SURGE User Manual
Contents
1. SURGE User Manual Technical Reference Effect algorithms Effect algorithms Name Description Range Crossfeed Amount fed from the channel to the input of the opposing channel inf 0 dB SURGE has 8 effect units which each can run one of the 9 provided D PRE ie algorithms cut Modulation Rate of the modulation LFO triangle This parameter is inexact 0 008 1024 Hz Delay rate due to implementation Modulation Indirect control of the modulation LFO depth The effect adjust the 0 200 cents The delay algorithm in SURGE is very versatile and can work well both as depth depth to match the detuning in cents set here an echo delay and chorus effect y Mix Blend control between the dry and the wet signal 0 100 0 100 dry 0 wet 100 0 dry 100 wet Width Gain scaling of the Side component of the wet signal 24 24 dB Er feedback a The reverberation algorithm simulates room acoustics and is suitable both at adding ambience to sounds and creating special effects Name Description Range Pre delay The amount of delay applied to the signal before it is fed to the 0 004 32s reverberation unit Can be tempo synced 1 512 16 bars Illustration 20 Delay algorithm block diagram Room shape Selects between 4 room shapes that has different sounds 0 3 changing this parameter will interrupt the signal Size Changes the apparent size of the simulated room 0 100 There is an LFO connected2. User Manual Revision 6 v 1 5 0 2005 2008 Vember Audio Table of Contents Getting Started Installing SURGE On Mac OS X On Windows 64 bit version of SURGE Windows x64 Upgrading from versions earlier than v1 2 0 Windows Introduction to the User Interface About Scenes Browsing Patches Modulation routing User Interface Reference Common Ul elements Sliders Modulation source buttons Controller 1 8 Patch Global section Scene select mode Patch browser The store dialog FX Bypass Character and Master Volume Scene section Sound generation Oscillators Oscillator Mixer Other Sound shaping Filter controls Envelope Generators Other Output stage Modulation Modulation source selection bar LFO Overview Parameters LFO EG Stepseq FX section Technical Reference SURGE Hierarchy Overview Voices LFOs The effect block 16 17 17 17 17 19 20 20 21 22 22 22 22 23 23 25 27 27 27 27 27 Modulation routing in depth Oscillator algorithms Classic Sinus Wavetable Window FM2 FM3 S amp H Noise Audio Input Filter algorithms Subtypes for LP12 LP24 HP12 HP24 BP LP12 LP24 HP12 HP24 BP LP24L Notch Comb Sample amp Hold Effect algorithms Delay Reverb Chorus Phaser 28 29 29 29 29 30 31 31 32 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 34 35 35 35 36 36 Rotary Speaker Distortion EQ Conditioner Frequency Shif
3. 23 The stepseq waveform is a special case Instead of the graphical preview there is an editor that allow you to draw the output waveform with up to 16 steps The two green markers define loop points that the LFO will repeat once it gets into the loop The left mouse button is used for drawing while the right one can be used to clear the values to 0 Holding down shift while drawing will quantitize the values to 1 12 steps hence if the LFO is used to modulate pitch by an octave each step will represent a semitone Illustration 13 Stepseq editor The step sequencer of Voice LFO 1 has an extra pane at the top of the step editor that will retrigger the two regular envelopes of the voice AEG and FEG at each step if it is checked black at that particular step Illustration 14 Envelope retrigger pane of Voice LFO 1 SURGE User Manual The deform parameter give this waveform a lot of flexibility A value of 0 will output the steps just as they look on the editor Negative values will give an increasingly spiky waveform while positive values will make the output smoother db hw Ib Arn 100 50 0 50 100 Illustration 15 Effect of the deform parameter on the stepseq waveform 24 User Interface Reference Modulation SURGE User Manual User Interface Reference FX section FX section The FX section lets you control the 8 effect units of the effect block stored in every patch Effect unit cc selector
4. CPU load Filter balance Controls how the two filters are mixed The behavior depend on the filterblock configuration 19 User Interface Reference Sound shaping Be careful with your monitoring volume when using feedback It s easy to make really loud high pitched noises by mistake if you re not familiar with how the synth reacts to feedback Don t let this scare you though There s a lot to be gained from proper and creative use of feedback Changing the character of filters making filters interact together making basic physical models making sounds that are just about to break apart It is one of those things that make SURGE special Filter controls Type Selects the type of the filter There are 10 choices Off 2 pole low pass 4 pole low pass 4 pole low pass ladder filter 2 pole high pass 4 pole high pass band pass notch comb filters with both positive and negative polarity and a sample amp hold module Subtype Selects variations of each filter type The difference can vary from subtle to radical depending on how the filter is used See Filter algorithms in the Technical Reference for information regarding subtypes of each filter type It is displayed as a number next to the filter type when available Cutoff Controls the cutoff frequency of the filter Cutoff relative switch small button filter 2 only when active the cutoff frequency of filter 2 will be set relative to filter 1 This inclu
