Is it worth getting Serum if I already have Synthmaster?

[4damind]

Hmm... I use Serum not so often and started with using some wavetables/single cycle waveforms I recorded from my hardware. But because I own the hardware, I ended up with using the hardware
Synthmaster is a different beast, has a lot more options (different synthesis engines) etc. and this cannot be compared with Serum. I must also add that Serum has a serious automation bug which is still not fixed (I wrote with Steve, made a video... but it's still there).
Serum is one of the best wavetable synth (IMO) but.. it's "only" a Wavetable synth and yes, people saying very often it has a bit cold/clean sound. So it depends of the own needs (but to be honest, I don't know if I would buy Serum again...)

[Synthetic Wav]

The Serum sound is a tricky pickle. There's nothing overtly unusual about it except it's oscillators aliasing as little as they do. After that the character of it is primarily it's filters. People differ on this, I kind of......I don't know...almost really hate the MG Low 24 filter in Serum. Similarly unimpressed by the French and German LP. I just don't like the tone. It's a taste thing, so really demoing it is the easiest way to figure out what you're into.

The clarity of it's sound is an ambiguous combination of those things. It's why people say it's a kind of "razor sharp" sounding synth.

the filter does the job for me sometimes even great result but overall it's decent and not mindblowing cause these don't saturate a lot if any at all maybe? (i m not much familiar with serum and the filters yet )

the strenght is clearly the oscillators and modulation for me ( to create / import wavetables, the warp modes, the possibily to modulate the Fx and you also have a filter there), also that the balance is kinda neutral,it feel flat in term of frequency reponse , the highs are not cut, the low mids are not bumped..so you can scult the sound the way you want with processing..for the guys it's sounding too brittle try with a good saturator on top it can really shine..try a good saturator + maybe mjuc, won't sound anymore brittle/glassy but hifi , detailed and silky in the hights.

[BBFG#]

The thing is, your connectivity problems are issues that I can not reproduce on my end. and out of thousands of paid+free player users, I received the same bug report from only one other user, nobody else. (I get bug/issue reports from our website a lot, usually 10 per day). It's probably a setting on your network or firewall or virus program that's preventing you to download "dynamic" files from us. By "dynamic" I mean content that is delivered to you using the following ASP.NET code:

FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo(filePath);
response.AddHeader("Content-Length", fileInfo.Length.ToString());
response.TransmitFile(filePath);
HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest();

Maybe there are some .NET experts here who can show us if there's a bug with the above code

And yet I can download the demo, the player and even get sent to PayPal immediately.
And when you send a link for what I'm trying to download, it works as well.
(with the same browser, same ISP)... and I have tried using different browsers and ISPs to check it against also. And even different computers. All with the exact same infuriating non-results.
It's only when I enter my info from the user area that I get taken to a blank page that stays until I close it.
Remember we had a problem with your emails too that took months for you to admit to before you fixed it also. I've done everything to deductively reason it down to something on my side. It appears from my side that the only common denominator is where I'm trying to download from.

And then there's the time of having to explain this over and over (like I did with the email issue).

[Kinh]

While these guys are in an argument over refunds and bugs (unrelated to the topic) I will say chose Synthmaster over Serum if you're a preset guy.
Serum, maxes out your CPU like nothing else with some of the presets - only half of them are below 30%, which is ridiculous, the others (80 - 100%) are unusable for obvious reasons. Its not a DAW thing (as suggest by support, it behaves the same way in Protools and Ableton). The new version hasn't fixed this (and until they do I wont be buying).

Synthmaster is Xtra low on cpu consumption, most of its sounds are quite good, however its wavetables aren't as flexible as Serum.

If you're a sound designer the preset spike thing wont matter in Serum.

[kv331]

Synthmaster is Xtra low on cpu consumption, most of its sounds are quite good, however its wavetables aren't as flexible as Serum.

For now

[Pyrotek45]

Synthmaster is Xtra low on cpu consumption, most of its sounds are quite good, however its wavetables aren't as flexible as Serum.

