Learn Serum 2 in 10 Minutes: A Quickstart Guide for Beginners
- Noise Harmony
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
If Serum 2 looks confusing to you, you’re not alone. It’s packed with features, and when you first open it, it can feel like too much — too many tabs, too many buttons, and no idea where to start. That’s exactly why we made a new video. It’s a quick, clear introduction to Serum 2 made for beginners. In less than 10 minutes, you’ll understand how to use the main parts of the synth and actually start creating sounds. No complicated theory, no deep dives — just the essentials, explained in a simple way.
Also check:
17 Advanced Tips for Serum 2 | FREE E-BOOK
Xfer Records’ Serum 2 Dream Horizon: New Presets Pack from Noise Harmony
We start with the oscillators.
In Serum 2, you get access to five core sound sources: OSC A, B, and C, along with the SUB and NOISE sections. The main oscillators can run in multiple modes, giving you a wide range of creative options:
Wavetable – the default mode. Morph between different wave shapes to build evolving, animated tones.
Multisample – load real instrument layers like pianos, strings, or vocals. Useful for adding organic character.
Sample – playback single-shot audio files. You can trim, pitch, and loop them for simple or experimental use.
Granular – break audio into micro-fragments for glitchy, lo-fi, or ambient textures.
Spectral – directly manipulate the harmonic content of a waveform for highly synthetic, shifting tones.
After that, we take a look at the sub and noise sections — super useful for adding weight, grit, or just filling out your sound a bit more.
After that, we explain envelopes and LFOs, how to shape your sounds using ADSR, and how modulation works in general. You’ll also learn how to use filters, what the signal flow looks like, and how macros and the modulation matrix can make your patches more expressive.
Toward the end, we take a quick look at Serum’s built-in effects, how Serum FX works, and some of the new features like the arpeggiator, Clip mode, and MIDI Learn. We even cover a few shortcuts and workflow tips to help you move faster inside the plugin.
Check out our custom-made presets for Xfer Serum 2!
NH_STH_SHIFTSTORM
NH_PAD_VEILPAD
This tutorial isn’t meant to teach you everything, but it will give you a solid starting point so that you can open Serum 2 and actually know what you’re doing.
We’ve spent a lot of time with Serum 2 here at Noise Harmony — creating presets, testing new features, and figuring out what works in real projects. If you’re just getting started with Serum 2, this video is probably the easiest way to dive in.
You can watch it now on our YouTube channel.
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