Where apps hide your files
Serum keeps presets, wavetables and noises in a folder in the system Library, not your home folder. Here is the path for Serum 1 and 2, and how to move it.
For Serum 1, the installer puts presets, wavetables and the rest of its content in the system Library:
/Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum PresetsThat is the Library at the top of the startup disk, not the one in your home folder. Xfer's staff give /Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/ as the macOS install location on Xfer's forum. Serum 2 installs its own folder beside the first:
/Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum 2 PresetsThe Serum 2 path comes from Mac users on Xfer's forum and from Splice's help centre, which itself flags that path as still to be verified. Xfer's own pages found for this guide do not state it, so confirm it from the plugin (below) before you rely on it.
Open the folder in Finder with Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), or from Terminal:
open "/Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records"In Serum 1, click Menu at the top of the plugin and choose Show Serum Presets Folder, according to Syntorial's install guide. Whatever opens is the real folder on your Mac, including after you have moved it. Serum 2's menus were not checked for this guide, so look for a similar entry there.
A user on Xfer's forum lists these subfolders of the Serum 1 folder, plus Serum_Manual.pdf:
| Folder | What it holds |
|---|---|
Presets | Factory presets in category folders, a User folder for yours, and any packs |
Tables | Wavetables, including your own |
Noises | Samples for the noise oscillator |
LFO Shapes | Saved LFO shapes |
Effect Chains | Saved effect rack chains |
System | Files Serum itself reads |
Later versions add a Skins folder. Leave System alone. Serum 1 presets are .fxp files. Syntorial and Splice both point to Presets/User for your own presets, and a pack can go in its own folder inside Presets. Splice's desktop app puts the Serum presets it downloads in Presets/Splice when the folder is in its default place.
After adding files, choose Menu > Rescan folders on disk in Serum 1 (Syntorial's wording), or close and reopen your DAW, so the browser picks them up.
The two versions install side by side, which is why there are two folders. Splice's help says Serum 2 can open all Serum 1 presets, but Serum 1 cannot open Serum 2 presets, so a pack made for Serum 2 will not load in Serum 1.
If Serum 2 shows no presets, open its folder. A Mac user on Xfer's forum found Serum 2 Presets holding only Skins, and Xfer's reply was that the first Serum 2 install must use the Full Installer, because it carries the factory content, and the Updater alone does not. Download the Full Installer from your Xfer account and run it.
Xfer's staff say you can move the Serum Presets folder and Serum will ask for the new location the next time it runs, and that an alias is not the right way to do it. Serum only asks once it cannot find the folder where it was, so the order matters:
Serum Presets folder to the new drive, keeping every subfolder.Xfer Records, for example to the Trash without emptying it. Finder asks for an administrator password.If Serum keeps asking, Xfer's staff suggested looking for something unusual in the path or its permissions, and one user in the thread says only a reinstall made the new location stick. Plain folder names are the safe choice. Keep the drive connected whenever you open projects that use Serum. That thread is about Serum 1; this guide did not find Xfer guidance on moving the Serum 2 folder.
To undo, quit the DAW and put the original back from the Trash before you empty it.
Your own work is the Presets/User folder, any packs you added, and your own files in Tables and Noises. Copy those, or the whole Xfer Records folder. On the new Mac, run the Full Installer first so the factory content and the System files are in place, then copy your own folders into the same places. Writing to the system /Library needs an administrator password.
The folder is in the system Library, which Spotlight and Finder searches leave out. Presets are named after the sound, so you need to remember the name, and wavetables are .wav files whose names mean little until you hear them.
If you remember part of a preset's name, type it into Everywhere. It covers the system Library with no extra setup and shows each hit's folder, so you can tell a Serum Presets file from a Serum 2 Presets one, or spot the copy on the drive you moved it to (external drives need Full Disk Access). It matches names only, and a preset you have just added under /Library may wait for the next scan.
For Serum 1, at /Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum Presets in the system Library. Serum 2 is reported to use a Serum 2 Presets folder in the same Xfer Records folder; in Serum 1, Menu > Show Serum Presets Folder opens the real location.
Yes. Copy the whole Serum Presets folder to the drive, move the original away, and Serum asks for the new location the next time it loads; choose the copy. Xfer's staff say an alias is not the right way to do it.
On Xfer's forum, staff say the first Serum 2 install must use the Full Installer, which contains the factory content. Running only the Updater can leave Serum 2 Presets with nothing but skins.
Splice's help says they download into Presets/Splice inside /Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum Presets when that folder is in its default place. If you moved Serum's folder, they go to ~/Splice/presets/Serum and you copy them into Serum's Presets folder yourself.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac — including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
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