Harry Styles "As It Was" Breakdown: Synths in Serum

In this Serum tutorial, we're going to break down one of the biggest songs of 2022: Harry Styles' "As It Was". It was released on 31 March 2022 as the lead single from his third studio album, Harry's House, which mixes dream pop, R&B and synthpop and even debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200.

This album is extremely intimate. It invites us into a more personal side of Harry, but it also shows something we love about his work, which is that he has never been typecast into a specific genre.

Before we get started, here is a little disclaimer: since this song mostly uses organic instruments, we had a problem that we solved with a bit of sampling and by creating our own wavetables, and we'll show you how to do both. Let's get started.

Want to learn the techniques behind it? Check out our Courses.

RELATED BREAKDOWNS

- Dua Lipa & Elton John "Cold Heart" Breakdown

- Charlie Puth "Light Switch" Breakdown

- Miley Cyrus "Flowers" Breakdown

The Synth

Let's start with the most recognizable part of the song: the main synth riff. To recreate this preset, we need a Matrixy C64 in oscillator "A", one octave up with 5 voices, and a DS Saw and Tri in oscillator "B" with 9 voices. Envelope 3 has a decay of 400 ms and modulates the noise oscillator, the filter cutoff and the wavetable position of oscillator "A". In the FX tab, add a little high end with the EQ, then add reverb and delay to taste, and that's it.

The Bass

Now it's time to recreate the running bassline. Start with an ICanHasKick in oscillator "A" with 1 voice, and in oscillator "B" use an SQR_SAW_Wrd wavetable in its first position. Then use a Band 12 filter with the cutoff at 90 Hz to give the low end a boost. Envelope 1 should have a decay of 700 ms and modulate the level of the 3 oscillators.

Now for the fun part of this preset: in the FX tab, add some distortion with a multiband compressor cutting all the high end, and finally, with an EQ, boost everything below 2 kHz.

The Guitar

The time has come to use Serum as a sampler. First, we created the sound of the song's main guitar with a Telecaster. We ran it through some pedals and recorded a C note with a long tail. After that, we imported it into the noise oscillator and enabled pitch tracking and one-shot mode. Then, to add a little body to the sound, we used a Sine wave in oscillator "A" and an FM Freak in oscillator "B", both with FM modulation from the noise oscillator. For the final touch, we routed velocity to the level of all the oscillators, so you get the little variations and nuances a guitar player would give you.

The Palm-Muted Guitar

We warned you that this tutorial was going to be a little different. Yes, we know that recreating the sound of a guitar on a synth is hard, if not impossible, and that's why we are using Serum as a sampler, but this time we are also creating our own wavetables. First, add your one-shot like we did with the other guitar: record a C note of a palm mute, add it to the noise oscillator and enable pitch tracking and one-shot mode.

Now let's create some wavetables to improve our sound. First, click the pencil icon on the oscillator to open the wavetable editor, then import your one-shot using the Fixed Frame Size option. After that, use LFO 1 to scroll through the wavetable position, as shown in the image above.

The Pad

Now let's return to the world of synthesis and leave sampling alone for a minute. This sound enters in the pre-chorus. To recreate this pad, we used a Basic Shape wavetable in its second position in oscillator "A" and an MB Saw wavetable in oscillator "B", with its position modulated by envelope 2. Envelope 2 also modulates the cutoff, with a decay of around 1.5 seconds and a release of around 1.5 seconds. The cutoff is set to around 200 Hz with the resonance at 15%, and the sound is drenched in chorus, reverb and delay.

The Pluck

This pluck plays every time Harry sings "you know it's not the same as it was", harmonizing the vocal melody. To be honest, it's quite a simple sound. To start making this preset, we use an FM Freak in oscillator "A" and a Basic Shape wavetable in its first position in oscillator "B". Oscillator "B" gets some frequency modulation from oscillator "A" at around 10%, which makes it sound a little brighter and airier.

Envelope 1 is very important, because it modulates the levels of our oscillators and the filter cutoff: the shorter the decay on this envelope, the pluckier the sound.

The Bell

We've reached the final part of the song, and of this tutorial on how to make "As It Was" by Harry Styles. Unfortunately, we needed to sample a church bell to get this sound right, and if you've read this far, you know how to do it. Now that we have our one-shot ready in the noise oscillator, use an FM Freak in oscillator "A" and an FM_Splat in oscillator "B", with a decay of around 350 ms on envelope 1.

Make your own Harry's House-style track.

You've heard how the synth riff, the running bass and the sampled guitars are built. The Dreampop Pack has sounds like these ready to load in Serum, along with the rest of its 130+ presets.

Want the whole palette? The Indie Pop Bundle adds our Indie Pop and Bedroom Pop packs: three packs for $39.90.