Serum vs Synthmaster One for a beginner sound design student

[Dencheg]

Totally different price ranges.
Also, both are neither too complex nor too simple. Having said that, I think Serum's UI is more understandable (that's why it's on top of the food chain).

Also you can exercise in deconstructing patches in Zebra to see that it can be as complicated as you would like (including pretty simple)

[tigralaegis]

Another vote for Serum.

I started with Sylenth and Massive but Serum's UI made things click for me.

[chk071]

I'd also go with Serum, if you have the budget. Or rent-to-own using the Splice option. It's a nice and easy to use synth, which sounds great.

[EnGee]

Try Vital and Surge first and see some YouTube tutorials, then if you feel you are not very convinced, just jump into the most one you like overall (ignore the budget for now). It's better to save and have really what you want rather than buying a bunch, but in the end you don't use because finally you decided to go with that expensive one

I don't do EDM and I find Vital can replace Serum for me, however, my favourite wavetable synth is Massive X but I also like a lot the original Massive and Largo.

I have Synthmaster One and it's IMO, the easiest to program. It has also many features. A great learning synth that sounds good

[WasteLand]

i would point another alternative: VAST Dynamics Vaporizer2. cheaper than serum, more oscillators.. it can do more, in certain ways, and serum can do things vaporizer2 can't do, but for me; Vaporizer 2 beats serum.

asound design student; Vital is also great, for it. but in way Vaporizer 2 is more competitor to Serum than Vital, because Vital has it's own approach, not comparable to Serum, which a lot of people tend to forget, it saddens the developer. but that's life, if they want to use Vital as Serum, why not, it is there choice..

but Vital is an addition, in wavetable land, next to Serum, in my humble opinion. spectral warping and:



also nice for Vital and other synths; noise burst, with comb filter...

[nachenko]

My students are using Vital. All things considered, it's the best choice, hands down. Lots of visual feedback in real time, simple architecture, sampler oscillator, many different oscillator modifiers, effects chain easy to understand, modulations easy to assign and setup. It's the best choice by far.

[FathomSynth]

Can’t resist putting in my two cents. I will concur with others here that for serious sound designers and especially those wanting to learn how pros construct sound Serum is hands down the best choice. Nothing comes close.

It is generally agreed that the two most powerful synths on the market currently for number of accessible parameters and depth of control over all sonics and modulation are Serum and VPS Avenger with Serum having the bonus of the best interface in the industry. I use both but prefer Serum due to fluid work flow. Creativity is never interrupted trying to learn a new feature because everything works exactly how you think it should.

Also you have the advantage of learning an industry standard work flow and Serum was a major dev effort and well maintained and will be around for years.

I have not used Vital yet. The ui and architecture look amazing. It is the most exciting new synth I’ve seen in a long time. However it looks like a one man project and there is no info on their DSP experience. Their software skills are obviously cutting edge but DSP is a black art and even the best developers don’t know the DSP trade secrets of companies like uHe (Diva), XFer Records (Serum), Synapse Audio (Dune 3), Lenar Digital (Sylenth) and Spectrasonics (Omnisphere). These companies have DSP algorithms, buffer processing techniques and over sampling methods which they don’t share with good reason and this info is simply not available in the academic papers. Believe I’ve checked and I speak from experience. I could program for years and never make a synth which sounds like Dune 3.

Vital has an amazing programming model and the best real-time graphs I’ve ever seen. But their audio demos don’t give me chills the same way when I hear Dune, Diva or Serum.

So keep in mind when you buy a synth you are also buying the company.

The industry can be tough on one man developers and projects can disappear if they don’t hit big fast even if the ideas are solid. It is so competitive that unless a synth has something truly mind blowing in the basic sound it will not survive regardless of how great the GUI looks.

I use to work in LA studios and the hit makers all used Omnisphere. Probably due to HF sound quality and preset library and effects. But for sound design you will need an advanced wave table morphing synth like Serum or Avenger that also has great sound.

I hope Vital does well. It looks like heaven, has advanced wave shape modulation and the audio is crystal clear.

If you are creative and looking for something truly unique try Thorn. If you you do a lot of serious professional mixing with numerous synth tracks and need something extremely accurate, smooth and alias free use SynthMaster.

Also invest in a great analog sounding lead synth like Diva or Dune.

[simmo75]

Serum!
Might be worth checking out Vital.

[3lu5iv3]

Vital.

