Engines — Surge XT Edition · 64 Ambient Presets

Sixty-four sounds from inside the engine.

Engines is a preset pack for Surge XT built entirely from Surge's own oscillator engines. No samples, no wavetables, nothing extra to install. FM2 and FM3 are at the heart of it: glassy FM pads, tine keys and bells, reedy leads and round FM basses. Around them sit the engines most packs ignore: Twist (chords, vowels, granular clouds, modal and 2-op FM), String (plucked and bowed physical modelling), Sine with FM routing, Modern, Alias and S&H Noise.

Every patch name tells you the engine it's built on, so the pack doubles as a tour of what Surge XT can do. Everything was checked in the Surge XT engine: patches loudness-matched, delays that always fade out, pads that stay in tune with the chords you play.

What's inside

• 64 Surge XT patches (.fxp) in one category with 7 subfolders
• 12 Pads · 8 Drones · 9 Plucks · 9 Keys & Bells · 8 Leads · 10 Basses · 8 SFX
• Engines used: FM2 (15) · FM3 (13) · Twist (10) · String (8) · Sine FM (5) · Modern (5) · Alias (5) · S&H Noise (2) · Classic (1)
• Named macros on every patch, plus a DELAY macro on every patch that uses delay
• README with install steps and playing tips · LICENSE

The sounds

Pads (12)

• Pixel Snow (ALS) — Alias oscillator with gentle bitcrush and wrap - a lo-fi digital shimmer pad.
• Ember Organ (FM2) — FM2 at ratio 1 and 2 like drawbars, with feedback grit on Texture.
• Glass Halo (FM2) — Two FM2 voices an octave apart; Texture opens the modulator indices for glassy overtones.
• Velvet Choir (FM2) — Soft FM2 ratio 1 stack with feedback warmth and a slow-breathing index.
• Iron Bloom (FM3) — Warm FM3 pad: 1:1 and 2:1 modulators bloom in over the attack - a soft metallic shine.
• Northern Veil (FM3) — Airy FM3 veil with modulators one and two octaves up - a shimmer that follows every chord.
• Silver Fog (FM3) — FM3 cloud with slow random index drift and a wide ensemble.
• Wide Dawn (MOD) — Modern oscillator saw/triangle blend with 7-voice unison and slow PWM.
• Tidal FM (SIN) — Classic 2-into-1 sine FM through the FM routing; Texture raises the FM depth.
• Bowed Mist (STR) — String oscillator with a constant (bowed) exciter - a breathy, living physical pad.
• Chord Bloom (TWS) — Twist 'Chords' engine in octave mode: an organ-like voicing that stacks octaves of each key, so your chords stay exactly as you play them.
• Vowel Drift (TWS) — Twist 'Vowels/Speech' engine scanning vowels slowly - a choir that never settles.

Drones (8)

• Orbit Hum (FM2) — Twin FM2 voices slowly detuning around each other.
• Rust Cathedral (FM3) — FM3 drone on 1:1 and 2:1 ratios with Nimbus granular haze - dark and warm.
• Burning Horizon (MOD) — Wide Modern-osc supersaw drone through a slow phaser and Nimbus.
• Phase Monk (SIN) — Sine FM routing drone (2>1<3) on 1:1 and 1:2 ratios - a low, warm overtone drone.
• Static Field (SNH) — S&H Noise oscillator pitched as a drone - rainy radio static with tone.
• Endless Bow (STR) — Constant-exciter String oscillators bowed forever, with stiffness drift.
• Granular Sea (TWS) — Twist 'Granular Cloud' engine - a restless sea of grains.
• Wind Chorus (TWS) — Twist 'Filtered Noise' tuned into a howling choir.

Plucks (9)

• Bit Rain (ALS) — Alias oscillator pluck: crushed bits that soften as the note decays.
• Dew Drop (FM2) — FM2 pluck whose modulator index decays with the filter envelope - a wet, glassy drip.
• Ice Pick (FM2) — Fast FM2 attack 'tick' over a sine body; Shape adds M2 bite.
• Copper Kalimba (FM3) — FM3 with inharmonic ratios and a short index envelope: kalimba-like tines.
• Pulse Tap (MOD) — Modern oscillator pulse pluck with sync sweep on the envelope.
• Glass Koto (STR) — Two strings tuned together with a sine-burst exciter - a clean, glassy koto pluck.
• Night Harp (STR) — Karplus-style String oscillator, noise-burst excited - a dark harp.
• Ghost String (TWS) — Twist 'Inharmonic String' engine with a long resonant tail.
• Modal Wood (TWS) — Twist 'Modal Resonator' engine - struck wood/marimba bodies.

