KVR Audio

liv · Post by **liv** » Sat May 20, 2017 12:40 am

Personally I believe the whole NKS era has landed now and therefore time for new and/or updated synthesizers from them.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Sat May 20, 2017 1:18 am

aMUSEd wrote:Personally I still prefer Massive to Serum

Me too. I bought Serum on impulse because the idea of a wavetable synth that would use more CPU to do wavetable scans with greater fidelity sounded cool. But I found myself going through so many Serum patches as well as rolling some of my own and just finding that I still liked Massive's overall sound better, despite the latter being relatively "old tech". Serum really isn't a modern replacement for Massive any more than it's a replacement for a PPG Wave. They're all wavetable scanning synths but they all sound quite different. When it comes to newer wavetable synths, Icarus seems to be spitting out more sounds that I find compelling and end up using.

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Sat May 20, 2017 1:47 am

Massive has way better presets than serum too.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat May 20, 2017 7:09 am

Massive has some of the best presets of any synth - esp third party ones - I can see why NI might want to keep it as it is - at least this way they release bug fixes once in a while - if they brought out a Massive 2 then Massive 1 would get abandoned.

Elektronisch · Post by **Elektronisch** » Sat May 20, 2017 7:57 am

Igro wrote:10 years have past since the release. I'm wondering if NI are working on the upgrade of this wavetable pioneer? Maybe it's time to catch up the rivals? New filters (old ones are very outdated), resizable GUI, new waveforms, waveform editor and you name it. It's weird that such a huge company cannot even make a bigger GUI for it for HD monitors.

as i non representative of Native Instruments i can say that we are 100 percent working on new Massive 2 release even tho there are no official word from the NI themself

I'm wondering if NI are working on the upgrade of this wavetable pioneer?

yep they are working on those (i just got a call from CEO himself)

Maybe it's time to catch up the rivals?

yep catching up also, just 1 step left

New filters (old ones are very outdated), resizable GUI, new waveforms, waveform editor and you name it

yep CEO just told me they are working on those.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Sat May 20, 2017 11:22 am

The classics are probably just going to be incorporated into the reaktor engine, that has already happened in many ways. But, I could see them throwing out a physical modeling synthesizer in the future. They have already dipped their toes in that water a couple of times. So, I wouldn't say they are done with advanced synthesis.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Sat May 20, 2017 1:36 pm

tehlord wrote:I would put money on there never being a Massive follow up.

Native instruments wants to sell you content because a) it costs less to develop and b) costs less to support.

I would actually rather see them do something with Absynth. Massive has already been surpassed by Serum and other wavetable synths now.

I agree with you on both points. I've stopped upgrading Komplete. I'm 2 versions behind. Nothing in the new versions compel me to upgrade. I'm waiting for updates to Massive and Absynth... that will probably never come.

I'm not sure what's up with them, other than that they're going where the money is. The EDM kids don't want to do sound design. They're happy with spending their allowance on Maschine expansions. They probably found out that the percentage of customers who start out with an initialized preset are tiny. As someone else said, expansions are much easier to develop and much easier to support.

I don't think they lack the brainpower. It's clear that Reaktor 6 is an excellent upgrade, and I totally appreciate it, but I'm also disappointed. Hell, the company that made Pro-53 are about to have the hands-down best Prophet 5 emulation go to a small company. Steve Duda came along and ate their wavetable lunch. Even their once top of the line Model D emulation has been eclipsed because someone else realized they could do it better if they did it from scratch.

Anyway, I have no ill will toward them. I still proudly wear my NI tee shirt. I'm excited that Maschine is still developed for and free updates flow. I use it all the time. Reaktor is still one of the best software apps I've ever used. I just wish they'd give their older, cool plug ins some love. Absynth was my first VSTi. I was blown away when I first heard it. I used to use it as an example of something software did that no hardware could touch. Now I don't. Not that there's hardware that can best it, but because I'll tend to go to other plug ins like Padshop Pro or Iris when I'm interested in that kind of sound design.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sat May 20, 2017 1:48 pm

Massive is still pretty darn popular so I wouldn't say Xfer ate NI's lunch. Nor do I think Monark was totally eclipsed by The Legend - they are just different flavours of the same thing, both modelled in great detail, and as different as two Minis can be.

fluffy_little_something · Sat May 20, 2017 1:59 pm

Isn't it more of a legacy product for NI? Maybe something they would even stop selling if it weren't still popular? Maybe the person who coded it originally is no longer with NI, anyway.
I suppose if they wanted to make an up-to-date synth of a similar kind, they would make one from scratch rather than build on 10 year old code.

