Official Serum 2 thread!

[swilow11]

Serum doesn't really have a sound.

A synth can be versatile and have his own character.
That's why I'm not playing with Serum, no personality at all. I get bored.

Fair enough. Serum 2 can certainly have character but you need to build that into it. The voice modifiers coupled with some of the new analogue modelled filters and whatever "analogue" wavetable you want can certainly add a bit of a vibe to things. But approaching it as one would Diva or some Arturia emulations will probably disappoint. It's not really intended to be a characterful synth imo.

[vitocorleone123]

Serum doesn't really have a sound.

A synth can be versatile and have his own character.
That's why I'm not playing with Serum, no personality at all. I get bored.

Fair enough. Serum 2 can certainly have character but you need to build that into it. The voice modifiers coupled with some of the new analogue modelled filters and whatever "analogue" wavetable you want can certainly add a bit of a vibe to things. But approaching it as one would Diva or some Arturia emulations will probably disappoint. It's not really intended to be a characterful synth imo.

Serum 2 has a character to it. To me. It sounds different from every other synth I have.

[tumface]

Serum (1 and 2) both cut a noticeable amount from the highs from a full-spectrum oscillator waveform, with both 12db and especially 24db filters, even when they're set to the highest cutoff frequency ("wide open.") I feel this contributes to its sort of neutral, mids-focused sound by default. It might be why you see upward compression of highs used on Serum presets a lot? Just theorizing. Serum is quite clean in terms of not having much aliasing or crunchy artifacts, so it holds it up well to additional distortion and compression with post FX (either its own, or external ones.)

There's no safety highpass filter on its output, the wavetable interpolation is great, and the envelopes are as impeccably snappy as you want them to be. Great for making punchy and rich sounds by default. You can make glassy bright stuff, too, it just takes a bit more tweaking (might need to modulate a small resonance boost when the cutoff frequency is high, for example.)

[audiojunkie]

It is a very clean digital synth, doing a very clean digital synthesis with lots of modulation, and the ability to load samples. I would be buying it for digital sounds, not "characterful" analog sounds. This is this synth's strength.

[jrwaltb]

Still not sure what the appeal to Serum is. The Sound isn’t special and the CPU as mentioned above is horrible. If any plugin uses that much CPU the sound better be top notch to justify it. There are plenty of other options that sound better and use hardly any CPU. I guess Serum just became popular fron good marketing and large artists using free copies for Xfer’s marketing campaigns.

The CPU thing is false for some people, please realize that as its gets tedious scrolling through messages about CPU usage about the most advanced synth. The new filters don't exist anywhere else and technically its the best SFZ player around. There are no other options that technically have the same technology, that might not matter or some cannot hear the difference but it is relevant when discussing these things and for sure the reason its being talked about.

[Gam456]

It is a very clean digital synth, doing a very clean digital synthesis with lots of modulation, and the ability to load samples. I would be buying it for digital sounds, not "characterful" analog sounds. This is this synth's strength.

Since when character is only on analogue ? DX7, D50, Synclavier, Virus, Hydrasynth, 3rd Wave and many more

[audiojunkie]

..

[audiojunkie]

It is a very clean digital synth, doing a very clean digital synthesis with lots of modulation, and the ability to load samples. I would be buying it for digital sounds, not "characterful" analog sounds. This is this synth's strength.

Since when character is only on analogue ? DX7, D50, Synclavier, Virus, Hydrasynth, 3rd Wave and many more

We are not disagreeing. Sometimes sarcasm isn't as easy to recognize in text as it is to see in person. I think everything has its own character. I was being sarcastic because Serum 2's cleanness IS it's character. It has every bit as much character as any other synth. Its character is clean. Clean digital sound is character when compared to analog. It's a different palette of sounds compared to analog. I would be buying it for its clean sounds, not the so called "characterful" analog sounds.

Edit -- I was responding to this:

"A synth can be versatile and have his own character.
That's why I'm not playing with Serum, no personality at all. I get bored."

My point is this: Serum has every bit as much personality as any other synth you name. Its character is very different. What you call no personality, is in fact a very strong character--its character is a very clean digital character. Just because you don't like it or you find it boring, doesn't mean that its not a character.

