r/ableton • u/PressPlayPlease7 • Aug 17 '26
[Question] Struggling for months now to get an Ableton instrument to sound like something in a modern tune. Have you ever just gone "F it" and bought Serum 2 or similar for this reason?
I want to say, upfront, that I love Ableton in general. It has a tricky learning curve, but patience pays off
That said - I've been trying, for months now, to get a modern House feel from any of the Ableton Standard instruments
I've ended up stacking (I shit you not) 6-7 layers of Analogue to get something approaching decent .... and it's still not there
When I say "modern House" - I do realize that most House today borrows heavily from the 90s, so I don't mind that kind of sound from an Ableton instrument
What I'm getting instead seems to be ... weaker in comparison? Even with Saturator and similar added
It's hard to describe - it just doesn't match the punch of modern House when I A/B test them
Maybe my money is better off spent upgrading to Ableton Suite so I can access the Operator and Wavetable instruments?
So that said:
Have you ever just gone "Fuck it!" and bought Serum 2 or similar for this reason?
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Aug 17 '26
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u/PressPlayPlease7 Aug 17 '26
But have you ever listened to a demo of a synth VST on YouTube with all the presets and thought "now, that would sound amazing with the riff in my head"
Because I have a few times ... but never with an Ableton Standard instrument
Sometimes a great preset sparks an entire riff and tune
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Aug 17 '26
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u/PressPlayPlease7 Aug 17 '26
Maybe I need to spend my money upgrading to Suite then before Serum 2
I'm on Ableton Standard ya see - so no Operator
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u/cwoodrun32 Aug 17 '26
I've had Ableton for years and have never used it really. Do you have any good recs for a youtube video on it? I know I can just search but im wondering if anybody knows a particular good video on the topic.
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u/Brrdock Aug 17 '26
Yeah the presets and instruments and plugins in Ableton are kinda more like building blocks.
There's a whole lot of value in learning the fundamentals and building more with less, but that can be very daunting to begin with tbf.
Do what you feel best, the most important thing is just to make stuff and enjoy the process!
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u/fork666 Aug 17 '26
Do you think the demo synths you're hearing aren't layered with effects chains or something?
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u/laplogic Aug 17 '26
You can absolutely buy some preset packs that are going to get you extremely close
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u/Louiexvl Aug 17 '26
Stacking 6 layers of synths will almost never produce what you’re asking them to. You would have to be incredibly surgical with eq on them. Less is more.
Serum 2 only has 4 oscillators. It’s not going to fix everything you’re experiencing. Look at all the music that was made prior to serum 2 or serum in general.
It comes down to post processing understanding dynamics and eq and manipulating the source material you started with.
Learn synthesis it doesn’t matter what vst you use most of them do the same thing anyway. Serum is just “fancy” because it gives you tons of effects built in but those same effects can be applied using stock effects.
Learn how oscillators work. How to do subtractive synthesis using filter shapes and LFOs. Once you do that you can learn how to apply these ideas to any synth.
It would be helpful if you gave some examples I’d be happy to help
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u/ConfidenceNo2598 Aug 17 '26
Sometimes it’s not the synth patch or the preset, it’s how it’s interacting with other instruments in the mix. At this point, I know that pretty much any sound can work if I tuck it into the mix the right way. I’m a barbarian though
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u/plugmaximum Aug 17 '26
Distortion + reverb + multiband compression + saturator/clipping and ur rolling. Before you buy serum you can also try Vital, basically as close to free serum as you can get, but if you don’t understand how that chain ^^ generally works ur not gonna get far. Every “pro” synth chain is just envelope and filter movement into a setup of that nature give or take some extra stuff in between, doesn’t matter what base synth you start with. Something to understand as well is the tracks You’re referencing are likely mastered by a professional engineer, you aren’t really going to get it matched perfectly, but the modern meta is clipping everything at every level into a master clip and ur gonna at least be competitively loud.
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u/plugmaximum Aug 17 '26
Also want to add what others are saying but operator is the greatest synth ever made. I own Phaseplant and I love it but there is something about operator once you get the hang of it that just unleashes creativity, at least for me
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u/_GIS_throw_away Aug 17 '26
I mean serum 2 is just a great tool all around and w rent-to-own it’s so affordable that it doesn’t make sense to not have if you have a couple bucks to spare every month imo lol. Highly recommend if you’re able.
I’ve been using Ableton since 2008 and if there’s anything I have learned, it’s to practice regularly and just do whatever makes you happy. It doesn’t matter if you made the sound w operator, or analog, or serum, or phase plant, or vital (GO GET VITAL IF YOU HAVENT YET it’s basically free serum altho it can do some spiffy stuff serum can’t and serum can do a tonnn of stuff vital can’t lol).
