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Shinju is a German producer who’s a household name across SoundCloud’s underground rap and beat scenes.
In addition to working alongside the likes of Lil Uzi Vert, SahBabii, Black Kray, and Bktherula, shinju is also known and beloved by the music creator community for his Serum preset banks.
In celebration of the release of his utopia tone 2 sample pack on Splice Sounds, we had the opportunity to sit down with shinju to hear his top Serum 2 sound design tips, creative philosophies, and more—read on for highlights.
Explore Serum 2 presets crafted by leading sound designers and producers on Splice.
Serum sound design tips from shinju
What do you like most about using Serum 2?
Shinju: I think Serum 2 manages well to keep the interface understandable while maintaining a huge scope of possibilities. For me, a big part is also the visualization of modulations and movements, making it easier to understand what’s going and feel good to use. It’s always fun seeing wavetables and filters jump around while hearing cool sounds.
In addition, there’s a huge community around Serum 2 so it’s quite accessible to learn new things, whether you’re just starting out or looking for new and interesting ways to create.
What’s the best way for a beginner to start using Serum 2?
There’s endless content about Serum out there. Learn the foundation of synthesizing sound first. Afterwards, pick out sounds you hear in songs you like and try to understand how they’re built and try replicating.
Another great way to learn is to explore pre-made presets, like the ones in utopia tone 2, and dive in to get a grasp of how they’re made. Also, just sit down and experiment!
What are some of your favorite new features of Serum 2 that you’ve used the most?
Definitely all of the new sound engines! I love the spectral engine and the weird timbres it gives the source material, which really hits my taste. The new sampler engine is great too—it gives so much more freedom to using outside sources, especially compared to the noise section in the original Serum, where you could also load your own samples but the scope was quite limited.
I’m also a fan of using the distortion on the warp modes to distort the oscillators or samples individually instead of processing everything together in the FX section. In my opinion, one of the most powerful changes to Serum 2 is the possibility to add unlimited instances of any effect.
What are some techniques that you use to achieve imperfections and warmth in Serum 2?
When it comes to creating presets with an organic and natural feel, I love adding up little imperfections and twists, which all come together to make the sound feel less static and more alive—I’ll highlight a few of my favorite techniques here.
1. Pitch movement
The most straightforward way I like to achieve imperfections in the realm of pitch is through modulating the fine tune parameter of one or more oscillators. You can easily create a pitch drift effect using a simple sine or triangle LFO—but there are a few more interesting modulation sources I like to use.
Employing the noise section, S&H and Chaos LFOs, or one of the main oscillators as modulators for fine pitch can all lead to different, more unpredictable, and organic-sounding pitch drifting.
Another way I like to integrate the noise section is using it as an FM modulator for the oscillators. Trying out different noise samples can lead to great results. I like to go through the transient noise samples, turning the pitch really low and letting it frequency modulate whatever’s making the sound.
In my revachol preset from utopia tone 2, I used the noise section as a modulator while also randomizing the pitch of the noise with every note. This way, every played note has its pitch modulated with different speeds.
Another one of my personal favorite techniques includes the “Allpasses” filter. Putting the mix at about 50% and modulating the cutoff slightly makes everything going through it come out with a charming wobble. Using this technique in the FX section’s filter after a bunch of other effects can be great too.
Other honorable mentions in the pitch domain include modulating the unison detune on an oscillator with two or more voices (I used this on my heartgold preset), and using the detune option in the GLOBAL tab under voice control.
2. Timbre
Sending my sound through the “Combs” filter and modulating the cutoff with a sharp envelope or LFO results in a very distinct movement, which I’ve learned to love.
3. Reverb filtering
Using the reverb filter has been a staple for me ever since I started making sounds in Serum. It can give a rather boring sound a more interesting and textured timbre, which I love.
Enabling the keytracking on it or modulating a bit (like the “Combs” filter I mentioned) creates cool textural movements as well, like what’s heard in my hearth preset.