5. HE Se Send effect ET return levels Effect mm A inset EO a lgo rithm Band 1 and preset picker Ont Fffect editor The effect unit selector chooses which effect unit is active in the effect editor A right click disables enables that particular unit this setting is stored within patches unlike the global FX bypass setting The effect algorithm preset picker lets you assign an effect to the unit selected in the effect unit selector The effect is assigned by selecting one of the preset settings for that effect from the menu You can also save your own effect presets which will be stored globally with the synth 25 Technical Reference Technical Reference SURGE Hierarchy SURGE User Manual SURGE Hierarchy Overview gt MIDI control data Control gt Audio per voice Midi In Audio Scene mode Effect amp Block Scene select Audio Out Illustration 16 Block diagram of the synthesizer engine Illustration 16 shows an overview of the synthesizer engine of SURGE Voices Illustration 17 shows most audio and control paths of a single voice Not all processing elements of the voice are shown in the diagram Filter block Voice Modulation Routing Illustration 17 Block diagram of a synthesizer voice 27 Each voice has 6 modulation source called LFOs Low Frequency Oscillator that you can use for modulation purposes Each scene has an addit
6. Ratio Ratio of the first modulator to the carrier 1 2 32 M2 Amount Modulation amount of the second modulator 0 100 M2 Ratio Ratio of the second modulator to the carrier 1 32 Mx Shift Absolute detuning of the modulators 10 10 Hz Mx Start Changes the initial phase of the modulators to give you different 0 100 Phase variations of the waveform Feedback Modulation amount of the carrier to itself 0 100 FM3 As a contrast to FM2 FM3 is the algorithm of choice for scraping paint of walls The modulators have a larger range the ratios can be non integer and there s a third modulator which has its rate set as an absolute frequency Name Description Range M1 Amount Modulation amount of the first modulator 0 100 M1 Ratio Ratio of the first modulator to the carrier 0 0 32 0 M2 Amount Modulation amount of the second modulator 0 100 M2 Ratio Ratio of the second modulator to the carrier 0 0 32 0 M3 Amount Modulation amount of the third modulator 0 100 M3 Ratio Frequency of the third modulator 14Hz 25kHz Feedback Modulation amount of the carrier to itself 0 100 S amp H is an abbreviation for Sample and Hold The S amp H Noise oscillator algorithm works like a pulse oscillator but instead of always switching between 1 and 1 the levels used are determined stochastically SURGE User Manual Technical Reference Oscillator algorithms The correlation parameter determine how new levels a
7. Shift Left Amount of frequency shift in hertz for the left channel 10 10 Hz The range can be extended from the sliders context menu 1 1 kHz Shift Right Amount of frequency shift relative to the left channel for the 100 100 right channel Delay Delay time for the frequency shifted signal Can be tempo synced 0 004 325 1 512 16 bars Feedback Feedback around the frequency shifter and delay unit Mix Blend control between the dry and the wet signal 0 100 The audio input of Surge is used to modulate the carrier signal at the input stage of this 20 band vocoder algorithm The carrier channels are in stereo while the modulator use the mono sum of the input channels Name Description Range Gain Gain control of the modulator 48 48 dB Gate Bands below this level will be silenced 96 0 dB Rate Rate of the envelope followers 0 100 Q Controls the steepness of the filters 100 100 SURGE User Manual Questions Feel free to visit the on line forum at the Vember Audio website if there is anything you want to ask about http www vemberaudio se 38 Technical Reference Questions
8. bring up a menu with just the patches of the current category Patchbrowser Bell pad Category Pad Creator Claes Category Patch J Illustration 9 The patch browser The store dialog Clicking the store button of the patch It is where you give patches their name Semiconductor browser opens the store dialog pad metallic and choose which category they should belong in You can type new category manually here as well The SURGE User Manual patches you store here will end up in the user section on the bottom of the patch menu There s also text fields for the name of the patch creator and comments The comment is not currently shown in the main GUI v1 2 FX Bypass Character and Master Volume Output i all Sa i i J r l 7 E i i Warm SNeutrall Bright Teer FX Bypass lets you quickly hear what a patch sounds like without the effect units 15 User Interface Reference Patch Global section Off All effects are active Send The send effects are disabled Send Master The send and master effects are disabled All All effects are disabled Master volume controls the last gain stage before the output The VU meter above it shows the output level and will become red if it goes above 0 dBFS The state of these two settings are not stored with patches They are however stored by the host appl
9. chorused signal Blend control between the dry and the wet signal Gain scaling of the Side component of the wet signal Description Base frequency for all the stages Feedback of the phaser Q setting for the stages Rate of modulation LFO Can be tempo synced Depth of modulation LFO LFO Phase relation between stereo channels 0 0 degrees 100 180 degrees Blend control between the dry and the wet signal Rotary speaker simulator algorithm Range 0 1 8s 0 008 1024 Hz 64 1 2048 bar 0 100 inf 0 dB 14Hz 25kHz 0 100 24 24 dB Range 100 100 100 100 100 100 0 008 1024 Hz 64 1 2048 bar 0 100 0 100 0 100 Name Horn rate Doppler depth Ampmod depth Description Range Rate of HF horn rotation The LF horn is a lower multiple of this 0 008 1024 Hz 64 1 2048 bar 0 100 rate Can be tempo synced The amount of Doppler shift used in the simulation vibrato The amount of amplitude modulation used in the simulation 0 100 tremolo Distortion algorithm Provides plenty of EQ options as well as a feedback loop to alter the tonality of the clipping stage ft t oee Illustration 21 Distortion algorithm block diagram Name Description Range Pre EQ Parametric EQ band prior to the clipping stage gain freq BW Pre EQ High cut element prior to the clipping stage 14Hz 25kHz High cut Drive Drive of the clipp
