FM3 and Sine) are strictly band-limited, yet still cover the entire audible spectrum, delivering a clear punchy yet clean sound.
• Noise generator with variable spectrum.

FILTER BLOCK

• Two filter units in 8 different configurations.
• Feedback loop available in 7 of those configurations.
• Available filter algorithms: Lowpass (12 and 24 dB/oct, each with 3 variations), Lowpass 24 dB/oct (3 variations), Ladder Lowpass (6-24 dB/oct), Highpass (12 and 24 dB/oct, each with 3 variations), Bandpass (12 and 24 dB/oct, each with 3 variations), Notch (12 and 24 dB/oct, each with 2 variations), Comb (4 variations), S&H.
• Filters can self-oscillate (with excitation) and respond amazingly fast to cutoff frequency changes.
• Waveshaper (5 shapes).

EFFECTS

• 8 effect units arranged as 2 inserts per scene, 2 sends and 2 master effects.
• 13 effect algorithms:
• EQ, Distortion, Conditioner (EQ, stereo image control and limiter), Frequency Shifter, Rotary Speaker, Ring Modulator, Vocoder, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Delay, Reverb 1, Reverb 2

System Requirements

macOS

• Intel Mac running at least macOS 10.11
• Minimum of 4 GB of RAM
• VST-compatible or AU-compatible host application

Windows

• Windows 7 and a recent Intel processor (at least Pentium 4 or above)
• Recommended: Computer running Windows 7 64-bit or newer
• Minimum of 4 GB of RAM
• VST-compatible host application
• x64-compatible CPU, OS and host is required to use the 64-bit version

Linux

• PC running a Linux distro
• CPU must support the SSE2 instruction set. This has been supported on Intel CPUs since Pentium 4, and on AMD CPUs since Athlon 64.
• Minimum of 4 GB of RAM
• VST-compatible host application
• x64-compatible CPU, OS and host is required to use the 64-bit version