Native Instruments Massive X Synth - Sequel to Massive (Out Now!)

[ghettosynth]

I like it for pads.
A lot to explore; I can't shake the feeling that the presets don't do it justice as this semi-modular setup holds more potential.
We'll see.

If I compare it with Pigments, I can't believe what a mess they made of the UI. ADSR doesn't even change with the settings. Hoping this is a bug and not by design.

All this talk about Pigments, so I downloaded the demo. U/I wise, Pigments mostly trumps Massive X, then animation is great, but sound, GTFOH! The filters are miles apart. There's nothing close to the depth of Massive X in there.

Yes, the filters from Arturia are not the best. In general their synths also need a bit of oumph added. I use a dedicated fx rack for this.

IMO the NI instruments filters are not the best either. I like Monark and Scanner but not jumping up and down for all the filters here.

I like filters with character like the ones from Vult.

Well, I wasn't saying anything about "best," just comparing the two synths in question. To my ears, it makes a huge difference in the two synths just running through the presets. Massive X feel like Diva to me in that it just sounds good. You can push the different elements and they still sound good.

[Stefken]

Does it make sense to have both Massive X and Pigments?

I mean they both sound great, but aren't they basically doing the same thing differently?

Dunno. But they come from a different producer which both have a different sound.
With the Komplete upgrade price I won't bother chosing.
At 200 euro though, the UI of massive x is too big a disappointment.

[GNXT]

After playing for a while, despite really very nice sound, its a massive dissapointment. Massive from 2007 is better synth overal, would pick any day over this one. Main reason is because of how UI is convoluted. The performer mode. Browser is ok, but Massive 2007 is better, it has tags, ability to add favorites.

In some areas it might seem to be a step up but when sum it all, its a step down. I really dont understand why to make such an uninviting synth with Massive legacy is beyond me.

That's my first thoughts as well, i love the sound, but i wanna see if i'm going to get used to it, the GUI is really weird and difficult for my eyes, and attention span, that comes from a guy who kinda likes melda GUI's! Massive X's GUI is really cool, minimal-ish colours, but bloated with loads of small thingies everywhere, and small titles! It tires me only looking at it, though i should mention i see a lot of potential using it, and inspiring to work in new ways and go out of my synth routines. So im & but mostly

[ghettosynth]

I like it for pads.
A lot to explore; I can't shake the feeling that the presets don't do it justice as this semi-modular setup holds more potential.
We'll see.

If I compare it with Pigments, I can't believe what a mess they made of the UI. ADSR doesn't even change with the settings. Hoping this is a bug and not by design.

All this talk about Pigments, so I downloaded the demo. U/I wise, Pigments mostly trumps Massive X, then animation is great, but sound, GTFOH! The filters are miles apart. There's nothing close to the depth of Massive X in there.

Yes, I hope NI gets off their ass and brings the U/I up to speed, but, to have really excellent modules in a standalone poly with enough modularity to be really useful, that's a win for me.

On paper, Pigments seems cool, two multi-model filters, but, in practice, they have not nailed the non-linearities in the filter models like NI has.

I think Massive X is like the opposite of Pigments. Pigments is very clear to use - It's my go to synth (I like the filters) and Massive is super powerful but not intuitive - it has menus within menus that you can easily miss and it semi-modular nature.

I don't hear it in the sounds as of yet. In fact, I think the presets of hive 2 and pigments are more interesting.
And Pigments has a LOT of options too. Modulationwise it's a monster.

There's a patch called Orchestra Bubbles in the sound fx category. It's straightforward, two osc and two noise driving monark with the output of monark FMing itself. Try that, play with the cutoff and resonance, then try to get something close to that in pigments.

[chk071]

Well, I wasn't saying anything about "best," just comparing the two synths in question. To my ears, it makes a huge difference in the two synths just running through the presets. Massive X feel like Diva to me in that it just sounds good. You can push the different elements and they still sound good.

This.