10. options extend range or temposync will show up on the context menu if they do The slider heads give a visual indication whether they can be modulated by the current modulation source when entering the modulation mode Modulation routing ee Illustration 6 Modulation mode left Off Slider is editing parameter directly right On Slider is editing the modulation depth from the currently selected modulation source The slider tray will have a blue tint if it is modulated by the current modulation source A half tint indicates that it is modulated but not by the currently selected source SURGE User Manual User Interface Reference Common UI elements Illustration 7 The amount of blue tine of slider tray indicates whether the parameter is modulated 1 Parameter is not modulated 2 Parameter is modulated half tint 3 Parameter by the currently selected modulation source full tint Modulation source buttons The modulation source buttons have a few additional feats not shown in the introductory modulation chapter Modulation routing They do change their appearance depending if they re used in the current patch scene dependent and will highlight when the mouse is hovering over a destination slider that is modulated by that particular source Illustration 8 Modulation sources look different when used 1 Unused modsource 2 Used modsource 3 Modsource that is used by the control the m
11. to the delay lines not shown in diagram Re an eu the octal which can provide stereo widening detuning of the delay line Decay time The time it takes for the reverberation to ring out 60 dB 0 063 645 HF damp Amount of HF damping applied to the signal inside the 0 100 Name Description Range reverberator Pan Routes the two channels to the delay units by panning The gain of 100 100 Low cut Post reverb equalizer controls the input channels remain unaffected it s only their stereo location Band1 that changes a sound only heard in the left channel will still be freq gain heard when pan is set to 100 here but only in the right channel High cut Delay time Delay time for the two channels Can be tempo synced 0 004 325 Mix Blend control between he dr nd the wet signal 0 100 L R 1 512 16 bars Width Gain scaling of the Side component of the wet signal 24 24 dB Feedback Amount fed from the channel to its own input inf 0 dB 35 Technical Reference Effect algorithms SURGE User Manual 4 stage chorus algorithm Name Time Mod rate Mod depth Feedback Low High cut Mix Width Depth of modulation LFO 4 stage phaser Name Base freq Feedback Q Rate Depth Stereo Mix Rotary Speaker Description Delay time used as chorus mid point Rate of modulation LFO Can be tempo synced Amount fed from the output back into the input EQ controls of the
12. des any modulations including the hardwired FEG depth amp keytracking SURGE User Manual Resonance Controls the amount of resonance of the filter Resonance link small button filter 2 only Makes the slider follow filter 1 s resonance slider setting Keytrack gt F1 F2 Controls how much the pitch of a note affects the cutoff frequency of the filter A setting of 100 means the filter frequency will follow the pitch harmonically Envelope Generators There are two envelope generators connected to the filterblock One of them the Amplitude Envelope Generator AEG is hardwired to the gain stage of the filterblock The other one is hardwired to the two filters whose depth is set by the gt F1 and gt F2 sliders Illustration 10 ADSR envelope structure The envelope generators are of the 4 stage ADSR type This is the most common form of EG used in synthesizers and it is named after its four Stages Attack Decay Sustain and Release If you re new to synthesizer programming the illustration should give you a good idea how they work The thing you need to remember is that after going through the attack amp decay stages the envelope will stick in the sustain stage until the key is released 20 User Interface Reference Sound shaping Above the envelope stage controls is a graphic representation of the ADSR structure The orange fields allows you to choose the curvature of the different stages of the envelop
13. e Keytrack root Sets the root key of the filter keytracking and the keytrack modulation source At the root key the keytrack modulation source will Above below it it will have positive negative modulation depending on the distance to the root key in octaves This parameter does not affect the oscillator pitch have the value zero HP low cut Controls the scene low cut filter scene parameter FM configuration Chooses how oscillator FM frequency modulation is routed FM depth Sets the depth of the oscillator FM Waveshaper type Chooses type of the non linear wave shaping element Waveshaper drive Set the drive amount of the waveshaper Amp Gain Controls the gain element inside the filterblock Amp Vel Controls how the Amp Gain scales with velocity This is neutral at the maximum position Other settings provide attenuation at lower velocities thus this setting will never increase the Amp Gain parameter by velocity SURGE User Manual The output stage is located after the filterblock in the audio path As it s outside the filterblock structure changing the gain here doesn t have any affect on the timbre of the voice unlike the previous gain control which may affect how the feedback and wave shaping acts It can still change the timbre of the effect section if non linear effects like distortion are used Volume volume control Pan Pan balance control Width the amount of stereo spread only p
14. e LFO work as a dedicated envelope generator or shape the magnitude of the LFO over time Parameters Waveform Selects the shape of the LFO Waveform Description Deform action Sine Sine wave Vertical bend Triangle Triangle wave Vertical bend Square Pulse wave Pulse width Ramp Ramp wave sawtooth Vertical bend Noise Smooth noise Correlation S amp H Step noise Correlation Envelope The LFO waveform output is one making the LFO unit as a Envelope shape whole work as an envelope generator Stepseq The stepseq waveform is a special case that has an additional Smooth Spikyness editor It can be used to draw waveforms or be used like a step sequencer SURGE User Manual User Interface Reference Modulation Phase Shuffle Controls the starting phase of the LFO waveform Magnitude Controls the magnitude of the LFO This is the parameter you should use if you want to control the depth of an LFO with a controller like controlling vibrato depth with the modulation wheel Deform Deform the LFO shape in various ways The effect varies with the LFO waveform Trigger mode Freerun Keytrigger Random Chooses how the LFO is triggered when a new note is played Unipolar If active the LFO output will be in the 0 1 range If not 1 1 LFO EG Illustration 12 6 stage DAHDSR envelope The LFO Envelope Generators are of the 6 stage DAHDSR type that are multiplied with the waveform generator
