Wavetables!

One of the best things about wavetable synthesis is that you're no longer having to restrict your synth choice to a limited range of waveforms (i.e sine, triangle, sawtooth, square). At it's core, wavetable synthesis opens up the possibility to virtually infinite waveforms in a particular synthesizer; and one of the defining features of many plugins like Serum is being able to use MIDI, LFOs or envelopes to step through your table of waveforms freely and creatively.

What's great about Serum is the intuitive drawing tools you can use to really accurately sculpt your waveforms. I've made a slow attack kind of brass synth that you can use as soft stabs.

Here's what it sounds like:

And here's some screenshots of the setup inside the plugin:

This is what the waveform/table editor looks like:

I use the 'Bend+' mode on Oscillator A to step through the wavetable, you can start to see above how crazy you can get with the waveform customisation. I basically wanted something bright and full but still smooth, and the slow attack on the envelope helped to shape that too.

If you'd like to learn more about wavetable synthesis, I totally recommend this article by SoundonSound. They go into a lot of the history behind synths and how it was developed to this form, some very good insight!

Cheers,

Jbox :)