Surge XT goes modular, free flagship synth with 36 new modules now in VCV Rack - November 29, 2022

The powerful free flagship Synthesizer plugin Surge XT explores the modular world with 36 new modules for the VCV Rack modular synth.

The Surge XT is one of the most exciting open-source projects. This is a free Synthesizer plugin that is packed with powerful features. It hosts a huge amount of oscillators, incl. MI Braids, countless filter models, a wide range of effects, many presets, and more.

The initial Surge has also been available for VCV Rack, another fantastic open-source project, for some time. The recent XT version of Surge now follows into the modular world.

Surge XT
The developer community behind the Surge XT project released the synth for the VCV Rack today. Not as one big voice module but in the form of 36 new modules. This is a big release that increases the VCV Rack library massively again. So you get 36 plus 22 original Surge modules giving you in total 58 modules to explore.

There are various oscillators that pick into every area. From virtual analog, FM, waveshaping, physical modeling, and more. Then there are all the filters from the Surge XT, which are quite a few. Then, these are joined by various modulators such as LFOs, envelopes, and a huge number of effects. Including reverbs, resonators, delays, and more.

The modular architecture is exciting here. Surge XT was previously just a Synthesizer plugin with a fixed signal flow that could be changed to a limited extent. Now in VCV Rack, you can wire up the whole engine as much as you like. Plus combine them with other modules from other developers.
Omri Cohen, YouTuber, and a true lexicon when it comes to VCV Rack tutorials has already made a video about it.

Many thanks to the developers of Surge XT. This is a huge release that lets you discover the free synth from a completely different angle. The new Surge XT modules are available now as a free download from the VCV Rack library.

More information here:
VCV Rack: https://library.vcvrack.com/?query=&brand=Surge+XT&tag=&license=
GitHub : https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/surge-rack

 

Great, hopefully soon in Cardinal too.

 

I was just wondering if Cardinal can load VCV modules and weirdly it cannot, but I guess code adjustment isn't that hard, so it will land into Cardinal at some point.

In the mean time, Cardinal and VCV can coexist, no problem. ;)

 

No, the issue is licensing.
Cardinal can legally use open-source code, but have no rights to hook up to VCV's servers unless VCV owners let them. Which they won't, cause they're autocratic bastards. That means, when KXStudio/DISTRHO want new modules, they have to get their code and insert it into Cardinal directly.