Audiotent Cerium // Serum Sound Design Tips

This PDF showcases a selection of the sound design techniques used to create
Cerium. We have hand picked one patch from each category Bass, Hit, Lead, Pad
and Pluck to feature under the spotlight in this guide. We hope you find these
techniques useful and put them to good use in your own productions.

Note:

• Modulation sources are highlighted with a red circle.

• Destinations are highlighted with a green circle.
• Key points are pointed with a blue arrow.
• Bonus tips to try out in your productions will be given in italics.
010 AT Bass - Container
Container is a great sounding bass patch that can be used for long and short notes.
It can be shaped and manipulated in many ways to fit your project, adding
sonically interesting movement that can add tension and release within your
arrangement. The beauty lies within the combination of the portamento glide,
reactive velocity modulations, adjustable FX washes and the ability to shape the
sound easily using FM and Wavetable macros.

• Envelope 2 is affecting the opening and closing shape of the Filter Cutoff.
This adds a little excitement and punch to the start of each note by letting
the top frequencies through before closing off slightly, dampening the
sound. A very common and vital modulation when designing bass sounds.
The intensity of this modulation can be increased or decreased by adjusting
the little blue symbol attached to the Filter Cutoff.
• Velocity is affecting four modulations. The first two modulations are
increasing volume, which is common in a lot of patches. This is achieved by
sending Velocity to both OSC A and OSC C Level knobs. The next
modulation is to the Filter Cutoff, this time to determine the starting
position for the cutoff frequency, which brightens the sound when you
increase note velocity. The final modulation is Velocity to Envelope 2
Attack, this softens the sound if the notes are hit lighter, and sharper if you
hit harder. These four modulations working together results in the ability to
increase the drama and punch of the sound, just by playing or programming
in the velocity of the notes.

Try increasing the velocity of the notes as your track builds and grows.
This will increase the feeling of power and punch.

• Envelope 3 is used to mute Distortion Mix, Chorus Mix and Reverb Mix, but
only when the note is pressed. Once the note is released the mix positions
return to normal and you end up with an FX tail. The modulation works in a
similar fashion to a gate, to do this you need to polarise the modulation so
the knobs are decreasing instead of increasing. This is achieved by simply
moving the blue modulation knob negatively (to the left).
Lets move on to the four modulation macros…

• Macro 1 is used to create hi-passed washed out FX, great for creating a
little tension just before a drop or to add some FX leading into a
breakdown. Macro 1 is increasing Delay Mix, Reverb Mix and EQ
Frequency which is set to Hi-pass. Please note that distortion and chorus
have been deselected in the following screen shot to fit the modulated FX
into view.
• Macro 2 is used to increase frequency modulation to OSC A from OSC B by
opening up the OSC A FM (FROM B) Knob. This changes the sound, the result
is much grittier, aggressive and abrasive.

• Macro 3 changes the Wave Table Shapes of both OSC A and OSC B, by
opening up the WT POSITION of each Oscillator. This drastically changes the
sound of the patch and you could make a pallet of sounds for your
production just from this one single patch.
• Macro 4 opens up the Mix knob for the Phaser Effect. This adds another
layer of tonal shaping into the patch.
044 AT Hit - Gorge
Gorge is a chordal hit that could be shaped into an aggressive techno chord or a
soft washed out dub chord and everything in between. Using the macros, you can
shape the patch perfectly to suit the mood of your track.

• The tuning settings between the SUB Oscillator (set to root note and down
one octave), OSC A (+7 semitones) and OSC B (+3 Semitones) make up the
chord for the patch. This means a chord is struck even though one note is
pressed and the patch is set to mono. You could experiment with the
mood and vibe of the chord by changing these settings.

• Envelope 2 is affecting the opening and closing of the Filter Cutoff to

create that punchy stab sound. Try playing around with Envelope 2 Decay
to change how long the filter opens, this can drastically change the
groove of your track and it is worth adjusting until you hit a sweet
spot.

• Macro 2 (Open Up) can also be used to shape the stab and let some top
frequencies through, brightening the sound and abrasiveness for a much
harder chord. Macro 2 is opening up Filter Cutoff and shortening Envelope
2 Decay
• Next lets take a look at the timbre of the patch. You can change the tone of
the sound by using Macro 4, which is changing both OSC A WT POS and OSC
B WT POS.

• Also, LFO 2 is modulating the timbre of OSC A by slightly moving up and

down OSC A WT POS. This adds subtle movement into the patch and will
continue to modulate when you change the positioning of OSC A WT POS
using Macro 4.

Try subtly adjusting macro 4 as your track progresses using automation

or recording midi cc modulation from a controller. This can add
movement and subtle interest to the sound that will keep the listener
interested.

• LFO 2 is modulating four delay FX parameters. First, we have LFO 2

modulating Delay Filter Frequency and Delay Filter BW which is filter
resonance or Q. The other two parameters, Delay Feedback and Delay Mix
are only modulated when Macro 1(Delay Movement) is turned up.
• Lastly lets take a look at Macro 3 (More FX), which does what it says on tin!
This is great if you want a softer more washed out sound, great for a
dubbier track or a break section. You can really wash it out by turning
the macro all the way up, or simply just dial a little in to taste.

