Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Platform: Kilohearts Phase Plant
Description: Dual synchronized LFO wavetable sweeps with reverb. Excellent starting point for complex layered pads.
Download Link to Preset: Watch+Learn_PhasePlant_MotionWavetable
Now that we’ve had over a month of Watch+Learn, it’s time to put together an index of these tutorials and presets.
Below is a direct link to the YouTube playlist for subscribing.
Here are all the tutorials and presets as of May 22, 2020.
808 Kick Bass starting points on three different softsynths: Serum, Phase Plant, and Operator.
[Note: Very low frequency content. Headphones or monitors required.]
Level: Beginner
Platforms: Ableton Operator, Xfer Serum, Kilohearts Phase Plant
Description: Recreation of the Roland TR-808 Kick Bass sound using multiple platforms. Additional customization with overdrive and distortion should be added by the user.
Download Ableton Operator 808 Kick Bass:
Watch+Learn_AbletonPreset_808KickBass
Download Xfer Serum 808 Kick Bass:
Watch+Learn_SerumPreset_808KickBass
Download Kilohearts Phase Plant 808 Kick Bass:
Watch+Learn_PhasePlant_808KickBass
Level: Beginner
Platform: Xfer Serum
Description: The core elements for synthesizing the 90s “West Coast” hip-hop lead popularized by Dr. Dre and others in the mid-90s. The “PORTA” parameter is the key to making it fit your track. Further adjustments can be applied via changing filters, and adding effects like delay and reverb.
Download Link to Preset: Watch+Learn_SerumPreset_WestCoastLead
Level: Beginner
Platform: Xfer Serum
Description: Iconic lead sound, based on the interval of a Fifth (+7 semitones), reinforced by a sub-bass element. Great as a starting point for original variations.
Download Link to Preset: Watch+Learn_SerumPreset_BigFifth
Level: Intermediate
Platform: Ableton Operator
Description: Recreation of one of the famous Yamaha DX-7 Marimba presets using FM synthesis in Ableton Operator.
Download Preset: Watch+Learn_AbletonPreset_DXMarimba
Since last year’s free Serum pack was so well-received, I asked the students in my Synthesis 2 course (at Austin Community College) if they’d be interested in contributing a few sounds for the 2018 pack. There are some truly gifted designers at the school and I really wanted to highlight their talents.
Fortunately, many of them agreed - providing presets for each of the following categories: Bass, Pad, Lead, and Pluck.
With their full permission, I'm sharing the results as a free download for Serum fans. The pack consists of 25 presets covering a wide variety of genres and design approaches. I also included a bonus holiday preset of my own design, “Super Snowman”.
As with the last pack, the student’s name is included in each preset — but I’d also like to post an alphabetical list of the designers, to highlight their contributions. For this, several students also opted-in to include links to their social media.
Jay Alba
Siegen Bretzke
Daniel Buckingham
Jacob Cho
Ali Darwiche [Instagram]
Mike Stellman [Soundcloud]
Troy Umran [Instagram]
The pack is a free download that you can grab at the below link.
Download: Xfer Serum Preset Pack (Winter 2018)
Happy Holidays!
And now, a word from our sponsor… After over a year of development, Serum Toolkit 3 has finally arrived. For this pack, every patch includes original wavetables and samples, created from scratch using physical modeling and hi-res sampling. Many of the techniques used in this library are explained in my Serum Masterclass for Electronic musician.
In addition to the original wavetables, the pack also includes a huge number of sampled attacks, plucks, guitars, pianos, and percussion instruments. These elements add complexity to the wavetable oscillators and are a major departure from the usual “Serum sound”.
I also included updated Macros, including the new “XFORM” knob, that morphs between two completely different sounds. This basically doubles the number of presets to 200 - and lets you customize the results with a single knob.
Here’s a link to the pack, for Serum fans who are interested in checking out my design work - and as always, I’m happy to answer specific questions regarding these presets via my Contact link.
Serum Toolkit 3: https://xferrecords.com/preset_packs/serum-toolkit-3
With Serum Toolkit Vol. 3, iconic sound designer Francis Preve takes his Toolkit series to the next level. Featuring 100 custom wavetables based on physically modeled instruments and 70 sampled transients and decays - including recorded guitars and percussion - every core element in Toolkit Vol. 3 is original.
