Serum (synthesizer)
More info
- Creator
- Steve Duda
- Owner
- Xfer Records
- Released
- 2014
- Type
- Software synthesizer (plugin)
- Website
- xferrecords.com
Steve Duda's wavetable software synth, which from 2014 became the default instrument of electronic dance music.
Wavetable synthesis was nothing new — the PPG Wave did it in the 1980s, and Native Instruments' Massive ruled the dubstep era. Serum made the process visible. Wavetables and the way they morph are drawn in real time, you can import your own audio or sketch waves with the mouse, and the oscillators are oversampled so high notes don't fold back as audible aliasing.
Duda ran Xfer Records as more or less a one-man operation, and the synth's presets grew into a market of their own, with thousands of preset packs on sale. That goes some way to explaining why so much 2010s EDM sounds alike. Serum 2 arrived in 2025 as a free upgrade for existing owners of the original.