bobo8

If you asked me whether or not I thought [Steve Duda](https://equipboard.com/pros/steve-duda) was an actual wizard, I’m not sure if I’d be able to give you a straight answer. The reasoning behind this is that his company’s product, Serum, might as well be pure magic. I know this seems silly, but Serum itself is flawless. I have been using it religiously now for the past 3 or 4 months and it has quickly become my go to plug-in for creating almost any sound. Steve Duda and the [Xfer Records](https://equipboard.com/brands/xfer_records) team have created a true wonder in Serum and it has elevated my ability to create and experiment with sound in an unprecedented way. Honestly, if I could give Serum a rating above the maximum amount, I would. Serum has defined itself as the new industry standard for VST synthesizers. The organization of the interface goes above and beyond what a large majority of other software synthesizers provide and is unmatched by any currently on the market. Everything is compartmentalized and labeled and almost every knob, fader, or button brings up a description window when hovered over. Serum easily lets any producer become familiar with the pieces of a synthesizer that you shouldn’t have to struggle to discover, thereby giving you more room to play with its more exciting and unique features. One of the key features Serum exhibits is the ability to drag and drop source and destination parameters for easy modulation. While not intuitively apparent when first opening the device, I think Xfer still made a great decision by including this drag-and-drop feature as most of their users have some familiarity with [Native Instrument’s Massive](https://equipboard.com/items/native-instruments-massive-synth), which uses something similar. Being a wavetable synthesizer, like NI Massive, the possibilities for creative freedom are almost infinite. Xfer has implemented a separate wavetable menu that pops up when clicking on the smaller, yet still visually appealing, wavetable window that is shown on the upper half of the synth. This is where things start to get good: Serum allows you to draw in up to 256 separate instances of waveforms to create a unique and dynamic wavetable. It even lets you specifically enter a mathematical formula to create a waveform, should you choose. This is previously unheard of in the soft-synth world and gives users a multitude of possibilities and outlets for imagination. Finally, Serum offers 2 more fantastic features in the form of the ‘FX’ and ‘Matrix’ tabs. The FX tab gives you 10 preset effects options and acts like a mixer channel in most DAWs. The effects provided are incredibly high quality and I find myself using them more and more as my familiarity with Serum increases. The Matrix tab essentially gives you explicit control over any parameter that has been modulated or affected otherwise and is very straightforward. Xfer goes even farther to provide more visuals in the Matrix tab as well which allows users to really feel at home in their product. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommend Serum. Ever since I first spent about 20 minutes messing around with it I’ve been in love and have spread the good word of Xfer Records and Steve Duda’s amazing achievement. If you’re looking for a new favorite synthesizer, there’s no need to look any further than Serum.