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

[perpetual3]

Massive X reminds me of if you took the Reaktor Blocks and made a synth similar to Fathom but limited the scope to give it more focus.

Dude, I feel the same way.

[Forgotten]

Massive X reminds me of if you took the Reaktor Blocks and made a synth similar to Fathom but limited the scope to give it more focus.

O you who turn the wheel and look to massive x ,
Consider photone , who was once handsome and tall as you ...

June is the cruelest month...

[experimental.crow]

Massive X reminds me of if you took the Reaktor Blocks and made a synth similar to Fathom but limited the scope to give it more focus.

O you who turn the wheel and look to massive x ,
Consider photone , who was once handsome and tall as you ...

June is the cruelest month...

And O those children's voices, singing in the cupola! ...

[ew]

I blame Europe.

Oops, sorry, wrong place.

I blame the fish people.

ew

[ew]

Massive X reminds me of if you took the Reaktor Blocks and made a synth similar to Fathom but limited the scope to give it more focus.

O you who turn the wheel and look to massive x ,
Consider photone , who was once handsome and tall as you ...

Which makes sense, Norm - Mike Daliot's fingerprints are all over Massive X.

ew

[Forgotten]

I blame Europe.

Oops, sorry, wrong place.

I blame the fish people.

ew

Innsmouth definitely isn't in Europe...

[highkoo]

And is there a law somewhere that a "flagship synthesizer" should have animated ADSR graphs?

It is an inexcusable omission on ANY synth in 2019. Even my 5080 from 20 years ago has it.

Agree.
And if there was a law, it would have been written by.. Massive. A popular synth made by a lil group called Native Instruments over a decade ago.

Is everything ok at NI?
This is like, weird.

Never found that lfo phase..

[experimental.crow]

Massive X reminds me of if you took the Reaktor Blocks and made a synth similar to Fathom but limited the scope to give it more focus.

O you who turn the wheel and look to massive x ,
Consider photone , who was once handsome and tall as you ...

Which makes sense, Norm - Mike Daliot's fingerprints are all over Massive X.

ew

ola eric ...

[vurt]

what happened with lfos over nyquist?

That's a real mystery. They only produced that one album, had a meteoric rise to stardom, played a few lives shows afterward, and then sort of disappeared. Lots of theories have been put forth...

Some say, LFOs Over Nyquist wasn't even their real name. They were actually a preexisting band performing incognito. (That's plausible, because of the elaborate costumes and heavy makeup they always wore.) Their massive success was unexpected, especially by the band itself. Not wanting to cannibalize sales of records under their original name, and possibly not having the time and energy to pursue two careers simultaneously, they dropped the LFOs Over Nyquist project and went back to performing under their original name — sans costumes and makeup, of course. At least, that's how that theory goes. Curiously, no one's really certain what their original band name was...

It's also been suggested this was a sneaky failed attempt to circumvent a crappy record contract they had signed with their first label, under their original name — a contract they were still legally bound to. The label found out and threatened them with harsh legal action. Then, L.O.N. was quietly disbanded and went silent, without any public explanation.

There's also the theory that the Boeing 720 touring jet they acquired from Led Zepplin crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, claiming the lives of all the band members. Some have even suggested foul play was involved. Others will claim the aging plane, in bad need of repairs, was simply dismantled for parts and the crash never really happened. Supposedly, the crash was an elaborate hoax, designed to boost record sales. Everyone knows, when a famous artist dies, especially if the death is particularly tragic, their record sales go through the roof. Incidentally, the Led Zepplin touring jet was affectionately known as "The Starship". (True story.) What a coincidence.

Lastly, we have the strange theory regarding how the LFOs Over Nyquist name was inspired by a drunken band member trying to recall a newspaper headline he had seen the night before, "UFOs Over Reykjavik". It was an article about UFO sightings near the Reykjavik Iceland airport. In his stupor, he mistakenly told his bandmates about the big "LFOs Over Nyquist" headline he had seen. The rest of the band thought his mistake was hilarious, and adopted it for the official band name. So far, this follows the official canon of the band's history. Where it gets really weird, some folks say the band was actually heavily into UFOs and conspiracy theories, and was actually abducted by aliens while snooping around the edges of the Groom Lake Air Force facility, otherwise known as Area 51. Some have actually dared suggest the US military actually "disappeared" the nosy band members, because they possibly saw some secrets they weren't supposed to see. Personally, I have trouble buying that. I mean, when has the US government ever violated anyone's rights to due process, and a fair and public trial?