15. e normally used range for this specific reason The important thing is that just like most other oscillators in SURGE it doesn t output any inharmonic aliasing whatsoever or any audible levels of interpolation noise two artifacts which has played a big part in giving digital synthesizers a bad name For developers amp advanced users There is a reference for the wt file format used by the wavetables It is located in surgedata wavetables wt fileformat txt Name Description Range Shape Waveform shape 0 first 100 last 0 100 Skew V Vertical skew of the waveform 100 100 Saturate Soft saturation of the waveform 0 100 Formant Compresses the waveform in time but keeps the cycle time intact 0 60 semitones Skew H Horizontal skew of the waveform 100 100 Osc spread Detuning of unison oscillators 100 1 semitone in both directions 0 100 Can be switched between relative default and absolute using the 0 16Hz context menu of the slider Osc count Number of oscillators used for unison 1 disabled Vee 7 The window oscillator added in v1 5 is another shot at wavetable synthesis that is quite different from the previous wavetable algorithm The wave which can be any waveform included with Surge is multiplied by a second waveform the window which can be one of 9 waveform types that are specifically made for the window oscillator The formant SURGE User Manual parameter controls the pitch of th
16. e wave independently of the window but as the wave is always restarted with the window the pitch will remain the same Instead the timbre of the sound will change dramatically much depending on which window is selected Unlike the wavetable algorithm the window oscillator uses a more traditional resampling approach which doesn t result in harmonic aliasing Obviously being part of a Vember Audio product the sound quality is still top notch Name Description Range Shape Waveform shape 0 first 100 last doesn t interpolate 0 100 Formant Pitch of the wave independently of the window 60 60 semitones Window Chooses the window waveform Osc spread Detuning of unison oscillators 100 1 semitone in both directions 0 100 Can be switched between relative default and absolute using the 0 16HzZ context menu of the slider Osc count Number of oscillators used for unison 1 disabled 1 7 FM2 FM2 provides a miniature FM synthesizer voice in an oscillator that is specifically tailored towards making nice and musical FM sounds A single sine carrier is modulated by two sine modulators whose ratios to the carrier are always integer thus the resulting waveform is always cyclic However Mx Shift lets you offset the modulators slightly in an Name Description Range M1 Amount Modulation amount of the first modulator 0 100 31 Technical Reference Oscillator algorithms Name Description Range M1
17. e which one of the two Scenes you are currently editing Browsing Patches Browsing patches in SURGE is easy just press the buttons until you find something you like If you click the patch name field anywhere in the white area a menu will list all available patches A right click will bring up a menu with just the patches of the current category Patchbrowser emit Bell pad Category Patch Illustration 3 The patch browser The patches are grouped into categories which themselves are grouped into three sections depending on who created them Factory Patches Categorized by sound type Patches created in house by Vember Audio Getting Started Introduction to the User Interface SURGE User Manual 3 party Patches Patch packs created by users and 3 parties Categorized by creator User Patches Your own patches will be stored here How you categorize them is entirely up to you In the drop down menu there s a division line between the categories of the different sections to indicate the split SURGE User Manual Modulation routing Modulation routing in SURGE is a bit different than most synthesizers but it s dead easy Just select the modulation source you want to use activate the modulation mode with a second click and drag the slider to the position you want the parameter to be at when fully modulated When the modulation mode is active the modulation source flashes green bl
18. ers and 3 parties patches_user This is where patches you store in SURGE end up If you upgrade from an earlier version than v1 2 0 SURGE will no longer look in the old patches directory You should move any patches you ve created yourself from patches to patches_user You should only make this with sounds you ve created yourself as an updated version of the factory set and 3 party patches are installed properly by the installer SURGE User Manual Introduction to the User Interface The user interface of SURGE is divided into three main sections Patch Global Scene and FX to reflect what part of the synth they control Keeping this structure in mind will make it easier to understand the layout Adaoza Illustration 1 The three sections the user interface of SURGE is divided into About Scenes Every patch in SURGE contains two scenes A amp B and an effect section A scene is similar to a Illustration 2 Both scenes and all Effect Section traditional synthesizer patch as it stores all the information used to synthesize a voice Since there s two effect settings are stored in every patch Getting Started Introduction to the User Interface scenes in each patch it s possible to have layered or split sounds stored within a single patch There are two setups of all controls within the Scene section of the user interface The state of the Scene select buttons determin
