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

[EvilDragon]

BTW guys, Mikael Adle (liv) was one of sound designers for MX, along with Antonio Blanca, Richard Devine, Xenos Soundworks, Nor Ubukata, Mike Daliot himself, etc...

Thought it's worth a mention.

[chk071]

So, what's the consensus?

It's tight, bro. Tight!

[donkey tugger]

Some new sinthesiser eh?

[McLilith]

BTW guys, Mikael Adle (liv) was one of sound designers for MX, along with Antonio Blanca, Richard Devine, Xenos Soundworks, Nor Ubukata, Mike Daliot himself, etc...

Thought it's worth a mention.

Yes. Good sound designers rock! They should get more recognition for their efforts.

[Echoes in the Attic]

What's happened to Komplete Kontrol mapping - am I missing something?

There are only 2 pages in KK for Macros 1 -16, nothing else is mapped at all and many of the presets have a naming mismatch between the Macro name in Massive X and what's displayed in Komplete Kontrol and on the S61 screens. Did NI drop the ball on this - anybody else seeing the same issue?

You're not missing anything. 16 macros is all that's automatable.

Wow, even reaktor exposes all it's parameters (if you want them exposed). Massive X just hides everything but the macros? That sucks.

Did you ever automate 30 parameters at once from a single plugin in the same track? Like, honestly.

Reaktor also has a limit on how many automation parameters can be reported (1000, IIRC). I guess they wanted to keep it simple here for majority of people? Not sure. Either way I don't see this as a huge detriment. A good setup of macros goes a long way.

As others have mentioned, not about the total parameters that are automatable. And it's not just about the extra step of assigning a parameter. It's about having a bunch of parameters already controllable from hardware knobs and sliders for editing presets and doing sound design.

[KBSoundSmith]

Well turns out my computer isn't compatible. Damn
Guess I'll just have to pretend Massive X is a shitty synth until I get a new computer

Fortunately, the blow is softened by Hive 2 being really good. I'd have loved to run them side by side though.

[Local Man]

My two cents.
The whole GUI looks very modern but somehow also outdated and partly "over complicated". Often functions are not self-explanatory, a "quick help" or "tooltip" would often be helpful.

I agree. Diving into this blindly today was quite a byzantine experience. It feels like it is designed for people who just want to fiddle around and stumble into something magical.
That said, it doesn't do such a bad job at that.
It sounds great. I personally like to have a better understanding of what I am doing and to me this thing is completely non-intuitive. I'm sure a deep dive into the manual will be a very rewarding experience (whenever I get a chance to do that).

Ultimately all the cryptic nonsense kind of makes sense because where else do you go with synthesis at this point? I think it's harder and harder to make something that's revolutionary so instead you can make something that is somewhat personal and idiosyncratic. I'm just going to have to put some time into understanding it's quirks.

The presets are pretty funny. Lots of pitch shifting wackiness that sounds very nice on its own but would be kind of tricky to shoehorn into any traditional musical arrangement.
And plenty of just press a key and they already made the song for you patches.

Overall, I am very excited by the possibilities of this thing. So many unbelievably cool tools at our disposal nowadays.

Try this: Click on the route button, then cycle through presets. It really helps to be able to see the routing when you're hearing the sound for the first time. It should start to settle in very quickly how things work together.

Nice tip, thanks!

[Audio Voltage]

Well turns out my computer isn't compatible. Damn
Guess I'll just have to pretend Massive X is a shitty synth until I get a new computer

Fortunately, the blow is softened by Hive 2 being really good. I'd have loved to run them side by side though.

Interesting. What are your computer specs If I may ask?

[Functional]

Well turns out my computer isn't compatible. Damn
Guess I'll just have to pretend Massive X is a shitty synth until I get a new computer

Fortunately, the blow is softened by Hive 2 being really good. I'd have loved to run them side by side though.

Interesting. What are your computer specs If I may ask?

If you're worried about this, check whenever your processor is AVX-compatible or not. If not, then it's a no-go. If it is, then your computer should handle this. Massive X itself, apparently partially because of AVX-utilization, is actually surprisingly light synth considering what it does.

[KBSoundSmith]

Well turns out my computer isn't compatible. Damn
Guess I'll just have to pretend Massive X is a shitty synth until I get a new computer

Fortunately, the blow is softened by Hive 2 being really good. I'd have loved to run them side by side though.

Interesting. What are your computer specs If I may ask?

It isn't AVX compatible, that's the specific issue. Other Intel models in the same line (released in the same year and quarter) were, just apparently not the specific one I have . To be fair, it wasn't an issue even on my radar until now, and the computer has otherwise been fine. But it's a few years old now, so maybe it's a sign to start saving up...

[EvilDragon]

Maybe just drop in a CPU replacement (provided your mobo supports it ofc) to get more juice out of existing machine?

[pdxindy]

Is there a way to use my expression pedal and breath controller?

[EvilDragon]

No MIDI learn as of yet, but you could probably convert EXP and BC to host automation in Bitwig to move certain macros?

[pdxindy]

Just tried the demo...quick impressions: lovely sound quality. High fidelity without sounding sterile. My immediate sense... I really like the sound and an impressive amount of capability.

The GUI seems kinda unintuitive and not immediately informative what is going on.

[realtrance]

Time to get an I9-9900...…

Works fine on my ol' I7-based machine, though.

Oh and no wonder there were all those glitchy noise patches.... Richard Devine, Learn to Play! (I jest.... they're great; there's a lot of interesting experimental sound in the default set, and as usual, Richard seems to be able to make 100 presets an hour, all complicated and interesting!).