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Author Topic: SERUM Tips & Tricks  (Read 54671 times)

Jasher

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SERUM Tips & Tricks
« on: January 06, 2016, 06:43:30 pm »
Hi! Just post one small tip of piece of advice and lets see if we cant all learn something new here ;)

I'll start with 3-

Use the FM from B effect super duper often, it helps you make really really cool unique sounds
Dont be afraid of automation! It always helps a sound to be more interesting by adding a little bit of movement !
Dimensional Expander effect! Use it! Just adding a little bit of it to any sound helps make your sound feel larger and adds just a tad bit of color :)

Hope this forum can help some people just diving into Serum, which is personally my Favourite VST of all time
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deño

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2016, 07:06:41 pm »
One trivial thing that took me a long to figure out in serum was how sometimes when modulating a parameter with an lfo, the lfo would modulate on both sides of the center point of the knob and sometimes it would begin on the center. To toggle this setting open up the modulation matrix and click on the arrows that point like this <-> and it will change to this -> and vice versa. Super trivial but also really annoying.

Another really great thing serum can do is resynthesis where you can import a sound and serum will create a wavetable based on it. The best way I've found to import a sound from another synth is to bounce an instance of the noise you want to import to audio tuned to F#0 and -22 cents, and drop it into the 2048 tab on an oscillator. It goes over this method in the user manual. This can really open up endless possibilities.

-deño
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mcgold

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2016, 07:08:28 pm »
on the topic of dimension expander....whether its with serum, massive, or the xfer plugin--should this be avoided on bass sounds due to phase issues in mono? It makes my basses sound so much bigger and better, but I'm worried that it has that downside too it....maybe try to isolate the <100/150hz to another channel and get away with dimension-expanding the midbass?
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Jasher

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2016, 07:39:20 pm »
On avoiding dimensional expander on bass sounds- I think it's really
Upto you. I usually try and use a very very small amount of phasing, and use the expander function more, but like I said, it's all up to you, and do whatever sounds good to you ^.^
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alecmaire

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2016, 07:48:17 pm »
A pretty big thing missing from Serum that me and a friend noticed recently was that there is no stereo white noise in the noise generator. Since the noise generator in Serum is only a resampler, the only workaround I found for it was to generate my own stereo white noise, bounce it into wav, and place it inside Serum's source folder where all the noise files were. If anyone knows a better way to create stereo noise in Serum's noise generator, I'd love to know. But so far this is the only way I know of.

One cool function I love about Serum is it's ability to do AM / FM modulation using one of the Wavetable's as its source. This opens a ridiculous amount of possibilites since Serum let's you draw in your own wavetables. Seamless did a video about it here if you want to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DdinGepls4

Also... not really a tip or trick but check out the Reverb filter. No idea what it does but holy fuck is it insane.



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myda

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2016, 07:50:22 pm »
Quote from: mcgold on January 06, 2016, 07:08:28 pm
on the topic of dimension expander....whether its with serum, massive, or the xfer plugin--should this be avoided on bass sounds due to phase issues in mono? It makes my basses sound so much bigger and better, but I'm worried that it has that downside too it....maybe try to isolate the <100/150hz to another channel and get away with dimension-expanding the midbass?

imo you should always isolate everything in your basses below 150hz into a separate channel. it just gives you so much more control. if you do make the lows/sub a separate channel then yeah the dimension expander should be no problem!
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danmikasmusic

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2016, 09:57:53 pm »
This is the most helpful video i've ever seen on serum. I recommend watching the entire thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sa3wa_doVs
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imkomplet

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2016, 08:23:49 pm »
In ableton can i make a pitch-bend automation??
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Mussar

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2016, 08:54:09 pm »
Yes! select the sample or midi clip you wanna automate, click the button on the bottom left that looks like an E to open the envelopes tab.


one of the drop down menus that appear should say "pitch bend" and you draw it in there!



EDIT:

Now with pictures!
« Last Edit: January 08, 2016, 10:44:33 pm by Mussar »
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iamtesko

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2016, 09:31:26 pm »
Quote from: deño on January 06, 2016, 07:06:41 pm
One trivial thing that took me a long to figure out in serum was how sometimes when modulating a parameter with an lfo, the lfo would modulate on both sides of the center point of the knob and sometimes it would begin on the center. To toggle this setting open up the modulation matrix and click on the arrows that point like this <-> and it will change to this -> and vice versa. Super trivial but also really annoying.

Another really great thing serum can do is resynthesis where you can import a sound and serum will create a wavetable based on it. The best way I've found to import a sound from another synth is to bounce an instance of the noise you want to import to audio tuned to F#0 and -22 cents, and drop it into the 2048 tab on an oscillator. It goes over this method in the user manual. This can really open up endless possibilities.

-deño

you can also click the parameter while holding alt+shift to change between <-> and ->
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a.m.gardner

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2016, 09:47:08 pm »
Quote from: myda on January 06, 2016, 07:50:22 pm
Quote from: mcgold on January 06, 2016, 07:08:28 pm
on the topic of dimension expander....whether its with serum, massive, or the xfer plugin--should this be avoided on bass sounds due to phase issues in mono? It makes my basses sound so much bigger and better, but I'm worried that it has that downside too it....maybe try to isolate the <100/150hz to another channel and get away with dimension-expanding the midbass?

imo you should always isolate everything in your basses below 150hz into a separate channel. it just gives you so much more control. if you do make the lows/sub a separate channel then yeah the dimension expander should be no problem!

Also, if you are creating wide bass sounds with Serum, it has a great "Remove fundamental" feature under "Process" in the wavetable editor that allows you to take the fundamental pitch out of your bass sound, but leave the harmonic character of the sound untouched. You can either group another subbass sound or use the direct out feature on Serum's sub-oscillator to replace the sub frequencies with something more mono-compatible.
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Babasmas

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2016, 10:17:47 pm »
this is a thread I'll follow closely.
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Hymoki

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2016, 11:08:58 pm »
Using a very fast decaying mod envelope on the global tune gives pluck sounds a percussive attack that can be super useful!

EDIT - Also using the one feature in wavetable edit that turns samples into wavetables
« Last Edit: January 08, 2016, 11:10:57 pm by Hymoki »
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Roché

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2016, 07:41:26 am »
Squarifying random audio files/wavetables with Serum can yield very interesting results. You can squarify a wavetable by navigating to the WT editor, selecting the arrow next to (enter formula), navigating to multis, and choosing proc:squarify. This will remove every other harmonic in order to squarify the file.

You can create very interesting bass wavetables this way using any sound with good low frequency content as a wavetable.
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Rolypoly

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Re: SERUM Tips & Tricks
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2016, 07:41:46 am »
You can modify unison width in the global tab. It seems unison voices can also have different wavetable positions and warp amounts, too, if you change the settings. Kickin' rad!


Bonus, I fluke discover dozens of cool sounds this way: Keep "Silence effect tails when host transport stops" turned on. You hear neat things "by accident" when you pause your DAW.
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