Keys & Bells (9)

• Crystal Music Box (FM2) — Short, high FM2 bell at ratio 5 - music-box like. Decay macro: tick to long ring.
• Frost Chime (FM3) — Short, glassy FM3 bell strike on harmonic ratios - instant attack, short ring. The Decay macro goes from a tick to a long ring.
• Temple Gong (FM3) — Low FM3 gong strike on harmonic ratios - deep and metallic, but in tune. Decay macro: tick to long gong ring.
• Bowl Strike (SIN) — Sine FM (3>2>1) singing-bowl strike with modulators on octaves. Decay macro: tick to long bowl ring.
• Dusk Rhodes (FM2) — Classic FM electric piano: ratio-1 body plus a ratio-14 tine on velocity.
• Felt Tines (FM2) — Softer FM2 keys with offset detune for a warm, chorused tine.
• Lantern Glow (FM3) — Mellow FM3 keys: low index, slow vibrato, warm and round.
• Hammer Dulcimer (STR) — String oscillator struck with a ramp burst - hammered dulcimer tone, strings tuned together.
• Harmonic Organ (TWS) — Twist 'Harmonic' engine organ with drawbar-like spectral control.

Leads (8)

• Arcade Ghost (ALS) — Alias oscillator chip lead with a bit-depth drop on Grit.
• Hollow Reed (FM2) — Odd-ratio FM2 for a reedy, clarinet-like lead.
• Solar Flute (FM2) — FM2 lead with a breathy noise layer; Grit raises the second modulator.
• Signal Wire (FM3) — FM3 with feedback and a fixed M3 sideband - a bright, wiry psy lead.
• Neon Sync (MOD) — Modern oscillator hard-sync lead; Grit sweeps the sync pitch.
• Theremin Air (SIN) — Pure sine lead with long glide, mod-wheel vibrato and FM shimmer on Grit.
• Bowed Cello (STR) — Bowed String oscillator lead, legato with expressive glide.
• Speech Wraith (TWS) — Twist 'Vowels/Speech' lead: Grit morphs the formants.

Basses (10)

• Crush Sub (ALS) — Alias oscillator ramp crushed to a few bits over a clean sine sub.
• Square Root (CLS) — Classic oscillator square with its own sub mix; Env opens the filter pluck.
• Abyss Reese (FM2) — Two offset FM2 voices beating against each other - a dark FM reese.
• Deep Wood (FM2) — Round FM2 bass: ratio 2 modulator for a hollow, woody body.
• Rubber Pulse (FM2) — FM2 ratio-1 bass with feedback; the Env macro adds a modulator snap.
• Dub Metal (FM3) — FM3 bass with an inharmonic M2 growl that follows the envelope.
• Slow Tide (FM3) — Slow-attack FM3 drone bass for ambient beds - Env breathes the index.
• Warm Saw (MOD) — Modern oscillator saw and sub bass - the dependable one.
• Plucked Upright (STR) — String oscillator upright-style bass with a soft burst.
• Two-Op Growl (TWS) — Twist '2-Op FM' engine bass; Env adds index on the attack.

SFX (8)

• Data Burst (ALS) — Alias oscillator mangled by S&H wrap and mask modulation.
• Glitch Swarm (FM2) — FM2 index jumped by a stepped S&H LFO - digital insects.
• Riser Engine (FM3) — Slow FM3 riser: an envelope LFO sweeps pitch and index together.
• Sonar Ping (FM3) — FM3 ping with a fixed M3 and a long stereo echo tail.
• Reverse Halo (SIN) — Sine FM swell with a slow attack and a shifted reverb bloom.
• Night Wind (SNH) — S&H Noise wind gusting through a moving band-pass.
• Ghost Bell Fall (STR) — String oscillator struck and pitch-dropped by an envelope - a falling bell.
• Particle Rain (TWS) — Twist 'Particle Noise' engine - droplets and crackle.

Macros

• Pads: Tone · Motion · Texture · Space
• Drones: Tone · Motion · Grain · Space
• Plucks: Tone · Decay · Shape · Space
• Keys & Bells: Tone · Decay · Shine · Space
• Leads: Tone · Vibrato · Grit · Space (the mod wheel adds vibrato)
• Basses: Tone · Env · Sub · Drive, with Space on Macro 5
• SFX: Tone · Pitch · Chaos · Space

Tone sweeps the filter from dark to fully open. Space carries the whole reverb, so at 0 the patch is completely dry. Decay sets note length on plucks, keys and bells. DELAY (Macro 5) goes from no delay to long, always-fading repeats.

Format & compatibility

• Surge XT 1.3.4 or later — free, open-source synth
• Windows · macOS · Linux · any DAW that runs Surge XT (Bitwig, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic, Reaper, Cubase…) or the standalone app
• Install: copy the EtherLoops Engines SX folder into Documents/Surge XT/Patches/ and restart Surge XT
• Download size: 0.3 MB

Who it's for

Producers of ambient, psybient, downtempo, chillout and cinematic music who use Surge XT, and anyone who wants to hear what Surge's FM, Twist and String engines can do without building patches from scratch.

License

Royalty-free for use in your music and productions, commercial or not, with no credit needed. The patches may not be shared, resold or included in other sound products. The full text is in LICENSE.txt. Surge XT is free software by the Surge Synth Team; EtherLoops is not affiliated with them.

Happy producing.

— EtherLoops