Starting with Surge XT

[aka]

Hi everyone,

I wish to learn Surge XT, I began to read the manual but it seems it's not the easiest way. I wish to be able to make a sound like I imagine it, so, I looked for by example tutorials but it's a lot of them.

So, can please someone give me an advice ? What to read/watch/do to be able to make a sound like I imagine it ? I know it's a big project.

aka

[Impostor]

Hi everyone,

I wish to learn Surge XT, I began to read the manual but it seems it's not the easiest way. I wish to be able to make a sound like I imagine it, so, I looked for by example tutorials but it's a lot of them.

So, can please someone give me an advice ? What to read/watch/do to be able to make a sound like I imagine it ? I know it's a big project.

aka :)

Works for all synths: find a preset with the general desired characteristics, and take it from there. Want something pad-like, piano-like, bell-like? Then alter ADSR, lfo's, filters etcetera to your liking.

Starting from scratch is really hard (read: near impossible) without a lot of prior experience. A synth without presets is useless to me. Luckily, most come with a basic to extensive set of presets, and I often use those without any major adjustments.

[tavasti]

I wish to learn Surge XT, I began to read the manual but it seems it's not the easiest way. I wish to be able to make a sound like I imagine it, so, I looked for by example tutorials but it's a lot of them.

If you really want to learn to make own sounds, you need to study a bit. Here is free book about sound design, and Surge is one of the synths used in it:
https://noisesculpture.com/how-to-make- ... ogramming/

[oddy.o.lynx]

best way it to use duckduckgo, google and you tube to search for Surge XT how to's

there are hundreds of excellent tutorials on line

other than that you can join the Surge discord server and ask questions there

[barbouze]

What kind of sounds do you want to create? Virtual instruments to perform in a track or ambience sounds/foley/film score?
Is this your first synth or are you familiar with other synthesizers/synthesis concepts?
If this is the former, I would suggest you to spend a little time with simpler synths to learn the basics and not be overwhelmed by Surge.
Don't misunderstand me, Surge isn't that complex if you have a little background in synthesis and is a great tool that can easily cover all your needs and more but it is so rich and detail-oriented that it is easy to get lost or frustrated and miss the big picture, the sound you imagine.

[tavasti]

best way it to use duckduckgo, google and you tube to search for Surge XT how to's

there are hundreds of excellent tutorials on line

Are you sure you did read orinal post?

I looked for by example tutorials but it's a lot of them.

[aka]

Hi,

What kind of sounds do you want to create? Virtual instruments to perform in a track or ambience sounds/foley/film score?

I wish to create sounds like they are by example in psy-trance.

So, it will be by example basses (like house basses), of course some percussions, background (ambience) sounds too and several "master-sounds" (I don't know how to describe them ; typically "electronic music sounds" - techno, house, etc).

Is this your first synth or are you familiar with other synthesizers/synthesis concepts?

It is my first big and serious experience with a synth ; I only "played" with synth in the past. I feel I need some synth theoretical knowledge.

NB : I am engineer. I know what is a signal, amplitude/phases, I am used to Fourier and spectrum, etc.

[Linuxmusician01]

I wish to create sounds like they are by example in psy-trance.

I'm not very familiar with that genre (link Youtube). But i think the synths there are mostly "pads". String/orchestra like, lush and with lots of reverb.

So, it will be by example basses (like house basses), of course some percussions, background (ambience) sounds too and several "master-sounds" (I don't know how to describe them ; typically "electronic music sounds" - techno, house, etc).

Is this your first synth or are you familiar with other synthesizers/synthesis concepts?

It is my first big and serious experience with a synth ; I only "played" with synth in the past. I feel I need some synth theoretical knowledge.

NB : I am engineer. I know what is a signal, amplitude/phases, I am used to Fourier and spectrum, etc.

The easiest to start (and the only thing I'm personally familiar with) is good old subtractive synthesis. Especially if you're an engineer. The virtual synth you'd like to use (Surge XT) comes over as a bit complicated to me: the website says it's "subtractive hybrid". But I can't figure out what that other part from the subtractive part is. And it's not up to me as a user to go on a wild goose chase because the manufacturer of something isn't crystal clear about it's product.

Anyway, I'd start with studying a straight forward subtractive synth like the almighty Mini Moog. Everything that's important to subtractive synthesis is on there:

• Oscillator (tone generator, wave forms)

• Filter (high pass, low pass, etc.)

• ADSR envelope generator (for amplifier and filter), ADSR = attack, decay, sustain level, release

• LFO: low frequency effect (sometimes called "modifier")

• Glide (glissando)

On the Mini they're named different but try to find info on all of 'm. Are you a member of a synth forum? They might give you more pointers.

The sound that an oscillator makes goes through a filter (usually low pass) to give it some character. With an LFO you can "modify" a note's pitch up and down a few times per second automatically and/or the cut-off frequency of the filter (as in: "wow wow wow wow wow wow ..."). Slowly letting the volume of a note swell up is attack time of the env. gen. Et cetera.

Forget about FM sysnthesis: incomprehensible.

And then there is monophonic and polyphonic synths: mono means one note at the time is played (like the Mini Moog), polyphonic means that you can play multiple notes in chords (like on a piano).

Good luck!

[barbouze]

I wish to create sounds like they are by example in psy-trance.

Oh boy, I have to post this video!

So, it will be by example basses (like house basses), of course some percussions, background (ambience) sounds too and several "master-sounds" (I don't know how to describe them ; typically "electronic music sounds" - techno, house, etc).
[...]
I feel I need some synth theoretical knowledge.

Those sounds are generally classified in synth presets as:

• bass
• percussions
• pads if they are melodics or FX for weirds sounds effects
• leads

What I would recommend if you have time and a bit of dedication is to forget Surge XT at first and gather some theory and practice with a simpler synth like TAL-NoiseMaker.
Then switch back to Surge XT and benefit from that previous experience to expand further your knowledge.

Not for the faint of heart but you could also go the hard route with VCV Rack (don't bother with its library, use only what is provided) and try to re-create a Minimoog. This way you would learn synthesis from its core and history.
If you are not already aware of that, each important part of Surge XT has been ported to VCV Rack. That way you could familiarize yourself with Surge XT features gradually then, if needed, switch to its plugin version for an all-in-one feature-packed synth with a complex interface.

Psytrance is quite demanding in sound design so take your time and simply enjoy learning sound synthesis. By the way, you will probably also need a sampler and a dedicated drum plugin but that is another topic