W.A. Production's Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials 2 is a solid, affordable Serum preset pack for pop and future bass producers, but it's a better inspiration tool than it is a sound design education, and that gap matters more than the $14.90 price suggests.
We pulled the pack up mid-session, working on an indie pop chorus that needed a lead synth sitting somewhere between Slushii and Katy Perry's touring band. Third preset in, we hit a stacked, slightly detuned supersaw lead that sat perfectly in the 2-5kHz presence range without eating the vocal's space. Satisfying. We mapped Macro 1, swept the filter cutoff up from around 800Hz to fully open, and the thing opened into a festival drop in about four seconds.
That's the best-case scenario for this pack. It delivers it a fair amount of the time.
This review is for pop producers, bedroom beatmakers, and anyone who owns Serum and wants 84 presets aimed squarely at contemporary chart-friendly sounds. If you're a sound design nerd who wants to study modulation architecture, look elsewhere.
84 Presets, One Synth, No Shortcuts to Originality
Pumped 2 pulls its DNA from three W.A. Production sample packs: Future Bass Emoji, Future Pop Mystic, and Future Pop Passion. That source material matters. It explains why the pack feels cohesive instead of scattered, you're essentially getting the Serum patches that underpin those sample libraries, rebuilt and organised for standalone use.
The 84 presets break down into three broad tonal territories: lead synths, bass patches, and atmospheric/warm pad-style sounds. W.A. Production doesn't give you a numerical split on their product page, which is annoying. From our session time, the pack skews heavily toward leads and pads, roughly 60-65% of what we browsed had melody-forward applications. Bass patches are present but underrepresented for anyone who wants deep sub-bass movement or mid-range growl.
What it is NOT built for: cinematic sound design, aggressive bass music, or anything that needs complex movement baked in at the patch level. These are pop presets. They're meant to sit on top of a mix, not define its low end.
It also requires Xfer Serum. No Serum, no sounds. That's not a criticism, it's a hard technical fact worth stating clearly before you buy.
Living With It: Three Sessions In
Installation is a .fxp drag-and-drop into Serum's preset folder. Thirty seconds from download to first sound. That's the right way to ship a preset pack.
The macro implementation is where this pack quietly earns its money. We loaded a warm, slightly chorus-drenched pad patch on a track where the arrangement needed a slow build into the chorus. Macro 1 on that patch controlled filter cutoff and LFO rate simultaneously, so one knob turned the pad from static and narrow to wide and animated. No editor time. We drew the macro automation in the DAW and moved on. That's how presets should work.
We did hit a frustrating wall during the second session, though. We were looking for a specific mid-weight bass tone, something sitting around 100-250Hz with a bit of bite above 1kHz. The preset browser in Serum doesn't tag by category unless the designer names files with a consistent prefix, and W.A. haven't done that consistently here. We scrolled through 40+ patches before finding the right character. An organised folder structure with clear Lead / Bass / Pad / FX subfolders would fix this immediately. That it's missing feels like a lazy finish on an otherwise decent pack.
Third session: we tried some of the lead patches on an 808-driven pop beat. Three of the lead presets cut through a dense low-mid mix without any additional EQ on the high shelf. Two of them needed a 2dB cut at 3.5kHz to stop them clashing with the vocal. That's a reasonable hit rate. Not every preset needs to be mix-ready out of the box, but the fact that most of them were close saves real time.
The Trade-Offs
At $14.90, Pumped 2 offers 84 presets. That's 17.7 cents per patch at full price. The value calculation is obvious, but value per patch count is a misleading metric if half the patches don't suit your workflow.
The bigger trade-off is longevity. Future bass as a sound peaked commercially around 2020-2022. The genre's DNA still shows up in mainstream pop in 2026, but these presets carry that specific era's sonic fingerprint: heavy chorus, stacked voices, soft-clipped brightness. That sound works in pop production today, but it's moving toward being a "reference sound" rather than a "trend-forward sound." Buy this pack for workhorse leads and pads, not to stay ahead of the curve.
The macro assignments partially rescue the longevity problem. Because you can sculpt the presets so dramatically via the four macros, you can pull more modern-sounding results from patches that initially sound dated. We took a heavily chorused lead, used Macro 3 to kill the unison detune spread, and got something far drier and more 2025-appropriate. That's clever design. We just wish the pack leaned into that more deliberately in its documentation, there's no guide to what each macro actually controls across patches.