Is anything wrong with the way Massive is now?

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:13 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Massive is still pretty darn popular so I wouldn't say Xfer ate NI's lunch. Nor do I think Monark was totally eclipsed by The Legend - they are just different flavours of the same thing, both modelled in great detail, and as different as two Minis can be.

Indeed. Maybe one shouldn't resort to the this vs. that, or the "killer" thing the whole time. Although Serum surely hit a similar spot as Massive did, because it's a big thing with the wub-wub crowd. For whatever reason.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:39 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Massive is still pretty darn popular so I wouldn't say Xfer ate NI's lunch. Nor do I think Monark was totally eclipsed by The Legend - they are just different flavours of the same thing, both modelled in great detail, and as different as two Minis can be.

I didn't mean it in the sense of popularity. I have no idea what the sales of those two instruments are like. I'd bet Massive has a much higher saturation, considering it's older and comes free with Maschine and is part of Komplete, which has been on sale for prices that make it a bargain despite what you think of a few of the individual instruments.

When I say that Serum ate Massive's lunch, what I mean is they came up with what I think is the hands-down best and most innovative approach to wavetable construction that I've ever seen. I think it's got some great sounding filters that give it a wider range of possible character than Massive. (Massive always seems to sound like Massive to me, no matter what. I like it, but if you don't, you can't easily dial out it's Massiveness) It's got a brilliant and easy to use interface, where Massive's is not as good or clear to use. Serum has a wider range of effects that are well integrated into the modulation system.

Massive has some great tricks too. It's routing system is the best of any wavetable synth, hardware or software. It does come with a s-load of presets, if that's your deal. (I'm not that big a fan of Massive or Serum's presets. No biggie.) Anyway, I own both and I'm glad I have both. Hell, I own a bunch of wavetable synths. I love them. I'm just in the camp that wants NI to step up and start putting what they learned in Reaktor in their stand alone synths. Put Monark's filter in Massive 2 and Absynth, and I'm finally updating Komplete. Until then, I'm good where I am.

HcDoom · Post by **HcDoom** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:39 pm

Hopefully there will be Massive 2 and Absynth 6...but since we didnt see anything spectacular from NI in years...its that they either abandoned both synths or they are working hard on it behind the closed doors. I am somehow lean to the first option but...would be very happy if 2nd one is the real one.

mike_the_ranger · Post by **mike_the_ranger** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:45 pm

aMUSEd wrote:Massive has some of the best presets of any synth - esp third party ones

Unfortunately imo this is one of the biggest downsides, too

There are some music genres (like dubstep) where many producers use Massive only and only with the same presets. Boring, since Massive can do waaaaaaay more and interesting stuff. Version 2 would be great but please don't blow it up with tons of new features. It should stay a dedicated plugin and not a workstation or all-in-one device suitable for every purpose.

dune_rave · Post by **dune_rave** » Sat May 20, 2017 3:30 pm

I suppose 2 future for these legacy synths of NI:
1) They won't be updated
2) only gui update + minor fixes (like the new version of Sylenth1)

On the other hand I'm interested in a new version of FM8.
Unfortunately FM8 has two problems that made me angry, so they should fix that.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat May 20, 2017 3:32 pm

mike_the_ranger wrote:
aMUSEd wrote:Massive has some of the best presets of any synth - esp third party ones
Unfortunately imo this is one of the biggest downsides, too There are some music genres (like dubstep) where many producers use Massive only and only with the same presets. Boring, since Massive can do waaaaaaay more and interesting stuff.

It can but the best presets I'm thinking of show that, the dubstep etc ones are largely irrelevant.

Any news on Massive 2?