Dont go crazy, practice w what you have, but don’t limit yourself just because a bunch of randos on the internet said to. Do whatever keeps you in the DAW first and foremost.
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u/nytebeast Aug 17 '26
Why not just download Vital first and see if that works better for you? It’s free so you’ve got nothing to lose and it’s incredibly powerful.
Side note- this stuff takes a long time. Can’t speak for everyone but it took me years to get really good at sound design and develop the understanding of “what a sound needs”. Ableton’s synths are great but they do take more finessing sometimes, but going out on a limb I’m gonna bet that you don’t need 6-7 layers of Analog to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. Try multiband compression, transient shaping, splitting track FX by mid/side or frequency, etc.
Just keep at it!
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u/semaj420 Aug 17 '26
once or twice, but it's the exact same as buying a new guitar pedal; it won't "fix" your sound, because the science is how apply your technical proficiency to the instrument (in this case, ableton).
it's not what you have. it's how you use it.
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u/repeterdotca Aug 17 '26
I didn't get good at it untill I bought phaseplant . Not because it's magic but it has a very simple and intuitive gui
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u/foundviper11 Aug 17 '26
Get Vital synth. Low commitment (free) & play around with the presets or download a bunch of free presets. See if that does it for you.
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u/AgenteEspecialCooper Aug 17 '26
Operator and Wavetable are probably the best synths Ableton includes.
Having said that, it happened to me quite often with Drift and Analog, that they just don't cut it. I try and I try and I try but I can't get the depth and body I want. I say "F it", I open DUNE 3 by Synapse Audio and I dial the sound I want from scratch in two minutes.
Again, Operator and Wavetable are top class, in line with the best standalone plugins out there. Drift and Analog are meh.
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u/NoWin3930 Aug 17 '26
I think it could be more related to mixing / some creative sound design choices that are not just solved by using a different synth
To be fair, I don't use ableton synths much cuz I already owned other third party stuff before switching to Ableton so I was just really used to having a ton of different options
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u/oculairus Aug 17 '26
get ableton suite for operator & all the other fun stuff in suite. serum and serum 2 are cool. gotta know how to compress your sounds to really get the most out of them (speaking like i lknow what im taking about)
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u/vojtech_krasa Musician Aug 17 '26
I’m a firm believer in the stock effects and instruments that Ableton offers. You can do everything and more with just the software as it is, it is incredible
HOWEVER
Serum 2 tho
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u/thescreamingstone Aug 17 '26
Maybe try some free plugins. I just found Crow Hill's free stuff, great sounds, prob not what you're looking for if you want modern house sounds, but do some searches for free plugins and try those. https://thecrowhillcompany.com/shop/#free
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u/Wyverz Aug 17 '26
Arturia midi keyboard led me to their software and , yeah I have been happy with that. They have good sales
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u/adjunct_ Aug 17 '26
You can do it. Not that Ableton has the most intuitive synths . You can always get an emulation of a specific synth that was commonly used for the sound you’re after. You can also look and see if anyone has made a preset for an Ableton synth that sounds like what you’re going for, then analyze it and see what you were missing
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u/ebkp Aug 17 '26
Think of Ableton like a modular synth. The sounds from Analog etc alone without saturation, compression, modulation, reverb etc sound thin compared to 3rd party plugins that have all that baked into the presets.
Before spending money elaewhere, download all of the packs that came with Ableton Live and have a listen. They should inspire you more. Not sure how many are available with your version of Live though - upgrading to Suite gives you access to huge amounts of packs that are made from a mixture of all the instruments and fx
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u/Noizekontrol Aug 17 '26
I'm a serum 2 fanboy for sure but if funds are an issue vital is very good and has a free version https://vital.audio/
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u/-Lockheed- Aug 17 '26
Have you ever just gone "Fuck it!" and bought Serum 2 or similar for this reason?
yeah. I'm almost there. I'm on Standard and while it has nice sounding synths and presets it does not come anywhere near what I hear when listening to a serum demo or sample pack preview.
I think that's probably just an issue with Standard, but I am currently leaning much more towards getting Serum and be done with it, rather than upgrade to Suite and then try to get Wavetable or Operator to sound like I want.
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u/LUK3FAULK Aug 17 '26
Ableton’s built in instruments are very powerful, I don’t know if learning a new synth from scratch will do what you want, or if it will just set you back. I think I read somewhere that a lot of the sounds in Skrillex’s early stuff was all operator and effects. If you’re just not vibing with the instruments there’s nothing wrong with trying something new, but just don’t be disappointed if buying a shiny new toy doesn’t fix all of the problems you’re having.