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

[DavidCarlyon]

So is the upgrade price ending tomorrow? Seems like a really short intro period, as this was only just released.
And then it goes up to full?
Despite feeling underwhelmed by the interface at first...i actually really like the sound of this thing. Nice variety of oscs and filters. I love the voicing section too - the ability to harmonize in key is great.
But alas if the intro sale ends today i may well be out until next time.

[Stefken]

Is it typical for NI to release a product like this with no manual?
If so, how long does it take for them to release one?

Stumbling around in the dark is fun but without a manual I always feel like I'm missing something or that I am doing things the hard way.

I'm trying to remember another one, but, it may have happened before with, e.g., Replika or something, don't quote me on that.

I don't know anything about development at NI, but, pdxindy is right in that they are relatively new to native development, funny that I know, in that they haven't done stuff like this in a while. They gave up on more than a few products some years back rather than update them and I'm guessing that's related to some internal talent/organization issues.

Their Kontakt and Reaktor development processes seem very stable and mature and those teams seem to get the time to put out careful releases. They've had some growing pains with their native plugins though. This isn't the first native plugin with issues. I remember that Replica caused a bunch of graphics issues.

A lot of their other stuff has partners, e.g., softube, and so it's hard to say how much of the development is outsourced. I think that even Absynth's developer is not an employer but was/is contracted. Maybe someone here knows better than I do?

Yes, if I remember correctly, Absynth was a project that was developed by someone else and that they picked up. Also the reason why there will never be a followup on Absynth.
I follow the analysis that they spent too much time in Kontakt and Reaktorland and lost touch with vst development.

[AnX]

given the wait, and what actually arrived, this is a piss poor update

i cant see anyone falling for this scam

[chk071]

Always the charmer.

[experimental.crow]

Is it typical for NI to release a product like this with no manual?
If so, how long does it take for them to release one?

Stumbling around in the dark is fun but without a manual I always feel like I'm missing something or that I am doing things the hard way.

I'm trying to remember another one, but, it may have happened before with, e.g., Replika or something, don't quote me on that.

I don't know anything about development at NI, but, pdxindy is right in that they are relatively new to native development, funny that I know, in that they haven't done stuff like this in a while. They gave up on more than a few products some years back rather than update them and I'm guessing that's related to some internal talent/organization issues.

Their Kontakt and Reaktor development processes seem very stable and mature and those teams seem to get the time to put out careful releases. They've had some growing pains with their native plugins though. This isn't the first native plugin with issues. I remember that Replica caused a bunch of graphics issues.

A lot of their other stuff has partners, e.g., softube, and so it's hard to say how much of the development is outsourced. I think that even Absynth's developer is not an employer but was/is contracted. Maybe someone here knows better than I do?

Yes, if I remember correctly, Absynth was a project that was developed by someone else and that they picked up. Also the reason why there will never be a followup on Absynth.
I follow the analysis that they spent too much time in Kontakt and Reaktorland and lost touch with vst development.

https://bigbrainaudio.com/about/people/brian-clevinger/

[perfumer]

They absolutely need more time, however, ED was talking about this like it would eat your computer for lunch. Frankly, it's nothing close. I get the sense that it might be low CPU because some things are turned off to appeal to low CPU users and they're holding back until they get their quality modes sorted.

+1 to all of that. Maybe we should ask him, was he lying to us when he made that statement, yes or no.

That would clear things up a bit.

[Monkey Man]

For those who are using macOS and not sure if your system has AVX or not, check this out:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questio ... uch/341558

tl;dr
Type or copy and paste this below and enter it in your terminal

sysctl -a | grep cpu.feat

if there's no AVX, then you can't use MX.

Mate, thank you so much!

Unfortunately it seems my Xeon 5680 3.33GHz 6-core CPU's won't be able to run MX.

Do you guys think there's any chance NI might allow it to be run on non-AVX systems; we who lack the instruction set could be warned by the installer that we ought to be prepared to take a CPU hit.

I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be happy to take the hit rather than be without the VI altogether.

