MPE Sound Design in Surge XT: Plucks and Envelopes
Channel: thoughtForm Max
Date: 2024-03-12

In this episode, we add plucked sounds to our repertoire with an in-depth study of Surge's envelopes. At the end we'll throw in a whammy bar and some release velocity for fun.

There's not a particular "target sound" in this episode, I'm just demonstrating and explaining various possibilities. So save your patch anytime you're liking it. In the demo at the beginning, the LinnStrument is set up as a split. On the left split the low row is in restrike mode, and on the right it's sending CC 16-18 to act as the whammy bar.

Episode 1 is here: https://youtu.be/aXA8DNu8eRs
Episode 2 is here: https://youtu.be/vphrdOzIE6c
Here you'll find the ZIP with helpful resources for all episodes in this series: https://www.thoughtformmusic.com/free-tools
You can get Surge XT here: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/downloads/

00:00 Sound demo
01:00 Quick setup of a basic plucked string
03:15 Making a velocity curve
06:22 Amp and Filter EG , ADSR basics
07:59 Neutralizing the Amp EG
09:50 Using envelopes to simulate physics
11:38 Velocity curve modulates Filter EG Amount
12:14 The LFO as Envelope Generator
13:25 The Delay and Hold stages
14:18 The Multi-Segment Envelope Generator
15:45 Modifying stage curvature for MSEG, Amp, and filter EG
18:37 Amp and Filter EGs as general purpose modulators
19:07 The Attack stage
21:54 Guitar vs. Piano attacks
23:43 When to use Decay vs. Release
24:18 The Attack-Release (AR) envelope
25:54 Decay for a stopped guitar string
26:47 Decay for piano, release for sustain pedal
28:26 Higher volume or longer decays for bendable notes
29:23 When Pitch Quantization is your friend
31:51 Using pressure to modulate Sustain
32:41 The Moog Guitar
34:00 What if pressure modulates pitch?
37:05 Midi CC Macro for whammy bar
39:27 Release velocity for variable release time
40:43 The Bender preset
41:30 How to use the MSEG in place of Amp EG