So you bought a preset pack, unzipped it, and now there’s a folder full of mystery files and no idea where they belong. I’ve replied to that exact support email hundreds of times since we began shipping Serum packs in 2022. Time to settle it for good: installing Serum 2 presets on Mac and Windows, the one-click route and the manual route.
Good news first: Serum 2 made this far simpler than Serum 1 ever was. The newer .SerumPack format gets a whole pack installed in a couple of clicks. That said, lots of packs still arrive as loose .fxp files sitting in folders, which means you’ll want both methods in your pocket.
Five minutes, start to finish. Here we go.
How to Install Serum 2 Presets: The Two Methods
Serum 2 (the free upgrade Xfer released in March 2025) takes presets in two ways.
- .SerumPack import. A single file, imported from within the plugin itself. Zero folder-digging. Modern packs ship this way.
- Manual folder copy. You place .fxp files into the Serum 2 presets folder yourself. This covers every pack ever released, old Serum 1 packs included, since they’re fully compatible.
Got a file ending in .SerumPack in your download? Method one. Folders stuffed with .fxp files? Method two. When a pack includes both, I’d take the .SerumPack route every single time.
Method 1: Import a .SerumPack (One Click, Any OS)
Identical steps on Mac and Windows, which is one reason I’m a fan.
- Download the pack and locate the
.SerumPackfile. Leave it alone: no unzipping, no renaming. - Load Serum 2 on any track in your DAW.
- Hit the Menu tab along the top of the plugin.
- Select Import Preset Pack.
- Aim the file dialog at your .SerumPack file and confirm.
Done. The pack appears in the preset browser under its own name with every subfolder preserved. No rescanning, no hunting through hidden directories.
A good first test is our free pack with 250+ Serum 2 presets: install it this way, and once the basses and leads appear in your browser you know everything works. Bigger libraries go through the exact same motions: our Serum 2 preset bundles are many times larger and still install in the same two clicks.
Method 2: Manual Install (Loose .fxp Files)
Older packs, forum freebies, that single preset a friend passed you: these typically come as .fxp files, and you’ll be copying them into the Serum 2 presets folder yourself.
Step one: locate the folder, and don’t guess at it. Open Serum 2, go to the Menu tab, click Show Serum Presets Folder. Serum opens the precise folder it reads from, whatever your system looks like. There’s a separate breakdown of the Serum 2 preset folder location if you want a map of every subfolder.
Manual Install on Windows
- Unzip the pack somewhere convenient; Desktop is fine. Serum flat-out ignores .zip files.
- In File Explorer, head to
C:UsersYourNameDocumentsXferSerum 2 PresetsPresets. Not seeing it? Fall back to Show Serum Presets Folder in the Menu tab. - Copy the entire pack folder into
Presets, as one folder, intact. Subfolders are fully supported, and a neat “PackName” folder keeps the browser tidy. - Return to Serum 2, Menu tab, click Rescan Folders on Disk.
- Open the preset browser. There’s your pack, sitting in the list as a folder.
Manual Install on Mac
- Unzip the pack; a double-click on the .zip in Finder handles it.
- Navigate in Finder to
/Users/yourname/Documents/Xfer/Serum 2 Presets/Presets. If it’s hiding, Menu > Show Serum Presets Folder inside Serum 2 opens the correct spot for you. - Drag your pack folder into
Presets. - Inside Serum 2: Menu tab, Rescan Folders on Disk.
- Glance at the browser. That’s it.
A mistake I see all the time: presets copied into a leftover Serum 1 folder still sitting on the drive. Serum 1 and Serum 2 pull from different locations. After an upgrade, always double-check the path via Show Serum Presets Folder before you copy a thing.
Single Presets, Wavetables and Noises
Whole packs are just half the picture. The individual file types each behave a bit differently.
Single .fxp presets. Drop the file directly onto the Serum 2 window and it loads on the spot. Perfect for a quick audition, but nothing gets saved. To keep it around, copy the .fxp into any subfolder under Presets and rescan.
Wavetables. Quickest path: drag any .wav onto one of the three oscillators and Serum 2 turns it into a wavetable immediately. For a permanent table, copy the .wav into the wavetable folder sitting beside Presets in the Serum 2 presets directory. And when you build something great with FX baked in, hit Resample to Oscillator to print the processed sound into a new table. That exact move produced half the growls in our Serum 2 bass presets roundup.