[chk071]

+1 to all of that. Maybe we should ask him, was he lying to us when he made that statement, yes or no.

Um... yeah, i'm sure he was "lying" to all of us, that godless bastard of the industry.



Seriously, what are you up to? That was the most stupid thing i've read here for quite a while.

[vurt]

Still?!

hello dave.

It's HAL9000 actually.

ah, the old model.
the new one doesn't alias.

Only his beard.

you know it!

[ghettosynth]

For those who are using macOS and not sure if your system has AVX or not, check this out:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questio ... uch/341558

tl;dr
Type or copy and paste this below and enter it in your terminal

sysctl -a | grep cpu.feat

if there's no AVX, then you can't use MX.

Mate, thank you so much!

Unfortunately it seems my Xeon 5680 3.33GHz 6-core CPU's won't be able to run MX.

Do you guys think there's any chance NI might allow it to be run on non-AVX systems; we who lack the instruction set could be warned by the installer that we ought to be prepared to take a CPU hit.

I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be happy to take the hit rather than be without the VI altogether.

How much work would be involved with that is a function of how they're coding. I hope that they don't TBH. Every minute they spend testing and ensuring compatibility with non-AVX systems is time not spent optimizing and making sure that it's the best possible product for modern machines. Further, even allowing that out of the door would then mean that they have to consider, not only "that" it runs, but "how well" it runs, and that would more likely lead to product compromises to appease a small segment of the market.

Further, it's largely only Apple users that are the problem. You will find far fewer PC users relying on those old Xeons for audio work.

[Monkey Man]

Ahh... thanks mate.

Too bad.

[ghettosynth]

+1 to all of that. Maybe we should ask him, was he lying to us when he made that statement, yes or no.

Um... yeah, i'm sure he was "lying" to all of us, that godless bastard of the industry.

I don't think that he was "lying," and even if he was not expressing the full details of what he knew, that's the deal with non-disclosure, so whatever. I don't think that we should ask him anything, but, I do think that it's possible that it was expected to consume more CPU than it does and that the reason it doesn't is because "decisions" were made.

[McLilith]

But alas if the intro sale ends today i may well be out until next time.

Yes, today is the last day for all the summer discounts, upgrades, and crossgrade offers. I wouldn't be surprised if they offer a discount again, for either Black Friday or Christmas. I suspect Massive X might also get an update or two by that time. I definitely expect the user manual to be released well before then!

[noiseboyuk]

Well that was a riveting 100 pages or so

I've not spent a huge amount of time with the synth, so all thoughts provisional. And should say upfront that I never got on with the original Massive - hated the UI and never found the sonics anything to make me delve any deeper. Just not a sound or look that floated my boat... in general I'm an old analogue bore I guess, but always looking for something that can go in interesting new (and non-clinical) directions. Stone me now, but I don't really get on with Zebra for crying out loud, so my views are to be treated with caution / derision.

For MX I didn't get excited by any of the presets, didn't find it very intuitive and didn't hear anything sonically that really got my juices flowing. BUT - given more time and especially I think that in the hands of supremely talented programmers, it could become something rather good. So far on this thread I've not heard anything to really interest me until 1m 40s here:

Several MX patches in my new demo
Loving this synth
https://soundcloud.com/screamershock/th ... ing-louder

Is that guitary patch at 1m 40s MX, frackermack? Hoping so, it sounds fantastic. (and if not, what is it?)

Couldn't possibly care less about Aliasgate, its all about the workflow and the sound for me.

[Stefken]

+1 to all of that. Maybe we should ask him, was he lying to us when he made that statement, yes or no.

Um... yeah, i'm sure he was "lying" to all of us, that godless bastard of the industry.

I don't think that he was "lying," and even if he was not expressing the full details of what he knew, that's the deal with non-disclosure, so whatever. I don't think that we should ask him anything, but, I do think that it's possible that it was expected to consume more CPU than it does and that the reason it doesn't is because "decisions" were made.

ED said they started tuning/optimizing MX for performance towards the release version which sounds completely plausible. If they can get even more juice out of it, all the better.