Surge XT Changelog

What's new in Surge XT 1.3.1

Feb 6, 2024

4b53827 : Add TouchOSC template download link (#7508) - EvilDragon
b1e0d8f : Do the same select trick on TypeAhead (#7506) - Paul
7296353 : Quit on LInux CLI with OSC works properly (#7504) - Paul
389644a : Fix up tests; Move CMake version to 131 (#7505) - Paul
d09e88a : Patch updates (#7503) - Andreya-Autumn

New in Surge XT 1.3.0 (Dec 9, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.2 (May 1, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.1 (May 1, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.0 (Apr 10, 2023)

Major Feature: Oscilloscope:
Surge now has a built-in oscilloscope and spectrograph.
Open the scope through the workflow menu or by right clicking on the VU meter
Major Feature: Tuning Upgrades:
Surge can act as an OddSound MTS provider (‘master’) allowing the Surge tuning editor to provide tuning to an entire session.
Remediate yet more edge cases in our internal tuning, including keyboard mapping larger than a scale.
Major Feature: Accessibility-Targeted Improvements (although these are useful for non-accesiblility-tooled users too!):
We added an accesibility menu
Accesibility menu has item “set all recommended accessible features” which (basically) turns on all the good stuff if you are a screen reader user.
Modulation Editor Focus is improved when adding a modulation
Quantized sliders (command-drag) now work with keyboard bindings (command-up/down arrow) symmetrically.
You can export a patch to HTML as values for sharing and viewing more quickly.
Improve the alias harmonics editor for screen readers, by making it consistent with other controls and overlays.
Patch Selector will focus/select the menu for the category of a given patch by default.
Improve name invalidation when arrowing through discrete menu parameters.
Step Sequencer Steps allow RMB / Typein value
Add a keybinding (Alt-0 by default) to announce the state of the synth ui at present.
Alt-, and Alt-. don’t get stuck in the patch selector any more1
Plugins and Hosts:
Correctly implement CLAP_NOTE_CHOKE, so you can choke express in the bitwig drum machine with surge voices!
Allow a more flexible set of I/O mappings, fixing an interaction between a JUCE and Ardour and Surge which could silence the VST3 in some situations.
Skip the VST3 menu extensions in Reason, where they seem a bit dicey still.
Invalidate parameter names on patch change to refresh automation displays.
Correct a problem with the virtual keyboard in the CLAP version fo the plugin.
Add appropriate input buffering for audio input on hosts where block size is not a multiple of surge block size. This stops input buffer corruption with uneven blocks in FL Studio at the cost of input buffer latency of 32 samples.
Other Notable New Features:
The filter analyzer lets you drag the resonance and cutoff in the plot
The VU Meter shows CPU usage optionally (right click on the VU to show or hide this feature)
DSP Changes:
Noise can be stereo or mono in wide mode, per patch.
More work on non-32 block sizes, especially fixing a zippering inssue in block-wise interpolators used in the mixer
Nimbus re-sampler works at very high sample rates or low block sizes
FX Unit:
FX Unit handles non-multiple-of-32 block sizes more elegantly
Default FX for reverb and delay in FX unit are more usable.
The FX Unit will display Airwindows parameters even if no audio engine is running
Minor Changes and Bug Fixes:
Clean up some lua syntax in formula tutorials
Internal dialog titlebar buttons are consistent on macOS
One-frame wavetables had a clamp error which, in certain circumstances, could trigger an assert in production builds on ARCH linux and other gcc buidls with runtime checks on in production
Modulation works on Ring Modulator Unison Detune
Clamp control smoothers to avoid an infrequent extreme instability under some very rapid (machine generated) changes
Replace factory templates with explicitly CC0 licensed factory templates.
Add a license field to the save patch dialog.
Repaint LFO when automation changes an LFO parameter.
Repaint the filter overlay on filter automation.
The Modulation List view allows a copy to clipboard.
Fix incorrect unstreaming of ‘comb filter tunes incorrectly’ setting.
Add a single entry point for note-matches-channel-key-voice-id allowing the rare case of per-channel polyphonic modulation in CLAP to work
FIx a problem which left audio-unused but graphically-incorrect uninitialized extra padding at the end of streamed one-shot wavetables
Typeins for toggle values work.
Alt-Click on an FX slot clears the slot.
Optionally ignore all midi program changes. You probably want to turn this on.
Provide an option to scale or not scale additional LFO outputs by amplitude.
Add a key binding to initialize patch (unbound by default).
Separate the ‘is torn out’ preference between plugins and standalone versions.
Some of the Virtual Keyboard mappings are now in the edit-keyboard-mapping screen.
Fix jog order for wavetables to match display order in all cases.
Modal overlays use a semi-transparent background
Clamp parameters in the twist oscillator, meaning modulation can no longer make it fail to produce correct sounds
Truncated wave tables no longer add noise to the oscillator final tables when imported.
Scene Paste correctly re-maps the source-scene of scene LFOs leading to correct visual display of odulation state
Close all open menus when destroying the gui editor, meaning ‘lingering’ menus on window closed no longer crash the synth
Correct the Init FM2 and Square templates to not bypass filters
Warn and silence rather than crash when surge is incorrectly handed a mono output buffer (which could happen in some mac configurations with bluetooth headphones)
Clamp airwindows FX selection to fix an occasional crash.
Fix step sequencer fast drags and out of bound drags to do the expected thing in more cases.
Fix a bug where a constant section on an MSEG with an AEG or FEG trigger would trigger the AEG and FEG on every block of the constant not just the first
Fix a bug where a .modpreset in the root menu of the Modulation Presets area would crash the LFO menu
Fix a problem where lfo mapping parameters would blink when pressing the orange arrow and switching LFOs
Futher adopting to VCV Rack (and other non-vst clients of the code).
Allow LFO Envelopes at a code level to retrigger from non-zero values
Provide a function to give a frame size to an untagged wav, but don’t expose it in the surge UI yet.
Allow treemonster to output its pitch and envelope
The String Oscillator would leak if an instance was init() ed twice. Surge didn’t do this but Rack did
Add the ability to compile without Airwindows, without SQLLite and without MTS-ESP
Update CMake rules for SIMDE and JUCE allowing yet more indirection and choice
Add a SurgeConfiguration for creating from non-surge clients
Add an option to explicitly skip third party wavetable scans.
Correct the Twist LPG optionally and activate the fix in Rack
Infrastructure
Make build on gcc12 on windows; make build with mingw on windows.
surge-common can build for RISC-V and WebAssembly
Continue to modernize the C++, moving to proper copy and assignment constructors on core classes rather than memcpy
Move many C-style string usages to std::string
Build if an external build system adds avx flags to the build.
Addpfft as a submodule
Python Binding Upgrades
Update pybind 11
expose mpeEnabled and tuningApplicationMode
add build wheels for cibuildwheel
make surgepy and installable python package
Surge test runner will fail quickly and explicitly if resources are not available.
Add an api for the Surge image store to get a JuceImage for Juce specific uses.
Lots of small warning cleanups across the code.
Allow non-parameter sliders to access tooltips.
Content:
Update the Linnstrument MPE patches
New third-party wavetables from A.Liv

New in Surge XT 1.1.2 (Nov 1, 2022)

The primary reason for this point release is that it contains a fix for a problem in recent versions of Ableton Live, where Surge XT’s sliders and Live’s VST3 automation conflict. If you have experienced jumpy or inconsistent sliders in Live, you should update Surge XT!
Plugins:
Fixed inconsistent and jumpy sliders in Ableton Live, due to inconsistent VST3 value setter messages, which recent versions of Live would send
CLAP: Correctly labeled a number of parameters which are not polyphonically modulatable as such
CLAP: CLAP_NOTE_ON events with velocity of 0 will now act as note offs
CLAP: Defensively support the CLAP parameter cookie being nullptr without crashing
MIDI:
Added an option for using MIDI channels 2 and 3 to play individual scenes, or not (enabled by default)
Clearing current MIDI mapping will now also clear it from the DAW session state
DSP:
Processing block size is now a compile-time constant which can be a power of 2, but larger than 4 (Surge XT remains at block size of 32 samples)
Added the Absolute option for Combulator voices 2 and 3, so that their frequencies can be set as absolute values in Hz, unlinked from voice 1
Modulating global volume will now work (but be careful not to modulate too much!)
UI/UX:
Fixed a crash in the FX grid which occured on some Linux systems
Muted oscillator waveforms will now appear semi-transparent
Fixed the always-on-top pin button for the torn out overlays not being visible on macOS
Waveshaper effect parameter group names clearer
Added an option to display CPU load as a number in the VU meter (Menu > Value Displays)
Middle-mouse click on Patch and Category previous/next buttons will load random patch (regression from Surge 1.9)
Patch comments tooltip will now appear more quickly
Added a few accessibility labels and annoucnements we’ve missed, including the About screen
Holding Shift when saving a patch will force-overwrite the patch (bypasses the dialog asking if you want to overwrite the patch)
Shift-clicking in the main frame to open the main menu will now show Developer submenu
We will now display skin’s category in the About screen, if it’s defined in the skin’s XML file
Restored the CLAP logo to the About screen of the Surge Dark skin
Content:
Added LinnStrument/MPE optimized patches from Roger Linn and the LinnStrument community
Infrastructure and work to re-introduce Surge XT in VCV Rack
Fixed a problem where an invalid patch in the user search path could in some cases crash the patch database scanner
Modified CMake so that Surge XT can be used as a sub-library of another project
Made surge-common buildable without building all of JUCE, instead cherry-picked a few JUCE dependencies
Made surge-common build without Lua
Provided a from-disk windows.wt loading strategy for VCV Rack
CMake now exports a compile_commands.json