19. gh Pass filter 4 Pole High Pass filter 2 Pole Band Pass filter HP24 For this particular algorithm an extra subtype 4 is provided which is a 4 pole equivalent of subtype 1 LP24L 4 Pole Low Pass ladder filter You can select at which stage 1 4 the signal is output using the sub type control Has stable self oscillation Notch 2 Pole Band Reject filter Subtype Description 1 Default subtype 2 Included for compatibility with v1 2 0 smaller resonance range Comb Delay Based Comb filter Subtype Description 1 Positive feedback 50 dry wet mix 2 Positive feedback 100 wet mix 3 Negative feedback 50 dry wet mix 4 Negative feedback 100 wet mix SURGE User Manual When the sub type is set to 2 or 4 and resonance is 0 the comb filter will work purely as a delay unit with sub sample precision This can be used together with the other filter unit along with filterblock feedback to provide interesting options The wind clarinet and pluck fast simple waveguide presets showcase how this ability can be used for simple physical modeling They only use the oscillator section to ignite the sound the rest is in the filterblock Sample amp Hold Sample amp Hold module Will sample the audio at the rate set by the cutoff frequency Resonance will emphasize oscillations around the cutoff frequency not unlike the resonance peak of a lowpass filter 34 Technical Reference Filter algorithms
20. he key pressed Retrigger If active the oscillator will always start immediately at zero phase This is useful for snappy sounds where you want the attach to sound exactly the same each note The rest of the sliders controlling the oscillator is specific to each oscillator type Oscillator Mixer The oscillator mixer has 6 inputs Each channel has 4 controls M Mute S Solo only play oscillators that have solo active Routing the green box Chooses which filter the oscillator is routed to The middle position default will route the output to filter 1 if a serial filterblock configuration is used or both filters for any other configuration Slider Gain control There is finally an output gain control which affect the level of all the mixer inputs Pitch amp octave Controls the pitch for the entire scene Affects the filter key tracking and the keytrack modulation source as well The range of the slider can be extended using the context menu SURGE User Manual Portamento Portamento is an effect where a new note will slide in pitch from the pitch of the last played note This setting determine how long the slide will be A setting of 0 disables Portamento Can be tempo synced Osc drift Applies a small amount of instability to the pitch of all oscillators making them subtly detuned Although the parameter is shared the randomness of the instability effect is independent for all oscillators and eventual
21. ication in your project files Character controls the amount of high frequency content present in any oscillators of the patch that are using the classic algorithm The possible choices are Warm Neutral and Bright SURGE User Manual User Interface Reference Scene section Scene section The UI of the scene section is roughly divided into three parts Sound generation Sound shaping Modulation Sound Generation Modulation 16 SURGE User Manual Sound generation This is where a sound is born The oscillators generate waveforms according to the notes played are mixed in the oscillator mixer and the audio is then passed on to the sound shaping section Oscillator selector MOHO ST FP e Ee Scene Oscillator pitch editor E E Aana Oscillator Oscillator mixer type ot Oscillators 1 2 3 buttons Chooses the active oscillator for editing Display Shows the active waveform When the wavetable oscillator is used it will also work as wavetable picker Type Oscillator type Chooses which algorithm is used for the oscillator Available options are classic sin wavetable S amp H noise and audio input Pitch amp octave Controls the pitch for this particular oscillator The range of the slider can be extended from its context menu 17 User Interface Reference Sound generation Keytrack When disabled the oscillator will play the same pitch regardless of t
22. ing stage 24 24 dB Feedback Feedback loop around the clipping stage 100 100 Post EQ Parametric EQ band after the clipping stage gain freq BW Post EQ High cut element prior to the clipping stage 14Hz 25kHz High cut Output gain Output gain 24 24 dB SURGE User Manual Technical Reference Effect algorithms The EQ unit provide 3 bands of fully parametric equalizing This high quality algorithm has a much better response at high frequencies than digital equalizers usually have Name Description Range Band 1 2 3 Band gain 48 48 dB Gain Band 1 2 3 Band frequency 14Hz 25kHz Freq Band 1 2 3 Band bandwidth 0 5 octaves Bandwidth Output gain Gain control 48 48 dB Conditioner The conditioner is a simple EQ stereo image control and a limiter built into one unit The limiter applies make up gain automatically limiter Name Description Range Bass LF boost cut 12 12 dB Treble HF boost cut 12 12 dB Width Stereo width 0 mono 100 stereo 100 reverse stereo 100 100 Balance Stereo balance 100 100 Threshold Limiter threshold level 48 0 dB Attack Limiter attack rate 100 100 Release Limiter release rate 100 100 Name Description Range Output Limiter output attenuation 48 0 dB Frequency Shifter Frequency shifter effect Provides a delay unit and a feedback loop to give consecutively shifted repeating delays Name Description Range
23. ional 6 LFOs making each voice capable of receiving modulation from a total of 12 LFOs Calling them LFOs is a great understatement as they have an integrated envelope generator and can function as a 16 step waveform generator as well Magnitude DAHDSR envelope LFO Step More information about the LFOs in the UI reference LFO Overview The effect block SURGE has 8 effect units arranged into an effect block Scene A Voices Scene B Voices Illustration 18 The effect block SURGE User Manual Technical Reference SURGE Hierarchy See the chapter FX section for more information Modulation routing in depth How the modulation routing works internally isn t something you normally have to think about when using SURGE Just activate the modulation mode with the desired source and see which of the sliders that become blue Nonetheless it is useful to know which limitations are present and why Voice modulation sources Voice Polyphonic Filter Amp Voice Modulation Routing Scene Modulation Routing Global Effect Scene Modulation Pitch Channel Controllers Roue LFO 1 6 Wheel Bend Aftertouch 1 7 scene A only Scene modulation sources Illustration 19 Modulation routing behind the scenes The thing to remember is that the voice modulation sources cant modulate the scene parameters global effect parameters or the scene LFOs Other that that it should be pretty straightforwa
