Opinions on MassiveX

[Stefken]

GUI of Serum and Massive is very similiar. There's top panel for oscillators, filter and FX, and the bottom panel for modulation sources.

That's as interesting as saying that a Fiat and a Porsche are pretty much the same, as they both have 4 wheels and a steering wheel.

Massive X however doesn't have these huge fancy animated wavetables, which look spectacular in Serum but also take a lot of precious space.

Yeah, MX has a switchable LFO (among others) instead which eats up a huge amount of unnecessary space. Obviously, if you use your screen real estate so inefficiently, you don't have space for it. (But I guess main reason is that these dynamic representations take quite some cpu and they already use a ton on the sound engine).

Pigments clearly shows that you CAN have an interface with a huge amount of real time presentations on a nominal screen.

This was obviously a bug or lack of time to implement the feature properly. It's not desired behavior, don't pretend to be smarter than anyone.

I have followed the communication of NI pretty closely and I'm pretty sure that was by design.
As they said, they were going to CHANGE it (and not repair it).

[pdxindy]

Yeah, MX has a switchable LFO (among others) instead which eats up a huge amount of unnecessary space.

That LFO is rather peculiar. Very inefficient and not actually flexible given the apparent complexity.

2 simple knobs... 1 which switches a few basic shapes and the other which morphs the shape would take up much less space and actually provide more control over the LFO shape than that big wheel of often similar options.

[Stefken]

Exactely...

[DJ Warmonger]

I would like to point out that the LFO takes just as much space as ADSR, as they are interchangeable modules.

Don't think that stuffing maximum number of controls into limited area would be a better design choice. That's a nice balance between features and clarity.

[chk071]

GUI of Serum and Massive is very similiar. There's top panel for oscillators, filter and FX, and the bottom panel for modulation sources.

That's as interesting as saying that a Fiat and a Porsche are pretty much the same, as they both have 4 wheels and a steering wheel.

Actually, no. It's more like saying they both have 4 wheels, a steering wheel, a engine, run on fuel, have seats, a speedometer, etc. etc. Probably, in this case, they even have a lot more in common than you might be willing to admit.

[Stefken]

So you're saying that Fiats and Porsches are both cars. That's very true. And Massive X and Serum are both synths.

Really glad we had this conversation.

[chk071]

They're even both road cars, and they're both European. Actually Serum and Massive X have a lot more than that in common. They're both wavetable synths.

I have a feeling you want to be deliberately superficial, just because you dislike Massive X. A comparison Ferrari - Porsche would be much more on point in this case.

[enCiphered]

I have a feeling you want to be deliberately superficial, just because you dislike Massive X.

Because someone doesn´t share your opinion that means that he dislikes the synth.
Because of this feelings, every Massive X thread dissapears.

Please, stop it before even another thread gets closed where EVERY opinion matters for people interested in this synth.

[NatLife]

Hi guys,
MX is available for a while now, and I would like some impressions from people who have been using it.
Currently it has a pretty sweet crossgrade offer at NI site, so Im looking at this option.
I tried the demo, however didnt really delve into it.
How is it resource-wise? And how is it in comparison to the original one?
Also, for those who have both MassiveX and Synthmaster2 (also has a sweet discount at the moment), how would you compare the two?

Demo the plugins is always a solid advice, however I would like to get an opinion or two from other people with different hearing abilities.

Thank you.

I can compare Massive X with Virus TI but not with a Synthmaster, i cant say Synthmaster bad - it's good in it class but it's just different class from Massive X

[Sinisterbr]

I (as stated before) think the GUI is gorgeous and very intuitive, once you get to hang around with it a bit. Sure it has its drawbacks (mainly the lack of mod animations, some unnecessary menus and too few FX), but it's a very well thought synth, imho, and I think its routing tab is a brilliant idea.
I was skeptic when MX as released, but have totally changed my mind since then. Not many synths allow you to taylor your sound at its core and still sound so good like MX do.

[Stefken]

Don't think that stuffing maximum number of controls into limited area would be a better design choice.

That's obviously NOT what we are saying. Whitespace is certainly very important too.
As you say, you need to strike the right balance.

[Biscotto]

So you're saying that Fiats and Porsches are both cars. That's very true. And Massive X and Serum are both synths.

Really glad we had this conversation.

But Fiat have better drivers!
(I had to say it)

[FarleyCZ]

What I find particularly interesting on the Massive X story is that Serum was Steve Duda's idea how to improve on Massive. Got popular, massively successful. (Pun intended.) ...but when devs in NI were tasked with improving on the original Massive, they delivered a completely different synth. Think about it. Even the layout of Serum feels more like Massive than the layout of Massive X.

I will install it again in the future to see if it changed, but I too was kinda underwhelemed by Massive X. The magic of the original was gone and at least in my eyes it didn't bring anything new to the table on it's own.

[functionform]

I personally love Massive X. The presets on it are like nothing else I hear right now in other wavetable synths. I'm shocked people don't love it just for the presets.

edit: MPE coming eventually! I got Falcon a while ago which immediately put an MPE device on my todo. Would love for MX to have that ability too.

[V0RT3X]

Yeah, MX has a switchable LFO (among others) instead which eats up a huge amount of unnecessary space.

That LFO is rather peculiar. Very inefficient and not actually flexible given the apparent complexity.

2 simple knobs... 1 which switches a few basic shapes and the other which morphs the shape would take up much less space and actually provide more control over the LFO shape than that big wheel of often similar options.

Or even better why don’t devs adopt Zebras drawable and morphing OSC section as a LFO system?