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

[DJ Warmonger]

My first impression - just checking best presets - was that Massive X is very, unnaturally soft and clean. Even more than Lush-101. I expected something entirely different, ripping hard like Harmor for instance.

I find really strange to judge a synth by its presets...

I don't quite have time to spend hours with a new synth just on the release day

Besides, I don't "judge" anything. This is no a trial where someone is proved wrong and sentenced to death... There is a place for many different synth, each with its own character, living together in peace

[SLiC]

Pigments at 69 bucks

where?

Thats what I get offered it for still when I log in at Arturia (and I already have a copy) but I do have V collection (as do many people) so its a cheap deal!

[chk071]

Do some audio-rate modulations and Gorilla or ART wavetable mode. Absolutely not soft then

Are you an official NI spokesperson? Why are you so keen to promote MX otherwise?

Why is it so hard to think that someone can just be convinced of something? ED also had lots of praise for all u-he products, and, apart from being a beta tester (one of many) I don't think he's in any other way affiliated with them.

Should one have to justify for liking a plugin? I don't think so.

[drdriller]

I don't quite have time to spend hours with a new synth just on the release day

Besides, I don't "judge" anything. This is no a trial where someone is proved wrong and sentenced to death... There is a place for many different synth, each with its own character, living together in peace

first you do what you want then we are really different.

from my side I don't think browsing presets can tell you anything about the synth, some sound designer can make fabulous presets with a poor synth.. and some fabulous synth have poor presets library..

and i don't get how it take less time to browse presets than try the differents modules and wavetable..

anyway !

[chk071]

BTW, regarding the aliasing: The additional harmonics with a sine wave seem like the typical harmonics when there's saturation in the signal path. Doesn't aliasing only occur when you play notes in the upper registers? There are always harmonics here, in the whole note range.

[alexfalcao]

After months of expectation I finally learned that I cannot install Massive X on my beloved 1st Gen Intel i7 PC....
"Installation has been prevented"
Massive X currently requires an AVX component processor. This computer's processor does not support the AVX instructions set."

[EvilDragon]

BTW, regarding the aliasing: The additional harmonics with a sine wave seem like the typical harmonics when there's saturation in the signal path. Doesn't aliasing only occur when you play notes in the upper registers? There are always harmonics here, in the whole note range.

My personal hunch is that it's not a perfect sine in the wavetable, it's more of an analog sine, which you get from a triangle core oscillator and some soft clipping.

[ghettosynth]

If ever a synth needed a fixed filter bank!

[vurt]

Do some audio-rate modulations and Gorilla or ART wavetable mode. Absolutely not soft then

Are you an official NI spokesperson? Why are you so keen to promote MX otherwise?

Why is it so hard to think that someone can just be convinced of something? ED also had lots of praise for all u-he products, and, apart from being a beta tester (one of many) I don't think he's in any other way affiliated with them.

Should one have to justify for liking a plugin? I don't think so.

when you cant argue with the information you attack the individual.

[Daru925]

I like it, will probably buy after more testing and updates from ni.
Ive been indoctrinated to like drag and drop modulations so i was able to figure out new sounds that i wouldnt have been able to create easily with other synths. Not that the other modern synths wouldnt be able to do the same sounds, just me, my workflow, my newbie level^^for figuring out new stuff.
It inspires me so its a big win in my book.
I especially like the improved comb filter that i used alot in the previous massive. Also the gui is the same style as ableton live. Kind of greyish blank sad, that is brought to life as you build your sound, i don't mind it personnally.
Another thing i like, i will still use my other synth fm8 massive and live's synths for simple stuff as massive takes 15-25% cpu (which is less than i expected!).
I have old i5 from 2011 so nothing too surprising.
I agree it feels a bit rushed in certains areas, but overall, its a very fun synth to use, just like his older brother is, imho. Lets see how they improve it in the future.

My wishlist:

-Copy/paste/save performers? This is very important important in my opinion, and would speed up the creation process. I haven't seen the option anywhere, apologies if its there already. DRAG AnD DROP A PERFORMER INTO ANOTHER SLOT AND VOILA.
-init/panic buttons.
-a second filter in parrallel/serie. (i know about the secondary filters but still)
-a separate eq so we have three effects instead of 2.
-animated enveloppes eye candy.
-an in-depth manual (they say it will be released soon); took me a while to figure out how to do sidechaining mod (the yellow up/down arrows from massive mod slots are now red half circles), and the performer itself with all the hidden areas for zooming select etc.

[pdxindy]

This synth has no MPE support.

A "NEXT-GENERATION FLAGSHIP SYNTHESIZER ... freedom for advanced sound design ... a new level of dynamic, shifting sound, with truly flexible routing and extensive modulation ...built for a new decade" apparently ...

That doesn't conform to MIDI 1.0 specifications???

Supporting MPE is new and was not around with Midi 1.0

On the other hand, MX doesn't support Breath Control and Expression Pedal which is pretty basic. I'm curious if PolyAT is supported. Doesn't look like it, but I only spent like 60 minutes with the demo in total.

[fireapplered]

So I just installed the demo on a 2010 MacBook and...



Anyone else have this?

[drdriller]

So I just installed the demo on a 2010 MacBook and...



Anyone else have this?

your cpu shouldn't be avx compatible

[wagtunes]

FWIW, I listened to a good demo of this synth played by somebody who can play rings around me. Here's my 2 cents for whatever they're worth.

The synth sounds great. Anybody who says it doesn't is either lying or crazy. Many of the patches gave me inspiration for songs built around them. That says a lot when a patch can inspire a song.

So why am I still not getting this synth?

Quite a number of reasons.

1. I didn't hear anything that made me go "Wow, no other synth that I own sounds this good or can make these sounds."

2. Standalone, it's $199. My days of paying that much for any synth regardless of how great it is are over. Not when there are things I need that I can put that money towards. And upgrading from K11U to K12U is just not something I feel compelled to do. I don't need whatever new comes with K12U.

3. This is probably the most important part and it's the one thing I keep losing sight of whenever I get "impressed" by a new synth. To understand this, you need to come at this from the perspective of someone who primarily makes music.

I know a lot of people here love the feel of sitting down and just noodling with a synth to see what sounds they can get out of it. There is nothing wrong with that. I used to be that way myself. But I no longer get a thrill out of just noodling with synths. My primary focus now is to make music, something I've been doing a lot the last few years, whether anybody here thinks that music is good or bad. That's irrelevant.

So you might be ready to ask, "Why can't you make music with THIS synth?"

Well, I could. Absolutely. But, and this is where I finally stopped falling into this trap, when you take these synths with a sound that's bigger than life, and try to fit them into a track of music, well, you end up having to EQ the hell out of them so that they DO fit. Otherwise, they drown everything else out. All that low end on pads? You know that has to go, thinned out to almost nothing so that it doesn't drown out the vocals.

So I don't need another synth that sounds bigger than life to make music where I only end up destroying half the sound just to make it fit in the mix. I have plenty of them already. And my days of sitting and twiddling knobs and listening to the sound of a synth just for the sake of it are long gone.

That's why I personally don't need Massive X, though I have to admit it sounds wonderful.

But there are going to be a lot of wonderful sounding synths over the next few years that I also won't be getting.

[midi_transmission]

I have real a problem with that every modulation target gets just a small white rectangle when you want to assign modulation. It's very hard to see and to I search a lot before I find the modulator target I want.

This needs to be addressed. Together with the slow knob sensitivity it makes tweaking mx very unpleasant for me that I don't like to toy around more with it.

But again, I think the longer I use it the more I like the layout and concept. But it feels straining to use. Fells really more like a prototype.