Serum 2 is now out!
I can't believe it's finally here. Steve Duda confirmed its existence on Twitter one day and it just seemed too good to be true. So many questions were popping into my head.
Why make a sequel to one of the best synths in the industry? What could you improve on that was already good? Is it just going to be a carbon copy of another synth that’s already dominating the market?
I really didn’t know what to expect.
Now that it is here, I can single-handedly say this: Steve Duda has been listening to all of us. He’s been listening to all of the feedback and studying all of the other synths in order to see what we truly wanted. By listening that close to everyone for almost 10 years, he has now made Serum 2 into the ultimate synth for any producer and sound designer out there.
Serum 2 is so insane! This is more than just an enhancement of the original. It’s a complete remodeling of it while still maintaining what makes it feel familiar. This is still the synth you know and love, but with much more added effects and features to add that extra spark of creativity to your sounds.
In this review, I’m going to be covering:
The brand new features that are in the synth
Some cool ways to implement them into your workflow
If it’s worth the upgrade
Let’s dive on into my personal review of Steve Duda’s “Serum 2”!
NEW FEATURES
Serum 2 comes with a lot of cool new features.
One thing you’ll notice on first glance is that it no longer has just two oscillators anymore. There are now 3 oscillators, plus a Sub oscillator, and a Noise Oscillator. That’s not all; the inside of the oscillators contain 5 different types of modes you can use: Wavetable, Sampler, Multisample, Spectral, and Granular. This means you can literally make layers using different types of oscillators all in one synth. That’s freaking crazy!!
The Sub oscillator got a cool new update with it. It now has coarse pitch control. In the original, you could only change the octave pitches of the sub bass. Now with this new addition, you now have precision control over your sub’s pitch. This is great for making those sliding sub bass notes without having to change the pitch of the main sound.
There are now 2 filters instead of only having one, which is a great upgrade to have when you want to work with layers. There are plenty of other filters that you can use as well in the FX tab, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We will get there soon.
The Envelope and LFO sections got a complete UI overhaul to help with precision sound designing, switching from BPM to HZ with such ease.
Instead of having only 4 macros like in the previous version, Serum 2 now has 8 macros that you can use to control and modulate your sound over time. Having an extra 4 macros may not seem like something really big, but once you start making very complex sounds and movements, you’ll truly understand why it’s so game-changing.
The MIDI keyboard got a HUGE upgrade, adding an Arp tool to seamlessly make arpeggios inside of the synth without having to put in the notes yourself (if you still love doing that, that’s really cool. More power to you). This is something that Minimal Audio had in their flagship plugin, Current. It also comes with a Clip Tool and a key selector so your arpeggios can stay in the key of your song.
There’s also a brand new tab that was inserted. This new one is called Mix. With this tab, you can get very precise with your sound by mixing it within the plugin itself. This is truly mind-boggling. I’ve never seen something like this in a synth before. Usually you have to do all of the routing from your own DAWs mixer, but now with this, you can create a really clean sound without having to do that.
OSCILLATORS
Serum 2 has a new and improved UI for the oscillators as well as some new additions that make it one hell of an upgrade. With the inclusion of Granular Synthesis, Spectral Synthesis, and a Multisample Oscillator that acts like a instrument library, this synth has now become an all-in-one tool for sound creation.
Let’s go through the new additions and see what makes them stand out.
Wavetable Oscillator
Everyone is familiar with the infamous Wavetable Oscillator. This is your standard oscillator where you can use imported wavetables to make your sounds. You can even make your own wavetables and use them for later.
This has become a staple in the industry to have wavetable oscillators ever since Serum 1 came into existence. All future synth plugins after it added wavetable synthesis into their workflow.
Multisample Oscillator
This is a brand new addition to the synth.
The Multisample oscillator allows you to import libraries of real instruments to be able to use them inside of the synth. This one is definitely a real game-changer when it comes to making cinematic-like electronic songs.