[SamDi]

Can’t resist putting in my two cents. I will concur with others here that for serious sound designers and especially those wanting to learn how pros construct sound Serum is hands down the best choice. Nothing comes close.

It is generally agreed that the two most powerful synths on the market currently for number of accessible parameters and depth of control over all sonics and modulation are Serum and VPS Avenger with Serum having the bonus of the best interface in the industry. I use both but prefer Serum due to fluid work flow. Creativity is never interrupted trying to learn a new feature because everything works exactly how you think it should.

Also you have the advantage of learning an industry standard work flow and Serum was a major dev effort and well maintained and will be around for years.

I have not used Vital yet. The ui and architecture look amazing. It is the most exciting new synth I’ve seen in a long time. However it looks like a one man project and there is no info on their DSP experience. Their software skills are obviously cutting edge but DSP is a black art and even the best developers don’t know the DSP trade secrets of companies like uHe (Diva), XFer Records (Serum), Synapse Audio (Dune 3), Lenar Digital (Sylenth) and Spectrasonics (Omnisphere). These companies have DSP algorithms, buffer processing techniques and over sampling methods which they don’t share with good reason and this info is simply not available in the academic papers. Believe I’ve checked and I speak from experience. I could program for years and never make a synth which sounds like Dune 3.

Vital has an amazing programming model and the best real-time graphs I’ve ever seen. But their audio demos don’t give me chills the same way when I hear Dune, Diva or Serum.

So keep in mind when you buy a synth you are also buying the company.

The industry can be tough on one man developers and projects can disappear if they don’t hit big fast even if the ideas are solid. It is so competitive that unless a synth has something truly mind blowing in the basic sound it will not survive regardless of how great the GUI looks.

I use to work in LA studios and the hit makers all used Omnisphere. Probably due to HF sound quality and preset library and effects. But for sound design you will need an advanced wave table morphing synth like Serum or Avenger that also has great sound.

I hope Vital does well. It looks like heaven, has advanced wave shape modulation and the audio is crystal clear.

If you are creative and looking for something truly unique try Thorn. If you you do a lot of serious professional mixing with numerous synth tracks and need something extremely accurate, smooth and alias free use SynthMaster.

Also invest in a great analog sounding lead synth like Diva or Dune.

You hit the nail on the head. I couldn‘t have said better...

[layzer]

Money is also a criteria for me

surge and vital $0

[LeVzi]

Out of the 2 you mentioned id say Serum, but i'd throw in Icarus 2 as well.

Vital, I have it, but always prefer Serum over it.

I have synthmaster too, but theres something about its workflow that just puts me off being that creative. The GUI probably.

Also, I would suggest Massive , its really an easy WT synth to get to grips with.

[Jkist]

Vital as a free option, Serum as a rent-to-own option. Serum has absurd amounts of support in the form of learning resources, tutorials, preset packs, dedicated forums, etc.

Another rent-to-own option is Sylenth1. Oldschool by now, but great way to get into synthesis IMO, its a very straightforward plugin, and it sounds awesome.

[ztrauq]

I realize this is kind of turning into "name all the wavetable synths," but I do want to mention Arturia Pigments. True, it does far more than just wavetables, but they are one of its major focuses, and it is perhaps my favorite in terms of wavetable and modulator visualization (Vital also excels in that category, but I find that Pigments has a more straightforward layout and workflow). Not inexpensive, but I think I've seen it down to $100 or so in sales.

[PieBerger]

with Serum having the bonus of the best interface in the industry.

The Serum UI/UX was good when it first came out, but other synths have since come out that have arguably "better", more efficient and functional interfaces. Using the mod matrix or effects tabs locks you out of Serum's other parameters, which is incredibly tedious and inefficient to work with compared to say Vital or Hive where you can still access important synthesis or modulation source parameters while in their respective matrix/effects tabs. One might prefer the aesthetics of one synth or another and that's fine, but from a more objective and functional point of view, Serum's interface is quite flawed relative to other more modern synths.

Edit: furthermore, Serum doesn't even win on visual feedback anymore; Hive and Vital have it beat again. Both synths allow you to see the modulation depths, albeit static representations of Note on Random and Note on Alt (Hive only), where Serum does not. Also since the 2.1 update in Hive, you can visually inspect any modulation routing in the scope and compare them side-by-side to other signals, which is helpful when trying to create tempo synced offsets for example. Much more useful and "better" than a small dot or line swinging around a knob.