5 Best best Hip Hop Serum Presets (Ranked)
Making a hip hop or rap beat requires great synths in order to stand out - and of course, Serum is the go-to for most producers.
Making a rap beat stand out from the rest lies in the ability to master synths.
Whether they are contributing to the main melody of the beat, or simply just as a small contributor to bass elements.
Regardless, it's hard to start making synths from scratch.
What sounds good?
What works well?
Without some inspiration, we'll be stuck in the planning phase all day.
That's where these Serum presets come in.
They can give you ideas, and inspiration, and help you innovate new sounds.
When ranking the top 5 Hip Hop Serum presets, we went by which are the best value (or free!), as well as which are most likely to spark your creative side.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
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Top 5 Hip Hop Serum Presets (Free Download)
It's time to take your music up a notch.
5 Free Hip Hip serum presets to download:
| Sample Pack | Price |
| Stikz Hip Hop Toolkit | Free |
| Antidote Serum Presets by SXBER | Free |
| Atomic XP Serum Presets | Free |
| Outsiders (Serum + Stems Kit) | Free |
| Hip Hop Vol. 1 | Free |
#1. Stikz Hip Hop Toolkit (Free Download)
So the Stikz toolkit has samples, as well as 30 Serum, presets, of which we'll focus on here.
They made some pretty fresh and inspiring presets for Serum that sounds good right off the bat and work well for Hip-Hop beats.
It's also a nice addition that they give you some actual project files to play around with.
Here's a preview of the toolkit:
#2. Antidote Serum Presets by SXBER (Free Download):
Here's another good little preset pack to get your creative juices flowing.
This one includes presets inspired by artists like 6LACK, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, and others. It's a great place to get started!
Here's a preview of Antidote:
#3. Atomic XP (Free Download):
This little pack is worth downloading because of the 808 presets - it can really help give you an easy starting point for some beats there.
Of course, it's a free download as well. The main lead presets in here are great as well, and have given me tons of ideas for new beats to make.
Here's a preview of Atomic XP:
#4. Outsiders (Serum + Stems Kit)
While this one isn't free, it has a huge amount of high-quality content to make it well worth a 20. With over 413 megabytes of content and 100% royalty-free, we couldn't help but recommend this one.
This Pack Contains:
- 50 x Serum Presets (Arp, Bass, Bell, Mallet, Lead, Key, Pluck, Vocal)
- 23 x Noises
- 3 x Wavetables
- 10 x Bonus Stemmed Composition (77 Wavs + Midis)
- Installation Guide
- Preset List (Which presets were used in each loop)
Check out a preview of Outsiders here:
#5. Hip Hop Vol. 1 by Surge sounds
This also isn't a free pack, although it has 2.2 GB of content and at the time of writing is on sale for $19. In our opinion, an utter steal.
It includes a whopping 64 presets for Serum, as well as 3 hot construction kits, 173 phat loops & 65 top-notch stems, 29 engaging melodic & drum MIDI files & 29 crisp drum samples.
Inspired by J. Cole, Kodak Black, Lil Nas X, Travis Scott & Offset.
Hip-Hop Vol. 1 was built upon quality research of their artistic style and sonic character.
Here's a preview of Hip Hop Vol. 1 by Surge Sounds:
Should You Pay for Serum Presets?
It's hard to argue against free.
So why even bother with paying for any Serum presets?
I'd agree with you on that. Getting the free Serum packs (or free sample packs) is a good place to start when it comes to understanding the individual components that make a good hip-hop beat.
Being able to get inspired, learn the fundamentals, see what types of kicks work with what type of top synth, etc are what the free stuff is for.
But what you'll realize is that a lot of the free stuff will only take you so far toward sounding like the best hip-hop producers. The quality of the presets or the samples isn't there.
If you're really talented, you can use the free Serum presets as a starting point, and then modify the characteristic of the synth to what it actually sounds like in the best stuff.
But if you're planning on selling your beats or working with top-tier rappers, it's worth investing in your craft - it's your business after all!
Why Serum is such a popular choice
The serum is still undeniably the VST of choice for most producers.
It's got lots of competition, but the versatility, FX chains, and other features make it still the most desired plugin in any producer's workflow.
The raw power of Serum’s native effects is downright impressive.
Nobody really needs 13 different distortion types in a synthesizer, but it’s there, whenever you might need it to spice up your sounds.
There are also some incredibly high quality, switchable high/low/band-pass effects filters that can be placed pre or post-distortion, with separate Drive and wet/dry Mix controls that can be modulated.
But by far the most valuable part of Serum is the content - and its presets.
The patch browser inside the synth is easy to use and is fully editable via the presets folder on your hard drive.
The patches folder makes it easier than ever to browse and create collections of sounds.
Third-party companies and individuals like the ones we've listed above have released thousands of Preset and Modulation packs.
You'll never run out of inspiration using Serum - for us, it's our go-to!
how to use your serum presets
When downloading any Serum presets from the web (especially free ones), it's a good idea to keep an eye out and make sure the files are safe.
Installing and using Serum presets is among the easiest across any VST - so there's nothing to be intimidated about.
Here's a quick little tutorial to help you out after you've downloaded your hip-hop presets:
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