And that's also basically all the magic, a big sweet spot. Massive X just delivers in that regard. Sounds very good for purely analog stuff as well, IMO.

[Noumena]

I am very pleasantly surprised. This synth sounds just like I want it to. I like the modularity of the routing -- feels like a nod to Zebra and will make for a lot of variety in what it is able to do.

The synth feels very relaxed and is able to make elaborate sounds with a lot of depth. The choices in oscs, filters and (especially) noise are really good.

The quality of the presets is very impressive. They really suit my taste and I feel like a lot of work was involved. I just played Alternate Tone for the last 40 minutes, tweaking the macros and messing with the routing and parameters. I feel like I more or less made a song in that time very much supported by the compelling sounds from this.

I'd buy it if I didn't get it for free. Wonderful synth, doesn't remind me of Massive at all... it is more in line with Zebra and the new Hive in that it takes cues from modular and integrates it into a conventional synth architecture to try to give the user a musical instrument with a... point of view, or a personality.... I can tell that a lot of thought went into this and that it is quite well designed, yet, even as a user with 30 years of experience with synths and music software I find there to be a lot of interesting enigmatic things to figure out and explore.

NOW. THAT SAID. WHY IS THIS FUTURE LOOKING SYNTH NOT MPE-enabled. It is very frustrating -- this synth is screaming for per-note expressivity. Please someone tell me that I missed the memo.

[LoveEnigma18]

Does it make sense to have both Massive X and Pigments?

I mean they both sound great, but aren't they basically doing the same thing differently?

It makes sense for me. I love the UI of Pigments at a cost of some of the depth. There's overlap though...

Thanks for the comment. I asked because I am planning to pick up Pigments, as it is available for a no-brainer price of $69. UI wise, I am liking both Massive X and Pigments. Admittedly, Massive X seems a tad little difficult to get around. But I think maybe it's because I (we?) have not spent much time with it.

All in all, both are absolute beasts.

[Tj Shredder]

Vurt sagt, du kennst deinen Arsch nicht von deinem Ellbogen.

ill need to google translate that to see if you'll be hearing from my lawyer

The sentence makes no sense at all. It hurts my eyes to read such a bad german. Now i know how you guys feel reading my english here.

Little Correction:

"Vurt sagt, du kannst deinen Hintern nicht von deinem Ellenbogen unterscheiden."

So ein Quatsch! Er wollte sagen Du kriegst deine Arsch nicht aus dem Ellbogen raus...

Or in english: keep your elbow out of your butt...
Vurt, you’d better call your lawyer, but netter verify the translation with google, they never fail (to make you rofl...)

[jeffb01]

I don't hear it in the sounds as of yet. In fact, I think the presets of hive 2 and pigments are more interesting.
And Pigments has a LOT of options too. Modulationwise it's a monster.

Um... I'm the president of the Pigments fan club so you don't have to convince me. ha. but I'm just saying where pigments has 4 ways to manipulate the wavetable and Massive has 10 (not including PM), and each of those 10 have sub menus with additional sub menus and modular routing on top of that.

I agree that Pigments is a monster and sounds amazing, but don't judge what Massive can sound like by day one presets.

[LoveEnigma18]

Does it make sense to have both Massive X and Pigments?

I mean they both sound great, but aren't they basically doing the same thing differently?

Dunno. But they come from a different producer which both have a different sound.
With the Komplete upgrade price I won't bother.
At 200 euro though, the UI of massive x is too big a disappointment.

Thanks for the comment. It is very hard to let go Pigments when it is available for $69.

But I am looking forward to using Massive X too. It's sounding awesome to me.

[Stefken]

I like it for pads.
A lot to explore; I can't shake the feeling that the presets don't do it justice as this semi-modular setup holds more potential.
We'll see.

If I compare it with Pigments, I can't believe what a mess they made of the UI. ADSR doesn't even change with the settings. Hoping this is a bug and not by design.

All this talk about Pigments, so I downloaded the demo. U/I wise, Pigments mostly trumps Massive X, then animation is great, but sound, GTFOH! The filters are miles apart. There's nothing close to the depth of Massive X in there.