Think of it as Kontakt inside of Serum.
You can even import some of your own libraries of instruments to really get your creativity going.
Note: The file type that they use for Mulitsample files is .SFZ.
Sample Oscillator
This is another new addition.
The Sample oscillator acts as a standard sampler where you can drag and drop your sounds into it and be able to use them as one-shots, layers, or many other creative ways. If you have a good idea of how a sampler works, you’ll definitely have some fun with this.
Note: Serum 1 did have a “sampler” in the sense that you could drag and drop samples into the Noise oscillator, but not a lot of people knew of that. Plus, it wasn’t super-effective in most cases. Great for layers, though.
Granular Oscillator
Granular synthesis has always been a great addition to an electronic song, but lately, there’s been this rise of more and more producers using it in their projects.
For those who don’t know, a granular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer that creates new sounds by manipulating tiny snippets of audio, called "grains," from a source sound. These grains can be manipulated in various ways, like pitch, duration, and position, to create unique and complex textures.
Kilohearts and Minimal Audio capitalized on this and put granular synthesizers in their flagship plugins, Phase Plant & Current.
Now, Steve Duda has followed along with this trend as well. Serum 2 now has its own Granular oscillator so you can start using this synthesis technique in your upcoming tracks.
Spectral Oscillator
Lastly, Serum 2 has a brand new oscillator called Spectral. This is actually something that FL Studio’s plugin Harmor can do. It generates sound by analyzing and manipulating the frequency spectrum of a sound, breaking it down into its individual frequency components or partials.
Unlike other synthesis methods that operate directly on the waveform, spectral synthesis focuses on the harmonic and inharmonic content, allowing for precise control over the timbre and evolution of sound.
Also, in this oscillator, there is the option to use Spectral Warp modes, which is already a great game-changer in the sound design scene nowadays thanks for synths like Vital and Current.
UPDATED FX
This is the part of Serum 2 that had me geeking out for about 10 minutes straight.
The FX tab has now been updated and its now called an FX Matrix. In this new upgraded version, you can use effects MULTIPLE times instead of just one time. So, if you want to use an extra three filters in your sound, you can do that. If you want to use 4 Multiband Compressors, you can do that too.
Multiple Flangers? No problem.
Multiple Phasers? Yes, that too.
Multiple Hyper Dimensions? Man, go wild!
The only limit now at this point is your own creativity. If you can imagine it, you can create it now with this new flexible FX Matrix.
There’s also a couple of new effects that were added into Serum 2, and they are very awesome. Let’s dive into them.
Convolve
This is definitely a nice addition to the roster of effects.
Convolve is a convolution reverb effect. With this, you can import your own Impulse Responses (IR) of natural reverbs and hall effects to give your sounds a much more natural sounding reverb.
This is really helpful thanks to the new Multisample Oscillator; with a library full of natural sounding instruments at your disposal, you can now put Convolve on them to give them even more of a natural, human feel.
Bode
One of my new favorites to use is the new Bode effect.
This is primarily a frequency shifter, which is a plugin that I’ve been using a lot in my productions. A frequency shifter, as the name suggests, shifts the frequency of the sound up or down the spectrum. It’s not like a pitch shifter or pitch bender, which bends the entire sound up or down to certain notes.
This is named “Bode” after electronic music and audio signal processing pioneer Harald Bode.
Splitter
This is hands-down my favorite new addition to the FX section.
The Splitter splits the frequency into Highs and Lows, so you can place effects on the certain sections of the sound. If you wanted to add Delay and Reverb without it affecting the low end of your sound, you can use the Low/High Splitter (L/H) and put the effects only on the Highs. This keeps your low end clean while your high end gets all of the attention of the effects.
There are three types of Splitters in Serum 2:
Low/High Splitter (L/H) - splits the frequency between Lows and Highs.
Low/Mid/High Splitter (L/M/H) - splits the frequency between Lows, Mids, and Highs. (You can think of this as a Multiband Splitter)
Mid/Side Splitter (M/S) - splits the frequency between your Mids and Sides. Great for people who really enjoy mixing this way.
