I design sounds, particularly physical-sounding and orchestral instruments.
My patches are free, released under a maximally permissive CC0 licence.
I'd love to hear what you make with them, and you can donate to support my work.
You can also listen to my in-development work in my Audio Lab.
Surge XT is a free and open source synth plugin, available as VST, AU, and CLAP, for many platforms.
Find my patches in the John Valentine folder of the Surge XT patch browser.
Keys
| Grand Piano | |
| Grand Piano B | |
| Grand Piano C | |
| Grand Piano D | |
| Valen Tines (Rhodes piano) | |
| Dexie Swirly EPiano | |
| FM E-Piano Four High | |
| Axel’s Sharp Atmosphere | |
| FM Square Glassy Boops | |
| Dreams Are Made Of | |
| Rhythm Synth | |
| Harpsichord | |
| Pipe Organ Flutes and Reeds | |
| Pipe Organ Trumpet Pedal |
Plucks & Guitars
| Acoustic Rhythm Guitar | |
| Distorted Electric Guitar | |
| Slap Bass Guitar | |
| Guitarp | |
| Muted Electric Guitar Licks | |
| Nylon Stringed Acoustic Rhythm Guitar | |
| Steel Stringed Acoustic Guitar | |
| Harpie (orchestral harp) | |
| Orchestral Harp for Runs | |
| Nylon Acoustic Guitar |
Strings
| Dexie String Mix Pad | |
| Light Hammered Dulcimer | |
| Solo Violin | |
| Violin Section | |
| String Cello | |
| String Contrabass | |
| Pizzicato | |
| Resonant Synth String Ensemble |
Brass
| Axel’s Brassy Lead | |||||||||
| Orchestral Brass
| |
Winds
| Bassoon | |
| Cor Anglais | |
| Flute | |
| Folky High Pipe* | |
| Recorder |
Pads
| 70s Fizzy String | |
| Axel’s Brassy Pad | |
| Sweeping Distorted Pad |
Basses
Voices
| Shimmering Choir | |
| Choir Breathy Ooh | |
| Choir Breath Not Taken Away | |
| Voice Bass | |
| Voice Breath Huh | |
| Voice Soprano 1 | |
| Voice Soprano 2 |
Percussion
| Noisy Synth Kick | |
| Punchy Clappy Snare | |
| Cowbell | |
| Cymbal Tap | |
| Hi Hat Hard | |
| Hi Hat Brushed Synth | |
| Tambourine | |
| Orchestral Bass Drum | |
| Snare Tom | |
| Taiko | |
| Bongo | |
| Pop Clap | |
| Axel’s Synth Claps | |
| Claves (sticks) |
Chromatic Percussion
| Timpani
| Handbells
| |
FX and Foley
| Mission Control Space Radio | |||||||||||||||||
| DTMF MF4 Telephone Dialler
| Low-passing Jet Airplane Flyby
| Cicada Forest (at 7:05)
| Fireworks - Bang And Fizzle
| Fireworks - Launch
| Fireworks - Screamers
| |
Sequences
Here's my first batch, for the first production release.
A fat analog rolling bass, typical of the 1990s. This has pleasant variations that keep it dynamic and interesting, with hints of organic physical presence. For best results, run it through compression and valve amplifier emulation. For an example, see Audio Lab: Jealousy.
The famous brass riff. I couldn't resist! I've tuned it to have the same drift and oscillator variation, and there are other tweaks to make it leap out. For best results, give some EQ lift around 6 kHz and below 140 Hz (or amplify and do the inverse EQ, depending where in the frequency range you want to preserve phase).
A tine piano, expressive to velocity, good for accompaniments.
A closed-lid toy piano.
Square waves with a small pulse width.
This is a slow-moving pad of awesomeness. In collaboration with EvilDragon.
Noise through a resonant filter, sounding out those eddies that the wind makes over land and trees. Gently moving.