NI Massive in the year of 2012

[Uncle E]

What about all those 3rd part presets available - do they make any difference? I remember Massive back in the day when there was no tutorials or additional presets...

Komplete 8 now includes all the add-on preset packs that NI used to sell as Kore sound packs. I don't know if they are included when you buy Massive alone. As Buka said, the Massive Threat presets are fantastic, much better than the 3rd party presets I've tried (though I haven't tried the Vengeance ones yet).

[zeep]

Massive is worth the money.

[osiris]

PS you can still get Pro 53 here:
http://www.hollywooddj.com/pro53.html
It's $199.00, and I don't know where he ships, but he's pretty big.

[osiris]

I can also vouch for the Adam Van Baker, Xenos and 7Skies presets.

[pdxindy]

Try the demo and see if it grabs you. I had Massive for 2 years and rarely used it. The sound just does not do it for me. It often sounds hard and rarely emotive and beautiful. I didn't like that modwheel is not a standard modulator and I did not particularly like the scaling of the envelopes or that you cannot edit 2 envelopes without switching pages, but those are really small things. Overall the gui is well done, modulation is top notch and I wanted to like it and just didn't. It has good technical sound quality but the character just doesn't please me.

[djshire]

I got Komplete 7 last year, and like all soft synths, I played with it and went through all the presets. It sounds pretty good, can do quite a bit, the filters and envelopes are very nice and HOLY CRAP flexible, and the presets are ok.

This being said, I will never use it in my productions, because as good as a soft synth it is, it never once "inspired" me. I downloaded TAL U-No-62, and immediately made 3 new patches for in the span of an hour. I try to figure out how to make Sega Master System/Genesis sounds on NI FM8. I have Logic ESM and try to figure out how to make it sound like a 303. I made a snare sound on RP Predator. But Massive? After all that exploring and listening, it doesn't "muse" me.

Demo it. Explore the hell out of it. Then decided whether you should get it. A lot of people sing praises about it, and use it regularly in their productions, so I guess me not liking it is just a personal thing.

[zerocrossing]

If you can get an older version of Komplete, it's WELL worth the money. Not only Massive, but Absynth, FM8, Kontakt, Reaktor, and Guitar Rig. What I paid for Komplete I think averaged out to about $50.00 per synth. Total no-brainer.

Or you could get Maschine and do the crossgrade which is what I did. It's a great deal and when the dust settled, I had money left over from selling my other NI licenses.

Massive has grown on me. As it's namesake, it is Massive sounding so I can't imagine using it in every track or more than once in a track. Lots of bite. Good UI though, and easy to learn and tweak. Not sure if I'd buy it for $179, when I think I prefer Synthmaster and it's $129.

http://www.kv331audio.com/

[oneummon]

I must say that I played with early version of massive ages ago and like some of you, wasn't very excited about it. I guess there's been some progress with the app because of sudden interest of 3rd party people. Or maybe is it dubstep hype? Let's see what demo gives...

[Uncle E]

Try the demo and see if it grabs you. I had Massive for 2 years and rarely used it. The sound just does not do it for me. It often sounds hard and rarely emotive and beautiful. I didn't like that modwheel is not a standard modulator and I did not particularly like the scaling of the envelopes or that you cannot edit 2 envelopes without switching pages, but those are really small things. Overall the gui is well done, modulation is top notch and I wanted to like it and just didn't. It has good technical sound quality but the character just doesn't please me.

Agreed on all points. However, if someone particularly wants that sound, there isn't much better.

[_leras]

There is very little Massive can't do - even great video game sounds as demonstrated on here just recently. It obviously does 'digital' very well, but the analog type sounds it does are also very good.

I sometimes wish it had some different filters, but they are not bad by any means, acid filter does great 303 style, pretty decent low and hp. FX are of a flavour, but can easily be switched off so an external fx can be used.

This is an excellent synth, easy to scratch the surface, but so much depth to it as well...



.

[_leras]

Oh... and it's also one of those synths where when someone complains about what it can't do... they usually just haven't delved deep enough into it.

i.e two posts up, complaints of envelopes.... well there are nine envelope types, with 22 variations that can be applied to the sustain phase of ADSR... can't think of anything else that does that....



.

[Bronto Scorpio]

I'm with pdxindy, djshire and Uncle E here.
It is a nice synth, the GUI is as intuitive as it gets, it's very versatile.....but it just doesn't "click" with me. I tried it so many times but in all these years I haven't used it a single time in my music and I only made 5 or 6 patches for it.
I don't know what it is but I just don't like it. I like it in theory but practically I just don't have a use for it. It just doesn't inspire me.
That's of course 100% subjective. Many, many people love it! I suggest you to try the demo since no one can really tell you how you'll like it

Cheers
Dennis

[Lotuzia]

I love Massive, it reminds me of the glorious WaveTable synths I liked, and as a digital unit it adds more features, some of them beeing spectacular and very well thought, as _Leras pointed it out .

As with every capable and well thought synth, its possible to make Massive sound very smooth and cool, groovy, and even ethereal or warm. It does have a digital vibe, but so could be said from many synths : In this case its -imho- a good one. A good synth is mainly what you do with it.

Speaking of third party banks, here are some soundclips from our Wave Grooves soundbank, so that people can judge if they could like it, or less : Sound often speaks better than .... rants.

Separate instruments ( one instance each time. Only Massive ) :

Wave Grooves Step 3

Wave Grooves Step 2

Some WG Keys and Basses

Numerous other audio demos at Wave Grooves -210 Massive instruments- page

LtZ

[samsam]

M A S S I V E is in my top two soft-synths. Huge!

[Xenos]

I've been hesitating to buy this synth for many years. Once again I'm considering to get it - and this time because of huge amount of available presets. Is this still valid piece of software ? Any ideas where to get this as cheap as possible - 179€ is quite a lot, is it?

Another question, what this wavetable synthesis offers sound wise over VA ala Synth Squad, Diva etc?

Thank You

I bought my copy direct from Native Instruments for $99 when they had a sale on it. That was around Christmas time, 2010, though. Since Christmas is a long way off now, I'm sure if you put up a "WTB" ad in the KVR Marketplace forum, someone could give you a great deal on a used copy.

How does wavetable synthesis sound? More digital, metallic and cold compared to VA, but yet has a lot more movement. What do I mean by "movement"? Wavetable synthesis operates by scanning through a series of waveforms (called a wavetable) via envelopes and/or LFOs. This gives you a nice "morphing" and breathing quality to the sound. Each "oscillator type" in Massive has its own wavetable and there are a TON of "oscillator types" to choose from inside Massive .