If you produce bass music and use Serum, building a solid preset library is one of the best things you can do for your workflow. Having go-to sounds ready to load up means you spend less time sound designing from scratch and more time actually making tracks. Starter presets are a great way to start building that library, especially if you are still figuring out what sounds and styles work for you.
This roundup covers the best Serum preset packs available in 2026, organised by genre. We have included packs for Drum and Bass, bass house, dubstep and UK bass. At the end, we will also talk about when it makes sense to invest in premium presets and why they are worth the money.
Drum and Bass Presets
1. Cymatics – DNB Starter Pack
Cymatics is one of the biggest names in sample and preset distribution. Their DNB starter pack includes a selection of bass, lead and pad presets designed for Drum and Bass production. The bass presets cover Reese-style patches, basic neuro growls and clean sub layers. The quality is decent for a pack, and the presets are well-labelled so you know what you are getting.
Best for: Beginners who want a foundation of usable DNB sounds to learn from and build on.
2. Echo Sound Works – Serum Starter Presets
Echo Sound Works releases preset packs regularly across multiple genres. Their bass music offerings include aggressive mid-range patches, sub basses and textured leads that work well in DNB contexts. The sound design quality is consistently good, and many of their presets are pulled from their premium packs as tasters.
Best for: Producers who want well-designed patches with a more polished, professional sound.
3. Antidote Audio – Neuro Bass Starter Pack
Antidote Audio focuses specifically on bass music production. Their neuro bass starter pack includes FM-based growls, metallic screeches and modulated mid-range textures. These presets are more advanced and genre-specific than the generic packs, which makes them more immediately useful if you are producing neurofunk or tech-influenced DNB.
Best for: Producers specifically making neurofunk or technical DNB who want ready-to-use neuro patches.
Bass House Presets
4. Surge Sounds – Bass House Essentials (Starter)
Surge Sounds offers a bass house starter pack with Serum presets covering the core sound palette of the genre. Expect punchy bass stabs, filtered lead sounds, vocal chops and the kind of gritty, distorted bass patches that define bass house. The pack is small but focused, with each preset filling a specific role in a typical bass house arrangement.
Best for: Producers getting into bass house who need the essential sound types to start building tracks.
5. Audentity Records – Bass House Starter Presets
Audentity Records produces sample packs and presets for electronic music. Their bass house starter Serum presets include thick bass leads, wobble patches and filtered synth stabs. The presets are designed to sit well in a mix and respond to automation, making them practical starting points rather than just demo sounds.
Best for: Producers who want bass house presets that are mix-ready and immediately usable in tracks.
Dubstep Presets
6. Virtual Riot – Serum Starter Presets
Virtual Riot has released Serum presets over the years through various promotions and giveaways. These are production-grade sounds from one of the biggest names in dubstep and bass music. If you can find them (check his website, social media, and forums for download links), they are some of the best Serum presets available anywhere. His growl basses, screeches and riddim patches are next level.
Best for: Dubstep producers at any level. These are professional-quality sounds from a world-class producer.
7. Moonboy – Dubstep Starter Presets
Moonboy has shared Serum preset packs targeting riddim and heavy dubstep producers. The presets include aggressive wobble basses, heavy growls and distorted mid-range patches. They lean toward the heavier, more aggressive side of dubstep, so they are ideal if you are producing riddim, tearout or heavy bass music.
Best for: Producers making heavy dubstep, riddim or tearout who want aggressive, hard-hitting bass presets.
8. Phantom Presets – Dubstep Starter Pack
Phantom Presets offers a small pack of dubstep-focused Serum sounds. The collection includes modulated basses, screechy leads and atmospheric pads. While the pack is not huge, the quality per preset is solid and they work well as starting points for further sound design. Tweak the LFO shapes and filter settings to make them your own.
Best for: Dubstep producers who want a small but high-quality starting collection.
UK Bass and Garage Presets
9. Production Music Live – UK Bass Pack
Production Music Live (PML) offers educational content and sample packs for electronic music producers. Their UK bass starter preset pack includes deep sub basses, filtered chords, garage-style synth stabs and atmospheric pads. The presets are designed with UK bass, garage and deep house styles in mind, so they have that smooth, deep character rather than aggressive distortion.
Best for: Producers making UK bass, garage, deep house or any sub-genre that values smooth, musical bass sounds.
10. Zen World – Bass Starter Presets
Zen World puts out Serum starter preset packs that cover a range of bass music styles. Their offerings include deep bass patches, modulated leads and textured pads that work across UK bass, future bass and general bass music production. The presets are designed as starting points with modulation already mapped to the mod wheel, which makes them interactive and fun to play.
Best for: Producers who want versatile bass presets that work across multiple sub-genres.
Where to Find More Presets
Beyond the specific packs listed above, here are some reliable sources for finding Serum presets:
- r/edmproduction and r/drumandass on Reddit: Producers regularly share presets in these communities. Use the search function to find preset giveaway posts.