24. lgorithms There are 9 filter algorithms available off for each of the 2 filter units in the filterblock Each of the algorithms have different subtypes which alter their sound Most of the filter sub types have some non linear elements in them to allow them to self oscillate in a stable and predictable manner This means they will sound different depending on how hard they re driven which can be conveniently controlled with the Pre Filter Gain setting For example if the resonance peaks of a filter is too loud increase the Pre Filter Gain to make the rest of the signal more dominant and if needed decrease the gain at the output stage of the voice to compensate Subtypes for LP12 LP24 HP12 HP24 BP Depending on the setting of the subtype switch the characteristics and behavior of these filters will be altered although their main purpose remains the same Subtype Description 1 Clean with a strong resonance capable of self oscillation Handles transient behavior extremely well default 2 Chesty somewhat distorted sound with a more held back resonance Capable of self oscillation default in v1 2 2 3 The smoothest subtype capable of lower resonance than the others which is suitable when you do not want the sound of the filter to be noticed but only to roll off a part of the spectrum LP12 2 Pole Low Pass filter LP24 4 Pole Low Pass filter 33 Technical Reference Filter algorithms HP12 2 Pole Hi
25. o an absolute position they are in fact relative If you move the slider s non modulated position the modulated position will move as well User Interface Reference SURGE User Manual User Interface Reference Common UI elements Common UI elements The most common user interface control in SURGE is the slider They come in both horizontal and vertical orientations but their functionality is otherwise identical Sliders are always dragged there is no jump if you click on the slider tray instead of the slider head it enters dragging mode nonetheless Slider interaction LMB Drag slider LMB RMB Shift LMB Shift LMB RMB LMB double click Drag slider fine Drag slider fine Drag slider ultra fine Reset parameter to default value RMB Context menu Right clicking sliders bring up a context menu that allows you to clear modulation routings and assign a MIDI controller to the slider H L value 523 251 Z learn controller midi clear control 1 gt cutoff 31 39 Illustration 5 Slider context menu The learn controller midi command will engage the learning mode The slider will be assigned to the next controller message received by SURGE The MIDI messages recognized are ordinary Channel Controllers as well as RPN NRPN messages Registered Parameter Number Non Registered Parameter Number Some parameters can be have their range extended and or be synchronized to the host tempo The
26. odsource A parameter of a mathematical equation In the end it s just a set of data and SURGE doesn t care how it was generated all that matters is how it sounds The wave table oscillator has some interesting sonic characteristics It outputs the waveform in a stair stepped fashion making no attempts to smooth the steps in the process but does so in a manner that is completely band limited This makes it similar in sound to 1980s era wave table synths and samplers which didn t use resampling but had dedicated D A converters for each voice instead and changed the pitch by varying the sample rate of the individual D As The fact that the steps aren t smoothed causes an artifact known as harmonic aliasing This is not to be confused with inharmonic aliasing which sounds somewhat similar to an AM radio being tuned and is generally nasty Instead this artifact will cause the harmonics of the waveform to repeat themselves and fill up the entire audible spectra even at low pitches just like a square wave would preventing the waveform from sounding dull As this artifact is completely harmonic it is also musically pleasing Nonetheless it may sound a bit out of place on very smooth waveforms but the effect can be filtered out by a lowpass filter in the filterblock if desired Some of the wave tables such as the 30 Technical Reference Oscillator algorithms regular triangle wave are large enough for this artifact to never appear in th
27. on to work Getting Started Installing SURGE System Requirements Windows 2000 XP or newer A reasonably fast 1 GHz or faster CPU with SSE support Pentium 3 Athlon XP or better VST compatible host application Make sure you install it in a directory in which your host application will search for VST plug ins There is usually a directory named vstplugins created by the host application for this purpose see your host application s documentation for more information VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH 64 bit version of SURGE Windows x64 As of version v1 1 0 SURGE ships as both a 32 bit x86 and 64 bit x64 plug in for the VST windows platform To use the 64 bit version you need the following A CPU supporting the x64 AMD64 EM64T instruction set A 64 bit OS like Windows XP x64 edition Windows 2003 x64 or Vista x64 An application capable of hosting 64 bit VST plug ins Applications known to support 64 bit VST plug ins at this time include Plogue Bidule and Cakewalk SONAR SURGE User Manual Getting Started Installing SURGE Upgrading from versions earlier than v1 2 0 Windows Prior to v1 2 0 all patches were stored under a single directory tree named patches located in vstplugins surgedata This directory is now split up into 3 depending on who created the patch patches_factory Patches created in house by Vember Audio patches_3rdparty Patch packs created by us
