Serum or Waves Codex

[FlowerSoldier]

Anyone have any experience using Serum vs. Waves Codex? Codex looks capable, but I'm wondering how they compare. I'll demo them both, but wanted to hear other people's opinions. The price on Codex is hard to beat, but I'm wondering if there is a reason to pony up $120 more bucks for Serum. What are y'alls thoughts?

[Oquasec]

Out of those 2 specifically, either would do just fine. [If talking vsts]

[EnochLight]

Anyone have any experience using Serum vs. Waves Codex? Codex looks capable, but I'm wondering how they compare. I'll demo them both, but wanted to hear other people's opinions. The price on Codex is hard to beat, but I'm wondering if there is a reason to pony up $120 more bucks for Serum. What are y'alls thoughts?

I own both. I prefer Serum - both from a GUI/UX perspective, as well as a patch library, programming, and sound perspective. And Serum is just flat out a more powerful synth, really. I'm not saying Codex is bad, by any stretch - I just feel Serum is much better.

PSA: patch browsing in Codex in Reason 9.5.x is broken if you try to use your QWERTY keyboard arrows. It only goes one direction - you can't back up. Serum patch browsing works fine.

With Serum, you can browse patches either inside of Serum using its proprietary browser, or navigate all patches using Reason's browser (for a native-Reason-like browser experience). In Codex, you have to use Codex browser (at least I haven't figured out how to use Reason's with it).

[Hauser+Quaid]

Another vote for Serum. Demo'ed Codex, I liked it, it's a capable synth, but Serum is still the one for me. I really think it's unbeatable at the moment. But I suggest you try them for yourself, you might find you get along better w Codex.

[olive6741]

I bought Codex while on sale, because Serum is way out of my budget at the moment. All I know of Serum is what I heard on Youtube's various demo (not tested myself)

Then I found Codex a bit 'dull' in terms of how it sounded, but I strongly encourage you to test it with OTT XFer (https://xferrecords.com/freeware/):it is a game changer (and I think I read somewhere OTT was integrated in Serum , is it?).
Boosting a bit 8KHz on the final eq can help a bit.

At least if you are after this kind of sounds...

And Codex can load your own wavetables, which is quite good...

Just my two cents here...

[EdGrip]

I haven't really got my head around OTT yet. It needs a manual.

[EnochLight]

And Codex can load your own wavetables, which is quite good...

This is one of Serum's flagship features. I wonder if you picked up Codex on the same sale that I did? I remember it was super cheap by comparison. It was like $21.92 USD, which was pretty much a no-brainer as far as getting new content into Reason was concerned.

It's hard for me to bash Codex when I paid so little for it, but I still prefer Serum.

[olive6741]

From what I understood, it splits in three bands the audio spectrum , and it expands low levels in each bands and also compress higher levels... It is somewhat a set and forget effect mainly. But results are nice when you're not too allergic at compression effects [emoji16]and multiband action gives high punch and improve clarity. As far as I remember (because I'm on holiday trip right now) it also makes appears a small level of hiss in case of Codex (is Codex slightly noisy?) That's a bit annoying as side effect, but expansion in OTT can be very high. Controls are amount and time If I remember correctly. It looks like the origin of OTT is a standard preset in Ableton Live compressors ...


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[olive6741]

My previous post was about OTT obviously. And I share your thoughts Enochlight... When not pricey, Codex can be a non expensive solution to mimic Serum style sound. But I think Serum is a de facto reference...


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[scratchnsnifff]

I say serum, it's way better in my opinion, codex is fun but feels like a toy compared to serum. Not trying to sound like I'm bashing on codex, codex is good at making fun glitch sequences but that's about all I use it for. Serum can also make amazing sequences but goes so much more in depth on the oscillator level. The warp modes and filters are worth the asking price

[scratchnsnifff]

Oh and when you get serum it makes it so you can use serums effects chain on any other audio! So you can use its distortion, phaser chorus etc on something like Thor! I use the OTT a lot but it doesn't always meet my needs, but the filters are just amazing and using reasons cv connectivity with serums effects makes for a world of fun

[chk071]

Frankly, Codex is the worst soft synth i demo'd in the last 5 years or so... i'd really go for Serum. IMO, Codex sounds just awful, not nearly as good as anything released in the last 10 years. Filter sucks, even the sound of the raw waveforms isn't very good. Really wished i could say something positive about it, but, compared to other wavetable synths, think Serum, Largo, or Massive, it's just not good enough.

Not sure what Waves have been smoking when they developed Codex, but, i'd frankly wouldn't want any of that.

[olive6741]

In fact there is something I find rather odd ( or maybe intentional ) from Waves plugin, (a new behaviour to me since I'm interested in some VST not a long time ago, meaning since Reason 9.5 exists , as I can't really 'click' with another software than my beloved Reason[emoji3]) , they look like always being on sale??!!... So: when they are priced at 49, 59 and surely 29, I think:"ok at that price, they worth it". IMO if I had to pay the display price, then my answer would be no! (199? Seriously?). So, finally I can accept Codex is quite 'limited' and not able to stand the comparison with Serum. They play a game IMO, and I accept it...The other advantage with us, friends of Reason, is we have so much easiness to 'improve ' how a synth sounds, as Reason is really made to add plugins effects, CV modulation, the nice Combinator and so on.. So Easy...[emoji3]So true, like in a hardware environment, so easy and fun... So we have to take all these VST stuff as they come, philosophy is different from RE, and finally, why not? I'm still a strong believer in RE, they fit the rack, so I prefer them... But then , there are nice 'différents ' VST in this world, and now we have access to both world. A Reason to be happy [emoji4] (no pun intended) ... Clearly, the display prices of Waves plugin is made to increase the WUP price, I think... But once again, I had a fair talk with them, you are really not obliged to subscribe to it. You keep your versions without it. You can subscribe to it when you want. Only in case you want sold your VST, you need it. But hey! Everybody needs to make money, in't it? Fair game... Really, some Waves plugins are fantastic ... So... It is just a question of knowing the rules... In the meantime, I'm so happy with J37 tape simulator or NLS summer mixing stuff, for example... And it would be indecent to tell the price I bought them[emoji1]
Many options now... Reason rules... But I digress [emoji3]


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[FlowerSoldier]

Thanks for the feedback. It kind of confirmed my suspicions. I'm going to spend some time with serum today. I've been hearing it a lot on the new vince staples record i think.