New in Surge XT 1.1.1 (Aug 26, 2022)

Regressions from 1.0.1 and Breaking Changes:
Restore the correct operation of the Airwindows AD Clip effect
Waveshaper effect incorrectly scaled the input level, which means that the simple test of sine -> voice level waveshaper had a different response than sine -> waveshaper effect. Remediated this by correcting the input scale on Waveshaper effect. This may result in increased output level of patches which use the Waveshaper effect
Performance and DSP:
Added a JUCE patch which allows sample-accurate MIDI CC and pitch bend messages in VST3 plugin (especially important with long block sizes)
Set the velocity of reused voices correctly in monophonic play modes
When “Continue from current level” envelope retrigger option is used with Mono FP play mode, portamento would not reset when a gap between two played notes occured (non-legato)
Revert a set of integer modulation changes which were nascent in 1.1.0, but which have also caused pops, clicks and incorrect unison settings when changing filter, voice, and oscillator types while there were active voices playing
Accessibility:
The name of the accessible overlay for the FX slots contains the effect type name, as well as the slot name
Correctly labelled Previous and Next wavetable jog buttons (they were backwards)
Deactivated additional accessibility announcements (oscillator name, patch name, etc…) by default, since an unknown bug makes them speak for Windows users, even with accessibility features of Windows turned off
Correctly named the “Arm/Disarm” buttons on the modulator buttons when states change
Step sequencer announces when the value of a step is on an exact 1/12th for pitch-based sequencing
The wavetable info (available in wavetable display’s context menu) is now accessible on Mac
Changing the LFO type will now send an accessible notification to update the screen reader state
Effects routing grid now properly handles key presses (Shift+F10), and
UI/UX:
Filter 2 Offset mode, when copied via “Copy scene” command, now properly sets up the target’s Filter 2 cutoff
The Filter overlay now correctly uses Filter 2 Offset and Resonance Link options when drawing the frequency response curve
Any keystrokes pressed while the Patch Browser is scanning content are now handled by the browser itself, avoiding accidental forwarding of keystrokes to the DAW
Added a new option to the Patch Browser context menu: “Reveal in Finder / Show in Explorer”, for quick drag and drop sharing!
We will now correctly set default zoom to 100% when no default zoom is set
Mousewheel on all the various previous/next jog buttons will now scroll through the relevant data (regression from Surge 1.9)
Since we now have action history (undo/redo), we will not prompt the user by default when loading a patch while the current patch is dirty
Right mouse click on the Wavetable menu will now wavetalbes for just the currently selected folder
When loading a patch, Surge will try to locate the loaded wavetables in the wavetable menu, enabling previous/next jogging, correct checkmark display, etc.
Virtual keyboard velocity now always spans 1 … 127 when clicked via mouse
Added a new keyboard shortcut (default Alt/Opt+A) to arm and unarm modulators, which also deprecates the Workflow > Tab Key Arms Mmodulators option (so we won’t be showing it anymore)
Renamed legacy filter subtypes more logically to Standard/Driven/Clean (instead of Clean/Driven/Smooth)
Paste with Modulation option is now undoable
CLAP Support:
CMake install rules for Linux will now install CLAP flavors, even if you don’t use .deb or RPM
Mac installer will now have CLAP selected by default; also, all options are now alphabetized
paramsFlush() implementation for CLAP is now safe to call when processing is happening, even though this probably shouldn’t happen
Infrastructure and Miscellaneous
Moved build infrastructure to Ubuntu 20 LTS, since Azure is deprecating Ubuntu 18
Replaced static const auto one = _mm_set1_ps(1.0) with just const auto one = to avoid a static lock (thanks to The Audio Programmer Discord community for catching this!)
Moved HalfRateFilter to sst-filters library; it is shared between Shortcircuit and Surge
Spupress mousewheel gestures during mouse drags to avoid nested begin/end edits with Mac trackpads
Changed Mac signing in order to allow Formula modulator to work in standalone on macOS 10.14
Mac installer won’t allow installing to a non-system drive now
Fixed a crash when closing the plugin window in REAPER while the Patch Browser menu was open
Reviewed various other timers and delayed objects in order to avoid crashes similar to the above one
Correctly read XDG defaults so that XDG data for DOCUMENTS_HOME correctly follows the specification on Linux
Fixed a problem where Surge would enter an infinite loop when the stored key mappings would advertise a keymapping for an unknown function
Content:
New wavetables from Philippe Favre
Updated Formula tutorial “09 Example - Crossfading Oscillators”

New in Surge XT 1.1.0 (Aug 4, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.0.1 (Jun 8, 2022)

Larger Bugfixes:
The Formula modulator vector output would crash or go into an infinite loop with 8 or more output values. Fixed to report a single error message when we have more than 8 outputs
Fixed a crash when using vector modulators to modulate an FX slot and drag and drop to reordering effects
On macOS, the menu outline box was not painted, making menus visually confusing for many users. Fixed to have parity in how menus look vs Windows and Linux
Fixed a set of issues with the Windows installer which we found once more people actually ran the installer on various systems
If two MIDI events had an identical timestamp, the second and all subsequent MIDI events in that block would push to the end of the block causing potential block-length synchronization errors
The introduction of JUCE created a bypass parameter for VST3 plugins, which in some cases was improperly automated (especially in the FL randomizer). While we wait for a longer term fix, we made Surge XT continue to render when bypassed
While most of our help links pointed to the XT manual, the actual Menu > Manual link pointed to the old manual!
Smaller issues and regressions from Surge 1.9:
In touchscreen mode, always use Exact mouse sensitivity option
When modulating FM ratios, use a correct result if a typein retains the “C: “ prefix
User patches without categories will now appear in an uncategorized submenu (instead of not at all)
ZIP files for Windows builds are now created with 7zip, so that Explorer can now unpack them without any 3rd party unpackers
Rename the Tutorials skin category properly
The filter cutoff slider wouldn’t visually reset when using the Reset to Keytrack Root option
MSEG draw mode was incorrectly remembered across different MSEG modulator instances
Dark skin had a graphical error in filter configuration graphic
Favorites and Search icons were added to the Dark skin
Added a couple of XT 1.1 features which were harmless to merge:
Improved our testcase runtime
Removed some OS specific APIs for thread handling now that we are on C++17
If a multi-channel .wav file is loaded as a wavetable, we will load only the left channel instead of erroring out
Ctrl-click on a modbutton will now arm a modulator without selecting it
Bring back certain patches from Luna that were in Surge 1.9

New in Surge XT 1.0 (Jun 8, 2022)

