Did the demo get shown to you after a while?
Or did you do something specific beforehand that made this appear

 

I just loaded it into my DAW and then, because you mentioned 15 minutes, I waited, and then the demo screen appeared.

 

Did you install the +++ version? Because I waited almost 50 minutes in Ableton 12, and I didn’t face any issues
I put it back on for testing, it's been about 5 minutes and I'll check ableton from time to time.

 

Last edited: Nov 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM

A user on the sister site wrote this:
@thetattimaster

Spoiler

Yes, I had previously installed "Xfer Records Serum v2.0.23 VR", but as everyone knows, it had several issues, mainly with modulation and related features not working properly.

After that, I tested several recent patches by TCD by installing them over the original VR version. This latest patch seems to be working perfectly fine. It’s been almost three hours now, and everything is still running smoothly. I’ve used every feature, pressed every button, and assigned every modulation just to find any bugs, but I was unsuccessful.

I don’t see any reason for it to trigger a timebomb or show an error later on, since timebombs typically behave like demo restrictions where certain features are locked or time-limited until the demo period expires.

At this point, it’s safe to say this release feels perfect. I’m not jumping to conclusions yet, but three hours of flawless use is pretty solid in my opinion.

 

Yes, BUT there has been so much broken stuff in these incremental releases there's no way to definitively determine that any of them are safe to use and won't bomb at any given moment. It seems to me that the dev of this thing puts more time into injecting more bloated bombing code into this thing than actually fixing the plethora of bugs in the legit version. Strikes me somewhat odd that after so many iterations post v2.0 release of this thing that so many bugs still exist in every one of these "updates". Kind of smacks of too much time bomb code coming back and biting the legit version in the ass. No way I would ever "buy" anything from this dev.

 

We need to be patient and give TCD and VR some time. The more time bombs they put into the process, the better it is for us.
I've had the plugin open for almost 40 minutes without doing anything specific to see when it will give me the demo warning. Before, it was up to 50 minutes

 

I kept Serum 2 open for exactly 1 hour and 12 minutes in Ableton 12 on Windows 10, and I didn't face any issues. No demo appeared.
Let me point out a few things:
First, I turned off the automatic update tick in the General section.
Second, in the Host section, I had blocked these a long time ago.

Spoiler

127.0.0.1 xferrecords.com
127.0.0.1 104.28.21.50

Third, when installing +++TCD, I only checked the VST3 option.

I'm tired for now. Tomorrow, I plan to work on a project, and I'll be using Serum in that project. If there are any issues, they'll likely show up then.

 

I can see the laughter on Steve Duda's face from here, literally

 

You can't literally see it, can you?

 

The good thing is that there are earlier versions that do actually work and are production worthy... So let em laugh.

 

When I worked on the 1st available fully unlocked Serum release years back (v1.33b4), there already were a lot of traps & timebombs.
This behaviour increased dramatically when I cracked v1.35b1 a year later but what I had was a team of testers here in the forum
and on the sister site and the testing phase took several weeks to make sure everything is working.

That's what TCD is missing. Testers who show the issues before it's getting shared in public.
It's better to take the time it requires than to be the 1st to share it.

 

I had three Serum 2 instances open in Ableton for about 3 hours and 10-15 minutes. I spent around 1 hour designing sounds with it, and then I left it open for almost 2 more hours. I didn’t experience any issues with the program,(+++TCD) like demo mode or anything.
I’m not sure why others are facing this problem... After all, nothing is perfect. Maybe in future versions, this issue will be fixed, but as of now, I haven’t seen any problems. To me, this is the most stable and bug-free version of Serum 2.

I forgot to mention this test: I dragged almost 40 to 50 Wavetables into the +++TCD version and about 10 samples, and I didn’t experience any GUI-related issues.
In version 2.0.20 VR, I think I encountered this problem after dragging 3 to 4 Wavetables.
For now, with a hopeful perspective, I haven’t found any significant issues in this version.

Thanks, TCD, you did a great job today!
And of course, thanks to dear VR for sending us the initial version.

 

I remember back then, the version you had was the fastest and most bug-free for you. It was really great
Why don’t you come to the game for version 2? For example, if the next version is likely to be 2.0.24, maybe you could take a look at it.
We’re here, and we can test your beta versions as we did in this forum. The TCD bug-fix version improved a lot, and almost all issues were fixed, except for a few people...

 

It’s been almost 10 hours since I started using it. I even installed it on another computer, same flawless experience. I made at least 15 presets to test its functionality, created a bunch of 4-bar loops, and had zero issues. In short, I pushed Serum to its limits, designing wavetables from scratch and building complete presets around them, with every effect serving a clear purpose. So far, not a single problem.

If any of you are experiencing errors, it’s most likely your computer or a failed installation. Make sure to completely remove old Serum files (not your presets, of course) before reinstalling.

And as for Steve from Xfer, bro, if you’re reading this, you bloated Serum with so many timebombs that it turned into a buggy mess itself. The teams cracked your protection in just four builds. You could’ve used that time to optimize your software instead of trying to play the funny guy.

 

Which version, please, full name and team did you install?

 

Still running 2.0.19 here. Still working without problems.

 

Maybe now the big surge of sales has probably slowed down he could at least remove all of it. That guy's ruined Youtube (much hyped to his audience) "unboxing" video probably sold at least one extra copy.

The biggest "bug" imo, is that preset creators can save "Quality" settings to whatever, per preset; and it overrides the global Quality setting unless you manually lock it yourself. What preset creator is not going to mark every one to some ultra level rendering quality setting? All that does is make people complain about CPU usage instead of reading the manual.

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2025 at 10:48 AM

I'm glad he's laughing. I love Serum. I've used it for years and years now. Given that I'm never going to pay for it, I hope he gets plenty of amusement out of us as we grapple with the cracked versions.

 

Where is the General section please? I cannot find anything with Automatic Update and a check mark to untick.
Also can somebody explain how to carry out the other bugs for testing in more detail please for each one?
I uninstalled Xfer Serum2 v2.0.21 -X
Installed Xfer Records Serum v2.0.23 - V.R [Install_Xfer_Serum2_2.0.23.exe [1.22 GB] not the Xfer Records Serum v2.0.23 patch.exe]
Installed Xfer.Records.Serum.2.v2.0.23.V.R.Patched.Plus.Plus.Plus.Like.Notepad-TCD.exe [patch]
So far the VST3 has been OK for over [edit] 2 hours
Also I have these extras added to Windows hosts (sorry not sure who shared these to thank)
Do not click any [www. blue highlighted links]

Spoiler: Hosts (Blocked)

0.0.0.0 xfer.com
0.0.0.0 www.xfer.com
0.0.0.0 support.xfer.com
0.0.0.0 www.support.xfer.com
0.0.0.0 splice.com
0.0.0.0 www.splice.com
0.0.0.0 support.splice.com
0.0.0.0 www.support.splice.com
0.0.0.0 support.xferrecords.com
0.0.0.0 www.support.xferrecords.com
0.0.0.0 xferrecords.com
0.0.0.0 www.xferrecords.com

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2025 at 12:48 PM

for me, Xfer.Records.Serum.2.v2.0.19-V.R_TCD_X
Has been running smoothly with win 11 / ableton 12.2 for several months