That's all I have in my files, regarding LFOs Over NyQuist. No one really knows for certain what happened to them. Anyone who tells you otherwise, is probably just trying to sell you something. It's sad that they're gone. They seemed to have such a promising career ahead of them. At least, we'll always have that awesome first album to remember them by!

[JoeCat]

It's not false. Beta is feature complete but may have bugs. What we have been given is not feature complete therefore it's alpha.

Wrong. Features can always be added during the lifetime of the product. Zebra 2 had a bunch of updates in 10+ years it's been around, for example. In modern times, there's no such thing as "feature complete" really.

If there is a Search icon on the top, and you cannot search, it’s not even beta. That’s so simple.

Not to mention the non-functional envelope graphs.

For someone else:

What is a feature request in expecting that about 30% of the GUI elements, put there by the developer, not for my request, should be more than decoration?

There’s no doubt in my mind that this one left the oven before it was fully baked. Alpha? Beta? Irrelevant for anyone but the internal development team.

If this was from a first time developer, I’d be cautious with my cash. But it’s not. NI has been in this game a long time, and I still see them update plugins that they’ve long stopped developing. If the Massive X executive producer was in front of me right now, I’d give him a very clear finger wag, but I’d also be holding back a smile, because I’ve been part of projects that had to hit the market before they were perfect... or even done. At some point you have to look at your development cost and start getting some income or you’re sunk.

I can’t tell you the story of Massive X. I can imagine the exec who kept throwing ideas into the mix that were possibly great ideas, but pushed development of things like file browser search and animated EG graphics right out the window. I have a saying that usually gets ignored: the great idea you have the day before a milestone won’t be as good as the thing we’ve been polishing for the last month.” Why do I say it? Because I’m an idiot.

I’m sure most of the main concerns will be addressed in the coming months.

This sounds spot on to me (especially as a developer myself - been there with "get it out"). Also, because virtually all of the less-than-fully-baked features are in areas that don't effect sound design. You certainly don't want to be making major changes to the engine and deprecating patches, pissing off your sound designers and early adopters the most.

Things like the patch browser, graphics and animations, tool tips, manuals, etc. can be added later while maintaining full backwards compatibility. So it seems this was the best compromise. And I think NI can rest on their reputation (Kore aside). This is a product they likely expect to have a decade or so lifetime so there will be updates. Even things like a second filter could be added at a later date and maintain compatibility.

It's rough but for the time I've played with it does not seem particularly buggy. It's missing product-release polish. The release issues will likely be forgotten a year from now, unless it takes NI months to get a few updates out before reviewers and those less "hard-core" than kvr and the slutz have to slog around without docs and a at least a rudimentary browser.

(Also, judging from the Abelton FB group I'm in, 90% of the wanna-be producers who make up the bulk of the market don't know - or care - what aliasing is. Half of them don't know what compression does. I'm not being disparaging - this is truth )

[KBSoundSmith]

...SNIP...

(Also, judging from the Abelton FB group I'm in, 90% of the wanna-be producers who make up the bulk of the market don't know - or care - what aliasing is. Half of them don't know what compression does. I'm not being disparaging - this is truth )

Yep. Most don't design their own sounds either -- if the included presets are good on a synth, most are happy. Sometimes it's easy for people in places like KVR or GS to forget how rare expertise in synthesis (and increasingly basic musicianship ) actually is.

[kuniklo]

Am I missing something or is there no way to have a synced LFO with a period longer than 1 bar?

[McLilith]

Am I missing something or is there no way to have a synced LFO with a period longer than 1 bar?

If you set the tempo of the LFO to a 1/4 note, you can then adjust the numerator of that fraction and end up with "32/4". Assuming a 4/4 time signature, wouldn't that be equal to 8 bars?

Note: To adjust the numerator of the fraction, just click and drag on that top number.

[kuniklo]

Am I missing something or is there no way to have a synced LFO with a period longer than 1 bar?

If you set the tempo of the LFO to a 1/4 note, you can then adjust the numerator of that fraction and end up with "32/4". Assuming a 4/4 time signature, wouldn't that be equal to 8 bars?

Note: To adjust the numerator of the fraction, just click and drag on that top number.

Got it. Thanks for the tip!

[mmoncur]

Wow, the ridiculous aliasing discussion has inflated this thread to crazy proportions.

Why is nobody talking about the fact that NI has released, in 2019, a synthesizer that doesn't allow your DAW to automate any parameters unless you assign macro knobs to them?