Our next release of Surge - aptly named Surge XT - made a fundamental architectural break with prior Surge versions (up to 1.9), porting to the JUCE framework and changing the plugin ID, while adding a variety of exciting new features. Here’s what’s new!
Plugin Names:
New names are Surge XT and Surge XT Effects
Similarly, the user data folder is now named Surge XT
Please consult the manual for a migration guide from Surge 1.9 or earlier (work in progress)
Port to JUCE:
There are innumerable changes, including basically a rewrite of the entire plugin layer and re-implementing all of the widgets and UI components
Although we don’t distribute an LV2 plugin, JUCE-LV2 port project branch allows Linux users to build LV2 if they wish, and it has almost all the features of the VST3 version (excluding the features VST3 supports and LV2 does not)
Port to JUCE also allows us to provide a standalone version of Surge XT
Patch Navigation:
Implemented a system to mark patches as favorites
Click the heart button in the Patch Browser to tag a favorite
Right-click it to see all your favorites in a menu
Implemented a searchable database for all patches
Click the magnifier button in the patch browser and type away!
User can now choose a default patch that will be loaded upon instantiating Surge XT
Patch comments can span more than a single line now, and they also show up in a tooltip when you hover above the Patch Browser
Modulation:
New Modulation List overlay:
Provides a complete overview of all assigned modulations in the patch
You can filter the list by source or by target
You can add new modulation assignments using the Source and Target menus
You can mute or remove modulations, too
Modulation assignments in context menus now look nicer and show additional icon-based buttons with options (remove, mute, edit)
Added Copy and Paste with Modulation options to modbutton context menu
Formula modulator:
As promised in Surge 1.9!
Enabled by embedding LuaJIT in Surge
Formula modulator enables you too many things to list here, so we have added a number of tutorials to showcase at least some of the things that are now possible
Vectorized/indexed modulators:
Modulators can now provide more than one output simultaneously
Currently, modulators which employ this feature are Formula, Random and Alternate
Modbuttons can now be drag-and-dropped everywhere (without holding Control/Command like in Surge 1.9)
You can now temporarily mute modulations, either via context menu, or via the new Modulation List
Added a second deform mode for S&H LFO type
MSEG can now trigger FEG and/or AEG on each node, via context menu options
LFO Shuffle parameter can now be extended to allow bipolar shuffle (useful for adding swing in the step sequencer)
MSEG Editor now supports lasso/marquee node selection (Shift+left mouse drag )
LFO EG can now be deactivated. Right-click any of the DAHDSR sliders
Scene-level modulation sources can now independently modulate global parameters (any FX parameter, for example). Previously, only Scene A scene-level modulators were applied
Fixed a bug where Scene LFOs were triggered at the outset, which almost never mattered unless you modulated something latched, like a noisy FX
Accessibility:
JUCE 6.1 added support for accesible interfaces, allowing screen readers and other navigation tools to work
So we made use of that, resulting in Surge XT sporting a comprehensive accessibility support
While most things are accessible, there are still some things that could be improved, which will be coming in Surge XT 1.1
Keyboard Shortcuts:
There are numerous new keyboard shortcuts for both the plugin and standalone (optionally enabled in Menu->Workflow)
When pressing any of the below shortcuts for the first time, Surge will prompt for enabling the option automatically, with option to remember your choice
Num +/Num - zooms in/out by 10%, Shift+Num +/Num - zooms in/out by 25%, Shift+Num / resets zoom to default
Up/Down modifies focused parameter value, Home/End modifies the value to minimum/maximum, Del returns to default
Shift+Left/Right changes to previous or next patch category
Control/Command+Left/Right loads previous or next patch
Control/Command+S opens the Save Patch dialog
Control/Command+F starts patch search typeahead
Alt+F to toggle setting the patch as favorite
Alt+E to toggle the appropriate LFO editor overlay (MSEG or Formula)
Alt+T to toggle the new Tuning Editor overlay
Alt+M to toggle the new Modulation List overlay
Alt+D to toggle the debug console
Alt+K to toggle the new Virtual Keyboard
Alt/Option+1/2/3 to toggle between the oscillators
Alt+S to toggle between the scenes
F1 to open the manual
F5 to refresh the currently loaded skin
F12 to show the About screen
Microtuning:
Tuning interface from Tuning Workbench Synth is now implemented in Surge XT!
Right-click the Tune button and choose Tuning Editor, then explore! It’s even better than in TWS, containing lots of new views
Several smaller microtuning changes:
Voice skip in KBM with ‘x’ works
Added channel-per-octave mode for controllers such as Lumatone
Added extendability to the pitch bend range parameter, which enables fractional pitch bend ranges
In ‘Apply tuning at MIDI input’ mode, this results in frequency.cents, while in ‘Apply tuning after modulation’ mode this results in keys.cents
Pitch-based parameter type-ins allow entering values as fractions (for example, right-click Osc 1 Pitch, Edit Value, then type 9/8, you will get 204 cents)
There are now options to retain (lock) the current tuning and/or mapping when loading patches. Find them in Menu->Patch Defaults->Tuning on Patch Load
Filter Section:
Added a new Tri-Pole filter type (inspired by Ian Fritz’s Threeler filter)
Greatly expanded the waveshaper section
Increased the number of waveshaper types from 5 to 43!
Harmonic extension, noise, trigonometric wavefolders, classic wavefolders, and much more
Filters and waveshapers are now deactivatable by double-clicking the filter type icon/waveshaper curve, or a right-click context menu option
Effects:
Surge now has 4 send, scene insert and global insert effect slots!
Added a new Clear Reverb parameter to Airwindows Infinity effect
Added a new Spring Reverb effect from Jatin Chowdhury
Waveshaper is now available in the FX section as well
Added a new Mid-Side Tool effect, which enables transformations from stereo to mid-side and back, with additional filtering for mid and side
Added a new Precision option to the Tape effect (right-click any of Hysteresis section parameters) - it also affects CPU usage of the effect!
SIMD vectorization improvements for the Tape effect
Added a highpass filter applied to the sides of the signal to the Conditioner effect
Added Airwindows Mackity, MackEQ and Chamber effects
Functional Differences vs Surge 1.9
Surge XT modifies where user content is stored
Surge XT uses a different folder for user content, with the name changed from (Documents)/Surge to (Documents)/Surge XT where (Documents) is the path to your OS-specific Documents folder
Surge XT forces content type into subfolders - FX Presets, Patches, Wavetables etc…
When you start the plugin for the first time, it will create an empty directory structure for you. You can simply copy your content from your Surge folder to your Surge XT folder
Note that, just like in Surge, all patches and wavetables need to be categorized. So a patch which was at Surge/Basses/Plunky.fxp needs to be moved to Surge XT/Patches/Basses/Plunky.fxp
Fixed a couple of bugs which means Surge XT will behave differently than Surge 1.9 in minor ways:
Mono FP play mode had a bug where the second to last held key would sometimes not trigger portamento to the last key
Twist oscillator’s LPG incorrectly had its delay time sustained by about 4x in non-FM mode. This is now fixed, but patches which use Twist’s LPG will need to be tweaked in order to adjust their delay
Surge XT Effects plugin now works with block sizes smaller than 32, which also fixes its behavior in FL Studio
Other Changes and Various Fixes:
Window oscillator now has a Continuous Morph option, matching the Wavetable oscillator in behavior
Fixed gain and clipping math in the Ensemble effect
Global volume can now be saved and restored in newly created patches
All Notes Off and All Sounds Off MIDI messages are now properly supported
Fixed an initialization bug in some of the waveshapers used in Distortion effect, which could result in uninitialized audio and subsequent blowups
Fixed a bug which could cause Airwindows effects to crash when switching patches quickly
Fixed a bug where Polyphony set above 61 caused a voice stealing error, if voices went above 64
Fixed a bug where certain patches using the Window oscillator showed incorrect value for Formant parameter
Fixed a memory initialiation bug in Surge XT Effects plugin which would sporadically crash the plugin
UI, UX and Skin Engine Changes:
Cleaned up and reorganized the main menu
Any overlay can now be torn out in a separate window (and reinstated back inside Surge XT window)
Overlays can now be moved around Surge XT’s window
By default we no longer bind the TAB key to arm modulations (middle mouse click will still work!). If you want to restore this behavior (which can conflict with focus order and other accesibility features), Menu->Workflow contains an option to do so permanently
Added an option for appending the original patch author’s name in parentheses when modifying the patch (defaults to on)
Skins can now include True Type fonts for skin-specific fonts. See Tutorial 10!
Skin version 1 is now deprecated and unsupported
A bunch of new skin color definitions - make sure to visit Menu->Skins->Skin Inspector with Surge Dark skin loaded to learn what’s new!
Patch name, Category and Author fields in the Patch Browser will automatically adapt when displaying long patch names in order not to overlap
Added the Waveshaper Preview overlay (click on the waveshape button below the waveshaper type menu), which shows how would currently selected waveshaper curve affect a fullscale sine wave input
Added a QWERTY virtual keyboard (on by default in standalone, off by default in plugin)
Option to toggle the virtual keyboard is in Menu->Workflow
‘Audio Output Unavailable’ message now overrides the output level meter instead of darkening the whole UI
File open dialogs for patches and tunings now properly remember your last visited folder
Macros and LFOs (!) can now be renamed by double-clicking on their respective slots (or through a context menu option)
Double-click on an FX slot in the FX grid will now toggle bypass (right-click still works, but will change functionality in XT 1.1 to show the FX preset menu!)
Alt/Opt+drag “rubberband edit” of sliders is now also possible on macros
When using keyboard shortcuts for loading prev/next category or patch, a dialog will pop up asking for confirmation to prevent you from losing the current patch, with option to remember your choice
Hovering over a slider will now show the parameter value by default - this can be turned off in Menu->Value Displays
You can now drop a .surge-skin folder onto Surge XT’s interface and it will be installed automatically
You can now drop a .zip file onto Surge XT’s interface and it will extract patches, FX presets, skins etc… into your user area
We now have an online skin library, available from Menu->Skin Library
Added menu actions to Patch Browser to delete and rename a patch (not applicable to factory patches)
Infrastructural and Code Changes:
Surge XT had a massive investment in our CMake and code layout, with the source being far more organized and our CMake files being way cleaner
Upgraded to C++17 on all platforms
Surge XT can now run without the factory directory succesfully
A number of cleanups in the InnoSetup installer scripts
Startup files (configuration.xml and windows.wt) are included as binaries in the plugin
Removed an unused dependency on libmidifile
Removed enormous swaths of code which was unused in Surge, thanks to JUCE and other cleanups
Started using constrained enumerations for user default settings
Delivered an RPM as well as a DEB on Linux
Clear CPU info available on the About screen, getting ready for optional AVX enhancements
Added proper support for Flush-to-Zero CPU flag
CMake ‘install’ rules are now in place for non-Apple Unixes
Finally (finally!) removed use of _aligned_malloc in favor of alignas everywhere
Windows (MSVC) specifies UTF-8 encoding
Removed old ‘wide’ getters which were only used by legacy VST3
Restored Windows MinGW builds
install-resources targets work with Ninja generator
Removed memory allocation from the audio thread for most oscillator types - implemented pooled allocation for String, and less allocation for Twist
Cleaned up Airwindows code by removing processDoubleReplacing, anti-denormalization and dithering from all effects
Upgraded to the latest Catch2
Lots of work on expanding the appropriate use of const
Moved the FX presets to individual files in the factory data folder, rather than config.xml
Most of our filesystem code works with std::filesystem (or a sub thereof)
On Linux, choose the ghc rather than system std::filesystem by default
Cross-compliation works from Linux to Windows and Mac if you want!
Surge XT is properly signed and notarized on macOS
Surge XT properly requests microphone access on macOS
Content:
New patches from Altenberg
New patches from Cybersoda
New patches from Databroth
New patches from Jacky Ligon
New patches from John Valentine
New patches from Kinsey Dulcet
New patches from Luna
New patches from Malfunction
New patches from Slowboat
New patches from VincyZed
New patches from Xenofish
New FX presets from Arty

