Serum vs Dune 2

[Fred_Abstract]

massive and serum don t sound the same at all so there is not really any comparaison between both in term of sound caractere , serum can produce some of the highest quality sound you will find in soft synth imo but depend what you are after.. it's not all about sound quality ( with sound quality i mean not much digital artifacts, no blurry highs, no muddy low mids, good transients ect..) but sound caractere .. dune 2 is also great and quicker/ easier to use imo but it depends the context , the music, the sound after..

[Mystic]

Some folks are desperate tweakers. They never agree to the sound they want. They are constantly making/adding little changes thinking it is better than a few minutes ago. If you are one of those (or a psycho-perfectionist), avoid Serum (and any synth with wide wave-shaping capabilities).

This made me giggle. I'm one of these types and it's the main reason I've all but given up on sound design and opt to buy presets from professional designers instead. It saves me a lot of time because I can pull up a fantastic patch, maybe tweak it a bit to hit the sound I'm looking for and get back to working on music rather than spending a week trying to get a single sound exactly the way I have it in my head and not get anything else done.

[Caine123]

i like massive, but always sounds so cold and thin for me like most NI stuff :/

[Elektronisch]

I own both and both are great, both of them has different sound character and because of that they compliment each other.

[DocShay]

I would go for Dune 2 if you don't have a main synth already, it excels at being a well rounded main synth imho...The unison engine is unmatched.

[ckam03]

I would go for Dune 2 if you don't have a main synth already, it excels at being a well rounded main synth imho...The unison engine is unmatched.

Yeah I must say, I've been playing with the Dune 2 demo tonight and it sounds pretty amazing. I think I'm gonna pick this up.

[Coxy]

You can do stuff like this in Serum, which is currently not possible in Dune2.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJG_emYa_Kk

Do what? Make a youtube video and drone on for 18 minutes?

[e-modic]

You can do stuff like this in Serum, which is currently not possible in Dune2.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJG_emYa_Kk

Do what? Make a youtube video and drone on for 18 minutes?

that´s what I thought as well. "Dooed" Draeeed" "Deeed" so that´s what Dune 2 cannot do? Ok.

[EnGee]

You can do stuff like this in Serum, which is currently not possible in Dune2.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJG_emYa_Kk

Do what? Make a youtube video and drone on for 18 minutes?

It's the workflow! Copy and Paste baby!

[DocShay]

I would go for Dune 2 if you don't have a main synth already, it excels at being a well rounded main synth imho...The unison engine is unmatched.

Yeah I must say, I've been playing with the Dune 2 demo tonight and it sounds pretty amazing. I think I'm gonna pick this up.

It's definitely worth it, it's the most used synth plugin in my DAW.

[DocShay]

I would go for Dune 2 if you don't have a main synth already, it excels at being a well rounded main synth imho...The unison engine is unmatched.

Yeah I must say, I've been playing with the Dune 2 demo tonight and it sounds pretty amazing. I think I'm gonna pick this up.

It's definitely worth it, it gets the most use in my DAW.

[ckam03]

I would go for Dune 2 if you don't have a main synth already, it excels at being a well rounded main synth imho...The unison engine is unmatched.

Yeah I must say, I've been playing with the Dune 2 demo tonight and it sounds pretty amazing. I think I'm gonna pick this up.

It's definitely worth it, it gets the most use in my DAW.

I did in fact pick it up. The filters are amazing. Its going to go nicely with Omni and Diversion.

[zerocrossing]

"Modular [i.e. endless tweaking] evokes thoughts of endless tweaking & refining. I'd prefer focusing this energy on Mixing, Reverb, Compression, Dynamics, Stereo Imaging and the like.

Modular may evoke such thoughts for you... that does not mean your thoughts are an accurate reflection of how it actually is

I wholeheartedly agree-- it's my subjective viewpoint re: Modular. However, I do like my third party reverbs & compressors much more, and that's more objective: they are just far better in most cases. Also, such a strategy enables you to better gain stage / balance the mix with your sends, not directly on the channel strip itself. For instance, I rarely put a reverb on the individual channel strip; I use a common Auxillary Send instead and adjust the amount accordingly.

pdxindy is right, IMO. Modular can be those things, but that has more to do with how it's being used than some element of it's nature. When you start thinking about how a modern day studio uses a DAW it seems to me that there can be a lot of similarities to a modular. Sometimes, I like the nature of a fixed architecture synth. It forces you to work in a way that the designer invisioned. It can be very fast to work with and for most sounds it's my preferred way to go. It's the difference between buying a Kenner TIE fighter toy and a LEGO TIE fighter set. Yup, I could build the thing on the LEGO set's cover, but that, to me, would be counter to the point. You buy the LEGOs to make something new. I also kind of like the way modular let's you not think about things like, "oh, how does this synth do _____?" And frees you up to just add features as they come to you.

I tried the Dune 2 demo... I'd didn't really wow me. It seemed fine but I didn't really get the feeling that it was some collection of features I was missing. The moment I saw the first Serum tutorial I was bowled over. The ability to take any sample and turn it into a wavetable was super interesting to me. When I got it, I was a little disappointed at first because I felt it had a kind of sterile kind of sound and I actually bought Codex to complement it (which also has sample to wavetable import, but not as advanced) In the end I found ways to use some of Serum's filters to get a warmer more "hardware" kind of sound from it, so I probably needen't have purchased Codex. That said, Codex is a great alternative to Serum if you want something lean, fast to work with and great sounding right out of the box. Great presets too. Considering how cheap it was I don't have too much buyer's regret. I recommend it to people who are starting out and looking to get their feet wet in wavetable synthesis and don't need all of Serum's extensive modulation options. For me though, Serum's modulatable effects make it worth the price of admission.

Another way you might go is to think about Omnisphere. No wave to wavetable import, but it's got great wavetables, great VA options and sample import as well as an extensive included sample library ready for tweaking. It's considerably more expensive than Serum or Dune 2, but you get your money's worth. I bought the upgrade right around the time I had purchased a Prophet 12. After I got well aquainted with the 12, I cracked open Omnisphere 2. A few weeks later I had the 12 up on eBay.

[Dasheesh]

I'm with zero and pdx. I respect both their opinions.

[Dasheesh]

Although I would regret selling a prophet 12 for the rest of my days. hahahhaaa.

I used to be there in 2004' ish. buying and selling hardware as fast as I could get my hands on it. .... I am relatively new to software but I'm learning fast and I think we are all new to software still. (except ironically dave smith!)