How to Make Melodic Techno Stabs in Serum

We're going to use Serum and FM synthesis. That's what it all comes down to, and everything else is bonus. I start with a saw wave, and on oscillator B I use one of the spectral wavetables. They have a lot of overtones, and the Thin Thick one is great. I take down the randomization, so every step sounds the same each time.

To make it sound a little more analog I enable a filter, the MG Low series, German low pass or French low pass. Let's use German LP for now. A little bit of resonance, not too much. Envelope one is the volume envelope, envelope two controls the cutoff. Not too tight and not too loose. Then take FM from B on oscillator A, and you already have that sound going on.

I add an EQ to clean it up a little, then a compressor. Not on multiband, just on the normal mode. I really like a low threshold, because it makes it very snappy. And if you add delay and reverb in front of the compressor, you get that ducking reverb and delay effect.

The delay goes on ping pong, and I like 1/4 and 1/2 or 1/4 and 1/8. A lot of feedback and a wide mix, to make it a lot more wet and more in your face. Then reverb on the normal hall mode, and I cut the lows and the highs slightly. I always add the reverb after the delay, because I want the delay to be reverbed as well.

To spice this up, you can add a noise oscillator. One thing you can use it for is to increase the click. I use a kick attack, put it on one shot, and as you can hear it improves the click.

Just make sure it doesn't go to the cutoff, otherwise you lose the highs. This is a very high transient type of thing, so you don't want to cut the highs of it.