New in Surge XT 1.9.0 (Apr 21, 2021)

New Oscillators:
Modern, a low aliasing, clean waveshape oscillator based on extensive research into low aliasing waveform generation methods (DPW in this case)
Alias, a very, very digital oscillator based on ignoring extensive research into low aliasing waveform generation methods, which as a result gives lots of 8-bit joy
String, a waveguide-based feedback oscillator, perfect for creating all sorts of stringy, plucky, and plonky sounds
Twist, an oscillator based on a rather famous Eurorack multi-oscillator module
New Effects:
Neuron, a distortion effect based on Gated Reccurent Unit, done by Jatin Chowdhury
CHOW, a truculent distortion effect, done by Jatin Chowdhury
Exciter, an effect based on a rather famous aural exciter unit, done by Jatin Chowdhury
Tape, a compact implementation of Chow Tape Model, done by Jatin Chowdhury
11-band graphical EQ
Resonator, inspired by a resonator unit from a very well-known vintage hybrid polyphonic synthesizer that rhymes with “vogue”. Contains a few Surge-inspired additions like optionally allowing self-oscillation of resonators through modulation!
Combulator, a novel bank of 3 comb filters with feedback, additional noise exciter, separate output volumes for each comb, and individual panning for two out of three combs
Ensemble effect with several BBD modes and a clean delay mode, uses a very famous tri-phase dual LFO modulation setup
Nimbus, a live input granular processor with built-in reverb, based on another rather famous Eurorack module
Treemonster, a really wild pitch-tracking ring modulator from Shortcircuit 2, proper Vember Audio classic!
Five new Airwindows effects - Galactic, Infinity, Verbity, MatrixVerb and TripleSpread
All these effects are also added to SurgeEffectsBank
Other DSP changes:
A large number of C++ and SSE improvements in the Sine oscillator, substantially improving performance
Oscillator drift now works properly for all oscillator types
Oscillator drift now starts at small non-zero random value for each unison voice, rather than starting from 0 (there is also an option to use the old behavior, right-click Osc Drift slider)
Character filter will work on new oscillator types (so it’s not just for Classic oscillator type anymore - but it is still a global parameter for both scenes!)
Retrigger now works properly on all oscillator types
Surge now supports single-cycle wavetables (previously, a minimum of two frames were required for the wavetable to load correctly)
Wide is the default filter configuration for all templates and Surge’s startup state
The Asymmetric and Digital waveshapers in the Distortion effect now work properly
You can now deactivate Delay R time to allow linking left and right delay times
Ring Modulator frequency is now displayed in Hz; also added Absolute mode
Reverb 2 now has the same minimum predelay value as Reverb 1
Phaser and Neuron can now both deactivate Rate of their internal LFO, in which case modulating Rate will scrub the LFO’s phase for manual phasing/combing effects
Added 4 new waveshapes in the Sine oscillator
More effect types now properly respond to All Notes Off message
Hard clip can be configured and set per scene or globally, with new settings at 0 and +18 dBFS (which is the default setting as it were before). You can set this by right-clicking the scene or global volume sliders, or additionally by right-clicking the A/B boxes in the FX grid
Sine, FM2 and FM3 oscillator types now have extended range for Feedback parameter by default
Maximum polyphony parameter is now actually read from the patches on load (Surge always did store the chosen max polyphony value into the patch, it was just never loaded!)
Global Volume doesn’t apply to individual scene outputs anymore
Added deactivation toggles to low/high cut filters across all effects that didn’t have them so far
Alternate Tuning / Microtonal Interface:
Provide two tuning application modes: Tuning applied at MIDI input, or after modulation. This is described in detail in the manual. By default, it is set to apply at MIDI input for new patches
Filter cutoff can now be tuning-aware
Currently loaded SCL/KBM files are now displayed in Tuning menu
Far clearer internal and user state management on tuning (= scale + mapping), scale, and mapping management
KBM name is now stored in patch and DAW state
Tuning is now interpolated in log2 space rather than linear space for more accurate inter-note tuning
And finally, thrilled to be one of the first synths to integrate ODDSound MTS-ESP as a tuning source
User Interface:
Reposition Author/Category fields in the factory skins, not to overlap with longer patch names
Hover effect is now available on more assets, for example oscillator type menu and FX grid
Retrigger and Keytrack button have a right-click option to set their value for all oscillators in a scene
Phase/Shuffle parameter now changes its label based on LFO type (will show Shuffle only when Step Seq is selected)
Patch browser left-click menu now has multiple columns (Windows only!)
Control/Command-drag on sliders to snap to units now works for modulation amounts
Control/Command-click on patch or category previous/next buttons will load a random patch!
Expanded use of menu for integer sliders in some cases
Groups of sliders can now be deactivated collectively, for example in EQ and Tape effects, Twist oscillator…
Added an option to always show maximum amplitude LFO as a dotted line (User Settings > Value Displays > Show ghosted LFO waveform reference)
Option to drag bottom right corner to resize (VST3 only) is not displayed anymore for skins that have defined fixed zoom levels (i.e. Royal Surge)
Added a UI refresh when changing filter type via host automation
“Add Modulation From…” option now has its entries organized in submenus per modulator type
Removed a check if factory patches are installed. Now it’s possible to completely remove all factory/3rd party patches if one wants to, and only focus on making one’s own patches with a clean slate!
Envelope LFO presets are now saved to Envelope subfolder (previously they went to LFO subfolder)
Plugin Wrappers:
AU advertises MPE support now
Label all AU parameters as high resolution
Disable VST3 parameter name resets which was coded incorrectly in Surge, causing problems in Bitwig
VST3 implements getParamNormalizedByString, allowing DAW-side value typeins to be consistent with Surge
VST3 bug with getParameterString fixed, correcting incorrect string display in some cases in Bitwig
Skin Engine Changes:
Far clearer skin component model
Add a developer mode option (right click Menu button) to overlay a grid on top of Surge’s GUI at runtime as a helper tool when designing, with support for arbitrary grid size
Fixed some bugs pertaining to user-specified parameter groups
Introduced skin version 2 for all the below mentioned new skin engine features:
Skin labels can show values from parameter names (useful for i.e. oscillator and FX parameters, which dynamically change their name based on oscillator/FX type)
Skin labels can now have an image assigned
Oscillator type and FX grid assets now only contain the backgrounds, any text on them is now generated through code
Slider class now has font size and text offset properties
Added skin properties for positioning the patch browser
Added a skin color for showing the current value of a macro more prominently
Added skin colors for About page text, column text, link and hovered link
New Content:
Patches and FX presets from Vospi
FX presets from Arty
New patches from Databroth
Updated Jacky Ligon patches to set default tuning mode and adjust maximum polyphony
Expanded tuning library from Jacky Ligon
Smaller Changes:
Show the plugin file location on About screen
Show the full modulator name in inter-LFO modulations
Show tne entire MSEG curve in Rate deactivated mode
When copying an oscillator, remember current position in the wavetable list index
About page shows your actual CPU model, not some build-time guess
The default value for scene Highpass cutoff parameter is minimum now (6.88 Hz)
Increase mouse hitzone on macro sliders slightly
Frequencies below C0 now have a proper negative-interval note name
Updated a few factory library patches that were using Latch mode by setting them to Mono mode, in order to avoid random noises when browsing through patches
Voice LFO Step Sequencer envelope triggers now run properly even without assigned modulation
Added a graphical asset for MIDI Learn, so it’s now clearer to see when we’re in MIDI learn mode and for which parameter
Handled a tuning regression when SCL files had a blank title in the first line
Next/Prev can span or constrain to category in patch navigation
All frequency-based parameters (except LFO rate) can now be set by typing in a note name (using 12-TET to convert to frequency)
Zoom level is no longer additionally saved in the DAW state - only the default value stored in user configurationi is used across DAW projects and all Surge instances
Wavetable export feature now correctly names the wavetable
Existing oscillator modulations are now cleared when changing oscillator type
When drag&dropping a patch onto Surge’s UI, it is first checked if it exists among the current factory/3rd party/user patches, then that position is used as an anchor for previous/next patch buttons
Fixed a bug where loading a patch loaded wavetables twice, causing audio dropouts
Fixed a graphics memory leak on Linux, caused by difference in VSTGUI reference count between Linux and Windows/Mac
Fixed a bug when changing patches with previous/next patch buttons could skip multiple patches sporadically
Default MIDI learn settings are not stored to configuration.xml in factory data folder anymore, but in the always-writeable user data folder
When loading patches that contain invalid modulations (for example, Shape parameter in Sine oscillator has some modulation that was made possible in 1.8 and before through certain steps), make sure those modulations are removed to not create any trouble down the road
Code cleanup:
Reformatted the codebase with a new, far more sane, clang-format (no more 3 space tabs, and so on!)
Replaced our hand-rolled filesystem implementation with gulak
GUI overlay API (used for MSEG editor, Store Patch dialog, etc.) is now far more rational, so we can have more than one overlay showing at once
Rework char and string functions to avoid potential overflows in several cases
Common oscillator functions (drift, character filter, etc..) are now all found in a single place (OscillatorBase.h)
Slider bipolarity and deactivation is now handled in a single API point
Consistently named oscillator and FX related C++ files and classes
A non-global RNG used through most of the code where rand() was used before
Some memory leaks were plugged up!
Infrastructure:
More work done on UTF-8 file names and paths on Windows
Linux consistently uses CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX as a search path for assets
Surge on Windows can now be built with mingw or clang (but productoin builds are still using MSVC)
Linux reads config.xml from the filesystem
In Ardour on Linux, work around the LD_LIBRARY_PATH / GTK2 issue which stopped Zenity from launching
Activate warnings-are-errors on Linux gcc
Windows implicit precompiled.h removed
Integrated libsamplerate in the codebase, required for Eurorack-based modules which operate at a fixed sample rate of 48k
CMake will now run even if git is not found
Surge XT:
Lots of commits for Surge XT which will hopefully be released sometime this summer!

