.svg)
.svg)
You may not know Faith Monaco by name, but you’ve heard her sounds everywhere.
She’s worked alongside leading artists on a wide range of projects including Playboi Carti’s MUSIC, OsamaSon’s psykotic, Che’s REST IN BASS, Ken Carson’s More Chaos, and Nettspend’s early life crisis, to name a few. She has left a significant mark on the sound of trap music and the birth of rage as it’s known today, through her major production credits (ex. Juice WRLD’s “Conversations”) and as a hired-gun drum kit designer for producers like Ronny J, jetsonmade, Charlie Heat, and others.
In celebration of the release of her ALLOY, a Faith Monaco moment sample pack, Faith Monaco joined us on the Splice YouTube channel to walk through how she designed one of her most popular Serum presets from the collection. She also shows us how to use the preset in the context of an actual production, and shares invaluable Serum sound design tips along the way—read highlights below.
Faith Monaco’s Serum sound design tips
1. Mix as you go
“Mix as you go,” Faith shares. “Even raw base layers need quick shaping before you stack effects.” In her preset tutorial, the two bass sounds weren’t just thrown in raw; effects like PWM, bend, and detune were used to make them less harsh and more usable within the context of the overall sound before moving forward.
2. Test presets with beats
Faith encourages us to test our presets within the context of actual beats, citing the risk of applying excessive detuning as an example. “It can be tempting to do that on every single sound, but you have to test your presets with beats too, for sure,” she says. “I usually make my presets with some 808 or snare going on in the background.”
A sound that seems great in isolation can behave very differently in the context of a production, potentially clashing with other harmonic or rhythmic elements, and ultimately the full arrangement should be what matters most.
3. Experimentation takes time
“Don’t be discouraged if it takes you a long time to make presets,” Faith says. “That’s the whole point—you should be experimenting and messing up.”
While her recreation was much quicker, Faith approximates that it took her an hour to originally create her preset, and the layering process involved extensive trial and error.
Keep learning
And there you have it! What was your favorite insight from Faith Monaco? What else would you like to see us explore next? Let us know in the comments section of the video, and continue your sound design journey with more expert Serum tips from Shinju, NEST Acoustics, Tracey Brakes, and others.
Incorporate Faith Monaco’s hard-hitting sounds into your own productions:
October 9, 2026
