Official Serum 2 thread!

[tumface]

It would be great if Serum FX could use another plugin's sounds to run through its clip and arp, but it looks like this isn't yet possible, as far as I can see.

I think there is some confusion about what is possible with audio and what is not possible. There is no way to take the "sounds" from one plugin, as an audio routing chain, and run it through an "arpeggiator." There is no software or other plugin that can do this, because it's impossible, and also an ill-posed idea. By definition of the data (audio stream and MIDI arpeggiator) it's not possible to do this because these data formats are incoherent together.

The only way to do something similar to what you want is to buffer a large amount of incoming audio first, like a delay looper/beat repeater, or to use spectral/granular pitch warping like Auto-Tune, neither which actually take the "sounds" from another plugin, but simply deform/distort the incoming audio stream, and don't work polyphonically.

I was worried this might have been what you were asking for earlier in the thread, which is why I tried to get a more detailed explanation from you before continuing.

[buffalo roam]

What you are saying does not make sense. Midi clips and arps are no audio processors, hence running sound "trough" them is pointless.

Is maybe what you're trying to achieve using serum as a midi device that feeds midi notes into your other synth?

Huh? A "trough" is something farm animals eat or drink out of. I guess what you're saying is that the clip and arp in Serum 2 and Serum 2 FX are just midi devices. I know that independent arps typically work in the "midi fx" slot of a daw. So I suppose Serum 2 and Serum 2 FX internally route a daw's midi notes first through their clip and arpeggiators to recreate patterns of midi notes before generating sound internally. But that still leaves open the question of why Serum FX can't just take the daw's midi input and route the outside generated sound the same way internally. After all, Serum FX does accept an outside synth's sounds through its convolution, delay and other effects. It's a routing issue.

[tumface]

But that still leaves open the question of why Serum FX can't just take the daw's midi input and route the outside generated sound the same way internally. After all, Serum FX does accept an outside synth's sounds through its convolution, delay and other effects. It's a routing issue.

No, what you are asking for is literally impossible. There is no technology which exists that can do this. When you play samples (or convolution IRs, which are just samples) through Serum 2, it's because the entirety of the sound has already been pre-recorded, analyzed, and stored within Serum 2 before it ever plays a single note with it. This cannot be done with incomplete incoming audio via the DAW audio chain. Serum 2 can't see into the future and it can't analyze the arbitrary memory contents of your PCs memory to extract samples in other formats stored within other plugin's memory regions. (Or, in the case of other plugin synthesizers, simulate that other synthesizer's algorithms ahead of time to pre-render what the other synth *would* have rendered, and then play it back through an arpeggiator instead. This is basically impossible.)

[buffalo roam]

It would be great if Serum FX could use another plugin's sounds to run through its clip and arp, but it looks like this isn't yet possible, as far as I can see.

I think there is some confusion about what is possible with audio and what is not possible. There is no way to take the "sounds" from one plugin, as an audio routing chain, and run it through an "arpeggiator." There is no software or other plugin that can do this, because it's impossible, and also an ill-posed idea. By definition of the data (audio stream and MIDI arpeggiator) it's not possible to do this because these data formats are incoherent together.

The only way to do something similar to what you want is to buffer a large amount of incoming audio first, like a delay looper/beat repeater, or to use spectral/granular pitch warping like Auto-Tune, neither which actually take the "sounds" from another plugin, but simply deform/distort the incoming audio stream, and don't work polyphonically.

I was worried this might have been what you were asking for earlier in the thread, which is why I tried to get a more detailed explanation from you before continuing.

OK, we're talking about midi vs audio. Please see my comments to "pay dive", above.

[tumface]

OK, we're talking about midi vs audio. Please see my comments below.

No, I believe this is a fundamental misunderstanding of how these technologies work and what is possible within computers.

[JO512]

The oscillators do nothing when using Serum 2 FX in the audio FX slot in my daw.

As others have pointed out, there seems to be a basic misunderstanding of something here. Serum 2's clip generator and arpeggiator are MIDI generators. MIDI notes by themselves do not contain any audio information, nor can they modify existing audio information. What comes out of a synth is audio information.

If you want something like a generator of MIDI notes to affect a synth, you need that MIDI generator to be placed BEFORE the synth in the chain. Effects are placed AFTER a synth, to process the audio it generates. MIDI notes come out of the MIDI note generator, then go into the synth to tell it what notes to play. Then sound comes out of the synth. Then effects can be applied to this sound. Generating MIDI notes is not an effect to be added after a synth. What might be confusing is that Serum 2 FX is called "FX", and does have effects that can be applied to the sound generated by a synth. But it also has the Clip generator and arpeggiator which are MIDI note generators. The processing of audio with effects and the generation of MIDI notes are two very different operations.

Here's how to do what you are wanting to do. I don't have your DAW, and so don't know exactly how to do it with your setup, but the basic flow should be like this:

Serum 2 FX Clip generator or Arp --> your synth of choice --> Serum 2 FX for actual audio effects

So you need to run two copies of Serum 2 FX, the clip generator or arpeggiator before your synth and the effects after. Also, in Serum 2 FX, you need to enable MIDI output in the lower right corner here:

Screenshot 2025-08-10 091235.jpg

I hope this helps!

[JO512]

EDIT: I removed some incorrect and unhelpful AI output

[tumface]

So you need to run two copies of Serum 2 FX, the clip generator or arpeggiator before your synth and the effects after. Also, in Serum 2 FX, you need to enable MIDI output in the lower right corner here:

Yes, that's the right way to do it. Hopefully that solves the problem. But, if the incoming audio is from an audio track or recorded material, it won't work, because there's nothing to route the MIDI to. Which is why I answered the way I did above, in case that's what the original poster was talking about. But hopefully they're dealing with only MIDI + a synth and before any other audio FX.