New in Surge XT 1.8.1 (Jan 27, 2021)

New in Surge XT 1.8.0 (Jan 18, 2021)

1.8 has hundreds of changes and features, but the headlines of the release are:
New skins, including the lovely “Royal Surge” skin and greatly improved Classic and Dark skins
New filters, with multiple new filter models
A complete implementation of a multi-segment envelope generator (MSEG) as a modulation source
A large number of Airwindows FX available in the FX chain
A bunch of amazing new content! We now have more than 2000 presets in the library!
The complete changelog is:
New and Improved Skins:
Added the ‘Royal Surge’ skin, a skin inspired by vintage hardware, developed and designed by Voger Design.
Major updates to the Classic and Dark surge skin, including better placement of controls, rendering, contrast, and consistency.
See “Skin Engine” section below for more technical details on the skinning engine
Filters:
Added “Vintage Ladders”, two models of vintage 4-pole lowpass ladder filters Thanks to @ddiakopoulos for maintaing this very useful repository of research and code which heavily informed the models we implemented
Added the filter from OB-Xd
Added the K-35 filter from Odin 2
Added the Diode Ladder filter from Odin 2
Added Cutoff Warp filters (LP/BP/HP/N/AP) based on this Jatin Chowdhury Blog Post. This one is really weird!
Added Resonance Warp filters (LP/BP/HP/N/AP) based on this Jatin Chowdhury Blog Post
Implemented 24 dB/oct variants for the existing biquad bandpass and notch filter types
Add an allpass biquad filter based on existing biquad filters in Surge
Fixed an error in the comb filter which made it out of tune by 6 samples. By default this is corrected in new sessions or patches streamed with Surge 1.8, but it can be also toggled by right-clicking the filter subtype menu. Old patches remain “wrong” in order to preserve how your existing projects sound
Overhauled the filter type menu, filters are now grouped by their function
Expanded Modulator Features and Fixes:
Multi-Segment Envelope Generator (MSEG)
Implemented a fully editable MSEG modulation source, with a large number of curve types and various editing options
To use the MSEG, select a voice or scene LFO, choose the MSEG LFO type (bottommost row, first icon) and click on the LFO display, or the pencil button to the right
Extended features for a segment are available on the right click context menu
Currently, MSEG supports up to 128 nodes, and the maximum length of the MSEG is 128 phase units (duration of a single phase unit is determined by the LFO Rate parameter)
LFO modulator presets - users can save and share single LFO modulator settings
New MIDI controller modulators: Breath, Expression, Sustain pedal
New per-voice modulators: Alternate and Random (both unipolar and bipolar)
New scene modulators: Lowest Key, Highest Key, Latest Key
Drag and Drop:
Drag a Macro slot around to reorder it
Ctrl-drag any modulation source onto a slider in order to open an edit dialog for typing in a modulation amount
Added several MIDI controller smoothing modes in the MIDI Settings menu, which increase the responsiveness (at cost of smoothness) for MIDI CCs, aftertouch, etc.
MPE Aftertouch and Timbre are now properly smoothed; MPE Pitch Bend has independent smoothing settings.
Deactivated rate LFO modulators show their waveform over which you can scrub using the Phase slider
LFO Freerun trigger mode now has correct relation to song position pointer when not synced to tempo
LFO Deform slider now has several different modes for Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth and Envelope LFO types
Effects
Integrated 59 Airwindows effects. Thanks to Airwindows for providing high quality open source effects!
Effects can be reordered via drag and drop, copied to another slot via Ctrl/Cmd+drag and drop, or replaced via Shift+drag and drop
Phaser effect now has an adjustable number of stages (up to 16), with adjustable spread and distribution of stages (except in legacy setting)
Extended phaser ringout time, allowing for long self-oscillations at high feedback
Vocoder modulator signal can now be chosen between stereo, monosum, left, or right input
Disabling an effect (loading the “off” preset) now removes any leftover modulation
Individual bands of the EQ can now be deacivated by right-clicking the Gain sliders and choosing Deactivate
SurgeEffectsBank:
SurgeEffectsBank is now part of the main Surge source tree
Implemented the new Airwindows effects
Voice Management:
Added note priority modes for monophonic play modes: latest, highest, lowest or legacy (note ons have latest note priority, note offs have highest note priority)
Added a mode where sustain pedal in mono mode allows retriggering older notes that are still held, on note release
Add even more extensive regression tests for voice management modes
Other Sound Design Tools:
FM3 Oscillator:
M1/2/3 can now be extended allowing ratios from 1/32 to 32
M1/2 can now be set to a ratio or an absolute frequency
Fixed a bug in step sequencer LFO mode which picked the wrong step when start and end were the same
LFO Amplitude can be extended into negative ranges
“Tempo-sync All Parameters” available for filter and amp envelopes
Display Pitch Bend as a bipolar modulator on sliders
Fixed problems with very long-running LFOs drifting due to truncation errors
Allow scrubbing (when LFO Rate is deactivated) on step sequencers to trigger envelopes
Waveshaper drive can now be extended to have twice as much gain as before (+/- 48 dB)
Default scene polyphony is now set to 16
Solo buttons in the mixer now allow multiple active solos by default (Ctrl/Cmd+click for the old exclusive solo behavior)
Mute buttons in the mixer behave the same way as Solo buttons now, with exclusive mute behavior on Ctrl/Cmd+click
Expanded .wt file format to support 16-bit full-range files - this also means compatibility with wavetables from Bitwig Studio’s Wavetable device!
“Show Current Tuning Information” now contains interval matrices
Post-amplifier highpass filter can now be deactivated (right-click the HP slider)
Global hard clipping of the scene output can now be disabled in Scene Volume context menu
Scene pitch and pitch bend now work properly with non-keytracked oscillators
Fixed a tuning error with partially mapped long scales
Oscillator FM routing modes with only Ring 1x2 mixer channel active now work properly (previously this wasn’t evaluated so it resulted in clicks)
Renamed Classic oscillator Width parameters (manual contains a more detailed explanation)
Content:
Fixed tuning of Flute 1/2 factory patches
New patches from Vincent Zauhar
New patches from David Bata
New patches and wavetables from Damon Armani - see Damon’s Preview and Full Demo
New wavetables from Venus Theory
New and corrected patches from Inigo Kennedy
New patches from Kyurumi
New patches from Jacky Ligon
New patches from The Nerdy Music Guy
New patches from Luna
New FX presets from Arty
Add Carlos-Morrison CET microtunings to the factory tuning library
Skin Engine:
User-side:
Complete set of tutorial skins showing many features of the skin engine, which automatically generate skin engine documentation