Also: no trial available. You're buying on faith and audio demos. The Plugin Boutique audio demo is short. Listen to it twice before purchasing.
Against the Field
For direct Serum preset competition in this price bracket, there are a few honest comparisons worth making.
W.A. Production's own Pumped Vol. 1 is the obvious predecessor. If you already own it, Vol. 2 doesn't reinvent the formula, it extends it. Worth buying if you liked Vol. 1. Skip if Vol. 1 left you cold. Pumped Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials review
Cymatics' Future Bass for Serum offers more presets (often 100-150+) with better category labelling and more aggressive bass coverage. If your productions live closer to electronic than pop, Cymatics wins on depth. Pumped 2 wins on polished lead sounds and overall polish of the mid-range patches.
Oski's Serum Presets packs (available via his site) target the same future bass pop space but with a more technical modulation approach. Better for producers who want to study the patches. Pumped 2 is better for producers who want to move fast.
For workflow-focused browsing, also check out best Serum preset packs for pop producers and our Xfer Serum review.
The Real Verdict
Buy Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials 2 if you own Serum, make pop or future bass, and want 84 production-ready patches for under fifteen dollars. The lead sounds are the highlight. The macro assignments add genuine workflow value. The audio quality is clean and consistent across the pack.
Skip it if you need aggressive bass patches, if you work outside future bass and pop aesthetics, or if you're hoping to learn sound design by reverse-engineering the presets. The architecture isn't complex enough to teach you anything new.
At $14.90, the risk is low. But go in knowing what it is: a fast-idea generator, not a long-term sound design resource.
Score Breakdown
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sound Quality | 4.0/5 | Lead patches sit cleanly in the 2-5kHz range without heavy EQ work; bass patches less impressive |
| Value for Money | 4.0/5 | 17.7 cents per patch at full price is hard to argue with |
| Ease of Use | 3.0/5 | Drag-and-drop install is excellent; no category labelling in the preset browser is genuinely annoying |
| Features | 3.0/5 | Macro assignments are genuinely useful; no documentation explaining what each macro controls |
| CPU Efficiency | 4.0/5 | No additional overhead beyond standard Serum instances, load is Serum's problem, not the pack's |
| Overall | 3.5/5 | Solid inspiration pack for pop/future bass producers; limited outside its target lane |
Alternatives to Consider
Cymatics Future Bass for Serum, More presets, better category organisation, stronger bass selection. Best if your work skews electronic rather than pop. Cymatics Future Bass for Serum review
Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials Vol. 1 (W.A. Production), The predecessor. If you haven't bought either, start with Vol. 1 to test whether W.A.'s sound design style matches your workflow before buying Vol. 2. Pumped Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials Vol 1 review
Oski Serum Presets, Higher modulation complexity per patch. Slower to browse, but you'll learn more and the sounds push further into 2025-era pop territory. Worth the extra homework if you're serious about future bass sound design. best Serum preset packs for future bass producers
At $14.90, Pumped 2 earns its price on the strength of its lead patches alone. It's not the most exciting pack we've tested this year, but it's the one we'd actually use on a deadline. That's worth something. If you work outside pop and future bass: hard pass. If you work inside them: it's fifteen dollars. Stop overthinking it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials 2 work with any synth other than Serum?
No. These are native Xfer Serum presets in .fxp format and require Serum to load. They won't open in Vital, Surge, or any other synth. If you don't own Serum, this pack is a complete non-starter. Check out our best Serum alternatives if you need a different synth first.
How many presets are in Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials 2?
There are 84 Xfer Serum presets in the pack. W.A. Production doesn't publish a breakdown by category, leads, basses, pads, and FX are mixed together in the browser without consistent labelling. You'll need to scroll through them manually to find what you need.
Is Pumped: Serum Future Bass & Pop Essentials 2 worth buying if I already own Vol. 1?
Yes, with a caveat. Vol. 2 pulls from different source material (Future Bass Emoji, Future Pop Mystic, and Future Pop Passion) so there's minimal overlap with Vol. 1's sounds. If Vol. 1 worked for you, Vol. 2 is a logical second purchase. If Vol. 1 felt too trend-specific or dated, Vol. 2 won't change your mind, it's built from the same aesthetic DNA.
Can I customise the presets, or are they locked?
The presets are fully editable inside Serum. All four macro knobs are assigned and ready to use, so you can shape sounds in real time without opening Serum's modulation editor. You can also dive into the full synth engine and modify oscillators, envelopes, and effects as you normally would with any Serum patch.