Is it just me or Serum/Vital sounds without life?

[ramseysounds]

It’s you

Doesn’t seem like it.

No; it really is. If you are making these 2 wonderful synths sound lifeless, it really is you. Your name is a giveaway tbh.

Some people just agreed with me, learn to read mate.
And then get a proper synth like Spire.

So I post an opinion and you tell me to learn to read? 26 posts? You'll be popular here.

[isuckatproducing]

It’s you

Doesn’t seem like it.

No; it really is. If you are making these 2 wonderful synths sound lifeless, it really is you. Your name is a giveaway tbh.

Some people just agreed with me, learn to read mate.
And then get a proper synth like Spire.

So I post an opinion and you tell me to learn to read? 26 posts? You'll be popular here.

You said it's just me. But nevermind I'm done explaining simple things to you.

[imrae]

Some people agree with Ramsey.

[3lu5iv3]

maybe you should do a blind A/B test. you might be telling the truth or
you might be lying.

[srv-musikmaker]

Hi,

I know you can do good stuff with these synths especially when it's mixed well, but I have tried both and they sound lifeless to me.
For example Spire has much deeper sound.

Or is it just me?

It's me too. In fact, that is why I decided to purchase Sylenth1 (apart from the fact that I do not make any future genres)

Sylenth and Zebra sounded better to me from what I remember.

Sylenth1 sounds great and it's incredibly light on the CPU with 7 to 8 instances running with FX. Great sound character and filters and good for the kind of music I make I guess.

[zerocrossing]

You should really dig into Serum’s filters. That’s where a significant amount of the Duda’s effort has gone into the last couple of years, along with the distortion effect. Click around. Play with the noise options too. The bog-standard Serum presets are just ok, but getting in there and doing some LFO and envelope assignments really help it to come alive. Also Spire has a that shape module on its output, with some really nice distortion options. That’s part of Spire’s charm. Serum has the same option but you have to add it as an effect

Especially check out Serum's "French" and "German" filters. IMO, they're the most characterful of them all, but they're sort of hidden.

[zerocrossing]

Spire is a terrible synth that only terrible people would like. That's my opinion of it.

[srv-musikmaker]

I think it's simple, if you're making bass music and slap house, trap, tech house etc. Go for serum

If you want supersaws, acid bass, bright chords and stuff, and overall bread and butter sounds, go for Sylenth1. I'll say it's limitations can force you into becoming better at sound design (I do have vital also with a lot of serum wavetables and patches etc)

So yea, there's a new and old argument here.

Spire is pretty awesome from what I've heard though (or is it the presets?!)

[isuckatproducing]

Spire is pretty awesome from what I've heard though (or is it the presets?!)

It is awesome especially for trancy stuff:


It also has my favourite reverb and delay from all plugins I have used.
The delay sounds so wide in stereo...

Anyway I only use Mini V3 and Pigments 3

[Economist2947]

Maybe try warming them up with some effects like tape saturation and what not?

[BKSchatzki]

Serum. The synth you buy when you first decide you're serious. You fall out of love with it. Then you fall back in love with it. You're right. It's very clean, which makes it sound a little lifeless. As mentioned before, using chaos modulators and LFOs to manipulate micro-tuning, bend, WT position, pulse-width modulation, FX parameters, and filters. That brings it all back.

[roman.i]

Hi,

I know you can do good stuff with these synths especially when it's mixed well, but I have tried both and they sound lifeless to me.
For example Spire has much deeper sound.

Or is it just me?

They are. This is the nature of digital synths, unless they try to emulate hardware.

[chk071]

Well... they all try to emulate hardware.

And, I also disagree that there are no warm sounding digital synths. Spire has been mentioned above. Very warm sounding digital.

There are uses for both: Warm and cold sound. Serum isn't exactly the warmest synth, but, it's capable of producing some great sounds.

I think Spire complements Serum very well.

[roman.i]

Warm doesn't mean the synth sounds "alive". It's the variation in analog circuits. Even a modern emulation can't reproduce this kind of variation, they mostly have a static snapshot in their algorithms. Doesn't mean a digital synth or an emulation can't sound cool, in a fact Virus and Nord lead are great digital VA synths. It's all about how to choose and where you put the distortion/saturation. Same as with guitars, this what makes the sound pleasant to ears.

[chk071]

I would say that a lot of sound characteristics contribute to "warm" sound. Variances, a good bottom end, a pleasant filter character, saturation, thick sounding oscillators... I couldn't really pinpoint what some synths make warmer sounding than others, but, IMO, warm sound is definitely not something esoteric or imaginary. And, definitely also present in digital synths, even without a lot of saturation or distortion.