- Splice: Splice offers some Serum starter presets as part of their platform. The quality varies but you can find some good ones.
- YouTube tutorials: Many sound design tutorials include preset downloads. Channels focusing on Serum sound design often give away the presets they create in their videos.
- Producer forums: Communities like Gearslutz (now Gearspace), KVR Audio and DOA (Dogs on Acid) have preset sharing threads.
- Producer social media: Follow your favourite producers on Twitter/X and Instagram. Many share preset packs as promotional content or to celebrate milestones.
Tips for Using Presets Effectively
Downloading presets is only the first step. Here is how to get the most value from them:
Treat Them as Starting Points
Starter presets are rarely perfect for your specific track right out of the box. Use them as starting points and tweak them. Adjust the filter cutoff, change the LFO rate, modify the effects chain. Even small changes can make a generic preset sound unique and personal.
Learn From Them
Open up presets that sound good and study how they are made. Look at which wavetables are used, how the filters are set up, what the LFOs are doing, where the modulation is routed. Reverse-engineering good presets is one of the fastest ways to learn sound design.
Organise Your Library
As you download multiple packs, your preset library can get messy fast. Create a folder structure that makes sense to you. Organise by genre, by sound type (bass, leads, pads, FX), or by pack name. Delete presets you will never use. A curated library of 100 great presets is more useful than 1000 disorganised ones.
If you need help getting presets installed, check out our guide on how to install Serum presets for step-by-step instructions on Windows and Mac.
Layer Presets Together
Combine two or three presets on separate channels for a bigger, more complex sound. A sub bass from one pack, a mid-range growl from another, and a high-frequency texture from a third. Layering is how professionals build massive bass sounds, and you can do it with entirely presets.
The Limitations of Presets
Starter presets are valuable, but it is worth understanding their limitations:
- Generic sounds: Because presets are available to everyone, they get used by thousands of producers. If you want your tracks to sound distinctive, you need to modify presets heavily or design sounds from scratch.
- Inconsistent quality: Starter packs range from excellent to terrible. You have to sift through a lot of mediocre content to find the good stuff.
- Missing components: Starter packs rarely include custom wavetables, noise samples or LFO shapes. The presets are limited to Serum’s built-in content, which restricts the sonic possibilities.
- No updates or support: If something does not work or you have a question, there is usually nobody to ask. That also means no customer service.
- Small collections: Starter packs typically contain 5-20 presets. That is enough to get started but not enough to cover all the sounds you need for a full production.
Why Premium Presets Are Worth the Investment
Once you have outgrown presets (and you will), investing in premium preset packs makes a real difference to your production quality and workflow speed.
Professional Sound Design
Premium presets are designed by experienced producers who understand how sounds need to work in a mix. They are EQ’d, compressed and balanced so they sit well alongside drums, vocals and other elements without extensive tweaking. The difference between a preset and a premium one is often the difference between “close enough” and “mix-ready”.
Unique Sounds
Premium packs typically include custom wavetables, noise samples and LFO shapes that expand what Serum can do. These exclusive components mean the sounds are genuinely unique and not achievable with Serum’s stock content alone. Your tracks will sound different from producers who are all using the same packs.
Genre-Specific Design
The best premium packs are designed for specific genres and sub-genres. A DNB preset pack from a producer who actually makes DNB will contain sounds that fit the genre perfectly, with the right frequency balance, the right modulation character and the right amount of aggression. Generic packs (starter or paid) rarely nail the genre-specific details.
Time Savings
Your time has value. If a premium preset pack saves you 10 hours of sound design over the course of a project, it has paid for itself many times over. Professional producers use presets not because they cannot design sounds from scratch, but because presets let them focus their time on composition, arrangement and mixing instead of starting every sound from zero.
Consistent Quality
A good premium pack provides a consistent quality level across every preset in the collection. There is no sifting through filler to find the few usable sounds. Every preset is designed to be production-ready, which means you can browse confidently knowing everything you load up will meet a professional standard.
Build Your Library with Preset Drive
Preset Drive specialises in Serum presets for bass music producers. Every pack is designed by people who produce the genres they are making sounds for. Whether you need Drum and Bass presets with neurofunk growls and liquid basses, bass house presets with punchy stabs and filtered leads, or dubstep presets with heavy wobbles and screeches, the collection has you covered.
Starter presets are a great starting point, but when you are ready to level up your sound, premium presets are the fastest way to get there. Browse the full Serum preset collection at Preset Drive and find sounds that match your production style.
Related Preset Packs
Looking for professional bass music presets? Check out these Serum preset packs:
Ready to level up your sound?

Dirty Drum & Bass Vol.2
Filthy bass presets for dubstep and riddim. Growls, wobbles, and screeches.
£29.99
Shop Now →Not sure yet? Grab our taster pack first.