Skin inspector (Menu Skins) shows the state of the currently loaded skin and information about colors and assets
Classic and Dark skins are now available as Figma templates. Please ask on our Discord #design channel if you are interested in using Figma to design and work with skins!
Developer-side:
Internal C++ data model fully represents the skin as objects and is overrideable by XML
Support for scalable PNG or SVG for all assets
Support for fixed enumerated zooms if a skin designer desires (mainly useful for PNG-based skins)
Support for changing overall window size
Support for hiding any component
Support for grouping controls into panels
Improved nanoSVG parser with support for certain SVG features
UI/UX:
You can drag and drop .wav, .wt, .scl, .kbm and .fxp files onto any part of Surge’s GUI and they will be loaded
Consistently implemented our new logo
Large number of contrast, color, and positioning tweaks, including a complete re-render of Classic and Dark skins
Text input dialogs are no longer OS-based, instead they are internal to Surge, created with VSTGUI
Store Patch dialog is now consistently designed with other internal dialogs in Surge
Fixed VST3 zoom inconsistencies which caused problems in Cubase, FL20, and other hosts
New “Add Modulation From…” menu entry for modulatable parameters, which opens a dialog for a direct modulation assignment from one of available and valid modulators for the target
Hovering over sliders shows which modulation sources are applied to them
Direct assignment of MIDI CCs to parameters via context menu, mirroring the same facility Macros have
Modified the design of Edit Modulation dialog to avoid text overflows
Unique FX grid icons for each effect type
Implemented dropdown menu widget which can replace sliders for discrete (integer) parameters
Allow loading FXP patches from file (use “Load patch from file…” option in patch browser context menu)
Allow patch browser to rapidly open user and data folders (shouldn’t crash anymore on receiving rapid MIDI Program Change messages)
Save FX presets to unique subfolders per FX
Step Sequencer shows position in deactivated LFO Rate mode (when scrubbing the sequencer position with the Phase/Shuffle parameter)
Modulation assign mode now stays active when selecting another modulator (previously it would deactivate)
Added “Clear MIDI Settings” function (Menu MIDI Settings)
Fixed a VSTGUI bug which caused artificial hover events at zoom levels other than 100% on Windows
Fixed a VSTGUI aliasing problem with modulation assign buttons on Windows
Activated non-integral mode consistently on Linux, improving drawing quality for all assets and working around an inconsistency in VSTGUI
Implemented “elastic” slider editing mode - move a slider while holding Alt/Option, and it will snap back to where it was when releasing the mouse button. Useful for quick auditioning of parameter changes without committing them
LFO Amplitude now properly quantizes to integer percent units when holding Ctrl/Cmd
Currently selected modulator is preserved as scenes switch
Completely redesigned the About screen, added more credits and links to relevant places
Version info in About screen can now be copied to system clipboard by clicking on Copy Version Info
Vastly improved cursor hiding behavior on Windows, plus cursor hiding is now available on macOS!
Mousweheel click, forward and backward buttons (buttons 3/4/5 on mice that have them) can now arm modulation from any part of the UI
Mousewheel works on nearly every element (the FX preset menu is the only one left)
Widget hover state now correctly survives UI rebuids
SVG renderer now supports opacity in paths, not just fills
Improved the look and feel (and code clarity) of the VU meter
Skinnable VU meter with gradient bars
We now warn Windows users if Lato font is not installed
Linux menus open in a way far less likely to occlude their parents
The main menu can be opened by right-clicking on any non-active region of the UI
As a consequence of the main menu being available anywhere on the GUI, removed the “zoom level too large for your display” check and error dialog
Allow deeply nested menus in the FX preset and Oscillator type menus - currently only used in the FX menu
Skinnable ‘dots’ on the Oscillator and LFO display, following the design of Royal Surge skin
Fixed wavetable name not being included in oscillator/scene copy-paste operations
Plugins:
VST2 and VST3 now advertise parameter name changes to the host
If the audio engine isn’t running, plugins show idle error when patches won’t load
Menus, typeins, and other controls now properly send automation change messages
Simultaneous automation of any number of parameters now correctly update the UI (previously more than 8 simultanously automated parameters would leave the UI state incorrect).
Modify the threading pattern in the VST3 when loading patches to allow frequent automated patch changes without a crash
VST3 correctly supports the ‘parameterNormalized’ API, which is used extensively in Ardour for automation
Python API:
Surge now exposes a complete Python API to fully program and manipulate the synth inside Python programs and Jupyter notebooks
You can see a set of example notebooks in this repo
Infrastructure, Bugfixess and Code Quality:
Surge is now a macOS fat binary (x86/Apple Silicon)
build-linux now works with ARM
Removed a collection of specious _asm blocks
Fixed a VSTGUI issue with Linux and mouse motion dropping modifiers
Added several libraries which were not explicitly linked on Linux
Allowed the tarball and code to build and collect version info in the absence of a git checkout
Parallel, Debug, and multi-generator CMake builds now work on all platforms
Enumerate Linux library dependencies on all items (xcb-keypress etc.)
Implemented proper Unicode filename support everywhere
Made our CMake file more modular for various library and test inclusions
We now show the install location at the last step of the Windows installer
Replaced CriticalSection.cpp with std::mutex
A far more complete implementation of std::filesystem for systems which don’t have it (basically, macOS versions before 10.15)
Refactored our CMake implementation so that shared code is compiled into static libraries
Revamped the mechanism by which Surge internal IDs and Surge plugin IDs are mapped, allowing us a much easier future expansion of the parameter set (sctual parameter set expansion is coming in 1.9!)
LFO and S&H noise oscillators now have independent random number generators, avoiding problems with global seeds
Consistently use constants for scenes, oscillators and so on, rather than magic numbers “2” and “3” and so on
Purged unused/obsolete graphical assets from the codebase
Turned on “warnings are errors” on all platforms
Correctly set macro values on patch load by calling ‘init()’ rather than ‘set_target()’
Fix some edge case threading problems which were exposed in high stress (rapid FX swap or rapid VST3 preset reset) cases

New in Surge XT 1.7.1 (Aug 2, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.7.0 (Jul 28, 2020)