I’ve been making some of the cleanest, most hard-hitting Dubstep basses using the splitters. Being able to only affect certain parts of the sound with the effects opened up so many creative ideas in my head.
Utility
Lastly, there’s a Utility effect, which is just a standard utility rack that offers a series of functions including polarity inversion, basic low and high pass filters, stereo width and balance, and more.
This also has a Bass Mono effect on it, which is HUGE! This means that you can use this to make your Subs mono in one simple click. No more having to do it inside of your DAW. You can do it inside of the plugin. That’s freaking crazy!!
AWESOME USE CASES
Taking into mind all of the great upgrades, what are some cool ways that you can implement them into your sound design workflow?
Well, there are many ways, but I can tell of a couple of ways you can utilize the synth to it’s fullest capabilities.
With the new Spectral Oscillator, you can use any kind of one-shot sample that you have and use it as a top layer for your bass sounds. For example, I used a bass one-shot I made a couple of years ago as a Mid layer to the hollow sounding Wavetable growl I was using during the time. It resulted in a growl with very complex textures and movements.
Another cool way is something that Oddprophet showed off on his YouTube channel. He took a Brass sample and put it into the Spectral Oscillator and used it in conjunction with a Sub and a Wavetable Layer to create nasty Tearout Basses. By just switching the knobs up ever slightly, you can create almost 15 different bass sounds with one sample.
You can also use Granular to add a sparkly layer on top of some Color Bass sounds, or to create interesting chops in a sample.
Using the new Splitters, you can take a Bode and use it only on the Mids to Highs of your sound and do some frequency shifting overtime with an LFO to create some crazy bass flows and transitions.
The new expanded Warp modes allow for even more creativity by using two warps at the same time. You can use a Bend warp in conjunction with an FM warp to create harmonic gritty sounds; or one of the Spectral warps like Detune in conjunction with Gate to create clear chops and textures in the Spectral Oscillator.
The sky, better yet the galaxy, is really the limit now with this synth.
IS IT WORTH IT?
Now for the big questions that are possibly on your mind right now:
Is this update even worth it in the end? Does this replace some of the other synths like Phase Plant, Vital, or Current?
My personal answer is No, it doesn’t replace those other synths. They will have their uses in your arsenal regardless of this upgrade. Why? Because just like every synth out in the market, there are things that one can do that the other can’t do. There are plenty of things that Phase Plant does better as well as Vital or Current, especially when it comes to the Spectral Warps.
Now, as an update for Serum users, it’s definitely worth it. All of the updates and new additions make this synth so much better than it’s predecessor. Also, it’s a FREE UPDATE if you already own Serum 1, so I mean…come on, guys.
Are we being serious right now? Who doesn’t love free updates? That’s why FL Studio, to me, is one of the best DAWs out there. Lifetime Free Updates.
REVIEW
Serum 2 is more than just an enhancement of the original. It’s a complete re-modeling of the synth we know and love, while also maintaining its familiarity. Steve Duda really took his time for the last 10 years listening the market and listening to producers to see what we all wanted in a synth, and what he has crafted here is nothing short of amazing.
It’s every sound designer’s dream come true. This is what Serum was supposed to be back then, but Steve probably just didn’t have the knowledge or experience at the moment to make it. Now that he’s able to fully realize his vision, he has once again made one of the best synths ever, now with so many great features and new effects to help shape the new sounds of tomorrow.
Thank you for all of your hard work and for the free update, Steve. We really appreciate it. I’m already calling it. Serum 2 is about to be the synth of 2025! Heck, it may already be.
Rating: 10/10
Thank you for reading my personal review of Serum 2, and thank you for reading this far. If you would like to keep up with more reviews I’ll be doing on other music related things, feel free to Subscribe to my Substack.
Much love. See you next time.
BLAMMERZ