28. ouse is currently hovering over 4 Selected modsource Right clicking a modulation source button brings up a context menu that allows you to copy paste LFO settings LFO only clear routings to either all destinations or a single destination Assign clear a MIDI controller CTRL 1 8 only 12 Toggle between bipolar unipolar CTRL 1 8 only Rename them CTRL 1 8 only control 1 clear control 1 gt F1 cutoff 31 39 clear control 1 gt F1 resonance 0 09 clear all routings learn controller midi h clear controller currently CC 41 bipolar Controller 1 8 What separates these controllers from the rest is that they are assignable by the user to either MIDI CC RPN or NRPN controllers and their value can be edited on screen Choose Learn Controller MIDI from the context menu and it will be assigned to the next MIDI controller received by the synth CC Channel Controller 7 bit RPN Registered Parameter Number 14 bit NRPN Non Registered Parameter Number 14 bit These are different ways to send controller messages via MIDI But as Surge will recognize them automatically you just have rotate the knob and Surge will learn it SURGE User Manual These controllers are stored globally You can also rename them and choose if their modulation is bipolar both positive and negative with 0 in the middle or unipolar just positive 13 User Interface Reference Common UI elements SURGE U
29. rd 28 SURGE User Manual Technical Reference Oscillator algorithms Oscillator algorithms SURGE provide 8 different oscillator algorithms Each capable of generating sound in different ways with a different set of controls They re not just different waveforms The classic oscillator algorithm consists of a main oscillator that can generate a pulse wave a sawtooth wave a dual saw wave or anything in between A sub oscillator provide a pulse wave one octave below the main oscillator Changing the pulse width of the sub oscillator does affect the main oscillator as well as they will both change levels at the same time except that the main oscillator does it twice as often The classic algorithm is also capable of oscillator self sync Note that the sub oscillator will be used as the base pitch for the sync The algorithm provides unison at the oscillator level with up to 16 instances Unlike the wavetable oscillator the cost of unison in terms of CPU usage for the classic oscillator is quite modest The unison oscillator instances are affected by the scene level Osc Drift parameter independently Name Description Range Shape Waveform shape 100 pulse 0 saw 100 dual saw 100 100 Width Pulse width pulse or relative phase dual saw 0 100 Sub width Pulse width of sub oscillator 0 100 Sub level Sub oscillator mix 0 only main 100 only sub 0 100 Sync Oscillator self sync 0 60 semi
30. re calculated A setting of 0 will have no memory and each new level will effectively be a random number white noise A lower setting will favor new values that is closer to the previous level and will provide a noise with a darker spectra Higher values will favor values as far away from the previous one as possible with 100 resulting in a harmonic pulse wave Name Description Range Correlation Noise correlation 0 white noise 100 pulse 100 100 Width Pulse width pulse 0 100 Sync Oscillator self sync 0 60 semitones Osc spread Detuning of unison oscillators 100 1 semitone in both directions 0 100 Can be switched between relative default and absolute using the 0 16Hz context menu of the slider Osc count Number of oscillators used for unison 1 disabled 1 16 Audio Input Audio Input lets you route external audio into the voice architecture of SURGE Name Description Range Input Chooses which input is used 100 left 0 both 100 right 100 100 Gain Input gain in dB 48 48 dB Windows only Some problematic VST host applications will refuse to feed instrument plug ins with audio input unless they are configured as a regular effect Making a copy of the file surge dll named surge_fx dll in the same 32 directory will cause that copy of SURGE to identify itself as an effect instead of an instrument which will make it work in such hosts SURGE User Manual Filter a
31. resent for the wide amp stereo filterblock configurations Send 1 2 Send level to Send effect 1 2 scene parameter 21 User Interface Reference Sound shaping SURGE User Manual Modulation Freerun Keytrigger Random The modulation section of the scene is different from the sound generation and shaping sections as no audio data is passed through it Instead it allows you to control the parameters in the other sections from various sources see Modulation routing Modulation source selection bar The modulation source selection bar lets you choose which modulation source is selected for modulation routing It also lets you choose which LFO that are active for editing by using the mini buttons When you click the main button of one of the LFOs both the modulation source state and the LFO editor state will be changed 4 Selected LFO modulation active for source editing By using the mini button next to the main one you can select a different LFO for editing than the modulation source This lets you modulate the parameters of one LFO with another 22 User Interface Reference Modulation The sub chapter Modulation source buttons contain more information about how the buttons work LFO Overview DAHDSR envelope Magnitude LFO Step Illustration 11 LFO unit structure The LFOs Low Frequency Oscillator in surge are very flexible and come with a built in DAHDSR envelope which lets th
32. ser Manual User Interface Reference Patch Global section Patch Global section Whether a scene will generate a voice when a key is pressed is determined by the scene mode setting Scene SINGLE SPLIT me DS w Select Mode Single Notes will be played only by the selected scene Split Notes below the split key will be played by scene A notes above and including the split key will be played by scene B Dual Notes will be played by both scenes Scene select determine which scene is selected for editing and playing when scene mode is set to Single Right clicking the scene select buttons brings up a context menu that allows you to copy paste scenes Poly shows the number of voices currently playing and allows you to set an upper limit to the number of voices allowed to play at the same time 14 The voice limiter will kill off excess voices gently to avoid audible artifacts thus it s not uncommon for the voice count to exceed the limit The state of the polyphony limit setting is not stored in patches Patch browser Finding sounds in SURGE is easy just press the buttons until you find something you like If you left click the patch name field anywhere in the white area a menu will list all available patches arranged into categories The categories are further organized into three sections Factory patches 3 party patches and User patches A right click will