Here it is without the reverb filter:
And here it is with the reverb filter enabled:
As you can hear, the reverb filter really adds a lot to the sound, taming the higher harmonics and creating a much more pleasant timbre, which sounds less digital and more organic.
4. Bode / blur
I love playing with the blur parameter in the newly-added bode effect. Modulating it with a fast LFO makes the sounds beautifully unsteady. I’ve used this technique on my guts preset, for example.
On my lurid preset, I used the same technique but with a more transient envelope, giving the start of every two bars a distinct effect.
On most presets, I love to use the NoteOn Rand modulator sources on a bunch of different parameters. I’ll also use them as aux sources to randomize the amount of other modulations going on. Depending on the modulation destinations, this gives every note a slightly different feel or tone.
5. Distortion
In order to create warmer and more organic upper harmonics in my presets, instead of using bright wavetables, I like to use the different distortion types or phase distortion warp modes.
As I prefer my presets to not sound too digital and clean, this gives me a great way to still have some higher frequency content in my sounds, while also contributing to the imperfect / organic aesthetic. For example, I might take a wavetable that has a timbre I like, but filter a good amount of the higher frequency content to only have a hint of it left.
Then, I’ll reintroduce some harmonics again through the distortion effect or warp modes, or even the aforementioned reverb filter. Using the multi-band mode of Serum 2’s compressor is another cool way to introduce those harmonics, which can sound pretty interesting.
From time to time, I might also use the distortion effect with a high drive amount but keep the mix super low to give the sound a very subtle noise floor.
What are some of your tips for building rhythmic textures into your sounds in Serum 2?
Creating rhythmic LFOs and mapping them to the parameters that make up the sound’s timbre works well for this. For example, on my balneum preset, LFO 2 is playing a synced dotted pattern while modulating four different parameters.
Do you have any tips for working in FL Studio, specifically with Serum 2?
Perhaps creating automation clips for LFO rates, pitch bend, or macros—lately, I’ve been enjoying using the automation recording function in FL Studio. I feel like it’s a great alternative to automation clips, which can get a bit finicky to work with.
So, after I’ve created some chords or a melody I like, I might play with some of the macros or the mod wheel inside of Serum 2 while recording the movements in FL. This also leads to more organic automations, which I maybe wouldn’t have drawn in when using clips.
I definitely encourage everyone to try out the macros and especially the mod wheel for the presets in utopia tone 2—you might find some cool twists to the sounds!
Shinju on his favorite presets and creative philosophy
Are there additional Serum 2 presets from your pack that you want to highlight? Can you break down how they were made?
With the newly-added spectral engine, I enjoyed using phrases I’ve made before or random audio files from my other projects as source material and going through them to find small sections that could be turned into a new instrument.
In the myshkin preset, for example, I grabbed a long recording of myself messing around and found a cool moment where the sound transformed near the end. This created a lovely evolving synth. After that, I just layered a second simple oscillator to give the sound some body and added some filtering, distortion, and the bode effect through the macros.
I used the same technique for the ointment preset, with the addition of a fast delayed LFO on the POS knob of my spectral source, resulting in a fluttering movement being introduced after a short delay when holding a note.
On the other hand, the emberling preset has a cool interaction between the multi-sample engine and the PD self warp mode. As different keygroups use a different sample when using the multi-sample engine, the PD (SELF) warp mode will react differently with the different samples played. This results in great variation when playing different notes.
And lastly, the shapeshifter preset makes heavy use of the NoteOn Rand modulation source. The sound itself consists of a fairly simple pluck, but with the NoteOn Rand mapped to a bunch of different parameters, the sound greatly varies in length and timbre with each played note.
What are your intentions and goals for this pack?
My main intention for this pack was definitely to elaborate and expand on the tonal universe I’ve built so far with my previous releases. These sounds are very much built upon my personal aesthetic ideas, detached from any trends or what’s cool at the moment. Furthermore, it’s always my goal to create something unique, interesting, and novel.
With that in mind, I’m very glad to see people enjoying the pack and becoming inspired by it!
Incorporate shinju’s imaginative sounds into your own productions:
December 15, 2025