[djanthonyw]

Still not sure what the appeal to Serum is. The Sound isn’t special and the CPU as mentioned above is horrible. If any plugin uses that much CPU the sound better be top notch to justify it. There are plenty of other options that sound better and use hardly any CPU. I guess Serum just became popular fron good marketing and large artists using free copies for Xfer’s marketing campaigns.

The CPU thing is false for some people, please realize that as its gets tedious scrolling through messages about CPU usage about the most advanced synth. The new filters don't exist anywhere else and technically its the best SFZ player around. There are no other options that technically have the same technology, that might not matter or some cannot hear the difference but it is relevant when discussing these things and for sure the reason its being talked about.

It could be the most advanced synth on paper, but what matters is the sound and if the CPU it uses justifies the sound. It simply just does not sound special. Features are secondary, and If it has all of those features and it sounded amazing that would be a different story.

I'm running a M2 Max and it uses more CPU than any other synth I've demoed, and it sounds no better than a variety of free plugins.

For analog sound, take DIVA. When it was first released it used the most CPU of any synth, however it was justified because it was also the most advanced analog modeled synth and was successful in doing so.

For digital, take something like Pigments, or the Virus TI (run through OsTIrus) and those both sound a lot better, full of life, while using a fraction of the CPU. OsTIrus uses hardly any CPU. Those are what I consider to be good sounding digital synths that also have a lot of features. Pigments has a large majority of features that Serum has, while also having features that Serum does not have.

[zvenx]

At the end of the day, it boils down to taste. Serum 2 sounds significantly better than Pigments to my ears.

I also do recall when Serum 1 came out, I had written here on kvr that to my ears, it was as good as Diva was in its own department, that is the digital/clean department.. in other words Diva was at that time leader of the pack to me of the Analog/Warm category, and to me Serum was the leader of the pack in the digital clean department..

In all honestly I am not sure I still think either are the leaders of their packs anymore (ten years later).

What I also do know is Serum sells very very well... Steve had said he has never once (well this was two years ago it might have changed) had to advertise Serum, the sound designers who did banks for Serum were doing all the advertising that was necessary and benefiting Serum)
rsp

[Igro]

Still not sure what the appeal to Serum is. The Sound isn’t special and the CPU as mentioned above is horrible. If any plugin uses that much CPU the sound better be top notch to justify it. There are plenty of other options that sound better and use hardly any CPU. I guess Serum just became popular fron good marketing and large artists using free copies for Xfer’s marketing campaigns.

The CPU thing is false for some people, please realize that as its gets tedious scrolling through messages about CPU usage about the most advanced synth. The new filters don't exist anywhere else and technically its the best SFZ player around. There are no other options that technically have the same technology, that might not matter or some cannot hear the difference but it is relevant when discussing these things and for sure the reason its being talked about.

I'm running a M2 Max and it uses more CPU than any other synth I've demoed, and it sounds no better than a variety of free plugins.

Seems like you haven't tried yet Arturia MiniBrute and Buchla VAs. Those are 3-4 times CPU heavier than Serum. And they just can't compete with Serums sound design capabilities. They load CPU even after just inserting them. Where Serum just takes 1-2% CPU. And is stays that way even if a load and play a sample into Serum's sampler. I don't care about some heavy presets. Some preset designers were so obsessed with Serums modulation possibilities, that decided to use everything there, lol. When I do my own presets, I don't find much issue with its CPU load.

Btw, I don't see how Pigments can be more full of life, than Serum. Both are hybrid synths. I think it's very subjective. Pigments is easier to turn into mash potato, when abused, cause its modulules are not on the same quality as in Serum 2.

[djanthonyw]

I did try Minibrute and it's definitely not as CPU intensive as Serum 2.

[Igro]

I did try Minibrute and it's definitely not as CPU intensive as Serum 2.

Weird. It rips my CPU appart. So is Buchla. Can't use something like that in a project. Unless it would be the only synth in a whole song.

In what circumstances you get a high CPU load in Serum 2? What CPU load you will get by creating a classic mono detuned SAW+ Square bass (without unison)?

[bite_me]

Only thing I miss in Serum 2 is this skin...

[Alexander_D]

For me Serum 2 is much better than Pigments.