Serum 2 is in the works, DMG Audio is also involved!

[SiliconDeath]

Serum 2 is now better than pigments!

Serum 1 wavetable engine and filters were already better than Pigments 6.
Serum 2 is much better than Pigments 6, Massive X, Hive 2, Zebra 2, Diva, Dune 3, Phaseplant, and Synthmaster 3.

LOL

Serum doesn't get close to Diva analog emulation because well it is not designed for that.

Serum 2 is designed to do analog synth sounds. You are provided with all the tools, you just need to know how to use them.

Obviously it will not sound analog by default, LOL.

How though? Are there presets that showcase this the best? I'm a bit skeptical if saturation and little bit of chorus is all that was needed..

[hebex]

Serum 2 is designed to do analog synth sounds. You are provided with all the tools, you just need to know how to use them.

Looking forward to all the analog sounding presets to come from Serum 2 from people who have the time and knowledge to make it sound analog, then.

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

[Gam456]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

[Igro]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

You think that it can't create a filtered saw waveform sound? Very sad...

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

A filtered saw is not really where analog sound begins and ends though is it? You can have drift, analog FM (oscs and filters), ring modulation, sync, you've got per-voice offsets happening, saturation at various stages, etc. Serum can emulate those sounds while still not being the best first-choice emulation for those specific sounds. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Serum is just another with it's own strengths, weaknesses, and design goals. Being the best emulation of an analog synth doesn't appear to have been one of them, but yeah, it can do a lot of those sounds well too. So both sides of the argument have a point. But also, nah...

[Gam456]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

You think that it can't create a filtered saw waveform sound? Very sad...

Serum is not a component modelled VA. You won't have the vibe of a vintage analog.

[vitocorleone123]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

You think that it can't create a filtered saw waveform sound? Very sad...

Serum is not a component modelled VA. You won't have the vibe of a vintage analog.

Pretty sure it can if you design it.

But that’s why it wouldn’t be my first choice for analog as opposed to analog-like. Doesn’t take much to get it to sound sorta like modern analogs to my ears. I’m sure if I spent time crafting the sound it would be hard to distinguish. But that’s time I’d rather spend elsewhere, and could just pull up Twin3 for. Or Repro.

Also, with Dave Gamble having been involved, I wouldn’t necessarily claim that there’s no component modeling anywhere (eg filter) unless we learn otherwise.

[Rastkovic]

Serum 1 was already a very good choice for soft Melodic Techno/House sounds, thanks to its filters. A kind of digital sound with an "analog" vibe.

[Morty-C-137]

Ok, for those thinking plugins and hardware are so distinguishable..

So, analog synth (emulation plugin, hardware or otherwise) or Serum..? What say you? (the link opens the player)

SOUND

[Igro]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

You think that it can't create a filtered saw waveform sound? Very sad...

Serum is not a component modelled VA. You won't have the vibe of a vintage analog.

I Just tried a supersaw pad on GForce OB-1. It sounds the same as in Serum 2.

[a9k1tp]

Placebo’s the music industry’s dirty little secret. Companies know exactly what they’re doing with those analog-style GUIs—fake dust, a few scratches, designed to trick your brain into hearing analog magic. Similar to the 'AI' buzzword, pure marketing hype.

Take Serum 1 with Plugmon’s Analog Anthem presets. It nailed those 'vintage' tones—no fluff required.
Serum 2, it’s overkill in the best way: more tools, more flexibility. Sure, you might need a couple of workarounds, you can achieve that analog vibe.

Anyone obsessed with bit perfect comparisons is missing the point. Even your favorite analog emulations don’t match hardware 1:1, and they don’t need to. Hardware’s just an expensive security blanket for folks too afraid to admit digital’s been good enough for years.

[hebex]

Placebo’s the music industry’s dirty little secret. Companies know exactly what they’re doing with those analog-style GUIs—fake dust, a few scratches, designed to trick your brain into hearing analog magic. Similar to the 'AI' buzzword, pure marketing hype.

Take Serum 1 with Plugmon’s Analog Anthem presets. It nailed those 'vintage' tones—no fluff required.
Serum 2, it’s overkill in the best way: more tools, more flexibility. Sure, you might need a couple of workarounds, you can achieve that analog vibe.

Anyone obsessed with bit perfect comparisons is missing the point. Even your favorite analog emulations don’t match hardware 1:1, and they don’t need to. Hardware’s just an expensive security blanket for folks too afraid to admit digital’s been good enough for years.

"digital´s been good enough for years"
That´s your opinion for your needs, perhaps. It´s not an objective assessment. "Good enough" for you is apparently not good enough for me.

Sure, there is a lot of placebo in this industry, to say the least. And Plugmon´s Analog Anthem is IMO the best analog sounding preset library so far I´ve come across for Serum. But there are so many synths not included in that library that are missing. And the presets are good pretty much only when just playing that snapshot of a sound.

But when you want to treat the snapshot with the VST filters for a living sound and make the sound stand out in a minimalistic arrangement, like for example in Kraftwerk style, there are still very few -- if any at all -- VST instruments that have the personality and punch and can even partly replace the hardware originals. In a dense mix, maybe, using all of your production/mixing skills, but not in the mentioned minimalistic situation. Push them enough and they get weak and bland and digital sounding.

There are few -- not many -- sound design artists (for example Oblivion sound lab is obviously very skilled) that can get close after, I imagine, a lot of work. But those of us who are not professional sound designers and don´t have all day to program sounds, but try to focus on making music, can still only dream of getting that close.

Things have happened in recent years and some things are going in the right direction -- Tal-Pha IMO being a good example -- but we are IMO not even close to the finishing line yet when software soundwise has made analog hardware moot.

So what has this got to do with Serum 2? Well, if the VST-instrument is so great and have all those end all be all filters that people/influencers seem to say -- and that I surely would welcome -- they IMO didn´t showcase that in the factory presets. Perhaps sound designers going forward will make use of the new functionality in the Serum 2 synth, so that it will replace the analog hardware. That would be great. But I won´t hold my breath until that day.

[Gam456]

Haven´t heard that many in the factory presets of Serum 2 that impress me as more analog sounding than other VST-synths, though. I´ll keep my analog hardware synthesizer for now.

Serum isn't the right vsti for analog sound

You think that it can't create a filtered saw waveform sound? Very sad...

Serum is not a component modelled VA. You won't have the vibe of a vintage analog.

I Just tried a supersaw pad on GForce OB-1. It sounds the same as in Serum 2.

The Oberheim OB-1 do not have unisson.
You are comparing with a software with feature going beyond the analog hardware

[Vortifex]

It's funny watching the discussion about Serum's analog qualities. It's probably the most popular VST in chillsynth production, not exactly a genre known for its harsh digitalness. It's all in the processing.

[Gam456]

It's funny watching the discussion about Serum's analog qualities. It's probably the most popular VST in chillsynth production, not exactly a genre known for its harsh digitalness. It's all in the processing.

Digital doesn't mean harsh sound