33. ter Vocoder Questions 36 36 37 37 37 37 38 SURGE User Manual Getting Started Getting Started Thank you for choosing SURGE This chapter is intended to give you a brief overview to some concepts that are specific to SURGE and a general introduction of the synthesizer SURGE User Manual Installing SURGE On Mac SURGE is delivered as a Plug in Instrument for both the Audio Unit AU and VST Plug in interfaces To use it a host application compatible with one of the plug in interfaces is required System Requirements Mac OS X 10 3 9 or newer An Intel CPU or PowerPC G4 G5 CPU 1 GHz or faster AU or VST compatible host application To install drag the file SURGE component to the Components link SURGE vst to the VST link and the directory Vember Audio to the Application Support link as instructed in the DMG file This will install SURGE for all users on your computer If you wish to install SURGE only for a single user drag the contents to the following paths instead is your home directory SURGE component gt Library Audio Plug Ins Components SURGE vst gt Library Audio Plug Ins VST Vember Audio gt Library Application Support Audio Units AU is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH On the windows platform SURGE is delivered as a VST plug in instrument and need a compatible host applicati
34. tones Osc spread Detuning of unison oscillators 100 1 semitone in both directions 0 100 Can be switched between relative default and absolute using the 0 16Hz 29 Name Description Range context menu of the slider Osc count Number of oscillators used for unison 1 disabled 1 16 The sinus oscillator algorithm generates a simple sine wave It has no non standard parameters A wavetable in SURGE consists of up to 1024 single cycle waveforms Using the Shape parameter it is possible to sweep across the waveforms in the wavetable gt 0 100 Shape The individual waves are equidistant in the table When the shape setting is between two individual waves they will be mixed to ensure smooth travel You can t edit the wavetable contents directly within SURGE but it is possible to generate custom wavetables with external software By modulating the shape parameter it is possible to create motion dynamic response to playing or just sonic variation What real life property if any the shape parameter is supposed to mirror depend on each wavetable Common cases are SURGE User Manual Analyzed from sounds that evolve over time The behavior can be recreated by letting shape increase over time by modulation It s the most common among the analyzed wavetables Analyzed from static sounds over different pitches to capture the formant shift of a sound The behavior can be recreated by modulating shape by the keytrack m
35. ue and all sliders that can be modulated by the modulation source turn blue A transparent ghost slider will show the non modulated position while in modulation mode A third click on the modulation source button disengages the modulation mode 3 N GAN FFi 3 N GAIN FJ 6 L Illustration 4 modulation routing step by step 1 2 Select modulation source by clicking it 4 Activate modulation mode by clicking it a second time 5 Modulate able sliders now appear blue 6 Drag the slider to the desired position when fully modulated A ghost slider will display the original position Those screen shots are from an older version of SURGE The newer releases look slightly different As entering leaving the modulation mode is something you will do often there s several ways to activate deactivate the modulation mode Getting Started Modulation routing Clicking an already selected modulation source again Holding down the alt key Pressing the TAB key Pressing the middle 4 or 5 mouse button cursor can be anywhere in the window The last three of the alternatives depend on the host application to forward the correct mouse keyboard messages to the plug in They may not work in all hosts because of this Whether the middle 4 and 5 mouse buttons will work is also dependent on how the mouse driver of the operating system is configured Keep in mind that although it might seem like the modulations are set t
36. unison sub oscillators Noise colour Affects the frequency spectrum of the noise generator The middle position results in white noise Moving the slider to the left emphasizes LF while moving it to the right emphasizes HF Pitch Bend Down Up Pitch Bend Depth Controls how much the pitch is affected by the pitch bend wheel in semitones Playmode Chooses how multiple notes are handled Poly will allow multiple notes to be played while Mono will only let the last note play Mono has two possible modifiers Single Trigger EG ST means that the two envelope generators are not restarted when sliding between two notes two notes that overlap in time Fingered portamento FP means that portamento is only applied when sliding between notes and not when there is time between the played notes 18 User Interface Reference Sound generation SURGE User Manual Sound shaping Filterblock configuration Filter balance Output am E Oscillator 7 ee Output FM a 7 TL qe 0 back a FX send 2 f Filter 2 Filter 1 Filter Keytracking Filter EG amp Depth Amplitude EG Waveshaper Filterblock configuration Chooses how the filters waveshaper and the gain stage are connected together Feedback Controls the amount and polarity of output that s fed back into the input of the filterblock It has no effect when using the Serial 1 filterblock configuration which because of this has a lower
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