Surge XT 1.2, a free update, adds clever utilities (oscilloscope, spectrograph…), MTS-ESP provider, and more to the mighty free synth plugin
Vital and Surge XT usually come up if I am asked about free Synthesizer plugins. The latter is, however, my favorite. That’s because it’s completely free, open-source, and constantly being developed further by the developers.
The number of features the developers have already built into the Surge XT is almost absurd. Each update massively expands the synth’s feature set even more. I leave it to you whether you need all of these. But often, less is more. Don’t forget there is also Surge XT for VCV Rack. In the new Surge XT 1.2, the developers have added some convenient functions.
Surge XT 1.2
The new update was released over Easter and is again packed with new tools and improvements. Surgte XT 1.2 now has a built-in oscilloscope and spectrograph based on s(m)exoscope from Smartelectronix. This is a perfect extension with which you can easily understand or analyze which sounds you have built.
Then, the plugin now acts as an MTS-ESP provider (server), allowing the Surge XT Tuning Editor to provide tuning for all supporting clients in a session. Other good new features and improvements are:
- new accessibility sub-menu in the main menu
- export patches as text (opens in web browser)
- step Sequencer steps now have manual value type-ins on the right mouse click context menu
- default settings for Reverb and Delay effects are more usable
- filter analyzer now lets you modify the cutoff and resonance simultaneously by simply dragging across the plot, XY pad style
- noise generator can now be dropped to mono in all stereo filter configurations (right-click the Noise Color slider)
- nimbus resampler now works at very high sample rates (or low block sizes)
- modulation now works on Unison Detune parameter of Ring Modulator effect
- added an option to ignore MIDI Program Change messages
- new third-party wavetables from A.Liv
- updated the LinnStrument MPE patches
In addition, there are many bug fixes, and improvements in the VCV Rack version, including the option retriggering from non-zero values for LFO EGs The full change log is available here.
Another impressive update for the free Surge XT Synthesizer. Big thanks to the developers who make the plugin better and better from update to update.
Surge XT is available now as a free download from the official developer website. The new Surge XT 1.2 is also a free update. It runs as a VST
More information here: Surge-Synthesizer
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