For now

Oh damn, got me all exited!

[Chandlerhimself]

I think if you're really interested in scanning wavetables you should get it, but if you just want good sounds stick with Synthmaster. It has tons of great sounds and it sounds like it will get Serum style wavetables features in the next year and a half or so.

I'm not saying Serum is bad, but unless you have a specific sound in mind, I'd stick with what you have or look for a synth that covers completely different territory than SM.

[MarlaPodolski]

Serum, maxes out your CPU like nothing else with some of the presets - only half of them are below 30%, which is ridiculous, the others (80 - 100%) are unusable for obvious reasons. Its not a DAW thing (as suggest by support, it behaves the same way in Protools and Ableton). The new version hasn't fixed this (and until they do I wont be buying).

Sad but true.

[quantum7]

I like them both, but since I generally use warmer sounds for the type of music that I typically write, Synthmaster is right up my alley. Synthmaster is also pretty light on the CPU.... at least in comparison to Serum.

KV331- Don't let yourself be bullied. Just say NO to Internet terrorism!

[2ZrgE]

The only impressive thing I can remember of Serum is the great GUI and the fast workflow. But I just cannot use it as it takes such a large amount of CPU compared to other synths which have the same quality and work totally ok on my machine.

Synthmaster - well I bought it but I use it very rarely, I just cannot motivate me working with that GUI, everything is so tiny and crammed and dark and hidden. I know that it is a huge task to build a good GUI for a synth with that complexity, and I know soundwise it's totally fine and stuff, but that's me GUI is an important factor for my motivation/workflow, I need some kind of 'mental space' to work 'inside a VST' if that makes sense (probably won't).
If only the guy who started making that grey SM GUI had finished what he started...

[digitalboytn]

The only impressive thing I can remember of Serum is the great GUI and the fast workflow. But I just cannot use it as it takes such a large amount of CPU compared to other synths which have the same quality and work totally ok on my machine.

You can never get too much daily use out of a three legged horse

Bloody useless really...

The best tools to use are the ones that are practical...

I have grown to really like SynthMaster and I will love it even more when they improve the GUI...

Maybe they could just steal the GUI from Serum

[Igro]

Synthmaster is Xtra low on cpu consumption, most of its sounds are quite good, however its wavetables aren't as flexible as Serum.

For now

Oh damn, got me all exited!

Yessssss

[4damind]

This "EDM synth" goes IMO a bit in the direction "can sound like a Virus"? So it must have a clean and transparent sound with a good unison implementation for this typical stacked pluck sounds.
Many synth falling in this category, this includes Sylenth but also FXpansion stuff like Strobe which is with my knowledge very often used by some Anjunabeats artists ("Above & Beyond") and of course also Synthmaster (we know that some artists like AvB using it).

Anyway, for very simple pluck/unison sounds Synthmaster is IMO over-qualified. It's the same why I would not use Dune for such sounds. There are "typical" synth doing this stuff very well and they are also a lot easier to use also for people having not so much experience with sound design.
Serum with some good Wavetables (there are some from the Virus TI flying around the web or from Massive) can do this stuff very well and it's very easy to use. So for this "typical" sounds Serum can be the better option compared to SM. If it comes to more complex sound design (but also for pads) I would not pick Serum.

[kv331]

It's only when I enter my info from the user area that I get taken to a blank page that stays until I close it.

You are not taken to a blank page, this is what you are supposed to see:

blankpage.png

[BBFG#]

It's only when I enter my info from the user area that I get taken to a blank page that stays until I close it.

You are not taken to a blank page, this is what you are supposed to see:

blankpage.png

Which never happens on the core engine download.
I only got that page last time through the direct link you sent,
which opens the browser and then goes to that.
In the past, if I'm consistent in trying over and over again and get lucky (and this has only been for small sound-set files, never large ones or engine software updates)... I have got to this page also. But generally speaking, it's nightmare of wasted energy most of the time.