A Skin Engine:
Surge now has a dark skin. “Menu/Skins/Surge Dark”.
Surge is now runtime skinnable with swappable assets. Documentation on this skinning engine is forthcoming. For now if you want to author a skin, you are probably best to hop onto our slack.
All synth elements in both skins get “Hover” gestures to make the UI more active
DSP and Synthesis Changes:
New and Improved Effects
Reverb 2, a new reverb based on a network of allpass filters and delays
Flanger, a flanger with some extreme tuning and feedback options
Ring Modulator, a simulation of an analog ring modulator with a choice of carrier waves based on Surge’s Sine oscillator
Rotary Speaker model adds drive, separate horn and rotor rate, stereo width, and mix.
Fix a phaser issue which caused instability at high modulation rates
Fix a Reverb1 and 2 problem where the HF/LF damping could become unstable at high modulation values
EQ gets a mix parameter, which can lead to phase errors which are musically engaging
Oscillator Improvements:
The Sine oscillator becomes a mini-synth
Many more quadrant waveforms,
Unison mode,
Extended feedback range and negative feedback (results in a square-like waveform rather than saw-like)
Built-in low-pass and high-pass filters
The Sine wavetables are ordered to match the TX-series wavetables for low wavetable count
Built in filters added to Window, S&H and Audio Input Oscillators
You can route the output of Scene A into Scene B and mix it with the plugin audio input
FM2/3 can have negative feedback in new instances.
Other DSP Changes:
Unison goes up to 16 on all unison oscillators
Surge uses the Surge Tuning Library used in several of our synths for SCL/KBM support
Fixed a problem with phase overflow in very long running Sine and FM2/3 oscillators
The SIN oscillator and RM use a high performance approximation for sine/cos
Fix a crash with high sync values in absolute mode in the Classic oscillator (SurgeSuperOscillator.cpp)
Fix problems with the ADSR envelope could become unstable or non-silent in very-high or very-low DS regimes
Modulation and Voice Management Changes
Each voice LFO can now trigger filter and amplifier envelopes.
You can ‘deactivate’ the rate of an LFO (right mouse / deactivate on rate slider) which makes the LFO take the constant value at current phase, and makes phase act like a scrub operator.
Step Sequencer UI rewrite
Vector Rendering
Show the actual curve
Show value displays, right-mouse drag to draw a ramp, quantize-to-scale-length drags, and more
Substantial improvements to Portamento
Add Constant Rate and Constant Time modes
Add multiple Portamento rate curves
Add a glissando mode (portamento hits only scale degrees)
Add a mode to retrigger envelopes when crossing scale degrees
Features all available on the Right Mouse button on the Portamento Slider
Cap modulated envelope sustain at 1
Fix a variety of issues with modulation phase which could, in extreme modulation cases, cause glitches and noise
Clear FX Modulation when changing FX type to avoid unexpected modulations
Fix a variety of situations where, in extreme inter-modulation cases (LFO1->2->3->1 and the like) LFO sources could go unstable.
Allow the AEG and FEG to moduate LFO states.
User Presets and Persistence
FX and MIDI Mappings have user presets distinct from the patch/daw stream
MIDI mappings are stored in your DAW state for recall
You can display the current midi mapping from the menu
UI Improvements
Every parameter links to context specific help.
Discrete parameters (like filter type or tempo synced LFO rates) can now also be set through the right mouse button context menu
Continuous parameters and their modulations can now be set with a text input dialog by choosing the value from the slider’s right mouse button context menu
Slider Ctrl-Drag is properly quantized for values and for modulations
Updated units and display of many values and their modulations
LFOs which are in envelope or Step Seq mode will be renamed as ENV or SEQ across the board
Labels, checkmarks, and ordering in menus more generally consistent
Zoom button in the Status panel with more consistent status panel menu behavior
Active hover gestures on buttons, sliders, and so on
Optional High Precision Value Readout mode shows more decimals in popups and value input dialogs
You can browse FX presets with previous/next button, and see the name of the one you have selected
Inactive sliders are transparent (Win/Mac) or have a hidden handle (Lin). Some sliders can be activated with RMB/Activate
OS Specific Improvements
Portable installation support on Windows (Surge will look for SurgeData and SurgeUserData folders next to the .dll/.vst3 first)
Substantial Linux UI improvements
VSTGUI performance patched to substantially improve redraw time
VSTGUI menus patched to open in a non-overlapping fashion
Activate vector UIs for all components (LFO, Oscillator)
Content:
New patches from Jacky Ligon, many highlighting new features in 1.7
New patches from Dan Mauer
New patches from Psiome Send
Third party patches better organized and classified.
ARM Support
The synth builds on Linux ARM platforms from source. Following the direction on the README you can build and run the LV2 or the VST3 and run them in both armv71 and aarch64 PI platforms.
Plugin Improvements
The VST3 works reliably on Linux, including Reaper, Carla, Bitwig 3.2 and sample hosts
The VST3 correctly orders multiple MIDI messages in the same sample chunk
Fix a problem where the VST3 mis-rendered Macro DAW automation in Reaper
Add the VST3 context menu to Macro controls
The VST2/3 can output scenes onto auxilliary channels (not yet implemented in AU or LV2)
Fixed a bug with VST3 host menus which would crash Surge in some hosts (especially Bitwig Linux)
AU advertises patch names to Logic Pro
LV2 reads screen scale factors
DAW automation names contain scene label and are uniquely named
VST3 Windows properly names MIDI extra parmeters
VST3 Menus are available on Macro parmaeters also
Fix an error where some hosts in some situations would fail to load vstpreset versions of Surge sessions
Smaller Changes
Set Default Zoom option now sets the default and the current zoom level
Many UI elements renamed to be more consistent across the instrument
Effects now have an init (dry) and an init (send) preset, the latter to be used in send FX slots
Fix a bug which limited modulation on some Scene B modulation sources
SVG renderer supports radial gradients
Menu labels and capitalizations generally more consistent
Limit MIDI learn to sensible controllers
Use General MIDI CC names in macro controller context menus
You can choose the name of MIDI note 60 (default is C4; you can also pick C3 or C5) and it is applied consistently
Developer Mode menu is available on right click of the Menu button
Cursor hiding is a user option on Windows
When reappearing from being hidden, mouse cursor is restored to the position from which the drag was started
Scroll wheel works on LFO Type parameter
The information popup no longer clips or draws offscreen
Popup Prompts have titles and directions
You can set a default author and comment for patches you save
Fix a bug which caused the cursor to disappear on windows when renaming a Macro
Show an error when loading an .fxp file from a synth other than Surge
Properly callibrate windows mouse wheel to work on integer sliders
Fix a bug whereby switching an SLFO to and from a deformed Step Sequencer could mis-callibrate LFO rate
Infrastructure
Moved our entire build system to CMake
Fixed a bug where patches could incorrectly stream in international settings with “,” as a decimal separator
Binaries are now properly licensed FOSS - disabled the VST2 builds
Better versioning strategy in the various DLLs, plugins, and tools
Applied a variety of updates to our deb package
Move our Azure pipelines to macOS 10.14 (but still build for 10.12 and higher)
Tightened up some unit test thresholds to make them more reliable
Removed a large number of code warnings
Increased warnings-as-errors on macOS and squashed several warnings
The NIGHTLY deb installer starts version number with 9. not 0.
Renamed all ‘master’ code branches ‘main’.
Add a more correct copyright statement to each of the code files.

New in Surge XT 1.6.6 (Feb 27, 2020)

Audio and Performance Changes:
The “Absolute” unison mode was both sample rate dependant and mis-callibrated. Correct it so that, at all sample rates, a “16hz” absolute unison is a 16hz unison spread.
Unison range can now be extended, giving unison spreads up to one octave (pitch) or 192Hz (absolute)
The Window Oscillator now supports FM, and is callibrated to use the same FM Depth as FM2/3/Sin oscillators.
We initialize modulators before the initial voice start, setting the first modulator value at voice initiaion corectly and avoiding a 32-sample “sweep” across a modulator value at voice onset.
Fix two bugs with the sustain pedal; first sustain on channels 3 and 4 didn’t work, and second pressing a key multiple times while sustain was held would lead to an incorrect state.
Fix a bug with the tuning engine where mappings with root keys far outside of scale ranges gave incorrect results
Make the Oscillator display constant even in extreme tuning changes
LV2 Changes:
The LV2 had incorrectly advertised the identity of its ports. Change to use unique symbols for each port. Unfortunately this fix will break prior Surge sessions, but those prior sessions inconsistently streamed the synth state in most LV2 hosts
The LV2 didn’t advertise all parameter changes leading to a port being non-synchronized.
Smaller Changes:
The VST3/Windows plugin properly formats the automation display of the CC parameters
The FX slots and automation parameters are named more consistently, as are several menus and labels
The value popup window popsup on mouse-down not mouse-move on a slider
The patch and wavetable menus have refresh options on the popup menu, not just in menu/data and patches
Slider mouse behavior in medium and slow works more like classic when over-dragging
Added an init patch which assigns a distinct modulator envelope to each OSC
Add a regtest that parameter IDs are stable across versions
Modify the build pipeline so the linux .deb file has correct ownership on shared assets
Stream the WaveTable name into the patch
Correct the “open tuning library” menu on windows

New in Surge XT 1.6.5 (Feb 7, 2020)

