Official Serum 2 thread!

[cryophonik]

mh, i was really looking forward to test serum (2 now of course) after work (never tried it before but heard lots of good things). installed the au... and it can't be opened in neither logic (doesn't pass au-validation) nor ableton live (says it's incompatible).
mac mini m2, mac os 15.3.2, logic 11.1.2, live 12.1.10

is this a bug? is it just me? haven't read anything about it here or anywhere else. strange and actually a little disappointing. can't remember a similar issue with another plugin (though I didn't installed a demo in ages, only full versions/updates).

No problems here in Logic (Logic and OS are both up to date). I haven’t tried the VST or AAX versions in Ableton or PT yet.

[briefcasemanx]

NM

[sempondr]

Steve Duda talks about Serum 2 and more:

Thanks to HOTF who posted this in another thread.
It's very interesting to hear from Steve himself.
Towards the end he also talks about why he made it a free update for life.

[ChanceB]

Has the copy protection changed to 'challenge response'?

Yes, unfortunately.

Oh well, another synth bites the dust...

There is an option for offline activation

[martinjuenke]

Has someone already an opinion about the new FX section?

[swilow11]

Has someone already an opinion about the new FX section?

It's great. Really like the band split function and ability to throw fx on different bands. Plus being able to use more than 1 iteration of each effect and to save full racks as preset. Would hope that some of the fx get updated eventually, I know there is now convolution but a better algo reverb would be cool.

One slight complaint I've got- the routing for parallel filter use is harder than it needs to be. A button to select serial or parallel would work better than having to switch pages to the mixer tab. Small issue tho.

[billinder33]

Downloaded and made a quick patch today just to get a feel for the update. Really love the new oscs, additional filter, and LFO options. The new FX options and busses are nice. The arp is nice. Can't wait to dig deeper into it.

I wish they'd changed the modulation assignment system to more resemble Phaseplant or Vital. Amazing update otherwise. Lots of new stuff here to put Serum back on par with Phaseplant, Pigments, and Current. Best thing is that it's still the same easy to configure, fun to use Serum. Really digging it

[swilow11]

Downloaded and made a quick patch today just to get a feel for the update. Really love the new oscs, additional filter, and LFO options. The new FX options and busses are nice. The arp is nice. Can't wait to dig deeper into it.

I wish they'd changed the modulation assignment system to more resemble Phaseplant or Vital. Amazing update otherwise. Lots of new stuff here to put Serum back on par with Phaseplant, Pigments, and Current. But still the same easy to configure, fun to use Serum. Really digging it

What change would you like to see re mod assignment?

[SiliconDeath]

I wasn't big fan of serum 1 (specifically it's core sound engine, that made everything that came out from it quite sterile), so I'm wondering if serum 2 sounds different enough to warrant me keep testing it, when I could just be using pigments or current? There are improvements in Serum 2, that arp alone is a big addition, but so far it's been a bit of a mixed bag for me.

[Dunbar]

I am still scratching my head at the dongle part.
rsp

I agree. Since the dawn of VST plug-ins, a “dongle” has referred to an external piece of hardware...

It still does.

The difference now is: the "hardware" dongle resides remotely on the network rather than in the local serial, parallel or USB ports. This means the modern iteration of the dongle is totally outside the software "owner's" control.

[JO512]

specifically it's core sound engine, that made everything that came out from it quite sterile

I run into this perspective a lot. I mostly disagree with it. It is very possible to make a Serum patch sound as dirty or warm or characterful or dark as you want it to. The oscillators are very clean, and that's a good thing. It's always easier to dirty things up than to clean them (often impossible). It's like having a high resolution camera sensor. You can always reduce the resolution if you want a photo to look pixelated. But if your camera only has a very low-resolution sensor, you can't get sharp, high-resolution, clear images with it, short of AI upscaling, which gives you fake details. With the more pristine starting point, you have more options.

I think a lot of people, not necessarily you, are too preset-oriented. If the stock presets in a synth tend toward a lot of dubstep growls, they tend to think that's the character of the synth. No, it is rather the character of the presets. The presets can give a very misleading impression of what the synth is capable of.

Honestly, it's much easier to make Serum sound like Repro, and do most of what it does, than it is to make Repro do all that Serum can do. But since Serum, or Phase Plant, or whatever, has so much flexibility and power, that also means it asks more of you. Repro is one big sweet spot. Limited, but mostly sweet. Not necessarily so with synths like Serum 2, and even less so with Phase Plant.

[audio/fault]

No problems here in Logic (Logic and OS are both up to date). I haven’t tried the VST or AAX versions in Ableton or PT yet.

seems like you installed the vst. i didn‘t, i never do when I have the choice. but it’s necessary, as the au is only a wrapper. strange… but it‘s working now.

[JO512]

Noise only sample based, section should be called “simple sampler” - NAY

In the menu for the noises, look down to the "color" submenu. Those seem to me to be algorithmic noise, not samples. I don't hear any repetition in them anyway.

[bmanic]

This is seriously tempting. I'm super impressed by the user interface and how immediate it is to use. Also really like the spectral oscillator. As far as I can tell it's definitely on par with Image-Line Harmor.

Good thing the intro price is until june 1st! Gives a little breathing space. I know I have way too many plugins already and I'm 100% certain I will purchase Zebra 3 so there's that too..

[wintoid]

I'm surprised how basic the wavetable editor is *except* for the formula field. If it didn't have the formula field I'd even say it's close to useless. You can pretty much just do basic stuff like draw straight lines, and very basic curves. I'd even go as far as to say the LFO editor is more advanced since you can edit individual points.

You can drag the LFOs onto the wavetable, which is nice