Serum 2 performance issues

Sounds like you have corrupt Serum 1 content, most likely. I'd suggest to rename your Serum 1 presets folder and run a fresh Serum 1 Presets folder.

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Hi,

Having CPU usage issue with Serum 2 on a AMD 32 Core Threadripper on Ableton, with a blank template and just looking at the presets.
BUT
No issues on FL Studio, same again with a blank template and just looking at the presets.
And
No issues on Bitwig, same again with a blank template and just looking at the presets.

So CPU usage with Serum2 could be an Ableton issue..

(updated)

CPU usage is twice as high on Serum 2 as it is on Serum with the same presets (Win 10 FL Studio Ryzen 9 5900x).
Try comparing the pad preset PD Celestial Light [SW]. Without adjusting the voice count it's unplayable in Serum 2 with chords. Serum 1 handles it just fine.

Same here with dual Xeon 8176 CPU's. Major bummer. Hope this gets fixed soon!

Same promlem.
Windows 11 CPU usage 17%, no problems.
Studio One 6 Pro, 2 tracks of Serum 2, 100% spikes is not acceptable in 2025.
running 64Gb Ram
i7-14700K
WTF
i am surprised Steve released it like that.

Serum 2 should perform better if not equal to Serum 1 on Serum 1 presets. If you find that not to be the case, then you can probably expect those gains to be had soon.

Some of the new stuff is "expensive" because it "sounds better than most softsynths" and I think diving in to specifics is best, there are some things we might be able to provide lighter versions of, but that will come inherently with sacrifices. I'm hoping we can work together to find anything that isn't happening "for a reason". Some features such as spectral synthesis do take some amount of CPU, this gets compounded with stereo files, polyphony, and unison on top should probably be avoided (with polyphony).

My suggestion is to wait for the next update soon, and then maybe we can take a look at specific presets or projects, given the myraid of situations for sounds/DAWs/Soundcards/processors it is possible you can discover things we have not hit.

I have an 2018 MBP I9 with 32G Memory. I am running it on 12.6 OS. I can't run a session using the new factory presets with even only one instance of Serum 2 in Ableton 12 without CPU crashing my session. Any suggestions on things that could help on the Mac Side(such as updating OS), in Ableton settings(Buffer size doesn't seem to help) or in Serum 2(Tried locking quality to Good also didn't help). I love Serum 1 … the way to do it for now seems to keep using S1 presets in version 2. Any input is appreciated.

System Specs – Performance Issues with Serum 2:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (8-core, 16-thread, 4.5GHz base clock)
GPU: PowerColor RX 7900 XT Red Devil Edition
RAM: 64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 @ 4800MHz (4 x 16GB)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WiFi
Cooling: Thermaltake Frozen Warframe 360 AIO Liquid Cooler
Storage:
OS Drive: Acer Predator GM7000 2TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD
Secondary Drive: 4TB External (USB 3.0)

DAW: Ableton Live Suite 12
Plugins: Full legit install of Serum 2 — preset database not loading unless placed directly in root of C:\ (e.g., C:\Serum 2 Presets)
Error Message: “Audio Processing Disabled” and “Could not delete presets.db” even with full admin rights + standalone/DAW tested.

Ryzen 9 9950, 128gb ram, windows 11, Cubase 14 Pro

Major studdering/audio issues with Serum 2.

It is a phenomenal synth. I hope to figure out how to fix if! I have multiple instances running and my CPU peaks at 14%. So… dunno!
Thank you for the free update, Steve!! Amazing.

Wanted to report back for the group, hoping to help:
I'm finding that turning off Effects makes Serum2 completely find on my machine. I wish this was Global! So scanning presets and clicking off effects (like long Reverb tails?) seems to cut CPU utilization by up to 75%. I've noted this with other soft synths.
Also, screen drawing seems to slow down the audio processing? Minimizing Serum2 (so its NOT drawing) makes Serum2 work as expected. Can't tell if that is the actual culprit but hoping to find out.

Dual Xeon machine here, with Nvidia 3090 GPU

Glad to hear an update is already on the horizon. Thanks Steve, keep up the great work!

same, i'm getting the "audio processing disabled" thing keep flashing on and off as soon as i add reverb to my FX chain. my patch only uses 1 oscillator with unison set to 2 voices. if i turn off reverb it magically becomes perfectly smooth again.

edit: i'm using FL Studio 2024. when this problem occurred, I was using ASIO4ALL as the sound driver, but I haven't tested it on others.

That means that you went to Marcos isn FL Studio and you must've put "disabled all plugins" it means your saving CPU. So when you use the synth it completely shuts off when you exit off. I'm a serum 2 user. Your technically saving space. But still a CPU intense plugin. Try using "Force high power plan in the settings"

Serum 2 should perform better if not equal to Serum 1 on Serum 1 presets. If you find that not to be the case, then you can probably expect those gains to be had soon.

Some of the new stuff is "expensive" because it "sounds better than most softsynths" and I think diving in to specifics is best, there are some things we might be able to provide lighter versions of, but that will come inherently with sacrifices. I'm hoping we can work together to find anything that isn't happening "for a reason". Some features such as spectral synthesis do take some amount of CPU, this gets compounded with stereo files, polyphony, and unison on top should probably be avoided (with polyphony).

My suggestion is to wait for the next update soon, and then maybe we can take a look at specific presets or projects, given the myraid of situations for sounds/DAWs/Soundcards/processors it is possible you can discover things we have not hit.

I appreciate your work and all you do. I'm in school at the moment for electrical engineering, and I have tried hard to troubleshoot this. If I can make a suggestion, get a willy-nilly PC with an i5 processor and 8 gigs of RAM and push it before release. Use it with ASIO4ALL or Scarlett Solo or just Apple. Then, on Ableton Pro and FL. Those are the top three. So I don't know, Steve. Just a suggestion.

Same problem here. I have fairly recent computer with decent specs. One instance of Serum 1 with Fx takes around 20% of CPU for me. When I try an instance of Serum 2 with no Fx at all, it takes between 50 and 100 % of space with buffer at max. This is not viable at all. You should not have to invest 3000$ in a PC in order to run one plugin. I 100% agree with Bobby Brinker, you should really try your plugin on machines that are more alike what the general user has. I understand the quality of sound argument but if most of people can't run it, meh. Maybe you could have a optimizing option button that turns off some options that eats the CPU? At least the upgrade was free from Serum 1…

same, i'm getting the "audio processing disabled" thing keep flashing on and off as soon as i add reverb to my FX chain. my patch only uses 1 oscillator with unison set to 2 voices. if i turn off reverb it magically becomes perfectly smooth again.

edit: i'm using FL Studio 2024. when this problem occurred, I was using ASIO4ALL as the sound driver, but I haven't tested it on others.

That means that you went to Marcos isn FL Studio and you must've put "disabled all plugins" it means your saving CPU. So when you use the synth it completely shuts off when you exit off. I'm a serum 2 user. Your technically saving space. But still a CPU intense plugin. Try using "Force high power plan in the settings"

i thought you meant macOS for a sec and was really confused cuz i'm on windows 😆

in that project, i never used the macro, and serum 2 didn't have smart disable turned on, and i'm already using a high performance power plan (although not the one FL sets but probably very similar)