Here’s a quick tutorial on Pro Tips for making the most of Serum’s direct entry and key command functions.
Link: https://cdm.link/2021/01/serum-sound-tricks-to-explore-just-by-double-clicking-with-francis-preve/
Supersaw starting points on four different softsynths: Serum, Phase Plant, Operator, and Wavetable.
Level: Beginner
Platform: Xfer Serum, Ableton Operator, Kilohearts Phase Plant, Ableton Wavetable
Description: The starting point for creating Supersaw chord stabs. Filter and effects are areas for customization.
Download Serum Supersaw: Watch+Learn_SerumPreset_Supersaw
Download Operator and Wavetable Supersaw: Watch+Learn_AbletonPresets_Supersaw
Download Phase Plant Supersaw: Watch+Learn_PP_Supersaw
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.
This year, the final project for my Synthesis 2 course at Austin Community College focused on preset design for Xfer Serum. For the assignment, students developed presets for each of the following categories: Bass, Pad, Lead, and Pluck.
With their permission, I'm sharing the results as a free download for Serum fans. Of the submissions, these are the best examples - assembled in a downloadable pack consisting of 25 presets covering a wide variety of genres and design approaches.
Additionally, each student’s name is included in every preset, so if you like any of the patches, you’ll know who created it.
I also added two original presets based on wavetables created from snowflake and xmas tree graphics, because holidays.
The pack is a free download that you can grab at the below link.
Download: Xfer Serum Preset Pack (Winter 2017)
Update: The Winter 2018 Xfer Serum Pack is now online.
Season’s Greetings!