True. The Lifetime philosophy from Steeve is really great.

 

Serum2, UAD, ProTool, Soothe2 and similar are useless but people still want them as hell cuz their mix sucks AF.

Just look at the gong thread and count the word UAD.

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 6:19 PM

look up gogoi ,qapt BLEU DREAM , unmute and serum presets to get an idea of what is achievable .

 

As usual, the synth does not "sound" anything.
It can be easier to make harsh sounds on some synths, or harder to make fat sounds, easier to make complex or harder to make simple, and some sounds that are impossible to make on some synths, but the synth itself has no "sound".
It has potentials and limitations.

 

Feature-wise it's an unparalleled beast with insane depth and limitless potential because of the included wavetable editor. It can do anything really and it's fun and satisfying to program because it's so intuitive, just SO well made. I love it and I'm not bothered by the harsh (initial) sound, it can be tamed.

 

Yeah! What have You done!?
Didn't You know that You should get all your plugins from R2R?!
It's the best distributor on the market!

 

I think this is not true, Vst synths do vary in sound, they are not all one and the same, though more similar possibly than that of a hardware synth.

I think Serum, Spire and Dune all have a distinct sound of their own, and Serum does tend to favour the brighter sound, probably why all the Drum & Bass heads use it for big basses

I would never use Serum of any incarnation for a pad, for example. Not only because it eats my CPU, but it just tends to sound too high endy for my tastes in pad sounds, that's why I opt for Spire or Dune for that

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM

I'm not sure that's true any longer.
When Serum (1) was at its peak there were nowhere near as many alternatives as there are now but things move on and we are all spoilt for choice when it comes to top notch synths.

But regardless of the purchase you should use the synth that gives you the best results.

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 6:36 PM

There used to be a lot of SynthEdit VSTi, we call it the engine, because you knew they would sound warmer and more powerful. All H.G. Fortune VSTi are made with SyntEdit. www.kvraudio.com/product/the_dreammachine_by_hg_fortune

Take Vital, a wavetable synth, and Serum, also a wavetable synth, and you'll quickly hear that Vital sounds a bit warmer and more powerful. The Adam Szabo Viper is made with FlowStone, a development environment by DSP Robotics, and you'll hear this in the sound; it's significantly brighter and clearer than SynthEdit.

FlowStone is a computer programming tool for rapid application development. It allows you to create your own standalone applications quickly and see the results of changes as soon as you make them. www.kvraudio.com/product/flowstone-by-dsp-robotics/details

With SynthEdit, you can design your own soft synth from scratch.
www.kvraudio.com/product/synthedit-by-jeff-mcclintock

This is a tutorial aimed at showing C++ programmers how to program their own synthesizer.
The example code is written to be as straightforward and minimal as possible and requires no external libraries.
https://blog.demofox.org/diy-synthesizer

 

check this page :
https://www.syntorial.com/highlights/best-serum-presets/
Especially "Patchworx – Synthwave Serum Presets by Loopmaster" sounds good to me.

I don't like Vital sound engine (never heard something ground breaking on it soundwise).
But Serum sounds good to me, when programmed by the best presets makers.

Like this "analog" feel :

 

I created a professional sound set myself because I generally don't like the factory presets:

The New Wave Soundset by Sonic Sirius for the Vital Audio - Vital Spectral VSTi
INFO: www.kvraudio.com/product/the-new-wave-soundset-by-sonic-sirius
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://mega.nz/file/L7xxWKTJ#KcVRoGJ-ITlPYfq4Hcfc4sxJXbOwwYXWMZf3VF8oQM8

The Cosmic Trigger Soundset by CHE for the Xfer Records - Serum VSTI
https://mega.nz/file/qjhCDK6L#YlHjLWBC10fkbcdg_jAzcGIn4aWS0PFHEW2fu9CyNcs

 

Wow, That´s cool, Thank you PulseWave. I will check it out

And Thank you guys for the feedback and also some suggestions for soundbanks.

 

I mean, that´s really cool. What is possible with this VST is incredible.
BUT ---) It´s not my sound. I still sounds too harsh and thin for me.
When he cranks up the lowcut filter sometimes, it sounds too high and digital.

I played around with the Presets from PulseWave --) DUDE, That´s really awesome. They sound really "phat and analog" to my ears --) nice! Inspired by the Virus

The resume for me: It´s a modern EDM, DNB, Dubstep wherever machine. To expect or to archive analog and warm sound seems to be more work than with other VSTs, so i will spend my time learning the Bitwig Devices and Stick with Sylenth1 and Dune.

Like i said before, i really don´t want to talk Serum2 bad, but here i post you some videos. Maybe you can hear what i mean

(4:26 rocks)

And here is finally the Sound, i´m hunting for. This Guy is a pure Genious. I listened to this Bitwig Project one hour in loop on my Mac.
It gives me really chill vibes, but also this Eargasm. Just with Bitwig Devices.
I don´t want to make Adverts for BW, but it sounds really pleasant to my ears.:

For my ears, they all don´t provide harsh high tones, which needs to be "limited" or filtered.
So my strategy is to use warmer Devices/VSTs with less highs and add some OTT Sauce or Saturation.

 

But what's stopping you from lowpassing and saturating, or slapping some pitch drift on? Or using vintage synth wavetables?

 

With many musicians getting older, I'm 50 and older. I had my hearing tested by an ear doctor, and I can no longer hear certain high frequencies like rustling leaves and the sound of water. When I played the Avenger VSTi, I couldn't stand the highs anymore. I used an EQ and lowered the highs by a few dB, which helps.

