Surge Synthesizer Team released a pre-alpha version of the ShortCircuit XT free sampler plugin.
One of the more exciting developments in the freeware realm was the open-sourcing of Vember Audio’s once-discontinued Surge synthesizer plugin (currently available for free download as Surge XT).
Surge was a contemporary of Native Instrument’s Massive and has a massive (ha!) feature set that was beautifully modernized for DAWs and even ported over to VCV Rack.
Vember Audio’s other venture was ShortCircuit, a flexible sampler plugin meant for use as a musical instrument and bearing many controls for shaping and sculpting sounds.
Surge Synthesizer Team announced last year they would be tackling ShortCircuit but couldn’t give an ETA for any pre-release builds. A lot of this came down to having to rewrite large chunks of the plugin’s code to fit modern standards, as ShortCircuit didn’t maintain the sort of popularity Surge held.
Thankfully, the team has pulled it off and made an early pre-alpha build available for testers and musicians. The nightly build is highly unstable, and the team does suggest the use of low-volume levels and a limiter on the master before instantiating in your environment.
ShortCircuit is a robust sampler and is capable of multisample playback. Each sample slot has its own individual filter, along with envelope generators and multiple modulation sources to alter the sound.
There aren’t any integrated effects to speak of, but thankfully it takes very well to the Surge FX plugin or whatever your desired third-party processors might be.
ShortCircuit XT can be used for just straight sample playback or for truly transformative sample-mangling work. With single-cycle waveforms, it can even be used as a synthesizer, given the degree of control present.
Currently, ShortCircuit is only available for Windows systems and is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit hosts. Plugin formats currently supported are VST3 and CLAP. Linux and macOS compatibility is on the roadmap as well.
Keep in mind that this is an early pre-alpha version of the software. Use it for testing purposes only, as it isn’t stable enough to use in projects.
Download: ShortCircuit XT (pre-alpha)
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23 Comments
Kieran
onAwesome news! I have no doubt this will be one of the best samplers out there.
alex
onMy favorite sampler ever! Actually, I posted about this release here a couple of weeks back. I stopped using v1.1.2 a long time ago (that was the stable one) and version 2 was never finished, unfortunately, and unusable. So I almost forgot about it but then all at once it came to my mind I should check what happened with it and on that very day this version was released. That must mean something :) Anyways, I can hardly wait to be able to use it again.
Rafael
onThis is huge news, Shortcircuit remains my favorite sampler and I kept wondering if the Surge team would ever revitalize it as they did with Surge.
EvilDragon
onYes, we will breathe completely new life into it.
However, please don’t expect backwards compatibility for patches. There are certain things that really need to change.
MRG
onCareful not to burn it with your dragon breath. :-/
Numanoid
onShortCircuit was released at the end of 2004, and it cost €150! The original remains a favourite of mine. It is great that they are working on a new release all these years later, but for those who can’t wait, TX16Wx is already out there ;-)
Ike
onTX16Wx is a PITA to work with in terms of UX. No disrespect, it’s a very capable and feature-rich sampler (including the free version), but it’s just not fun or straight-forward (efficiency) to work with, at least the last time I checked it.
I always liked that I could work with Shortcircuit very quickly and everything in clear and accessible.
alex
onI love TX16Wx, but Shortcircuit came first. They made it free to use in 2007, and TX16Wx was released in 2011 and TBH, I didn’t feel the need to really get into it until it was pretty clear ShortCircuit wouldn’t become x64 any time soon, if ever. Anyways, they’re not the same and it will be great to be able to use both. Actually, the obvious ShorCircuit alternative should be Grace, but it never really worked for me (it had some bugs too, AFAIR).
Uriah
onYAAAASSSS.
Been waiting for SC to come back!
George Martínez
onYeeeeahhhhhh this is amazing news, the best sampler I have ever used now open source and in great shape :’3
Brenny C
onExciting update but damn that’s one ugly GUI (sorry!) I’ll definitely be watching the development of this though. The original Short Circuit was fantastic!
alex
onI like the GUI and I liked the first version even better, but that’s just how weird I am, I assume :)
Tomislav Zlatic
onI have to agree. I really preferred the first version of ShortCircuit over the update. But I’m hoping that the Surge team will take ShortCircuit to the next level.
EvilDragon
onThe GUI is completely temporary and was written to be replaced with a proper one. Just something to tweak the engine, really. Don’t worry, it will have a pretty great GUI, and it won’t look like SC1 nor SC2, it will be its own thing taken to the next level.
Darryl Lim
onGood to hear! User-friendly GUI’s are a must for a learning beginner like me.
Astrone
onSounds of Cordoba
Free until February 1st
Sounds of Cordoba is a package of 29 nature sounds recorded in the hills of Córdoba, Argentina.
The package comes in the form of a VST3/AU plugin and as a sample pack. it’s currently available for free until February 1st.
https://zaksound.com/sounds-of-cordoba/
EvilDragon
onThese are actually really old news, this repository existed since September 2021, hehe. :P
Pre-alpha as it is in current state has existed for more than half a year already.
Tomislav Zlatic
onTrue, but I thought it was still newsworthy because not many people know about it.
Wing Yee
onWow, this is great news! I still use both Shortcircuit 1& 2 to this day, can’t wait to try out their XT to-night. Thanks BPB!
Ian H
onSC1 was even better but goddamn this is great news
SVDE
onsuper bummed it’s windows only but i am super happy people are now able to enjoy this beast freely
SVDE
onwait it looks like it’s actually _not_ windows only! there’s a DMG build on their github and it says it’s avail. for win lin and mac on the Readme. def downloading it now!
https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/shortcircuit-xt/releases/tag/Nightly?fbclid=IwAR0Q4tplaE0RbTuvxuGnxfMUhx2ELV1APA7CVFEKVn_0Maupr
PT
onLooking forward to the Linux version.