Serein is a tape delay with a single playback head. The tape has a real position and a real motor: change the time and everything already on the tape bends in pitch, exactly as long as it takes that piece of tape to pass the head. Push the feedback and the loop feeds itself. Hold it, and it keeps turning.
The name
Serein (French, pronounced roughly "seh-RAN," with a soft nasal ending) is the fine rain that falls from a clear evening sky after the sun has gone down. Tape echo does the same thing to a sound: what you played is still there, only softer, later, and slowly changing.
Why this, first
Dehumanize Audio builds instruments, not presets: real physical behavior under the hood, tape that actually moves, a motor with real inertia, and an engine like that takes real time to get right before anything bigger ships on top of it. Serein is where it gets tested first, in public, in real sessions, on real machines. It's a complete instrument on its own, not a stripped trial. One head, one real tape path. Free.
How it behaves
The glide
Time is a motor speed, not a number. Turn it and the repeats swoop, then settle, the way a real tape machine's motor takes a moment to find a new speed rather than jumping straight there. Inertia sets how long that takes: short for a quick bend, long for a slow, heavy glide that can take a second or more to catch up.
The loop
Feedback runs back through a tilt tone that darkens or brightens with every pass, a record head that saturates as you push Drive, and a tape that's already ageing. Near the top of the Feedback knob the loop starts feeding itself and keeps building, a limiter at +6 dBFS keeps that from ever running away completely, and it still sounds musical rather than harsh. Hold mutes the input and keeps whatever's already circulating alive at a fixed level; release it and the loop decays back down at the Feedback setting.
The tape
Wow drifts slowly, flutter jitters fast, age dulls the repeats and drops some out, and noise adds hiss underneath: four kinds of imperfection real tape has and a digital delay doesn't.
Up close
What to try
Dub echo
Long time, high feedback and Tone pulled dark for a dub echo that gets murkier with every repeat.
Slapback
Short time, Mono, low Mix and a touch of Drive for a tight slapback with some grit in it.
Self oscillation
Push Feedback near the top of the knob and Hold it there for a drone that keeps singing after you stop playing.
Stereo
Dual keeps the two sides apart, one tape each, with the same wow. Ping-pong sends the repeats alternately left and right, and synced eighths keep them locked to the rhythm around them.
Specifications
- Formats
- VST3 and Audio Unit
- Parameters
- 15, all automatable
- Presets
- Eight, plus your own
- Tempo sync
- 1/32 to 1/1, dotted and triplet
- Latency
- Zero
- License
- Free, no account, no license key
Licence and use
Serein is made by Dehumanize Audio, the Netherlands.
Serein is free, and it stays free: we will not turn it into a paid product.
There is no account, no licence key and no time limit. The plug-in itself never connects to the internet; the links in its About dialog open your web browser only when you click them.
You may install Serein on as many of your own computers as you like, and use it in any music, commercial or not. What you make with it is yours.
Serein is provided as is, without warranty. If it does not work for you, write to hello@dehumanize-audio.com and we will try to help.
Redistributing the installer or the plug-in files, or selling them, is not allowed. Send people to dehumanize-audio.com instead.
Serein is built with JUCE, and uses the Rubik and Syne typefaces under the SIL Open Font License. Third-party notices are shown in the installer.
Get notified
The link comes by email when it is out.