John Valentine
Surge: Pipe Organ

Use Pipe Organ Trumpet Pedal with Pipe Organ Flutes and Reeds arranged in ranks, for a full pipe organ.

Use this sound for free

  • The synth plugin (Surge XT) is free and open source, available as VST, AU, and CLAP, for many platforms.
  • My patches are free, released under a maximally permissive CC0 licence. You can donate to support this work.

Play the patch

In the Surge XT patch browser, select John Valentine > Keys > Pipe Organ Flutes and Reeds.

  • Play it like a pipe organ console.
  • For stops, adjust the macros.
  • For more stops, stack instances of this patch.
  • Use Pipe Organ Trumpet Pedal as the pedal patch, and combine with a fundamental flute instance of this patch.

The above demo is from a decently-arranged old MIDI file, adjusted for pace, dynamics, stops, and playing style. Each of the 13 tracks is a Surge instance, with its stops configured to match the intended purpose. Larger pipes like 16' and 32' are scene-transposed with patch tweaks.

Pipe Organ Flutes and Reeds

The main sound comes from a resonating noise source, similar to the way pipe organs work. Reed stops and extra flutes at 4' and 2' are available, and a swell control dampens octaves above the fundamental.

Recommended for use with a well temperament, rather than 12-ET.

Configure the patch

Use the macro controls in the UI of Surge XT, or map your controller to use CCs 41−48. By default, my Sticky Fingers touchscreen web app has keyboards and macro sliders for Surge XT over MIDI.

MacroMIDI CCNameDescription
141AttackHow quickly the air speed builds up.
242Fundamental8' A boost to the fundamental frequency.
343Swell closeSelectively dampens an octave above for some ranks.
444Stop 24' flute
545Reed 24' reed
646Stop 2b 22' flute
747Not used
848ReverbLarge room ambience

More demos

I'd love to hear about your challenges and successes with this patch.

Let me know in the Surge Synth Team Discord #using-surge, #surge-content-sharing, or #music channels.