New Features for Playing Surge:
Added a “Channel Split” mode to split by midi channel across scenes, just like the KeySplit mode does with key
Several changes to the alternate tuning implementation:
We have full support for scala KBM files, including full keyboard remapping, scale 0, and frequency 0 selection.
The default tuning constant key is Midi note 60 / 261.63 hz
The scale viewer shows frequencies per key
Correct an error where tuning could interfere with filter cutoffs and delay timings, especially with long scales
Changes to the Modulation Section:
When any control is TempoSynced, show a beats- display as well as a time-display on the LFO grid (not available on Linux)
Temposync all controls for an LFO modulator with a single RMB gesture on any control.
Add LFO Envelope “Lanes” in the LFO-1 retrigger section. Use shift- or right-click on the retrigger section to trigger both the Amp and Filter envelope or just one or the other.
Make envelope retrigger work properly for Analog mode envelopes.
Choose a more on-theme blue for the step sequencer section, rather than that wierd green.
A “Green Line” shows how far you have modulated when you modulate a slider. Try it!
Changes related to MPE:
The global pitch bend (ch0 pitch wheel) no longer double-bends in MPE mode
MPE pitch bend state is per instance and saved in the DAW state, so you can use two surges with mpe bend of 24 and 48 in a single project, if you happen to have both a Seaboard and a Linnstrument. Say.
Changes to the VST3:
SideChain support is properly supported with a kAux channel, meaning SideChain works in Cubase Pro. Additionally, in Reaper versions > 6.02 the VST3 will properly configure routing for sidechaining when dragged into a track. (For earlier versions see here.)
Support VST3 context menus. Right mouse on a param in the VST3 in a modern DAW and check it out!
VST3 Automation for the special “CC” controls works.
LFO freerun works if transport is not running.
Change the Windows Installation Locations:
Windows now reads shared content from %PROGRAMDATA% (c:ProgramDataSurge) and then if missing from %LOCALAPPDATA%
The Windows Installer installes common assets in %PROGRAMDATA%
To allow debugging, the About screen on all platforms shows the data paths.
A new collection of third party presets from Dan Mauer.
Other Workflow and Engine Improvements:
You can export a wavetable from a patch to a standalone wavetable using the export menu item in the oscillator wavetable selector
The Envelopes in analog mode corrected decay behavior and support sustain swells
The Digital envelopes in quadritic decay mode work with sustain 0
LFO phase is properly modulatable (modulated phase is snapped when an LFO starts and is not modulatable once going)
TempoSync was not correctly unstreamed on the Delay effect.
TempoSync in Delay is correctly initialized when first played in a new DAW instance.
The AU unstreams zoom properly in Logic Pro
The AU allows automation of the “CC” and “Master” parameters properly
Other UI Improvements:
Windows Touch devices now work with the Surge UI
Fix a problem with a ‘spiky’ draw of the Square Wave on Windows
Several UI elements are higher contrast, several text displays are more consistently formatted
Frequency sliders (like Cutoff frequency) show a midi name as well as a frequency in their popups and string displays
TempoSync sliders show their status with a little “TS” on the handle.
FrameClose in the VST2 called at the appropriate time.
VST Names for FX Params are distinct per param
Code Changes:
Add and activate many unit tests spanning tuning, modulation, and much more
Add support for builds with Visual Studio 2019

New in Surge XT 1.6.4.1 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.3 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.2.1 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.2 (Feb 7, 2020)

Substantial New Features:
Alternate Tunings:
Surge supports re-tuning the synthesizer using .scl files
.scl files are stored in the DAW state and optionally stored in a patch
UI elements to see if tuning is active, to see current tuning, and to reset tuning in place
Greatly expanded .wav file support and WaveTable Oscillator improvmenets:
Surge can read .wav files on all platforms (linux, mac, and windows) now
Surge will recognize .wav files which contain a clm block to indicate loop size (as used by Serum), a cue block (as used by various products, including Native Instruments) and a smpl block. This means that all Serum compatible wavetables we have tried now load in surge
Add a srge chunk type which allows wav files to advertise surge table sizes other than 2048, and a python script to add those chunks to wav files.
.wav files without loop information are loaded as one-shots
Increased the maximum table size to 4096 samples.
Drag and drop of .wav files, direct open with the file chooser, and scanning of .wav files in ~/Documents/Surge are available
The WaveTable and Window Oscillator Morph control shows the table and allow you to snap exactly to a table
Audio and Patch Creation Changes:
Oscillator pitch can be set to “Absolute” using the right mouse, making the pitch shift in absolute frequency as opposed to relative note space.
Temposync Display values use musical values (“1/4 triplet” rather than “2.667 1/16”)
The SIN oscillator implements FM feedback; and corrects some errors in the FM implementation making it respond line an unmodulated FM2 when no feedback or waveshape is applied.
The Surge Vocoder adds tunable bands, adjustable band count, and a different set of bands for modulator than carrier.
It is possible to copy and paste FX between slots in the FX router
For some lower resolution generated wavetables, add side-by-side high resolution ones
Oscillator and LFO Displays:
The Oscillator display and LFO display are both vectorized, eliminating the high-zoom pixelation of prior versions.
The LFO display automatically zooms to show the entire envelope; and releases the sampled LFO to show the release stage.
Due to a technical limitation in Linux VSTGUI that we are still debugging, these features are only available in the Windows and Macintosh build today. Also on some older machines this feature will auto-deactivate if it is too slow; and can be forcibly deactivated with a switch in the menu.
The SurgeEffectsBank plugin:
We have wrapped the FX stage of surge as a separate JUCE plugin and generated a VST3
This plugin is included in the mac and windows installer.
New and Reorganized Content:
EMU has adapted the CC-0 VSCO Community Edition (https://vis.versilstudios.com/vsco-community.html) as a collection of surge wavetables
EMU digital and sampled wavetables added in third party wavetables
EMU patches added to third party patches
Added a few presets by Claes which we found outside the factory distribution
Generally reorganized the presets to have more consistent case, name, and folder sturcture.
Place content too large for the core distribution on a wiki site and link it through menus in the main menu, patch menu, and wavetable menu.
Bug Fixes, Host and DAW changes:
Parameter automation in the Audio Unit corrected, allowing touch automation of parameters in LogicProX
Zoom issues resolved in renoise windows with renoise 3.2 upgrade
Zoom issues resolved in reaper linux by using the Linux VST3 rather than VST2
Oscillator copy and paste mis-copied dynamic wavetables; fixed
Oscillator copy and paste always copied oscillator 1; fixed
Automating OSCTYPE as a DAW parameter gives the correct behavior in the UI and the audio engine
Automating ENVTYPE as a DAW parameter updates the UI properly
Fix VST2 overflow which was stopping plugin from working in QTractor
VST3 UI responds properly to automation
VST3 shows parameter value strings correctly mac and linux
Other UI Changes:
A status area shows MPE and Tuning state, allows it to be edited, and allows the menu to be opened
Increased contrast and correctly anti-aliased labels in several parts of the skin
VST3 remembers its zoom setting inside a session
Linux hosts with zenity installed will see error prompts, rename prompts, and other UI elements available on Mac and Windows
Windows mice with 5 buttons can use buttons 4 and 5 (the side buttons) to toggle modulation when over a slider or modulation source
The Solo UI accurately renders the state of the mixer, showing the single-solo bus.
Fixed a bug where modulation sliders could reset to max when dragged far below min
“Chan. AT” renamed “Channel AT”
Menu includes feedback and the surge website
Double clicking on a metacontrol value resets it to the 0 point
Fix a problem with non-integral boxes clipping UI element borders on windows at some zooms
The control modulation elements respond more consistently to mouse gestures changing values
The zoom menu can directly set a default zoom to any value
Saving a project in the DAW remembers the zoom state and MPE state across sessions.
Added a status area for MPE and Tuning status display and menus
Properly respond to OK/Cancel in the file dialogs in several places
A menu links to our additional content page.
Other behavior changes:
Linux users who create a ~/.Surge directory will use that instead of ~/Documents/Surge; and if no directory is present, Surge will create ~/Documents/Surge only if ~/Documents exists.
Users can select their own directory for patch and wavetable storage instead of ~/Documents/Surge (although user defaults remain in ~/Documents/Surge)
Presets with stored values of metacontrols will load those values rather than resetting to zero.
Code Cleanup:
A variety of changes to allow the factoring for VCV Rack to continue
The Azure-Pipeline for pull requests is more efficient
The linux deb file for the binary image no longer references xcb-util0
Use non-deprecated Mac APIs for the critical section code
Prior wav/sample code removed.
MacOS chooses the Application Support directory based on configuration.xml existence
Add a python script to scan all presets for a feature

Surge XT Changelog

What's new in Surge XT 1.3.1

New in Surge XT 1.3.0 (Dec 9, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.2 (May 1, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.1 (May 1, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.2.0 (Apr 10, 2023)

New in Surge XT 1.1.2 (Nov 1, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.1.1 (Aug 26, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.1.0 (Aug 4, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.0.1 (Jun 8, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.0 (Jun 8, 2022)

New in Surge XT 1.9.0 (Apr 21, 2021)

New in Surge XT 1.8.1 (Jan 27, 2021)

New in Surge XT 1.8.0 (Jan 18, 2021)

New in Surge XT 1.7.1 (Aug 2, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.7.0 (Jul 28, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.6 (Feb 27, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.5 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.4.1 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.3 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.2.1 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.2 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.1.1 (Feb 7, 2020)

New in Surge XT 1.6.0 (Feb 7, 2020)