Massive X - the thread

[Functional]

Folks, is Massive X any good?

Should I get it?

I liked it at first, but now I'm starting to hear that Reaktor sound in every patch.

Yeah, there was something about the sound that was a little "plastic-y".

That's probably because Massive X is actually a cloud-based synth connected to a building full of plastic-based machines with sensitive microphones picking it up and various devices exciting those plastics.

[fisherKing]

Browser is functional, though. It browses and loads patches, does it not? Basic requirement is there. A non-functional browser would either not show any patches, or not load any patches.

It doesn't browse user presets... cause there is no directory structure. I cannot organize files according to type of sound. They are all just thrown in one folder and that's it. I consider that non functional

You can consider a cow a horse, but that doesn't make it so.

And you can consider that thing in MX to be an actual browser and that doesn't make it so.

it is a browser, just not a very good one. but you can 'browse' presets and you can group together your own. joseC's suggestion, above, can certainly help as well.

it's not a browser... in a browser you can create directories and organize files... MX is a shoebox, not a filing cabinet.

sorry, it IS a browser; one that cannot (yet) create directories, or organize files the way you want. but you can BROWSE presets; there's some (basic) organization, and you can save your own presets (& browse those).

yes it needs be a lot better, and... yes, it's a browser. a shoebox? try fitting some shoes in it...!

[Vectorman]

I've barely used anything else in the week that it's been out. The track I'm working on now will probably end up being mostly MX (and a little bit of the original Massive here and there). Well, and bass guitar and vocals and percussion sounds from other things, of course. MX has spoiled me a bit...obviously I have a much, much larger selection of sounds for the original Massive, but the more I use MX, the more going back to the OG almost feels like the sonic equivalent of having experienced HD video and then going back to SD. The effects play no small part in that, of course, making such a big and enveloping stereo field.

When the original came out, it already had some areas where it was ahead of the Virus TI (the thing to which everything got compared in those days), but the Virus still kind of had an overall edge in terms of just having a little more weight to the sound and better effects. It's a different story now...imo, MX is the overall better sounding synth. It's maybe what I might have imagined a next-generation Virus with more up-to-date filters, better audio rate modulation and even better effects sounding like if one had ever materialized.

I know, what am I thinking, making a serious reply in this thread? We now return you to your regularly scheduled shenanigans (always nice to find an excuse to use that word).

[JerGoertz]

Folks, is Massive X any good?

Should I get it?

I liked it at first, but now I'm starting to hear that Reaktor sound in every patch.

Yeah, there was something about the sound that was a little "plastic-y".

That's probably because Massive X is actually a cloud-based synth connected to a building full of plastic-based machines with sensitive microphones picking it up and various devices exciting those plastics.

I would actually love a synth like this.

[Musicisbest]

Folks, is Massive X any good?

Should I get it?

I liked it at first, but now I'm starting to hear that Reaktor sound in every patch.

Yeah, there was something about the sound that was a little "plastic-y".

That's probably because Massive X is actually a cloud-based synth connected to a building full of plastic-based machines with sensitive microphones picking it up and various devices exciting those plastics.

I would actually love a synth like this.

"Plastic-based machines "...sounds cool.

When I first heard it I found it a bit edgy, plastic sounding and was going to pass.

I found these sounds to show a warmer side so now I'm in.
I guess its capable of more then edgy sounds.

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pa ... e-midnight

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pads/analog-saw

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pads/drifter

[Functional]

Folks, is Massive X any good?

Should I get it?

I liked it at first, but now I'm starting to hear that Reaktor sound in every patch.

Yeah, there was something about the sound that was a little "plastic-y".

That's probably because Massive X is actually a cloud-based synth connected to a building full of plastic-based machines with sensitive microphones picking it up and various devices exciting those plastics.

I would actually love a synth like this.

"Plastic-based machines "...sounds cool.

When I first heard it I found it a bit edgy, plastic sounding and was going to pass.

I found these sounds to show a warmer side so now I'm in.
I guess its capable of more then edgy sounds.

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pa ... e-midnight

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pads/analog-saw

https://soundcloud.com/vintage-synth-pads/drifter

One of my concerns with Massive X was exactly that whenever it sounds too digital or not (for my taste anyway). Well, the answer is bit twofold: I wouldn't necessarily use Massive X for synthwave pads or leads. Bells? Maybe.

