Serum 2 VST3

Michael Paluzzi · 2025-07-31T22:45:40+00:00

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I’m running Maschine 2.x (the latest version) on Mac Sequoia and Serum 2 does not get scanned as a VST3 instrument. It shows up as an AU instrument, but this is not helpful as I really want to utilize the Freelance Sounds NKS mapping & presets from the MK3 hardware. Serum 2 is available and working as a VST3 directly in Ableton, but again - no NKS compatibility.

Has anyone run into this issue? Any resolution? I have been updating Serum as incremental versions are released and nothing helps. FWIW Serum OG Freelance VST & presets load without issue.

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JesterMgee

Can't say I have had that issue, however been a while since I tested on mac and I only test in KK not Maschine.

Have you tried opening the Preferences > Plugins menu and just doing a manual scan from there? Could be the VST was somehow blacklisted from the scan. Unsure of the same path on mac but on Windows all the scanned plugin details are stored in the file at C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\Native Instruments\Maschine 2\Plugin.data

You can try delete this file then relaunch Maschine and let it rescan the plugins. If you happen to have Komplete Kontrol or can install it, just check in there it is listed and working.

Michael Paluzzi

Thanks for your reply. I have tried manually rescanning, as well as relocating the VST to its own folder and that does not help. What do you mean by “blacklisted”? Why would that occur? The VST functions, and is scanned and visible in my Ableton library. I will install KK to see if it shows up there but I don’t have high hopes.

DeepThumb

Hi, Michael,

I would contact the Xfer Serum support.

My experience is that some VSTs are not recognized by all DAWs and IMO that's more a topic for the VST developer. E.g. Scaler 3 runs fine on Ableton Live but its scan is skipped by Reaper on my system.

Michael Paluzzi

@Deepthumb I posted this question on Reddit and a few users reported no issue with Serum 2 in Maschine. I have to assume it works fine for most considering the Freelance Sounds NKS mapping exists. This is no doubt a personal issue, but I can’t figure out why. I’ve updated Serum 2 and rolled back Maschine versions and it still won’t scan.

Kymeia

Have you tried removing the plugin from the plugin folder - then doing a full plugin scan in Maschine, then putting it back in the plugin folder and doing another rescan. This may reset any blacklist

Michael Paluzzi

@Kymeia yes this was actually one of the first things I tried. I even tried saving it in its own folder so I didn’t have to rescan all my plugins again. How does this “blacklist “ happen?

Kymeia

It's what plugin scans are for in any host - they check for compatibility but sometimes if plugin fails the scan it gets 'blacklisted' (ie excluded from further scans) to prevent it taking down the host. However failing the scan might not always be due to anything major, maybe just a glitch, and in these cases you need to be able to remove the blacklisting - in many hosts they have plugin managers that enable plugins to be rescanned individually or removed from the blacklist (maybe after an update that fixes the issue) but KK/Maschine doesn't have that so you have to try and force it - usually this method or the one Jester suggested (delete the plugin database) do the job.

Michael Paluzzi

@kymeia any idea where that file is located on Mac?

Kymeia

'/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Maschine 2'

It's the plugin data one

Michael Paluzzi

@Kymeia doing that did not help scan Serum2, and it actually broke my Korg OPSix plugin. Same issue - the AU was scanned, but not the VST3, so the NKS presets could not be loaded. Luckily I just took the deleted plugin.data file out of the trash and everything returned to as it was - still no Serum2 though.

Kymeia

Ok that's odd - Serum 2 is working fine for me in Maschine and Komplete Kontrol (although personally I do not use Serum or any synth that supports aftertouch expression or MPE regularly in Maschine as you lose all of that hosting it in Maschine)

Michael Paluzzi

@Kymeia I reverted back to 2.17 and scanned everything. Serum2 now shows up. Updated back to 2.18.4 and everything is still there. Not sure what the issue was, but I solved it.

Kymeia

That's interesting - glad it worked anyway even if it's not clear why

MLARS

Serum still not having NKS is just weird (same with Omnisphere).

Kymeia

You mean not having official NKS support? There are third party options (eg Freelance in particular)

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