8.4Great
Melatonin Sine Machine is a friendly additive synthesizer with 10,000+ oscillators, a zero-knob visual interface, additive reverb and filters, MPE, and MTS-ESP.
Plugin comparison
Melatonin Sine Machine vs Surge XT
Specs, price and the Dubspot Score, side by side — with our verdict on which synth to buy.
Independent score / workflow fit / buying signal
Contenders
The side-by-side
8.7Great
Surge XT is a free open-source hybrid synthesizer with deep modulation, 12 oscillator algorithms, MPE, microtuning, and 2800+ factory patches.
Score verdict
Which should you buy?
On the Dubspot Score, Surge XT comes out ahead (8.7). That said, the right pick depends on your workflow and budget — read both reviews before deciding.
Technical matrix
Specs compared
| Signal | Melatonin Sine Machine | Surge XT |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Pay-what-you-want, suggested $75 | Free |
| Dubspot Score | 8.4 | 8.7 |
| Formats | Standalone, VST3, AU, CLAP | VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2, Standalone |
| Type | Additive (time-domain) software synthesizer | Open-source hybrid synthesizer |
| Engine | 20 voices x 511 oscillators (10,000+ total), 20,000+ LFOs | — |
| Editing | Bulk per-harmonic ADSR, volume, and pitch LFO; zero-knob interface | — |
| Effects | Additive reverb (1,000 sine waves), additive brickwall and Gaussian band-pass filters | — |
| Expression | MPE, per-harmonic Gaussian pitch noise, absolute pitch glide | — |
| Tuning | MTS-ESP microtuning, mappable partials to arbitrary frequencies | — |
| Presets | 140+ factory presets, hackable plaintext JSON | — |
| Plugin formats | macOS VST3/AU/CLAP/standalone, Windows VST3/CLAP/standalone, Linux VST3/CLAP/standalone (no AAX) | — |
| Licensing | Pay-what-you-want, up to 3 installs per licence, online activation, 14-day demo | — |
| Version | — | 1.3.4 (stable) |
| Oscillators | — | 3 per scene; 12 algorithms (Classic, Modern, Wavetable, FM2/FM3, String, Twist, and more) |
| Factory content | — | 2800+ patches; 700+ wavetables |
| Scenes | — | Two full synthesis scenes for layer/split patches |
| Formats | — | VST3, AU, CLAP, LV2, Standalone |
| Platforms | — | Windows, macOS (Intel/Apple Silicon), Linux |
See the full plugin database for more comparisons.