Yes, the filters from Arturia are not the best. In general their synths also need a bit of oumph added. I use a dedicated fx rack for this.

IMO the NI instruments filters are not the best either. I like Monark and Scanner but not jumping up and down for all the filters here.

I like filters with character like the ones from Vult.

Well, I wasn't saying anything about "best," just comparing the two synths in question. To my ears, it makes a huge difference in the two synths just running through the presets. Massive X feel like Diva to me in that it just sounds good. You can push the different elements and they still sound good.

Yes, they come from a different producer. Arturia is pretty thin so I resolve this with some post processing.

Yes, to me too, Massive X sounds more warm and analog-ish.

[chk071]

Vurt sagt, du kennst deinen Arsch nicht von deinem Ellbogen.

ill need to google translate that to see if you'll be hearing from my lawyer

The sentence makes no sense at all. It hurts my eyes to read such a bad german. Now i know how you guys feel reading my english here.

Little Correction:

"Vurt sagt, du kannst deinen Hintern nicht von deinem Ellenbogen unterscheiden."

So ein Quatsch! Er wollte sagen Du kriegst deine Arsch nicht aus dem Ellbogen raus...

Or in english: keep your elbow out of your butt...
Vurt, you’d better call your lawyer, but netter verify the translation with google, they never fail (to make you rofl...)

Ich würde sagen, er meinte, dass Vurt seinen Ellenbogen nicht von seinem Arsch unterscheiden kann.

[chk071]

Does it make sense to have both Massive X and Pigments?

I mean they both sound great, but aren't they basically doing the same thing differently?

It makes sense for me. I love the UI of Pigments at a cost of some of the depth. There's overlap though...

Thanks for the comment. I asked because I am planning to pick up Pigments, as it is available for a no-brainer price of $69. UI wise, I am liking both Massive X and Pigments. Admittedly, Massive X seems a tad little difficult to get around. But I think maybe it's because I (we?) have not spent much time with it.

I think that's definitely the case. The more time i spend with it, the more fluid the programming goes. Actually, a lot makes sense now to me.

[ghettosynth]

Does it make sense to have both Massive X and Pigments?

I mean they both sound great, but aren't they basically doing the same thing differently?

It makes sense for me. I love the UI of Pigments at a cost of some of the depth. There's overlap though...

Thanks for the comment. I asked because I am planning to pick up Pigments, as it is available for a no-brainer price of $69. UI wise, I am liking both Massive X and Pigments. Admittedly, Massive X seems a tad little difficult to get around. But I think maybe it's because I (we?) have not spent much time with it.

I think that's definitely the case. The more time i spend with it, the more fluid the programming goes. Actually, a lot makes sense now to me.

I agree, it's all starting to feel really natural. I'm not as desperate for all of the animation that other people like, some is good, but I think that the U/I could be on par with Massive. The missing EG graphs is borderline unforgivable in my opinion. This is not 1983, a picture of an EG is silly.

[Tj Shredder]

Vurt sagt, du kennst deinen Arsch nicht von deinem Ellbogen.

ill need to google translate that to see if you'll be hearing from my lawyer

The sentence makes no sense at all. It hurts my eyes to read such a bad german. Now i know how you guys feel reading my english here.

Little Correction:

"Vurt sagt, du kannst deinen Hintern nicht von deinem Ellenbogen unterscheiden."

So ein Quatsch! Er wollte sagen Du kriegst deine Arsch nicht aus dem Ellbogen raus...

Or in english: keep your elbow out of your butt...
Vurt, you’d better call your lawyer, but netter verify the translation with google, they never fail (to make you rofl...)

Ich würde sagen, er meinte, dass Vurt seinen Ellenbogen nicht von seinem Arsch unterscheiden kann.

Das hat schon mladi behauptet, aber man kann in unvollständige Sätze heineinlesen was man will...
(I hate to explain Massive jokes...)