Unlock Serum's Potential: 5 Essential Production Techniques for Superior Sound Design

In today's fast and ever-shifting music production world, innovation and adaptability are the keys to maintaining a competitive edge. Xfer Records' Serum is a beast of a VST instrument, one of the most versatile and popular synthesizers on the market. Be you a veteran producer or just taking your first steps, mastering Serum can truly open up limitless potential creatively. This month we're going to take a look at five production techniques that will help you unlock the full potential of Serum, taking your sound design to new heights.

Understanding Wavetables

Serum's sound engine is based on wavetable synthesis. In the old days of subtractive synthesis, oscillators would generate very simple waveforms: sine, square, sawtooth, etc., and then you could shape them with a filter. Serum allows you to morph complex and evolving sounds through the use of scanning over a series of waveforms that are in a wavetable. This offers a much deeper and more dynamic coloration for your sounds.

Custom Wavetables

Begin by opening Serum and heading over to the Oscillator section. You can load existing wavetables or create your own from scratch. Start by initiating the oscillator to a basic shape—a sine wave is usually used. Now, click "Wavetable Editor." That's an absolutely incredible thing; you can draw in your waves or add harmonic content or actually import audio files and turn them into wavetables.

More Advanced FFT and Morphing

Serum's wavetable editor also can use Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for more in-depth control over the harmonics of each waveform. You can also morph between different waveforms within a wavetable—between many at once with the other tab—smoothing out the transitions so you can't hear where the new wave cycle begins. Experiment with these tools to generate highly unique and intricate timbres.

Exploring Filter Types

Serum's filter section isn't just for cutting frequencies; in fact, it's a dynamic tool to add movement and texture to your sounds. This is an ultra-flexible filter, covering a very wide range of types: low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, comb, and many more—ranging from standard to more exotic ones like reverb or phaser filters.

Modulating Filters for Expressive Sound Design

A great way to animate a static sound is to modulate the cutoff and resonance of a filter. Use Serum's LFOs (Low-Frequency Oscillators) or envelopes to control these parameters. For instance, a classic wobble bass can be created by just routing an LFO to the Cutoff of a low-pass filter. More hostile textures can be introduced by adding a touch of resonance to the same filter.

Filter Combinations for Fresh Effects

Serum offers up multiple filters in both series and parallel, making it possible to stack up intricate effects chains. For example, try combining a Low-pass filter with a Phaser filter, modulating both with different LFOs. This can create evolving, psychedelic sounds perfect for genres like psytrance or ambient music.

Basics of FM Synthesis

Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis is a process in which the frequency of one waveform alters (modulates) the frequency of another. This can help to generate subtle overtones, all the way up to harsh metallic timbres and everything in between. Serum achieves FM synthesis by allowing its oscillators to adjust each other's frequency.

Setting Up FM Synthesis in Serum

To start with FM synthesis in Serum, select an oscillator, and for that oscillator, choose "FM (from B)" as the warp mode. It will modulate the frequency of Oscillator A with the waveform from Oscillator B. Experiment with different settings to see how your sound changes, and play around with different waveforms and tuning on Oscillator B to see what other possibilities are available.

Advanced FM Techniques

If you want even more complex sounds with FM, try stacking a few layers of FM modulation. For example, the noise oscillator can be used as an FM source to add a gritty, textured layer into your sound. And then automating the FM amount with an envelope or an LFO could really result in evolving sounds full of character.

Warmth and Thickness with Unison and Detune

Although Serum is a digital synth, it is great for producing warm analog pads that can add depth to your tunes. Start with a simple waveform such as a saw or triangle. Open up the unison voices to around 7 or 8, then detune those slightly to give some width and thickness.

Filters and FX for Analog Flavour

Give a gentle application of a low-pass filter with some resonance to roll off the high-end frequencies, simulating vintage hardware synth character. A light application of serum's effects section—with some soft chorus and reverb—gives it a delicate mix of lush spaciousness. And if you really want to add in some warmth: just top it off with some light distortion or tape saturation.

Modulating a lot of things with movement can help bring pads to life. They are static by nature, and giving them even slight movement can make them much more interesting and engaging. Assign an LFO to modulate the filter cutoff slowly to get a gentle pulsing effect. You could also use the pan of the unison voices as a source of modulation for a wider stereo image, which will further enhance the immersiveness of your pad sounds.

Understanding the Modulation Matrix

Serum's Modulation Matrix (Mod Matrix) is the heart of its modulation capabilities. In Serum, it is possible to assign modulation sources (for example LFOs, envelopes, or velocity) to a very wide range of parameters using the modulation matrix, which provides an unparalleled degree of freedom and flexibility for both simple or even extremely complex modulations.

In Serum, you would first choose your Source and Destination: For example, you could select an envelope as your source and the wavetable position as your destination. That setup would modulate your wavetable over time, following the shape of your envelope. You control the amount of Modulation to adjust the degree of the effect applied.

Chaining Modulations for Evolving Sounds

One of the most powerful features of Serum's Mod Matrix is the ability to chain modulations together. For example, you could have an LFO modulate the amplitude of another LFO, which modulates the filter cutoff. This can be some pretty complex chicanery.

The ability to use Macros for real-time control in Serum also has some very handy features when it comes to live performance or real-time sound mangling. Map several parameters to a single macro knob so they can all be controlled as one. For example, one macro might control the cutoff of a filter, wavetable position, and reverb amount, all changing your sound, radically, with a twist of the knob.

Serum is a flexible, powerful sound design workhorse. Mastering the above five production techniques: custom wavetable creation, filter for movement, FM synthesis, analog-style pad making, and the use of the Mod Matrix will move your music production to a new level of greatness. Whether you are developing electronic music or complex cinematic scores, this is exactly the point of strategies that will really open Serum up for you and make sure you create radio-ready hits full of professional, unique sound designs.

If you're interested in exploring more VSTs, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned professional, and no matter your budget, click this link to discover a wide range of synths that cater to every need.

And for more production tips and tricks, check out The Plugin Boutique on Youtube!