Serum in Reason...how is it working?

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Nerveclinic
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23 Feb 2018

I did a quick search of "Serum" and didn't see any comments about how it is doing in Reason.

Are there CPU issues? Is it working well in Reason?

Anyone with feedback I would appreciate it before I plunk down $189.

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MikeMcKew
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23 Feb 2018

It works well for me. I only get CPU issues when using multiple instances and/or upping the unison too much. Also take a look at the Splice rent-to-own plan, if you don't want to plop down that much cash all at once.

groggy1
Posts: 466
Joined: 10 Jun 2015

24 Feb 2018

It works beautifully

antic604

24 Feb 2018

Nerveclinic wrote:
23 Feb 2018
Anyone with feedback I would appreciate it before I plunk down $189.
It's at $10 a month in rent-to-own at Splice, FYI

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Lempface
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Joined: 27 Jan 2018

25 Feb 2018

The CPU usage is way higher than in Ableton. I find more than one instance completely unusable.

For reference:
Windows 10
AMD 8 core 3.2 GHz
20 Gb RAM
Steinberg UR22mkII interface
Reason 11 Suite | Bitwig Studio 3 | Native Instruments Komplete 13 Ultimate Collector's | Komplete Kontrol M32 | Maschine Mikro MK2 | Maschine Jam

scratchnsnifff
Posts: 1423
Joined: 21 Sep 2016

25 Feb 2018

its working absolutely fine, if you use it sparingly
wouldn't recommend doing an entire serum project
however if you use it for 3-4 sounds that are upfront in your mix youl be fine, slap it into a combinator and automate the 4 rotaries and its all good :)

my only issue is that it doesn't allow drag and drop for audio, so you have to go folder hunting if you want to make a wavetable out of a sample

hint hint props ;)
Mayor of plucktown :evil:

DonnieAlan
Posts: 271
Joined: 25 Jan 2017

25 Feb 2018

Serum is one of the best VIs out there. And don’t overlook that when you install it, you have two versions: one for the full VI and the other is just the FX. The FX version will list on your Reason FX menu. You can use the many different fix modules that come with Serum to apply to any other VI patches. And serum has very nice fx, too! The only drawback is it can be a bit of a resource hog, depending on what patch you’re using and what else you’ve got going on in a session.


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demt
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26 Feb 2018

real cpu probs with the splice app so i hope you are buying it
Reason 12 ,gear4 music sdp3 stage piano .nektar gxp 88,behringer umc1800 .line6 spider4 30
hear scince reason 2.5

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MikeMcKew
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26 Feb 2018

demt wrote:real cpu probs with the splice app so i hope you are buying it
You only need to open the Splice app once every few days to authorize Serum. I just open it and close it right away. No problems doing that. But it is true, the Splice app has some serious CPU usage problems.

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Oquasec
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26 Feb 2018

I don't know how that splice thing works so I just bought expanse and ogun years back instead for the resynthesis engine thing.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

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Nerveclinic
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28 Feb 2018

Oquasec wrote:
26 Feb 2018
I don't know how that splice thing works so I just bought expanse and ogun years back instead for the resynthesis engine thing.
What is Ogun?

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Oquasec
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01 Mar 2018

old synth. love it
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

alessiomarkz
Posts: 1
Joined: 01 Mar 2018

02 Mar 2018

How you sustain that working limitations ?

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EnochLight
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04 Mar 2018

Nerveclinic wrote:
23 Feb 2018
I did a quick search of "Serum" and didn't see any comments about how it is doing in Reason.

Are there CPU issues? Is it working well in Reason?

Anyone with feedback I would appreciate it before I plunk down $189.
Serum works fine in Reason 10, and it also uses the FXP patch format (thankfully), so you can point Reason's browser to your Serum patch library and browse Serum's presets just like a native Reason rack device, which makes the experience much more "Reason like". While Europa is an incredible synth, there's nothing quite like Serum. It's still the standard as far as wavetable synths are concerned. Highly recommended!

Whether you have CPU issues will depend on how many you use and what your hardware build is made of. Check my signature - my machine is approaching 6-7 years old and can handle Serum just fine. But I also don't use 30 in a project, so... there's that. :D
Win 10 | Ableton Live 11 Suite |  Reason 12 | i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz | 16 GB RAM | RME Babyface Pro | Akai MPC Live 2 & Akai Force | Roland System 8, MX1, TB3 | Dreadbox Typhon | Korg Minilogue XD

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wireless
Posts: 100
Joined: 14 Apr 2017

04 Mar 2018

Nerveclinic wrote:
23 Feb 2018
I did a quick search of "Serum" and didn't see any comments about how it is doing in Reason.

Are there CPU issues? Is it working well in Reason?

Anyone with feedback I would appreciate it before I plunk down $189.
All I can tell you is it's the best thing I ever bought for Reason 10. So good, that I put it into my default template!
For me this is down to i) the richness of the sound (bandwidth goes both deep and high), ii) the extent of the dynamics possibilities (modulating wavetable position, changing the unison settings, populating the matrix with in-built LFOs and Envelopes, iii) the extent of the in-built effects, and iv) the ability to get down to nuts and bolts and create your own wavetables from either of maths equations, drawing, or selecting frequencies from the spectral display. The support forum is good and responsive. I found loads of free wavetable resources particularly from the community that were just awesome.

As for performance hit, I see that this thread shows different experiences on processor impact - this is a straight relationship to the power of your computer I'm afraid. I decided to upgrade about 18 months ago when I got Expanse - that would play one note OK, but two notes of some patches would crash Reason 9. I then stumped up £1K on a new homebuilt desktop and now I hardly get any cpu hit from anything. So if you would like to take a quick test - get hold of a trial copy of Expanse, load up 'Canada Sunrise' from the polysynth section and take the 'two note test'. On my original machine (an i5 1.6GHz laptop), this would crash Reason. On my current desktop (i7 4GHz), it registers 1 pip on the DSP meter at the bottom right of the display.
On Serum, I find that most patches come in at either 1 pip or no pips on the DSP.
Hope that helps.

danc
Posts: 1017
Joined: 14 Oct 2016

04 Mar 2018

wireless wrote:
04 Mar 2018
All I can tell you is it's the best thing I ever bought for Reason 10.
Without question an amazing synth - and yes it works totally fine in Reason.

To answer the question - should you buy it... well yes and no. YES because it does have a vibrant community following and you'll have endless presets to trawl through. NO because it has a certain gritty hard hitting sound characteristic about it - which from a lot of people's perspective is seen as great thing and they love it, but you should be aware that if you aren't careful you'll sound like everyone else! I appreciate it can do other types of sounds, but hard hitting sandpaper scratch your eyes out basses and leads is its natural home.

HOWEVER - bear in mind that in the last 6 month there are a few new contenders that should be on your radar, e.g. Dmitry Sches' THORN and Sonic Academy ANA 2. You wont get the vibrant community, but you'll certainly get fresh sounds, that don't sound like everyone else.
Check my Soundcloud:

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