Run your Serum 2 presets in a free open-source wavetable synth
Tessera loads and round-trips .SerumPreset files, aiming to match the real plugin's sound across factory presets.
- LinkLoot access
- Free
- Provider costs
- Unknown
What you get from it
What it does
Tessera is an open-source wavetable synth built from scratch in C++ on JUCE. Its stated goal is compatibility with Serum 2: it reads .SerumPreset files so existing patches play back, and saves presets that Serum 2 can reopen. The project reports null-test results against Serum 2 v2.1.4, including band-distance measurements within 1 dB for all 850 factory presets at multiple sample rates. It covers oscillators (wavetable, sample, multisample, granular, spectral), 108 filter types, 13 FX units, modulation matrix, LFOs, envelopes, arpeggiator and MIDI clips.
Tessera ships no presets, wavetables or samples of its own. It uses the Serum 2 content already installed on your machine.
Who it helps
Producers who want a free, MIT-licensed alternative to Serum 2 without losing access to their existing preset library. Also useful for developers studying how commercial wavetable engines are structured, since the repo includes measurement tools (tools/suite.py, tools/preset_sweep.py) and a feature spec (spec/FEATURES.md).
Getting started
Requires macOS 11 or later, Xcode command line tools, CMake 3.25+ and Ninja. Clone the repo and build:
git clone https://github.com/itsfabioroma/tessera && cd tessera
cmake -S synth -B synth/build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build synth/build --target Tessera
The build installs Tessera.vst3 and Tessera.component into ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins. Disable with -DTESSERA_INSTALL_PLUGIN=OFF. A standalone app lands in synth/build/Tessera_artefacts/Release/Standalone/. First configure fetches JUCE 9.0.3 and zstd 1.5.7; offline builds can point at local checkouts. AAX support needs an Avid SDK passed via -DTESSERA_AAX_SDK=.
Install Serum 2 content as usual before loading presets.
Limits and costs
macOS-only per the documented build steps. No Windows or Linux instructions appear in the README excerpt. The project provides no bundled presets or sounds; you need your own Serum 2 library. License is MIT, so source use is unrestricted, but hosting, distribution or commercial deployment remain separate concerns. Feature parity claims come from the project's own test suite, not independent verification.
Source links
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