Predator vs Massive?

[9white5]

Hey guys, I've had my eye on both of these synths for a while now, I really like the look of both of them but everybody and their pet snail uses massive these days ::: What are the differences between these two synths? Can anyone who owns both recommend one or the other? Primarily for dance music.

[Orbit-50]

Just so you know, there's a reason why "everybody and their pet snail uses massive". Also, there are way more 3rd party presets for Massive.
You're welcome!


.-.

[Hangman85]

To me the two synths are quite different. Personally I found Massive to be much better for creating your owns sounds and if I remember correctly (I haven't used either lately) it had far more options than Predator when it comes to sound design. Both are suitable for many genres but I would say that to my ears Massive has more of a "modern" sound whilst Predator is more old school. I would also suggest Massive has a much bigger sound without having to tweak around an awful lot compared to Predator.

Your best bet is to download the demos and let your ears decide.

[tehlord]

Massive is dirtier, bigger, more metallic and screamy wheras Predator is more silky, smooth and 'analogue'.

You can obviously do most sounds you need with either, but for my money Predator has far nicer FX and a true arpeggiator (Massive has more of a step/retrigger matrix that doesn't play notes).

I wouldn't worry about presets with either. The standard Predator library is about 5000-6000 I think!

[osiris]

I would say Massive, but after seeing and hearing the new Blue 2 it will be interesting to see what Rob will do with Predator. He's been hinting around about an update. I think it will blow everyone away..

[djshire]

Yay, I get to tell this story (again)....

I bought NI Komplete 7 when I was starting out in production. I thought like everyone that I was going to use Massive as my main synth. Then I went and actually used Massive. I went through all the presets, even made my own sounds....and it didn't gel with me, it didn't "speak" to me.

So I decided to take a look at RP Predator. I fell in love almost immediately upon using it.

Demo both. Figure out which one works for you. Don't believe the hype.

[bungle]

Massive can do silky smooth if needed, but not many can do digital and dirty too

[Ingonator]

To me both synths are too different to be compared but if i had to choose i would go with Massive.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I would say Massive, but after seeing and hearing the new Blue 2 it will be interesting to see what Rob will do with Predator. He's been hinting around about an update. I think it will blow everyone away..

Demoed predator a few times, and really liked it. It's one of the only synths that begged me, a non-sound-designer, to tweak the thing, and i love the g.u.i If i hadn't felt like it was being left a little behind, then i would have definitely bought it

I reckon that i would jump on it if it got a bit of spit 'n' polish. Besides, i would love to buy more to support rob papen, as he has been really generous with dishing out freebie fx

[Kriminal]

I found predator gritty/dirty in a good way (but not good enough to replace anything i already had) massive was metallic in bad way (like tone2 stuff)

really tho, you need to demo both and see for yourself.

[Touch The Universe]

To me predator is about beings silky smooth for basses and leads, massive more digital sounding and screaming leads

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

.....

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

To me predator is about beings silky smooth for basses and leads, massive more digital sounding and screaming leads

Predator can scream also

This track is a demo for a preset bank i wrote for reason lahalla, back in the day.

It's very poorly mixed, but it shows off some great patches. The screaming sax-like lead was fantastic to play.

All non-drum/perc sounds are predator (doubt the bank is still available)

Makes me want predator again (i used the 30-day demo to write the track)

https://soundcloud.com/el-bo/3-mixdown-v1

[Touch The Universe]

Thats a cool sound elbo, I'd ask for that preset but sounds like you wouldn't have it.. Check your pm

[pdxindy]

Massive has a good sound quality... and a sharp distinct tone. Even though the technical sound quality is good, it infrequently makes me go, oh, I really love that sound. There are sounds I like well enough and it is certainly a capable synth but somehow the sound just doesn't really do it for me.

I've had Massive pretty much since it came out. I hardly ever use it. I could get along with the sound and tweak it into places I like, but mainly I don't like the GUI.

Massive is not geared towards expressive playing. For example, the realtime modulation is annoyingly limited. Want to apply Modwheel to filter cutoff? Can't do it directly (wtf?). Same thing with Breath control or an Expression pedal. Same with Pitch wheel. There are no direct modulators for any of those. You get around that by Midi learning Modwheel to one of the macros. But then consider that the factory and some 3rd party presets usually have all the Macros assigned to something. So if you just want modwheel to control cutoff, and nothing else, you have to un-assign one of the macros and then midi learn the modwheel.

But the midi learn assignments are global. So when one assigns Modwheel to control a Macro, it controls it for all presets. So then on different presets Modwheel controls things I don't want it to. If I had loved the sound of Massive, I might have been willing to remake all the presets I like to accommodate how I like to use realtime controllers, but as is, it has basically been a show stopper for me.

Not as important to me, but still annoying about the GUI... all the envelopes and lfo's are on tabs. You can never see two at once. Say in the case of the amp envelope and the filter envelope... for lots of sounds I go back and forth tweaking them as they are so inter-related to the sound. So with Massive, one has to tab back and forth to tweak them.

I prefer a synth GUI where the main envelopes and an LFO or two are all just visible on the main page. For example, Predator. The Filter has dedicated knobs for env amount, LFO, velocity, keytrack and modwheel. The filter envelope is right there. So is the filter LFO. etc... With Predator, all the main controls are right there and invite tweaking. Take a preset you like, tweak a bit and get on with it.

I like the sound of Predator and especially for standard synth sounds, I find it pleasingly musical.

As usual, demo both for yourself...