How to Create Keyboard Splits in Serum

Serum by XferRecords is one of the most versatile software synthesizers out there. With its broad range of use and the ability to create a large spectrum of different sounds because of its additive synthesis engine, it quickly climbed to the top of most used software synths of the modern era.  

Creating a Keyboard Split

As you probably already know, Serum has a lot of handy functions. However, I will only show you how to create a keyboard split in this tutorial. This technique can be helpful whether you're using Serum in live performances or for your daily studio productions. Since Serum possesses two oscillators, it allows two separate sounds to be placed on different keyboard zones. This means that the sound from oscillator 1 will be heard when you are playing keys from octave 1 to octave 3 and the sound from oscillator 2 from octave 4 to octave 6.  

 Let's Start

In the following image, you will see Serum loaded on a newly created MIDI channel within SoundBridge. As I mentioned before, there are 2 oscillators inside Serum. I have tweaked the oscillators a bit, and now we can hear that oscillator 1 has a saw-based sound while oscillator 2 has a Square-based sound. Let's hear how they sound together, ranging over the entire keyboard.  

~ Oscillator 1 & 2 melody

Next, I will split these 2 oscillators on the keyboard. To do this, I have to find the note macro section. It is located in the VST's lower right corner. The basic shape looks like a saw waveform. Instead, I will drag the points to create a square shape. I want to set the points where oscillator 1 ends and oscillator 2 begins on the keyboard.  

The next step would be modulating the volume of OSC. 1 & 2. This can be done by dragging and dropping the anchor icon from the note macro and placing it on the level parameter on the OSC 1 and 2 engines. The difference will only be the starting point of the level parameters. We will leave the first oscillator at the maximum while the second oscillator will be set to the minimum.

When you play the melody, you will hear the oscillator 1 from octave 1 to octave 2 and the oscillator 2 from octave 3 to the rest of the keyboard.