I found a strange behavior of Serum synth(released by TCD, v1.363).

As you know, third-party Serum Banks could contain not only Preset files but also Wavetable and Noise files, and some Presets use specific Wavetable or Noise files.

When a Preset is loaded, it seems to search Noise/Wavetable files which is needed by scanning the name of wav files located in 'Documents\Xfer\Serum Presets\Noises' or 'Documents\Xfer\Serum Presets\Tables' paths.

What I found today is... if there are two or more Noise files with the same name in separate sub-folders in the paths above, Preset selects a file in a 'sub-folder with the fastest name in alphabetical order', even if it's not the file which should be originally connected.

A lot of third-party manufacturers and artists have made lots of Serum Banks, and they have their own Noise sub-folders. So there could be some(or many?) Noise files have the same names in different sub-folders.

This means if you install such Banks together, you use some Presets making wrong sound, while you are not aware of it.

In addition, though I haven't checked yet, I strongly doubt, if Wavetable files behave the same abnormal way as Noise.

I wonder if this is a common issue of Serum, or just for the specific release by specific crack team, or just for my PC?

 

It is an issue with file management in the noises/tables/presets directory structure used by Serum.

See if a different version fixes it, but legit Serum does similar behavior.

 

Last edited: Mar 15, 2023

Yeah, you're right. Removing TCD's v1.363 and reinstalling RET v1.3.4.b5, then it works well. Presets search for the exact files they need to work with, even if there are other Bank's Noise or Wavetable files with the same name. I still don't know whether the issue exist only on cracked release or on both cracked and legit Serum of newer version. Anyway it seems better to stick to this old properly working thing, though it's sad RET's release doesn't have standalone mode. Thank you for the good advice.

I've tested with r4e's 1.35b1 and RET's v1.3.4.b5 then I found only RET's release works fine for this issue. However I still don't know whether this problem is caused by crack or it's just a new bug on recent version of legit Serum. I don't have a legit serum(at least yet...), so I can't test it for myself now...

 

I can. shoot me a pm and I will be happy to test this out for you. The problem I most often encounter that sounds like what you are running into, is the directory structure and packs that you download having samples with the same filenames referenced. so you end up overwriting them.

I need to update anyway and can reinstall legit version cleanly on Mac. If your different release fixes your problem, we may mean different issues.

 

Noises are Samples for the Noise generator, which is bascially a sampler.
Tables are Wavetables for the Oscillators
Both live in different locations.

Now, all 3rd party Banlks should be copied over into the Presets/User folder. If some preset use custom wavetables and/or noises, these have to be copied to the /noises and /tables folder of the factory library. 3rd Party banks should come with install instructions.

I have the legit version and some presets just miss some references.

 

I always install within a subfolder named after the preset when putting stuff in Noises, Presets, and Tables. I've wondered how Serum handles duplicate filenames though.. the way I have things, a particular filename like atmosphere.wav wouldn't get overwritten by multiple presets that have such a table name, but what does Serum do if there's multiple atmosphere.wav files in the tables folder in different subfolders?

It should be a standard for preset developers to name your tables/noises with some sort of unique prefix if multiple same-named tables/noise could be an issue, but of course there is no such standard. I'm not sure if I even have any duplicate wav names, but I'm just wondering what does Serum do if there's two tables or noises with the same name in different subfolders.

 

I can vouch for that newer is not always better. F.E original Soundtoys bundle vs. the "portable" one... portable works so much smoother
Even the new VST3 Spire vs "older" VST2. Cr*ck*d or not.

 

Last edited: Mar 15, 2023

When I first used Serum, I tried to put the 3rd party noises into vendor-named folders but the presets could then not find them.
I think i read that the wavetables can be anywhere in the "Tables" folder and they will be found.
Is that true?
I put all my wavetables into vendor folders and i haven't run into missing wavetables, but i have not been using Serum much.

 

All my wavetables are in their own folders, and I've only had problem with a very small handful of presets.. and I assume that was because I didn't copy the tables in there. Next time I encounter one of those, I'll double check that, though. But yes, I've got a tonne of presets from different manufacturers, and they all work with everything sorted in subfolders in there.

I've even combined my Vital and my Serum tables together.

My structure looks like so:

Serum Presets \ Tables \ Serum
... Analog
... Digital
... Spectral
... User
....... whole crap load of subfolders
... Vital
....... some more subfolders
... Vowel


I actually have the Noises all in subfolders too, and they work just fine, so I'm not sure why they didn't work for you.
Here's my noises:

Spoiler

Next time I encounter a preset that's missing something I'll pay attention to if it's the noise that's missing, or the table, and see if I actually have the appropriate wave somewhere or just don't have it at all. However, I have a lot of presets (although by memory, nowhere near as much as you), and I'd say 98% work without a hitch.

I also have these moved off onto another drive, and using a symlink to point to Serum Presets location for Serum, and the Vital location for vital.

This is all on Windows 10 (I can't remember if you're Mac or Win) and with Serum 1.363 TCD (the problem version the OP mentioned, but I'm not seeing any problems yet). I've had this working for different releases of Serum too.

Here you can see a preset I loaded up.. didn't change anything.. but you can see it automatically opening the proper noise file which is in a subfolder:

Spoiler

 

Last edited: Mar 15, 2023

I just bought it.. I couldn't stand it searching for presets every time I opened a new plugin