All the new sound sets I've made automatically become darker or deeper because I boost the bass and lower the highs. As a sound designer, however, I can't make music with the hearing aid I have. Sylenth manufacturer Lennard gave a worthwhile interview: Original in German https://www.amazona.de/interview-lennar-digital Google Translator (English) https://www-amazona-de.translate.go...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Spoiler: Interview

AMAZONA: Hello Lennar, the Sylenth seems to be based on extremely sophisticated algorithms. Have you been involved in other audio projects, or did you first acquire your DSP knowledge for the Sylenth?

Lennar: I've worked on many audio and DSP projects for Siemens VDO and the University of Twente (Netherlands). These primarily involved equalizer filters for automotive multimedia. I've also participated in scientific research projects involving active multi-channel noise reduction.

AMAZONA: So you have a solid background! Despite its great sound, the Sylenth is very frugal in terms of CPU consumption. What's your opinion on the CPU consumption of similar software? Perhaps the programmers responsible don't know how to achieve such good performance, or are they not given time by management to optimize the code for it?

Lennar: Well, first of all, it seems to be mainly the large companies that don't pay enough attention to code optimization. It simply costs time, and time is money, as we all know! And they want to keep the code as platform-independent as possible. If you're highly optimized for an OS, it's harder to port it, which in turn means more work -> time and -> money.

AMAZONA: Regarding platform compatibility: Today, and in the near future, most music computers and workstations are Intel-based. The G5 generation is being phased out, and Apple has switched to Intel, much to the derision of all Mac users who considered the G5 the fastest CPU. So, one could hope for better overall performance in the future, since the assembly instructions are the same across all operating systems.

But the user interface still requires a lot of programming, right?

Lennar: Indeed, but that only applies to Intel CPUs, and with Altivec, it's a completely different story. You can't work with the same code for Altivec and SSE. The GUI isn't even the problem, since there are cross-platform libraries you can build on. They do a lot of the work for you.

Then there are developers who are great programmers but don't have much knowledge of DSP algorithms. It's much more about optimizing the algorithm itself than optimizing the code. These developers simply implement algorithms from textbooks or the internet, but don't really understand how to improve these algorithms, let alone develop their own.

AMAZONA: So you really chose a novel approach in developing your algorithms instead of 'just' rewriting already known algorithms in SSE assembler without using the C++ compiler?

Lennar: Yes, I started taking a closer look at the known algorithms in order to ultimately fundamentally improve them. The oscillators were probably the biggest part. Most digital oscillators I know start to lose quality at very low and very high frequencies. Some companies use very large wavetables or long interpolation filters, but this requires a lot of CPU cycles and/or slow memory access.

I developed a new technique to circumvent these problems. My oscillators sound clear and high-quality across the entire frequency range, from 0 Hz down to half the sampling rate, but only use a fraction of the CPU. This allows me to generate many oscillators at once without overloading the CPU. Some synthesizers use a trick to simulate unison. This is usually a simple chorus, which doesn't sound very good. In Synlenth, each voice is truly a real, independently generated oscillator, which of course sounds much better!

AMAZONA: Very interesting! So, if you don't use wavetables, do you add something like a pulse to each steep slope to prevent aliasing? I've already talked about this with other developers who also offer aliasing-free oscillators. But they aren't as efficient as yours! It's almost funny that a one-man show like you can show big companies how it's done !!

Lennar: The technique you're referring to is called minBLEP, and it's very popular with many developers. It's especially helpful for aliasing-free hard sync (oscillator sync) and PWM (pulse wave modulation). But I don't use that. My method is largely based on wavetables, but only uses very small ones. I've constructed a kind of intelligent morphing that sounds great across the entire spectrum. But I won't reveal any more than that ;-)

 

All I can talk is about Serum 1 ... but I guess it is the same with Serum 2 anyway. Here are my thoughts:

I disliked Serum for a long time, for similar reasons. Too harsh, too bright, too digital. Whatever these terms mean. When I started to like Serum, the reasons weirdly have been the same: lovely harshness, brightness and digital-ness. It took a second to load the VST, you hit a key and the cold-shrill-saw is jumping straight into your face. In a way I would call "clean". There are so many options inside and outside of Serum too get it less harsh.

[EDIT] One thought about sounds we call "thin": I really think this attribute helps in a mix. My background is playing in bands. It was one of the biggest steps in my sound journey, too get my guitar sounds really working in a band context. If you would isolate the sounds which are really working, they often sound "thin". It leaves room for other things to happen, which is one of the greatest things you can archive. This concept easily translates into the VST/DAW worlds.

Serum is to me the VST equivalent of the Roland Jazz Chorus 120 as an amp. I guess I just love a clean and maybe sterile canvas, you can fill with your own soul and colours.

 

Last edited: Oct 1, 2025 at 7:43 PM

Thank you PulseWave for the Interview. I like Sylenth1 a lot and bought it half year ago. It´s a very good investition.
Sure there are also some weak presets. But the chance to get a decent Lead or Plug or Pad is really high

I think, my ears are also not the best anymore and some frequencies hurt me more, than other people.
You tweaked your presets very good. It´s pleasing to play them.

 

Serum is kind of Linux spirit : you can make it sound like you want ... but YOU need to do it

On my side, i prefer synths with ALREADY a character.
Like Spire, Dune ... and i pick one.

My last fav : KORG ModWave ... a gem.

But Serum still (to me) the best "bread and butter" synth ever made.
In the right hands ... so not mine