• Macro 3 turns up Delay Feedback, Delay Mix, Reverb Mix and Distortion
Mix for a wetter sound.
050 AT Lead - Gradient
Gradient is a rhythmic lead preset that lends itself very well as a techno lead.
There are some great macro parameters that can be used to add more layering,
transform and open up the sound.

• Lets start with LFO 1 which is modulating OSC A WT POS and OSC A Coarse
Pitch. WT POS modulation adds some movement to the timbre and Coarse
Pitch creates an arpreggiator type effect with the oscillator jumping
between two notes. LFO 1 is set to a square waveform (on/off) at a rhythm
of 1/8.

• LFO 1 is also modulating the Filter Cutoff. The Filter Cutoff is set to
bandpass and is only affecting the Noise (N Button) oscillator, which can be
introduced by opening up Macro 2.
You can change the pattern and speed of LFO 1 by changing the Rate
and also switching on either the Triplet or Dotted settings.

• Next lets take a look at LFO 2, which is modulating OSC A Fine Tune. This is
adding some rhythmical instability to OSC A pitch making the sound warmer
and slightly wonky.
 • The
timbre of the sound can be adjusted using Macro 1 (FM). This is opening up
OSC A FM (FROM B). OSC B level is not turned up in this patch, but we are
using OSC B to modulate OSC A with frequency modulation.

• Lastly, lets take a look at the FX section. We have Distortion, Compression

and Delay activated.

• Distortion is actually not audible until Macro 3 opens up the Mix knob

• The same goes for the Delay, Macro 4 opens up the Delay Mix knob.

Again, a good trick would be to make use of the four macro knobs to
add movement and tension within your track. Subtle changes keep the
listener interested.
084 AT Pad - Adria

Adria is a pad sound with lots of movement and LFO modulation, making use of
four LFO slots. The patch can be turned into a less rhythmical, smoothed out FX
pad too. Lets dive in by first taking a look at the LFO modulations…

• LFO 1 moves at a rate of 1/64 and modulates OSC B Fine Tune. This
detunes the second oscillator at a fast rate to add movement and instability.

• LFO 2 adds frequency modulation to the Filter Frequency by modulating

the cutoff at a fast rate. By moving the speed manually you can subtly
change the added FM timbre.

• LFO 3 also adds modulation to the Filter Frequency, this time set at 1/8th,
with a quick attack and short decay to create a fast envelope. To create
that choppy 1/8th note effect.

• Macro 1 (LFO Rate) affects the rates of both LFO 2 and LFO 3. It slows
down the rate of LFO 2 and increases the rate of LFO 3.

Try Jamming with Macro 1 while playing pad chords, you can get some
really nice fluctuations and fills, affecting LFO speed and movement.
• LFO 4 slowly changes the Phaser Frequency to add movement.

• The Phaser effect Mix can be added by turning up Macro 4.

• Lets take a look at the final two Macros. Macro 3 adds more sub oscillator
into the mix by increasing Sub Level.

• Macro 2 adds a washed out style FX by hi-passing the Filter Frequency on

the EQ. Opening the Decay on the Reverb. Taking away some of the
dampening on the Reverb to let the higher frequencies through by pulling
back on the High Cut and finally opening up the Reverb Mix to create a
much wetter signal.
094 AT Pluck - Clouds

Clouds is an expressive pluck which could be used as a stab sound, a rolling

melodic line or for chords. The expressiveness comes from the ability to open up
the sound by using the macro modulations.

• Lets start with the Envelope 1 which is responsible for the shape of the
pluck sound. As you can see its a very fast attack and short decay to achieve
that pluck quality. Envelope 1 is assigned to the Filter Cutoff.

• Envelope 1 is also assigned to Reverb Size, so that the reverb is big when
the pluck is struck but decreases in size as the decay closes. This is to get a
big but short reverb sound that is not too long and mushy.
• Next let’s take a look at the Velocity, this is also assigned to Filter Cutoff.
The harder the note the more open the filter is. Try making pluck pattern
that has different velocities for the notes, creating a groove with the
Filter Cutoff.

• You can also open up the Filter Cutoff manually by turning Macro 1.

• Let’s take a look at LFO 1. LFO 1 is modulating both OSC A and OSC B Fine
Tune. Again, this is a great and easy way to add some warmth and
movement into a synth patch.
• LFO 1 is also modulating the Cutoff on the Filter module in the FX section.
This can only be heard once Macro 3 (Filter FX) is opened up.

• Macro 3 opens up the Filter FX Mix knob and also the Reverb FX Mix knob.

• Macro 1 changes the timbre of the sound by opening up Detune and PWM
(Pulse Width Modulation) on both OSC A and OSC B. Macro 1 also opens up
the WT POS on OSC B. This allows you to sculpt the tone of the sound.
 • Lastly, Macro 4 turns up the Level of the Noise Oscillator.

Sound design is a never-ending learning experience. We encourage you to reverse

engineer presets that you find interesting. This will enable you to build up your
synthesis techniques and apply them when developing your own sound.

The 5 presets covered in this PDF are just a fraction of what is included inside
Cerium. Access the full library of 107 presets for Serum here: https://
www.audiotent.com/presets/cerium/