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I’m always a huge fan of when producers take matters into their own hands and sell their own samples and preset packs. Not only do they get full creative freedom over what they can and cannot sell, but you can also financially support some of your favorite musicians in an extremely easy way & get some good sounds to use out of it.
So, imagine my excitement when I saw that one of my personal favorite producers as of late has been doing just that.
Even if the name Marc-Oliver Weser isn’t familiar to you, chances are you’ve heard of one of his projects: Misc.Inc, where he focuses on lo-fi and ambient soundscapes, or Oliver River, a newer project where he’s been pumping out high-quality melodic and chill house for a few years now. He’s also a prolific sound designer; chances are you’ve come across some of his samples on Splice.
Recently, he’s started up a Gumroad under his Oliver River alias where he’s been selling small sample, MIDI, and preset packs. And, a few weeks ago, he dropped a preset pack that caught my eye: Living Electronics II. This is a Serum 2 preset pack geared towards melodic house producers, inspired by analog synthesis.
There were a few things that caught my eye about this pack specifically. First, the addition of four more macros in Serum 2 means that you can do a lot more with every sound you make, and with River promoting lots of textures and “analog magic” in this pack, I can only imagine that he’s done crazy things with the macros. Second, Serum 2’s new sampler engine has opened up a new world of possibilities for sound designers, and I saw that there are some resampled pianos in this pack. I’ve never used a VST for pianos (I only really use Kontakt), so I really wanted to check that out.
The last reason is that River did all of this himself. 40 presets, his way. I’m always down to support artists who put in the work and love what they do, and it’s very clear that River is super passionate about this project. That was enough for me to want to check this pack out.
Before we officially dive into my thoughts on this pack, I wanted to share this great video made by Oliver River that showcases everything you can find in this pack. Check it out!
Made With Care
When opening this pack in Serum 2 for the first time, you’ll be greeted by a selection of arps, basses, plucks, leads, pads, textures, and more. Since there aren’t too many presets here, you should really try all of them out, because with each and every one of them, there is far more than meets the eye. I’ll show you what I’m talking about.
This is the bass patch Die Mutter, which features a really cool sounding bass pluck inspired by a Moog. At the bottom left of the screen, you can see that there are two macros listed “CUTOFF” and “WASHOUT.” Twist these, and you can instantly add a little more life to the sound; whether that be adjusting the filter cutoff or the amount of reverb on the bass. Automate it to something else (perhaps one of the unused LFOs) and you can have an ever-changing, truly alive sound.
These macros vary patch by patch, and they are all meticulously crafted to change several parts of the sound as you turn the knob. If you want to control just how alive the sound is, automating those knobs is how you can do it. And, even without the knobs, all of these presets really do sound “alive” in a way. Whenever you hit a note, you’ll pick up on little things changing: maybe there’s a little bit of vibrato on it, maybe every time you hit the note it’ll open or close the filter a little more, et cetera. The changes aren’t intense enough to ruin your track, but certainly make whatever you’re working on sound more alive.
I also like how this pack utilizes the reworked Serum sampler a lot. River sampled one of his Prophet synths into a pluck, and there are a couple of pianos that use real piano keys as their base sounds. By doing this, River has successfully blurred the lines between the real and the digital to create something new and exciting.
By the way, all 40 presets sound awesome. I love all of them. They really are ready to go, with intricate post-processing on each one. Now, I choose to process all of my presets further so I can get exactly the sound I want, but if you need a quick pluck or texture to add to your song, you could definitely be set up in a matter of seconds with one from here. Each one has its own character, but all share the same high-quality luster.
I’m now going to show you a quick demo track that I made in about 20 minutes using ONLY presets from this pack, as well as some drum samples I found in Output’s Co-Producer. I’ve added sidechain compression and some of my own EQ and wrote all of the melodic parts myself. Any of the other edits you’ll hear (reverb, cutoff, etc.) are being controlled by Serum 2, whether it’s a macro or a specific knob.
Remember, I made this in 20 minutes. It’s heavily unpolished and needs a lot more production work before I would even consider sending it to a label. It in no way is meant to represent a finished production, but rather a starting point. And, in my humble opinion, it sounds pretty good for a starting point.
It still blows my mind how good all of these presets sound. There seriously isn’t a bad one in the entire package, and I’m not just saying that. These are sounds that I could (and almost certainly will) use in my own productions going forward.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
They’re as high quality as advertised.
I don’t know how much more I need to say here. A lot of preset companies say their presets are drag-and-drop ready, but really aren’t. These absolutely are.
It’s cheap, and you can directly support a producer’s work!
Living Electronics II goes for 18 Euro. That is a bargain for the quality of presets you get here. Plus, you can be sure that your purchase will directly go to Oliver River to help him further his own musical career. Even if the presets weren’t as good as they are, I’d still recommend purchasing just to directly help a talented producer follow his dreams.
Cons:
Give me more!
Call me greedy and ungrateful, but these presets are so good that I want more than 40. I want 140. I want 400. I want an infinite amount. Sure, the 40 presets provided really cover all of the bases, and you don’t necessarily need more than 40. But, I’m a glutton for good sound design. Keep ’em coming!
This isn’t for you if you don’t make melodic house adjacent music.
All of the presets on display here might not be as useful for a bass music producer. They’re definitely made with melodic house, deep house, chill house, organic house, and even indie electronica in mind. If you don’t produce something close to those genres, then you should probably not get this one.
Conclusion: Should you get it?
Undoubtedly yes. This is a phenomenal package, and I’m looking forward to seeing whatever else Oliver whips up in the coming weeks and months. It’s a must-have if you use Serum 2 and make melodic house.
Buy Living Electronics II here!
The post Living Electronics II by Oliver River Review: One Of The First Must-Have Melodic House Sample Packs for Serum 2 appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.