The world of Gumroad is a new one to me. As it turns out, it’s a great place to find products made by your favorite producers, and a great place to financially support them.
Recently, we dove into Oliver River’s Living Electronics II, a Gumroad Serum 2 preset pack that I instantly fell in love with. Today, we’re going to be shining the spotlight on another independent artist’s work: REMNANT.exe.
It’s hard to put this artist in a box. REMNANT.exe is known for his ability to produce several genres at a high ability, making him a fascinating artist to follow and a producer who constantly surprises. Before writing this piece, I mostly knew him as a hardwave artist, but as it turns out, he can pretty much produce anything. Everything he writes is tied together with breathy, spaced-out ambiences, making you know just whose music you’re listening to even if he can’t be tied down to a specific genre.
Now, REMNANT.exe is getting into the Gumroad game. He’s recently released Boundless Soundscapes, a Serum 2 preset pack that takes his signature liminal ambience work and gives it to the masses. Featuring 25 presets, including a mix of ambiences, plucks, and basses, this pack instantly looked fascinating to me. Ambience is something I’d consider to be among the most important parts of my music, and I knew I had to get my hands on this.
So, I did. Here are my thoughts. And, before we start, here’s a useful tutorial from the man himself.
A Small, But Mighty, Package
This pack comes with 16 soundscapes, 6 “plucks” (they’re more like short soundscapes), and 4 basses. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but I promise you that you’re going to have everything you need to start creating.
As with many Serum 2 packs, this one heavily features the reworked macro function, sampler, and FX chain. And, it does so in ways that I never thought were possible. Click one note on a single soundscape and you’ll set a chain reaction of sounds in motion; play more notes and you’ll create more chain reactions. Things may start panning automatically, organic elements may come and go, reverb may swell in and out, and overall, things may get crazy quickly. Crazy, but in a good way.
That’s where the macros come in. I think Serum 2’s macro feature is becoming my favorite part of the entire plugin just because how creative sound designers are getting with it. Here, you can completely control the chaos. Take the preset above: want more mallets and less noise? Easy – just twist the dials. They’re incredibly effective and help make every soundscape your own, and you can automate them or adjust them in real time as you play to create instant life and movement.
Out of all of the Serum 2 packs I’ve seen so far, this is one that needs the macros function the most just because of how unpredictable these sounds can be, and, by proxy, it’s probably the one that uses it the best – so much so that you definitely won’t need to play with anything else in the preset (unless you really, really want to).
Every sound has a unique character and tone, with some being tuned to a specific key. The word “liminal” is used heavily in the pack’s description, and that’s exactly what you get here: liminal, spaced-out soundscapes and basses that can either be beautiful or terrifying. The choice is yours.
Last thing – the organic samples in here are absolutely beautiful and make it easy to seamlessly blend real instruments with electronic atmospheres. I’ve never been able to do that as before as easily as I am with this pack; regardless of VST.
In Practice
I had a lot of fun playing with this pack and was blown away by the sounds that were coming out of Serum 2. I’ve never heard a soft synth be able to make noise like this before, and I absolutely love it.
You definitely don’t need more than what you get. All 25 presets have everything that you could possibly need to make a perfect liminal atmosphere. Each one is worth playing through to see what kind of surprises there are to uncover – there are many. The discoveries you can easily make while playing around is easily my favorite part of the entire track, and by using the macros, you can simply re-create those discoveries if you missed them while recording by doing the same exact thing. It’s chaotic, but entirely controllable.
When thinking of use cases, one thing jumps out at me: film scoring. I would not be surprised if we see some AAA movies using presets from this pack in the near future. This pack seems like it was made to be used in soundtracks – specifically in movies that have a creepier, mysterious atmosphere (for some reason, I feel like the people at A24 would have a field day using this pack in thriller and horror films).
As usual, I have a demonstration for you. This sample is three presets – one pluck, one bass, one soundscape. It’s kind of hard to believe that there are only three instances of Serum 2 playing here at times, but trust me: this demo is genuinely only from 3 presets. Check it out:
Aside from some EQ and a fade-in on the bass, everything else is coming from Serum 2. It was very easy to make this, believe it or not – I just hit some notes on my keyboard, twisted the macros, and had fun.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
How is this possible??????
I’m horrifically jealous of REMNANT.exe’s creativity and sound design ability. It takes an incredible brain to make something as creative and technical as this pack. Hats off.
It’s cheap, and you can support a producer.
REMNANT.exe is selling this for $14.95. For what you’re getting, that’s a massive bargain. Plus, you’re directly able to support him by grabbing this pack. You get some outstanding soundscapes, and he gets the funding to possibly create more packs down the line. This is a win-win.
Cons:
Use the macros!
This is less of a con and more of a warning: as I have heavily implied at several points in this piece, USE THE MACROS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS PACK! If you don’t use them, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
This isn’t going to be for everyone.
While I do think that everyone could at least learn a thing or two about Serum 2 by purchasing, using this pack, and studying the presets, some of you out there will definitely find this pack a little too out-of-bounds for your productions. These sounds definitely won’t fit every track out there, and that’s completely okay. Just make sure you watch REMNANT.exe’s video or listen to my demo before you buy so you know what you’re getting.
Conclusion: Should you get it?
I’d say this is absolutely worth a grab, especially if you’re an ambient music producer or a film scorer.
I cannot wait to see what else REMNANT.exe puts out on his Gumroad in the future, but it’s gonna be hard to top this one.
Buy Boundless Soundscapes by REMNANT.exe here!
The post Boundless Soundscapes by REMNANT.exe Review: A Modifiable and Inspiring Liminal Ambience Machine appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.