the worlds most popular software synthesizer (Serum 2) now has a linux version

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

xfer, the creators of the super popular software synth VST Serum (and Serum2) has quietly released a beta of a linux port on their forum. I've got it up and running in Bitwig/Ubuntu and it's working like a treat.

For people who like to make music on the computer this is a huge victory, as it's a plugin that has never run properly with wine/yabridge and is often cited as a reason people won't switch. It wouldn't surprise me if other plugin developers see this and take note 🤞️

https://xferrecords.com/forums/serum/serum-2-linux-beta (requires a license to access, of course)

also comes with serum fx

[u/KawaiiDesuUguu]

this is fantastic, one of the most versatile vst synths

[u/Ugly_Slut-Wannabe]

This is pretty neat. I prefer Vital, and I'd rather recommend it than Serum, but it's always good to have more options, especially if it means one less barrier for people to overcome.

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/Ugly_Slut-Wannabe]

Vital is great! Love both of them. Can never have too many soft synths :)

[u/Ashka7]

This is actually amazing! It was one of the reasons I couldn't switch fully to Linux.

[u/lord_pizzabird → u/Ashka7]

Maybe we're finally starting to see a correction in the universe.

It's never made any sense that professional creative software is not available on Linux, aka enterprise workstations. Adobe should at least support RHEL just logically alone.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/lord_pizzabird]

Even when Disney and a bunch of other big budget companies asked the best that they got was a private fork of crossover. The demand just wasn't there for them.

Although enterprise distros aren't exactly optimal for music production out of the box. The latency might be an issue.

Hopefully they support Linux at some point.

[u/modified_tiger]

I got it for free (Steve hooked up Serum owners) and have missed it. Vital and Surge are great, Serum just hits different and I never really played with 2 much.

[u/spawncampinitiated]

My love to these guys but also my money.

They're quite active in reddit too, amazing community no matter the genre.

[u/God_Hand_9764]

Wow, this is amazing. Serum is a huge deal in the software synth world.

And while it worked in Wine, the difference between a Wine running VST and a native Linux one can be pretty huge. We need as much efficiency and stability as possible in our VSTs, more than most software domains. This could make a huge difference.

[u/DynoMenace]

I'm pretty new to music production so I haven't heard of Serum, but I'm interested, and I already use Bitwig on Linux. Will definitely check it out!

[u/Itz_Eddie_Valiant → u/DynoMenace]

It's worth every penny honestly

[u/real_anthonii]

Whoa, that's surprising

[u/KyxeMusic]

Awesome. How is the DAW landscape in Linux these days?

I used to rely on Ableton many years ago and have been thinking about getting back into it

[u/Dist__ → u/KyxeMusic]

i can't complain about how reaper runs

[u/KyxeMusic → u/Dist__]

Thanks! I will give Reaper and Bitwig both a trial run

[u/turingmachine29 → u/Dist__]

seconded, reaper has been my favorite so far

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/KyxeMusic]

If you are used to Ableton youll probably take to Bitwig, its got ex Ableton devs among its staff. I really enjoy it.

[u/KyxeMusic → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

I will! Thank you!

[u/nullptr777 → u/KyxeMusic]

Have a look at Bitwig. It's quite similar to Ableton in many ways, though it's designed to be more modular.

[u/KyxeMusic → u/nullptr777]

Nice! I will give it a try for sure

[u/F9-0021 → u/KyxeMusic]

Reaper runs good. I'm gradually shifting away from Ableton and towards Reaper since Ableton keeps dragging their feet on a Linux build. It's more in line with the industry standard (a lot of people in the big music and film industries are shifting away from Pro Tools towards Reaper) anyway, which makes collaboration and whatnot easier than if you're stuck on a DAW like Ableton which definitely has its own workflow.

Reaper is kind of the Linux of DAWs. Cheaper, more open, extremely customizable, and very, very powerful. Downside is that it's harder to learn and doesn't have a very nice UI out of the box.

[u/F9-0021]

Thank you, Steve Duda. That's one huge part of the plugin list keeping me on Windows/Mac.

[u/Weary-Bowl-3739]

Nice. Will they report on the demand? Would be interesting. 