Noises. Drop any .wav into the Noises folder, rescan, and it appears in the noise oscillator. Short transient clicks, 200 to 500 ms, are the sweet spot for putting attack on plucks and keys.
| File type | Where it goes | How you load it |
|---|---|---|
| .SerumPack | Anywhere on disk | Menu tab, Import Preset Pack |
| .fxp preset | Serum 2 Presets/Presets/YourFolder | Preset browser after rescan |
| .wav wavetable | Wavetable folder, or drag onto an osc | Oscillator loads it directly |
| .wav noise | Serum 2 Presets/Noises | Noise oscillator menu after rescan |
| Serum 1 pack | Same Presets folder | Loads as-is, fully compatible |
Presets Not Showing Up? Fix It in Two Minutes
Nine times out of ten, it’s a rescan issue. Serum 2 builds an index of its folders rather than watching them live, so anything copied in while the plugin was open stays invisible until you make it look again. Menu tab, Rescan Folders on Disk, and there they are.
Rescan didn’t help? Go down this list in order:
- Still zipped. A .zip parked in the Presets folder accomplishes nothing. Extract first, copy second.
- Double-nested folders. Unzipping loves to produce
PackName/PackName/presets. Subfolders are fine for Serum, but confirm there are actual .fxp files inside whatever you copied. - Wrong folder. The Serum 1 directory lives elsewhere. Confirm via Show Serum Presets Folder.
- Wrong file type. A .SerumPack dropped into the Presets folder will never appear. That format only works through Import Preset Pack.
- Stale instance. Rescanned and still empty? Remove the Serum 2 instance and load a fresh one; the new instance picks up the updated index.
Nothing on that list working? Then it’s genuinely broken, and Xfer’s official support page is where to go next. Across four years of selling packs I’ve sent maybe five customers there. The rescan is almost always the answer.
FAQ: Installing Serum 2 Presets
Do Serum 1 presets work in Serum 2?
They do. Serum 2 opens Serum 1 .fxp files directly, and the upgrade was free for Serum 1 owners anyway. Treat old packs like any manual install: copy into the Serum 2 Presets folder, rescan, done. Every Serum 1 pack we’ve sold since 2022 still loads without issue.
Where is the Serum 2 presets folder?
The default is Documents/Xfer/Serum 2 Presets on both platforms. The bulletproof answer, though, is always Menu tab, Show Serum Presets Folder, since installers and custom setups can relocate it.
Can I organize presets into my own subfolders?
Yes, and you really should. The browser mirrors your folder structure exactly, so mine is sorted by pack, then type: Bass, Leads, Keys, Plucks. Shuffle the folders around in your file manager, rescan, and the browser follows. Still getting to grips with the synth itself? My Serum 2 for beginners guide walks through the browser and the rest of the layout.
Why is my CPU spiking after installing a big pack?
Blame the individual patches, not the pack. Heavy presets frequently run 16 unison voices or dense granular engines. Cut unison down to 3 to 7 voices, put oversampling at 2x, cap polyphony on pads. The sound shifts barely at all and CPU falls by half on most patches.
Are free preset packs worth installing?
Plenty are filler, but the good ones are legitimate production tools, plus a free sound design education if you reverse-engineer the patches. My guide to the best free Serum 2 presets sorts the usable from the junk.
You’re Set
And that’s the entire job: .SerumPack via the Menu tab when you have one, folder copy plus rescan when you don’t. Do it twice and it becomes a thirty-second task.
Need something to practice on? Take our free 250+ Serum 2 presets. No strings, royalty-free, spanning basses, leads, keys, 808s and beyond. Install it, then pull the patches apart to see what makes them tick.
I run Monosounds.studio and make the packs myself. Ten-plus years of producing, 97+ releases, 16,000+ downloads. Every Serum 2 preset we ship passes a CPU check on a mid-range laptop and gets used in a real track before release. If it does not survive a mix, it does not go in the pack.
More about Maxim & the studio →Looking for the packs themselves? Here is the whole Serum 2 catalogue — sorted by genre and by sound, with a demo on every one.
