Software Alternatives & Reviews

Sonic Pi VS Surge XT

Compare Sonic Pi VS Surge XT and see what are their differences

Sonic Pi logo Sonic Pi

Sonic Pi is a new kind of instrument for a new generation of musicians. It is simple to learn, powerful enough for live performances and free to download.

Surge XT logo Surge XT

Open-source subtractive-hybrid synthesizer formerly sold commercially as Vember Audio Surge.
  • Sonic Pi Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05
  • Surge XT Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-31

Surge XT is an open-source hybrid synthesizer and the synth which started the Surge Synth Team project!

Sonic Pi videos

Making Music with Code (Using Sonic Pi)

More videos:

  • Review - Sam Aaron - Live Coding - Sonic Pi Practice Streaming
  • Review - CPEU3 - Sonic Pi: Teaching computer science with music. SAM AARON

Surge XT videos

Free VST - Surge Synthesizer plugin

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Sonic Pi and Surge XT)
Music Generation
100 100%
0% 0
Email Marketing
0 0%
100% 100
Music Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Work Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Sonic Pi and Surge XT. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Surge XT should be more popular than Sonic Pi. It has been mentiond 178 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Sonic Pi mentions (62)

  • Anyone else using ChatGPT to make music?
    I have wondered what grooves it could come with using https://sonic-pi.net/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • History of the Web - Part 1
    On a seriously light-hearted note, Herve Aniglo, talked about teaching children to code with music using Sonic PI, a language agnostic platform that helps you learn recursions, looping, circuit breaking and functional programming by creating simple tunes. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Genuary 2024: Generative Art / Creative Coding Month
    Https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPYzvS8A_rTYEba_4SDvRJyIyjKaDNjn9 - Sonic Pi is built on-top of SuperCollider, but it's MUCH easier to get started with making bleeps and bloops. Sam Aaron, who originally created Overtone (a Clojure front-end for SuperCollider) created Sonic Pi initially to teach kids computer programming and music, but now it's turning into a pretty nice live-coding setup. The language is... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • I really got traumatized
    There is a programming language+IDE called SonicPI. It's designed to create music by writing code. You can install the program from the lin, then ask chatGPT to generate some sonic PI code that produces some nice melody. Then just copy the code and paste it into the sonicPI program, and run it by clicking the run button. Here's a conversation for example. Source: 10 months ago
  • Crafting Songs with CHATGPT and Sonic Pi: A Creative Collaboration
    Discovering Sonic Pi: Sonic Pi is an open-source programming environment that allows you to create music through code. Designed for both beginners and experienced musicians, Sonic Pi provides an accessible platform for composing, improvising, and performing music. To get started, download and install Sonic Pi from their official website (www.sonic-pi.net. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
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Surge XT mentions (178)

  • Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment
    Good stuff! I started getting in to this at the start of the year. Already had an old, dusty MicroKORG and MIDI interface to use it as a controller, but recently splashed out on a bigger controller as the Korg's tiny keys were hurting me - plus, I wanted something bigger to get better at piano! A couple of free soft synths I'd recommend are Surge XT, and Vital. https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Obsolete (or not) DAW recommendations for windows 8?
    Https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ and https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/ should work like a charm. Source: 10 months ago
  • Hi, I'm new
    To get the equivalent of a symphonic orchestra in your computer, the solution is basically money; you buy the instruments you need. In the case of synthesizers, things are much cheaper - if you put in the effort yourself. https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ is excellent and could even be used if you wanted to make a more retro-style soundtrack. Source: 10 months ago
  • So is serum worth the money? Can someone ELI5 why I should buy it rather than use a free synth like synth one?
    Instead of Synth1, try https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ . It's pretty much better in every aspect except for the UI which is going to look a lot more daunting to you ;). Source: 10 months ago
  • These just appeared in my Facebook, anything to be excited about? I’m waiting on prices.
    For the DW-8000, check https://www.fullbucket.de/music/fb7999.html . Alternatively, https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ can use single-cycle waveforms (basically wavetables that don't change) which can get you close. Source: 10 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Sonic Pi and Surge XT, you can also consider the following products

SuperCollider - A real time audio synthesis engine, and an object-oriented programming language specialised for...

Vital - Vital is a spectral warping wavetable synthesizer with drag'n'drop modulation workflow and animated preview of the synth's inner workings where needed. Comes with many modulation sources (including audio-rate), MPE support and FX chain.

ChucK - A strongly-timed music programming language

Serum - VST for FL Studio, Ableton Live, and many other VST supported DAWs. Heavily utilized in EDM.

Pure Data - Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical...

ZynAddSubFX - ZynAddSubFX is an open source software synthesizer for Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.