Massive X Preset Handling Question

[kenny saunders]

Wait a sec... In order to save factory\dlc presets to my own structured categorised folders, do I really have to

1 right-click on preset
2 select open in browser
3 come out of DAW to use Windows file explorer
4 drag or copy preset to new folder window
5 repeat?

Is there some reason why 'save as' wasn't considered?

[_leras]

I believe it works better in Komplete Kontrol.

Otherwise, yes, big step down from Massive browser and patch handling.

[ChanceB]

You can modify the preset slightly by touching any knob or button,then the disk icon shows and you can save it to your user folder. The problem though is that structured ,categorized folders don’t work with Massive X. Everything in the user folder,whether in sub folders or not gets shown in the preset browser in one big list. It might be better using Komplete Kontrol but I don’t know because I don’t have it installed anymore. In order for it to work correctly you need to make NKS Banks I think. Here’s an a discussion /add about it,and a link to an app used to make the banks.
It’s a shame it’s like this,I really like Massive X but don’t feel inspired to make many patches without being able to categorize them.

https://community.native-instruments.co ... -massive-x

[pdxindy]

The Massive X browser is abominable for user presets.

[ChanceB]

The Massive X browser is abominable for user presets.

It really is,I would imagine if it had been better from the beginning there would have been more of an aftermarket preset market for it and in turn Massive X probably could have been more popular, because the presets in the NI expansions are almost all weird.I like a lot of them but they aren’t useful for popular music

[aMUSEd]

The Massive X browser is abominable for user presets.

It really is,I would imagine if it had been better from the beginning there would have been more of an aftermarket preset market for it and in turn Massive X probably could have been more popular, because the presets in the NI expansions are almost all weird.I like a lot of them but they aren’t useful for popular music

Exactly - I have been saying this for years, the ultimate success of any plugin synth is dependent on the cultivation of a thriving community of users sharing and creating patches and using it to make music (the 2 things tend to go hand in hand) That worked so well for Massive and for synths like Serum but for Massive X NI have stifled the user community and basically shot themselves in the foot.

[Caine123]

crap preset browser, shows quality of NI

[kenny saunders]

You can modify the preset slightly by touching any knob or button,then the disk icon shows and you can save it to your user folder. The problem though is that structured ,categorized folders don’t work with Massive X. Everything in the user folder,whether in sub folders or not gets shown in the preset browser in one big list. It might be better using Komplete Kontrol but I don’t know because I don’t have it installed anymore. In order for it to work correctly you need to make NKS Banks I think. Here’s an a discussion /add about it,and a link to an app used to make the banks.
It’s a shame it’s like this,I really like Massive X but don’t feel inspired to make many patches without being able to categorize them.

https://community.native-instruments.co ... -massive-x

Thanks. Yeah I came to realise that there is no recognition of folder structure, I guess I'll have to put alphabetical signifiers at the start of the preset names. I'm noit very lnowledgeable about nks, maybe if I get an s88mk3 I'll look into that side of things.

[kenny saunders]

The Massive X browser is abominable for user presets.

It really is,I would imagine if it had been better from the beginning there would have been more of an aftermarket preset market for it and in turn Massive X probably could have been more popular, because the presets in the NI expansions are almost all weird.I like a lot of them but they aren’t useful for popular music

Exactly - I have been saying this for years, the ultimate success of any plugin synth is dependent on the cultivation of a thriving community of users sharing and creating patches and using it to make music (the 2 things tend to go hand in hand) That worked so well for Massive and for synths like Serum but for Massive X NI have stifled the user community and basically shot themselves in the foot.

Its a shame as it is capable of some unique sounds/timbres.

Does it actually do anything different to a normal subtractive wavetable synth or does it just feel that way because of the different terminology?

[Vortifex]

Massive X really does sound excellent, IMO the most impressive sounding VST synth ever made. Unfortunately it feels really bad to use due to the lag and crappy preset system. NI's reluctance to make the synth the best it can be is criminal.

[pdxindy]

Does it actually do anything different to a normal subtractive wavetable synth or does it just feel that way because of the different terminology?

It has some nice sonic features and the dsp is excellent with a high level sound quality. In that regard it is worth it. But everything around that is terrible. Besides the antique browser, it is missing things I expect in any recent/new release. You cannot directly automate parameters. No midi learn so it's impossible to set up to work with a midi controller. No mousewheel or arrow key support. No PolyAT. The LFO's look complex, but are actually surprisingly limited and inflexible. No per voice MSEG's to cover up the weak LFO's. Massive X went backwards more than forwards compared to the original Massive.

Then the MX workflow has too many tabs and little menus. The GUI is also lacking visual feedback. It's not that complex a synth, but it ends up feeling tedious, with too much clicking.

[kenny saunders]

Does it actually do anything different to a normal subtractive wavetable synth or does it just feel that way because of the different terminology?

It has some nice sonic features and the dsp is excellent with a high level sound quality. In that regard it is worth it. But everything around that is terrible. Besides the antique browser, it is missing things I expect in any recent/new release. You cannot directly automate parameters. No midi learn so it's impossible to set up to work with a midi controller. No mousewheel or arrow key support. No PolyAT. The LFO's look complex, but are actually surprisingly limited and inflexible. No per voice MSEG's to cover up the weak LFO's. Massive X went backwards more than forwards compared to the original Massive.

Then the MX workflow has too many tabs and little menus. The GUI is also lacking visual feedback. It's not that complex a synth, but it ends up feeling tedious, with too much clicking.

I was hoping maybe they'd do an update or something as I've had it for a while and never used it, but that seems highly unlikely at this point. Its still worth having though.

[dionenoid]

Wait a sec... In order to save factory\dlc presets to my own structured categorised folders, do I really have to

1 right-click on preset
2 select open in browser
3 come out of DAW to use Windows file explorer
4 drag or copy preset to new folder window
5 repeat?

Is there some reason why 'save as' wasn't considered?

Use the VST3 version and save as VST3 presets.

[kenny saunders]

Wait a sec... In order to save factory\dlc presets to my own structured categorised folders, do I really have to

1 right-click on preset
2 select open in browser
3 come out of DAW to use Windows file explorer
4 drag or copy preset to new folder window
5 repeat?

Is there some reason why 'save as' wasn't considered?

Use the VST3 version and save as VST3 presets.

That would be a good idea but I do not trust Cubase vst preset handling. Like it won't recognise a plugin going from vst2 to vst3 for example, and if there's any change in the synth name it also fails, and sometime it just bugs out. I had an issue with Spire once where for some reason it created a directory with or without a space or an underscore that was different to the plugin name. You can spend so much time curating presets that I vowed to always use the native synths preset handling system.

[synaesthesia]

Exactly - I have been saying this for years, the ultimate success of any plugin synth is dependent on the cultivation of a thriving community of users sharing and creating patches and using it to make music (the 2 things tend to go hand in hand) That worked so well for Massive and for synths like Serum but for Massive X NI have stifled the user community and basically shot themselves in the foot.

Totally. It's capable of some nice sounds but, there's zero incentive for a synth programmer like me to make any sounds for it because it's godawful patch management system.

They clearly rushed it out early (for some reason, does anybody remember why?) but, then compounded that error by simply not udating and fixing the issues it was released with.

A complete and utter balls-up.