Serum 2's one-click swing for UK garage chords
Today's issue opens with a Serum 2 move that locks swing to the grid with one right-click — the kind of detail that separates a wobble chord from a mess. Grab that, plus a free modular synth in open beta and a bassline lesson that teaches the roll by letting notes glide into each other.
▶ The Serum 2 right-click that locks swing to your DAW grid
From there you build wobble chords with unison, a band-passed noise layer, and per-note pitch bends — the whole UK garage sound, broken down in one patch.
Chorus controls are trending this week: setting LFO phase to lock or widen, driving the mid/side width from mono to 200%, and dialling rate plus depth for thickening or pitch sweeps. If you've only ever used chorus as a preset, now's the moment to start shaping it.
◢ learn
▶ SideKick ducks specific frequencies, not just the volume
Free – the spectral mode pulls conflicting frequencies out of the way without the whole mix ducking. Grab it.
▶ Make basslines roll by softening the attack and gliding notes
This pay-what-you-want tutorial walks through five patterns, but the real takeawy is the overlap trick: no snap, just glide, and one deliberate rest per loop.
◢ free & gear
thicket: 50 nodes, per-note processing, MPE routing(free)
Open beta runs until Nov 8. The per-note efects routing and user-lodable wavetables make it a strong free grab before it goes.
Load five reference tracks and auto-match perceived loudness(free)
Normally $39, but the developer is giving away perpetual licenses for their anniversary — no iLok, just newsletter signup.
◢ the word
The Dolby trick for vocal air — now a single plugin
Bogren's A-Class Vocal runs the encode-only Type-A noise reduction to add brightness and compression to vocals, acoustic guitars, and the mix bus. $89, intro price until Oct 25.
32 keys, a 64-step sequencer, and CV/gate — Behringer's Jam controllers
Two models: Jam is controler/sequencer only from £89, Jam Play adds 128 voices and audio out for £179. The4-channel sequencer with ratcheting and swing looks like a direct KeyStep competitor.
Mall Grab ran tracks through a Vox amp by acident — that's his lo-fi sound
The profile is truncated, but the origin story is worth a read: hip hop sampling attitude, Logic over Ableton, and a healthy distrust of deliberate lo-fi processing.
| ▲ #10 | Mark Knight, DJ PP, James Hurr — Miami Vice (Extended Mix) |
| ▲ #11 | Raffaele Ciavolino — You Can Feel It (Original Mix) |
- 1. Copy your rolling bass MIDI to a new track and load a pure sine wave (Operator, 3x Osc, or Vital).
- 2. Insert a stock low‑pass EQ after the synth and solo the sub band to hear only the low frequencies.
- 3. Shorten the MIDI note lengths until the continuous drone breaks into distinct, spaced‑out thumps.
- 4. If your track is in E, E♭, or D and you hear clicks, set the amp envelope release to 30 ms so each note completes a full cycle.
- 5. Unsolo the EQ, re‑check with your kick, and adjust sidechain if needed.
🔮 Producer Horoscope (for fun) — Your arpeggiator will ignore your chord memory; it's okay, that's how acid lines are born.
Now stop reading and open your DAW.
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covered in this issue: serum 2 · serum · behringer jam