[buffalo roam]

OK, we're talking about midi vs audio. Please see my comments below.

No, I believe this is a fundamental misunderstanding of how these technologies work and what is possible within computers.

Honestly, when I described in great detail what my scenario was, it would have been helpful if you had pointed out the midi vs audio issues. Instead, you posted a preset that simply used Serum FX's internal oscillator--without pointing that out. I had to figure this out on my own.

But in using any daw, with any synth in the instruments slot of the channel strip. at least one midi note is sent to Serum 2 FX in the audio fx slot. And Serum 2 FX in the audio fx slot can use that midi note to trigger its own internal routing of clips and arpeggiations and generate sound with its internal oscillators. So my point still stands--it's a routing issue that could be opened up within Serum 2 FX with some options offered by Xferrecords.

[buffalo roam]

So you need to run two copies of Serum 2 FX, the clip generator or arpeggiator before your synth and the effects after. Also, in Serum 2 FX, you need to enable MIDI output in the lower right corner here:

Yes, that's the right way to do it. Hopefully that solves the problem. But, if the incoming audio is from an audio track or recorded material, it won't work, because there's nothing to route the MIDI to. Which is why I answered the way I did above, in case that's what the original poster was talking about. But hopefully they're dealing with only MIDI + a synth and before any other audio FX.

That sounds nice, if it were do-able using one of the instances of Serum 2 FX in the midi fx slot in the daw's channel strip, but that is not an option--at least in Logic.

[buffalo roam]

The oscillators do nothing when using Serum 2 FX in the audio FX slot in my daw.

As others have pointed out, there seems to be a basic misunderstanding of something here. Serum 2's clip generator and arpeggiator are MIDI generators. MIDI notes by themselves do not contain any audio information, nor can they modify existing audio information. What comes out of a synth is audio information.

If you want something like a generator of MIDI notes to affect a synth, you need that MIDI generator to be placed BEFORE the synth in the chain. Effects are placed AFTER a synth, to process the audio it generates. MIDI notes come out of the MIDI note generator, then go into the synth to tell it what notes to play. Then sound comes out of the synth. Then effects can be applied to this sound. Generating MIDI notes is not an effect to be added after a synth. What might be confusing is that Serum 2 FX is called "FX", and does have effects that can be applied to the sound generated by a synth. But it also has the Clip generator and arpeggiator which are MIDI note generators. The processing of audio with effects and the generation of MIDI notes are two very different operations.

Here's how to do what you are wanting to do. I don't have your DAW, and so don't know exactly how to do it with your setup, but the basic flow should be like this:

Serum 2 FX Clip generator or Arp --> your synth of choice --> Serum 2 FX for actual audio effects

So you need to run two copies of Serum 2 FX, the clip generator or arpeggiator before your synth and the effects after. Also, in Serum 2 FX, you need to enable MIDI output in the lower right corner here:

Screenshot 2025-08-10 091235.jpg

I hope this helps!

That sounds nice, if it were do-able using one of the instances of Serum 2 FX in the midi fx slot in the daw's channel strip, but that is not an option--at least in Logic. I think Xferrecords could handle this in Serum 2 FX with some basic rerouting of midi signals and incoming sound. And with that, I'm over and out with this discussion.

[tumface]

Yeah, the AI is totally wrong and a waste of time. A perfect example of why reposting AI stuff in forums with humans is not a good idea. Serum 2 FX is not a MIDI AU FX. It can't be put in the channel strip before the instrument. I should have noticed that when I saw it posted here. I really wish people wouldn't post AI stuff into forums with people. If someone wants to query an AI, they can do it on their own.

[JO512]

...that is not an option--at least in Logic.

Yeah, the AI is totally wrong and a waste of time. A perfect example of why reposting AI stuff in forums with humans is not a good idea.

Sorry for the incorrect AI response, if it doesn't work. I'll delete it.

So is it actually impossible in Logic to put an instance of Serum FX before a synth in the chain? If so, that's a serious limitation. It makes me appreciate the other DAWs I use (Reaper and Bitwig) even more. Putting a MIDI generator before a synth should be no problem whatsoever, and should be straightforward. It is a totally normal thing to do. How do you use plugins like Stepic or BlueARP in Logic then?

I think Xferrecords could handle this in Serum 2 FX with some basic rerouting of midi signals and incoming sound. And with that, I'm over and out with this discussion.

Sorry, I don't think that's possible. It is absolutely necessary that the MIDI generator (clip or arp) goes before your synth and that effects go after in the chain. You cannot process already-generated audio with MIDI instructions after the fact. The MIDI generator and the effects have to be two different things, one before and one after.

[JO512]

Here's what it looks like in Bitwig, and it works perfectly:

Screenshot 2025-08-10 153457.jpg

[JO512]

Another possibility, if Logic won't accept using Serum 2 FX as MIDI FX, is that surely you could just use the Serum 2 instrument plugin instead, and just use its clip generator or arp and turn off its sound generators. Then, while in the clip generator or arp, turn on MIDI out in the lower right corner like I showed earlier. Then place your synth after that in the chain (assuming Logic allows you to layer synths), and then put Serum 2 FX or whatever other effects you want after in the FX slot.

I tried using the regular instrument version of Serum 2 without any audio generators, just as a MIDI generator, and it works just fine as long as you have MIDI out enabled.