Official Serum 2 thread!

[zerocrossing]

Something a little more annoying than it needs to be is keytracked filters. In a lot of synths you can just turn keytracking all the way up and it'll automatically be tuned properly. But in Serum 2 if you do that it'll be off by a couple notes so you have to manually tune the filter cutoff.

I'm not noticing this from the mod matrix via note# or via the button.

[coroknight]

Something a little more annoying than it needs to be is keytracked filters. In a lot of synths you can just turn keytracking all the way up and it'll automatically be tuned properly. But in Serum 2 if you do that it'll be off by a couple notes so you have to manually tune the filter cutoff.

I'm not noticing this from the mod matrix via note# or via the button.

It's easier to see with an oscillator set to white noise and a bandpass filter with the resonance turned up.

If you enable keytracking it'll set the cutoff 3 octaves above the note you play.

If you instead turn off keytracking, turn the cutoff all the way down and modulate it to the maximum using the NOTE modulator it'll be closer to the note you play, but 2 semitones off.

[coroknight]

Here's some proof. Both of these are playing a G2 note but you can see one keytracking method produces an A#2 and the other a G5

[zerocrossing]

Here's some proof. Both of these are playing a G2 note but you can see one keytracking method produces an A#2 and the other a G5

I didn't try that, but I just ran a sawtooth through a filter with the resonance cranked to self oscillate. I tuned it to an octave and played it up and down my 61 key controller and it seemed perfectly tuned to me.

[coroknight]

Here's some proof. Both of these are playing a G2 note but you can see one keytracking method produces an A#2 and the other a G5

I didn't try that, but I just ran a sawtooth through a filter with the resonance cranked to self oscillate. I tuned it to an octave and played it up and down my 61 key controller and it seemed perfectly tuned to me.

That test isn't going to work. The filter looks in-tune because the sawtooth has a strong harmonic near the fundamental. So what you're seeing is just the harmonic of the sawtooth.

That's why I recommended using noise because noise has every frequency so you can easily see the specific frequency the filter is peaking at.

To put this another way, what happens when you filter a sine wave? It just decreases in volume, it doesn't change the frequency of the sine wave. That's what's happening in your test.

It's not a deal breaker but it's annoying when you're trying to do advanced stuff like use comb filters to do physical modelling type sounds where the filter needs to be at the right note.

[Sampleconstruct]

The spectral oscillator can do some amazing things, I'm really impressed.

Playing a tonal wind-chime texture, sampled today in Serum 2's spectral oscillator, using two warp modes with modulation and a notch-filter/reverb.

This is indeed a nice sound you made here. !
Many years ago I bought 2 preset packs from you for Serum 1. You are one of few sound-desinger who offers really good inspering sound.
Do you also expirience that Serum 2 uses 1 GB of memory ?

Thank you. I haven't checked RAM usage tbh, I did notice that Serum 2 only uses a single core on my M3 Max Mac in Logic which is kind of disappointing.

[swilow11]

Damn, the SVF filter is great. Can create some great morphing sounds just by fiddling with resonance. I created a series of band pass notches that yield nice almost high pass sound but turning up resonance morphs the filter into a sort of glassy phaser. So cool. Although did get some of the odd zippery sounds at extreme values which may have just been very brief clipping.

[Fornicras]

Is there a way to play a reversed sample (let say E-piano) in time with all notes? I mean when I reverse the sample inside the Serum and play a chord, due to pitch/speed every sample ends at different times, I want them to end at the same time, is this possible and if so how to do it?

[Caine123]

i didnt find a way to point Serum 2 to a custom preset folder, i did that in Serum 1, i dunno how anymore, i think it only asks once when freshly installed? this should be possible.

Is there a way to play a reversed sample (let say E-piano) in time with all notes? I mean when I reverse the sample inside the Serum and play a chord, due to pitch/speed every sample ends at different times, I want them to end at the same time, is this possible and if so how to do it?

if i understand it correctly, you need to use Spectral/Granular mode for this.

[User3]

Are there nice Serum 2 libraries for meditation, relaxation and ASMR? Is anybody going to produce some soon?

[martiu]

Are there nice Serum 2 libraries for meditation, relaxation and ASMR? Is anybody going to produce some soon?

record a pad sound from serum and stretch it into oblivion with PaulXStretch and you will get your meditation in no time

[RAIDENGTK]

Damn, the SVF filter is great. Can create some great morphing sounds just by fiddling with resonance. I created a series of band pass notches that yield nice almost high pass sound but turning up resonance morphs the filter into a sort of glassy phaser. So cool. Although did get some of the odd zippery sounds at extreme values which may have just been very brief clipping.

Yeah, the SVF filter is seriously powerful! That glassy phaser effect sounds awesome—especially with resonance morphing. The zippery sounds at extreme values could be from clipping, but sometimes digital filters also introduce stepping artifacts at very fast modulations. Have you tried tweaking gain staging or smoothing parameters?

[foosnark]

Last thing I noticed is, if you right-click-assign an oscillator as mod source, you can see the little graphic on the corner of the knob showing it's being modulated, but you can't control the amount unless you go to the mod matrix. Other drag-and-drop stuff works as expected.

Yep, anything assigned via the right-click context menu has to be edited in the mod matrix. I encountered that with MPE as well as audio mod sources.

You can drag an oscillator or filter onto a knob to assign it though.

[teilo]

Last thing I noticed is, if you right-click-assign an oscillator as mod source, you can see the little graphic on the corner of the knob showing it's being modulated, but you can't control the amount unless you go to the mod matrix. Other drag-and-drop stuff works as expected.

This is not a bug. This is behavior inherited from Serum 1, and is documented in page 195 of the manual. The mod range halo is only active when you have the corresponding modulator selected. Multiple mod sources can modulate the same control, so there has to be a way of choosing which one you are editing.

Likewise the range halos indicate all controls that are being modulated by the selected module. All that would break if the range remained active all the time.

This does mean that when you are using a mod source that does not have a UI element, such as aftertouch, poly-aftertouch, CC, etc., you must use the mod matrix to change the range.

[User3]

Are there nice Serum 2 libraries for meditation, relaxation and ASMR? Is anybody going to produce some soon?

record a pad sound from serum and stretch it into oblivion with PaulXStretch and you will get your meditation in no time

Thanks for your advice. However, it seems to me that this is not enough to produce various popular compositions in this field of music.