A Serum 2 alternative: make your own wavetable sound

Make a wavetable sound in your browser

Open Studio 56 in your browser and describe the sound, like “a growling wavetable bass” or “a wide pad that slowly moves through its wavetable,” and the AI builds it from verified blocks you can see and change. You can also build a sound by hand from the start.

Its Wavetable block picks from 323 wavetables, from analog saw and square shapes to FM, growl and digital ones, and its Position control moves through the one you choose. It has two warp stages, hard sync, formant and unison of up to eight voices.

When it sounds right, press Send to my DAW. It plays inside the Studio 56 plugin, a VST3 and AU that works in Ableton Live, Logic Pro, GarageBand, FL Studio and other DAWs except Pro Tools, and the guide to making your own synth VST shows what to ask for.

How it differs from Serum 2

Serum 2 is Xfer Records’ hybrid synthesizer. Beside its wavetable oscillator it has multisample, sample, granular and spectral oscillators, and it lets you create, import, edit and morph wavetables. In Studio 56 you choose from the wavetables it has, and the AI builds the sound from your words for you to change.

Serum 2 is a plugin of its own in VST3, AU and AAX, so it runs in Pro Tools too. A Studio 56 sound plays inside the Studio 56 plugin, which comes as VST3 and AU but not AAX.

Serum 2 comes with more than 626 presets and 288 wavetables, and Xfer Records’ own site sells preset packs for it from other sound designers. In Studio 56 the sounds are the ones you make.

Who should still buy Serum

Serum 2 is the one to get if any of these is true for you:

• You make music in Pro Tools, where Serum 2 runs and Studio 56 doesn’t.
• You want to play samples, multisampled instruments or granular and spectral sounds from inside your synth.
• You want to make, import or edit wavetables of your own.
• You buy Serum preset packs or follow tutorials made with Serum, since those are made for Serum itself.
• You already own Serum 1, because Serum 2 is a free upgrade for you.

Wavetable synths that are free

If free is what you need, two wavetable synths cost nothing. Vital’s Basic plan is free and is the full synth, with 75 presets and 25 wavetables. Surge XT is free and open source, with more than 2,800 patches and 700 wavetables.

Both are finished synths with their own presets. Studio 56 is for when you want the sound built for you from a description, or want to build it block by block.

What they cost

Building a sound by hand in Studio 56 is always free, and the AI’s first 3 asks are free too. Your first 3 sends to your DAW are free. Studio 56 Pro is $10 a month: the AI builds about 70 sounds a month, and you can send as many sounds as you want to your DAW.

Serum 2 costs $249.00 from Xfer Records, with lifetime free updates, and Splice offers it rent-to-own at $9.99 a month for 25 months. On November 14, 2026 Xfer Records’ page showed no sale. The only discount its site mentions is for full-time students.

Xfer Records has a Serum 2 demo for Mac and Windows that is limited to 15 minutes. To play a Studio 56 sound in your DAW, get Studio 56, add it to an instrument track and sign in, then send the sound from your browser.