A few months ago, I impulsively bought Serum 2.
I got really caught up in the hype at the time.
Of course, it’s one of the biggest VSTs on the market and it does have plenty of great sounds.

But over the past months, I’ve mostly been working with Bitwig and its native devices.
On top of that, I also use OsTIrus and Sylenth1.

Today, for the first time in a while, I opened Serum 2 again — and I was shocked by how thin and harsh it sounded.
After about 30 minutes, I even started to feel the familiar ear pain I used to get from it.

Right now, I actually have Bitwig open again, and I’m noodling around in Arturia Pigments just to calm down a bit and let my ears relax.

Personally, I even find Sylenth1 more pleasant and not as cold-sounding as Serum 2, especially for leads, plucks, bells, pads, etc.

The problem is that I bought Serum 2 with a PayPal installment plan, so I can’t cancel it — and reselling isn’t really an option either.

I don’t want to talk Serum 2 down, but honestly I was surprised by how much my ears have gotten used to the warmer, more open sound of Bitwig’s synths and OsTIrus.

Maybe some of you have tips for me, and I’m just doing something fundamentally wrong with Serum?
I know it’s widely used for modern EDM productions.
I think I just made a bad purchase for my personal taste — I do produce electronic music, but I prefer a warmer, fatter sound.

Cheers,

 

Dunno i must have ears made of lead, sounds fine to me. It and osTIrus are all I use nowadays. Some of the serum presets I've noticed are clipped or too loud, that I have noticed for sure. Are you saying that you can hear a difference like loading a basic shape into one versus the other? I've never tested that out. But again im not a Grammy winning engineer or anything just making electronic tunes for fun. Sorry about the mispurchase!

 

Thanks for the nice words

I´m also not a expert, it´s just a bit overwhelming now.

 

Well, it's not to everybody's taste. Like I respect what Serum is doing, but it's not for me.

Of all the things that I could complain about it, sound is not one of them. It's a complex synth so you better roll up your sleeves and start working it.

My recommendation is to not use complex wavetables as first, as they can sound harsh & tinny with a lot of overtones, but start with your standard analog arsenal, saw and pulse waves. Then it's easier to get used to the filters and their sweet spots, how the modulation really interacts with the rest and so on. Once you can bend the filters (and the FX) to your will, then start figuring out the oscillators. Then any wavetable will have it's good range for a certain type of sounds and you need to fish them out, it's no use sweeping the position too aggressively etc. etc.

 

the virus can be one of the most analog sounding synths of the VA category. it can be very fat and warm for a purely digital synth.
If that is what you make it sound like. Comparing it to Serum can make Serum sound harsh and abrasive. Serum can sound more precise and cutting. Digital wavetable synths can all get pretty harsh if you let them.

These are some subjective observations. If you think Serum 2 sounds that way, you should install Serum v1 also and compare them. There are some easy ways to back the edge off Serum sounds with plugins. If a patch from Serum is really abrasive and you can't put your finger on why, stick a non-vocal wideband de-esser plugin after it like Fabfilter Pro- DS or other from about 3k-10k. Another approach, Soothe2, Gulfoss, SpecCraft, etc. before your compressor.

Every synth is different and most of them have some unique qualities that mean you have to mix them a little differently. Anyway, like you point out; you are stuck with it now. lol. Time to figure out how to use it.

 

Wow, Sylenth1. What's next? Dubstep?

 

aight i was just listening to the new scwabe digital Hifal plugin demonstration, and im more convinced than ever i just dont have the most discerning ears cause i wasn't sure if i was hearing subtle differences or just imagining shit. and most of the time i couldn't hear any difference to begin with hahaha. so don't let me mix a song for you!

all that is to say i got bored and think i dialed in the same settings for serum2 and ostirus with just a saw wave. i say "think" cause i dont know how to initialize a patch on ostirus, so maybe i missed something. its 2 bars at 115 of one then 2 bars of the other

whyp.it/tracks/314105/ostirus-serum?token=vxOex

 

throw true iron on after it and youre good to go

or some other saturation plugin. Usually helps things feel more "analog"

 

I have not used Serum 2 a lot, but I use the first Serum a lot, and I wonder how much worse it possibly could be. I think maybe it's just a problem with the sound design / presets that you're dealing with, maybe.

The original Serum is crazy versatile. I always seem to come back to it for stuff, and I'm a guy who really loves warm / vintage analog sounds. I feel like Serum 2 is likely everything Serum is, but better, but that's admittedly just an assumption (as, again, I haven't used it much yet).

BTW, I will say I think the factory presets in Serum 1 are garbage, or at least not useful to my style of music (not into all that wub wub sound lol). But there are sooooo many good preset packs out there... Tonepusher, The Unfinished and Synth Blade make some amazing stuff.. and they work in Serum 2... just not going to take advantage of some new features.

 

can't explain it but always felt the same about Serum, it has something unpleasant about the overall tone on its own
and I'm quite accustomed to harsh or digital osc, chip-tune noise type of sound
But my impressions concern the first version, I was hoping that something would change in the second one, which I haven’t tried yet.

 

Dubstep would actually be Serum 1 lol. Sylenth was more house / EDM.

 

Massive is believed to be a dubstep synth, it was heavy exploited by the kids then

 

and FM8.

 

The presets of Serum 1 & 2 are not very good, but it is very good for sound-design.

Serum got lot of tools to tweak your sound and modulate it the way you want. You can make all type of sound whith it.

"Preset" means "Pre-setting". There are nothing more than a starting point for a sound to craft that feat well in your prod.

 

Did you investigate your own claims? Run a double-blind test? I’d bet money this isn’t about Serum 2 but about you. And that's coming from someone that tested Serum 2 but it's not particularly a fan (me).

It’s fine to dislike shit and have preferences, but in my experience, every time I read someone claiming ‘Y sounds metallic and thin’ or ‘X sounds warmer and more analog,’ I know it’s at least partly bullshit.

 

I wouldn't say it's bullshit.
Were all musicians here with good ears. More trained than the average listener.
So sure when I come from using analog sounding VSTS and devices going to Serum2 that there is some kind of negative surprise.

Thank you everybody for your feedback.
Makes me go deeper into Serum.
I also think that It can sound warmer or less harsh. But I don't want to use more VSTs. I learned that I can work with less tools when the source is good.

So can someone suggest me a starting point?
Sure more presets. But serum is also known to import own wavetables. Or own FX which can make the sound warmer.

Thank you

 

A 3 hours and half tutorial may be a good starting point ;)

 

Well you're not wrong, as Serum was literally made for EDM leads and basses to cut through.

But with like 100 filters and fx to choose from, you can also make it sound pretty lush imo. Still, all synths sound different and it becomes a matter of taste in the end. My personal fav is Sytrus and always will be I guess, Sylenth nr 2.

If you really get into Bitwig tho, over time you will become less and less dependant on external VST instruments and fx, and eventually any VST synth will only be used for presets, and after that.... only Bitwig.... and after that.... HYPNOTOAD.

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 9:47 AM

Just keep the Serum - you might need it at some point. I'm sure someday, life is still long, you'll find a use for the Serum.

You can also create your own presets or use the existing cooler-sounding presets and then add some warmth with FX/effects. You can also simply use the minus octaves to make the sound darker.

7 Free VST Plugins That Will Warm Up Your Sound --> https://blog.landr.com/8-free-vst-plugins-warm-sound

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM

You made a very good purchase with lifetime updates with no subscription attached. That alone in the nowadays landscape should make you smile about it.