Deadmau5 Teases Hardware Serum Synthesizer

Deadmau5 shared this image today, accompanying it only with a cryptic “yeah yeah… you guys keep your skins :P”.

It looks like it could be a hardware version of XFerrecords Serum – a software wavetable synthesizer. We haven’t seen any official word on this, though, so it could be a custom job or even a 3D render.

Check it out and let us know what you think! Would you be interested in a hardware version of Serum? And what other soft synths would you like to see get dedicated hardware versions?

38 thoughts on “Deadmau5 Teases Hardware Serum Synthesizer

    1. It’s a wavetable synth though. I shall immediately jump into me bathtub time machine, travel back in time to tell Wolfgang Palm that….Hmm….What do I tell him? I’ll figure something out on the way. Definitely watching Back To The Future again while I’m there tho!

    2. That is a really obtuse statement and that is being kind. Hasn’t that been the point all along, to have physical controls of powerful software synthesizers. Go play with your relic.

    3. that’s exactly right, if a synth is DSP, its pretty much is a plug-in wrapped in a controller, so fine to stay with it as a plug-in.

    4. the ACB synths are pretty darned authentic sounding and if you had them running it would take a chunk of CPU to do it via vst (if you have ever tried the plugout vsts they take a ton of CPU+mem to run and I am doing it on an i7 w/ 128gb of RAM and it taxes the resources)- so it makes sense to have them exist on their own.

      1. That is just because Roland doesn’t know shit about optimizing the code.

        For example take what u-he or Synapse Audio Legend or TAL U-NO-LX/BassLine-101 are doing, they all sound authentic and their CPU consumption is far less (Diva taking the most CPU, but still less than Roland’s ACB efforts).

  1. I here Roland is going to make a Boutique Bahn Sage also w/ extra micro knobs.

    Lets start a gofundme for Deadmaus and buy him patch cables.

    1. It’s called mise en place: Keep your system ready to go whenever creativity strikes. That’s why pro’s unplug their modular once they are finished with a patch.

      1. *Best response so far, Alex! Spoken like someone who knows the deal. I came to prefer ‘hardwired’ synths because having to spend 30 modular-minutes at a Moog IIIC just to get a bloop to come out wasn’t in line with my keyboard playing goals. Its all a matter of choice. Having a g/f who owned and played a Moog IIIC was a big plus. 😀 An unplugged modular panel isn’t empty; its waiting its turn.

        *If Serum became available as hardware, it would be a fine thing, sort of straddling the line between Synthmaster, a Virus and Waldorf’s new synth Quantum. The latter allows you to import your own WAVs, a huge gain if you roll up your sleeves and customize. Having a major central hardware synth as part of your rig offers real pluses you miss otherwise.

        *I’m mostly in-the-box these days and liking it, even with the fiddly aspects of a general purpose computer. I can hardly see the argument here when so many synths now cross from hardware to software and back in colorful ways. Look at the wide range of options you have for a Moog or Korg Wavestation. Half the laptoppers you see have Ableton running a fistful of mini-synths. Carping over synth design is like bitching because your starship is dusty.

  2. Not happening.

    However, what ^would^ be good would be if Steve Duda created a Serum Player for iPad, like the Synthmaster player. Import your favourite presets onto your iOS device, pair your Bluetooth MIDI controller and BOOM!

    Best synth ever.

  3. I know at one point they actually had some rack mounted vst hosts that you could buy but they were really expensive- I actually kind of wish they would do that in a desktop format and have a combination of assignable physical and touchscreen controls since you could probably do it much cheaper nowadays

  4. We should go on a teaser protest! Give it no attention, no likes/shares. Maybe we’ll get back to official announcements.

  5. Strokes his Solaris before sending it off to its next owner…too much menu diving, it’s being replaced with a matrixbrute.
    Glances at the ImpOSCar 2 controller lying on its end in the corner… too many toys…

  6. With all the LCD property on the hardware.. it would be cool to have such a controller that worked directly with more then just one VST… more like the system 8 idea, but working with all kinds of VST’s

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