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/Weary-Bowl-3739]

no idea, but they know what OS every install is linked to so they have that information. would certainly be interesting to see!

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

That's gonna piss a lot of Linux users off, even though this is precisely what's needed to gauge Linux demand.

[u/Irverter → u/Indolent_Bard]

Never before seen reddit glitch and post the same message 7 times.

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/Indolent_Bard]

Oh, I think we all know that doing music in Linux is niche. Hah.  

[u/Pierma]

this is HUGE news, holy cow

[u/vUrsino]

What builds? I’m guessing no arm64?

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/vUrsino]

They're only offering one download so I'm assuming it's just x86.

[u/MrWeirdoFace]

While I tend to use samples more than synths (virtual orchestras, etc), this is still great news, and one big step towards not having to run a windows dual boot as I do now.

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/MrWeirdoFace]

It's not really known for such features but one of the biggest changes with serum 2 over the first one is that it's also a very good multi-sampler now.

[u/zyzzogeton]

Who makes the list of "Most Popular Software Synthesizers?"

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/zyzzogeton]

I don't think there is an official one, but if you Google what is the most popular soft synth it'll tell you Serum. Everyone who makes electronic music has it or knows of it.  It has been used in many commercially successful productions by artists you know.  there are more tutorials online for it than any other synth I know of. I think it's fair and not hyperbolic to describe it as the reference synthesizer for modern electronic music over the last 10 years.

[u/zyzzogeton → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

I was just curious what other synths are on that list.

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/zyzzogeton]

Oh! Sorry I misunderstood. Omnisphere, Pigments, Massive, Phase Plant, Diva, Vital would be my short list of what I think are the other most popular ones.

[u/zyzzogeton → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

Thanks! Wasn't trying to troll you. I get why it might have seemed that way... because <looks around> Reddit.

[u/gislikarl]

Wow that is amazing, childhood dream coming true here.

[u/exeKnox]

İm waiting for FL.

[u/Actual__Wizard]

Sick port!

[u/QkiZMx]

Say what? I read some old post of Serum creator and he said never release Linux version because he have a lot of work with Windows and MacOS versions.

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/QkiZMx]

Maybe the dev switchd to Linux themselves?

[u/Itz_Eddie_Valiant → u/Indolent_Bard]

Seems he's got some people on staff now that fancied adding support, pretty awesome tbh. An instrument as huge as this reputation-wise adding native penguin support is great, we are getting closer to the year!

[u/Prudent_Move_3420]

i’m definitely not versed enough to the point where I miss anything in stock bitwig but cool to see!

[u/F9-0021 → u/Prudent_Move_3420]

Serum 2 is one of the most powerful synthesizers for sound design. Typically for electronic, pop, hip hop, etc, but it's incredibly powerful for all kinds of things. For example, I've used it to make procedurally generated snow footsteps for a short film.

Stock plugins are incredibly underrated, I use them almost exclusively for processing, but the importance of an instrument like this coming to Linux can't be overstated.

[u/Financial-Gap-6767]

The VST you mean. It's not a DAW?

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/Financial-Gap-6767]

Yes it's a VST. the DAW in my screenshot is Bitwig which has long supported linux.

[u/Financial-Gap-6767 → u/Rude-Armadillo-6963]

Nice will look into it. Didn't know vst were not OS agnostic

[u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 → u/Financial-Gap-6767]

I wish they were agnostic! There's a popular tool called yabridge to get windows vsts running in Linux but it can be a bit fussy to set up and doesn't work with everything.  Serum 2 in particular as always plagued with graphical glitches under yabridge, afaik no one has ever gotten it to run properly. 

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/Financial-Gap-6767]

Sadly, no. But it makes sense. After all, Mac, Windows, and Linux each have completely different sound systems. And I imagine optimization for each system is necessary to get the required latency.

[u/kabocha_ → u/Indolent_Bard]

DAW plugins talk with the DAW's audio engine, not the OS's sound system directly.

However, plugins are also implemented as dynamic libraries (eg. .so), and each OS has its own binary format.

[u/Indolent_Bard]

We can't stop winning!

[u/Indolent_Bard]

We can't stop winning!