BUT, when it comes to making Boards of Canada-esque stuff, Massive X seems to be _the_ synth. Can't say if there's much competition to that even, but, a friend of mine who is very capable with Zebra2 has given me reasons to believe that Zebra 2 could possibly pull it off just as well. Regardless, Massive X was exactly the thing I was missing after I got Omnisphere.

I don't know exactly why MX does it so well, though. The pitch modulation capabilities aren't even close to being exclusive to Massive X and other synths have really good filters and wavetables too. There's the feedback which is sometimes useful even for this end, but not all that often you'd use it. Maybe it's the aliasing?

[EvilDragon]

Mike explained to me that there's some psycho-acoustics happening in the LFO waveforms and in the way their phases are set up depending on the mode you're in. Could be that

[recursive one]

Haven't spent much time with Massive X yet, but my impression so far is that does have some plastic/digital edge but in a totally good way. Actually some of the presets and the sounds I'm getting from it myself surprisingly reminds me of Virus TI.

Don't care about syntwave pads/leads and such (i think we already have it covered by many other synths) but I think Massive X has a lot of potential for various edgy psytrance sounds.

[Stefken]

Browser is functional, though. It browses and loads patches, does it not? Basic requirement is there. A non-functional browser would either not show any patches, or not load any patches.

It doesn't browse user presets... cause there is no directory structure. I cannot organize files according to type of sound. They are all just thrown in one folder and that's it. I consider that non functional

You can consider a cow a horse, but that doesn't make it so.

And you can consider that thing in MX to be an actual browser and that doesn't make it so.

it is a browser, just not a very good one. but you can 'browse' presets and you can group together your own. joseC's suggestion, above, can certainly help as well.

it's not a browser... in a browser you can create directories and organize files... MX is a shoebox, not a filing cabinet.

It's certainly not a browser as we understand it in 2019. Even NI would admit that. Not the fanboys apparently. This game is getting old...

[Reefius]

Well, the most important thing is there: the sound. All the rest needs work

This will be an amazing synth by 2025

[martinjuenke]

This will be an amazing synth by 2525

[Functional]

Don't care about syntwave pads/leads and such (i think we already have it covered by many other synths) but I think Massive X has a lot of potential for various edgy psytrance sounds.

Exactly. Although one should consider that it's generally speaking good for a synth to cover as many bases as possible (because, you know, they are competing with each other). And I do want to emphasize that the reason I wouldn't necessarily use Massive X isn't because it can't, it's just that I got a $400 alternative and plenty of presets at this point that does it well enough. Staple sounds, nothing that groundbreaking can really be made there imho.

I just didn't really expect Massive X to hit the spot with me for a thing I've been looking for and haven't had much success with in Omnisphere. And I really hate Omnisphere UI, to be honest. So many goddamn menus, it's often hard to see what's going on in a patch at a quick glance let alone edit it all. Of course, that's the price you pay for having that kind of robustness anyway, can't cram all of its options into so sleek UI.

It also makes me now interested in seeing what some of the preset vendors are going to make for it, i.e. if we avoid the problem of getting tons of different patches of more or less the same thing. I guess it's vendor-dependent thing to a degree too, but I'm hoping MX will inspire sound designers to come up with more interesting rather than staple stuff. I mean there's definitively a market for staple stuff but really, those Vangelis patches are getting old now

[Functional]

This will be an amazing synth by 2525

I think they didn't take into account the exponential growth of technology (i.e. Moore's law) if they think by 2525 whatever we will be or however we will live, would still have any resemblance to this period

Then again, people in the 1950's were also a bit too optimistic in how we would be flying in cars by now. Little did they know, instead we're all about drenching in memes and drowning in irony inside a virtual world

And then there's vurt, who I can only assume gets paid by some obscure cult that has an insatiable hunger for puns (wow, I think this sentence actually is semantically somehow special because of how the ending collapses not only the original heading, but also the brief digression)

[Elektronisch]

Folks, is Massive X any good?

Should I get it?

Should you demo?

[Functional]

demoing means you'd have to give it a real thought instead of listening to strangers on the internet, who would do such a thing?