KVR Audio

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:15 pm

Another preview of my musical weirdness the forthcoming new album. Tried to give NI Massive X a good breaking in on this one - the vast majority of the sounds are from MX (had to program many of them myself as the variety of available sounds for it is not very broad yet). Also a little bit of Zebra HZ and Behringer Neutron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaciBUwTsKI

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:24 pm

Love that piano! Which one? Anyway, whole thing sounds great. Radio ready for sure. Guitar, virtual or real? Can't tell whats Massive X but it all sounds good.

What can I say? Pro stuff all the way around.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:43 am

Thanks very much!

The piano is NI's Una Corda. The acoustic guitar is from NI's Strummed Acoustic 2, though it took a bit of doing since the choruses are in 5/4 time and the library doesn't have patterns in 5/4. (I generally track real guitar, but I don't have an acoustic at present and the NI library works well for a situation like this where the acoustic is more for added texture and not a main feature of the arrangement.)

Death Row Archie · Post by **Death Row Archie** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:03 am

First, I have to say you are one of the lucky ones if you can actually use Massive X. It crashes my DAW instantly on my new high-end PC, and the NI forums are choked with similar stories of failure.

Tunes sounds like an 80's synth pop thing to me (e.g. Thomas Dolby's first LP) -- which is cool. Sounds are all good. Arrangement is interesting and complex, which I like. It's well produced and mixed. I am not crazy about the vocals. Maybe better processing would help -- obviously an artistic judgement. It sounds too like the harmonies are by the same vocalist who did the lead? If I'm wrong on that nevermind, but I almost always find it's better to use other singers for the backups. Overall nice effort.

Will be posting some of my music soon -- w/o Massive X

MRT · Post by **MRT** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:39 am

Great tune, really like the section about 3min where the parts kind (for lack of a better term) get sucked in and out of the mix but mostly the bass part is just killer. Thanks for sharing

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:40 am

Death Row Archie wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:03 am First, I have to say you are one of the lucky ones if you can actually use Massive X. It crashes my DAW instantly on my new high-end PC, and the NI forums are choked with similar stories of failure.

Tunes sounds like an 80's synth pop thing to me (e.g. Thomas Dolby's first LP) -- which is cool. Sounds are all good. Arrangement is interesting and complex, which I like. It's well produced and mixed. I am not crazy about the vocals. Maybe better processing would help -- obviously an artistic judgement. It sounds too like the harmonies are by the same vocalist who did the lead? If I'm wrong on that nevermind, but I almost always find it's better to use other singers for the backups. Overall nice effort.

Will be posting some of my music soon -- w/o Massive X

Thanks for the kind words. And no worries - not everyone digs my voice. It's something you learn not to take personally because it can be such an individual thing whether you like a given singer's vocal timbre. (As much as I loved Rush growing up, for example, I know Geddy Lee's voice put a lot of people off them.).

And I totally get your frustration about Massive X. I'm still using the initial release version which works fairly well on my system...except that instances lose the name of the preset once the session is closed and re-opened. The sound is still there but the patch name field is blank. And of course the patch browser is...horrid. It's frustrating that we waited so long for a sequel to Massive and it finally arrived only to be so fraught with problems. I do hope NI finally get a truly solid version out soon.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:43 am

MRT wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:39 am Great tune, really like the section about 3min where the parts kind (for lack of a better term) get sucked in and out of the mix but mostly the bass part is just killer. Thanks for sharing

Thanks! I do tend to favor rather busy, aggressive bass parts (due in no small part to, as mentioned above, growing up listening to those guys from Canada).

Death Row Archie · Post by **Death Row Archie** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:50 am

Vectorman wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:40 am
And I totally get your frustration about Massive X. I'm still using the initial release version which works fairly well on my system...except that instances lose the name of the preset once the session is closed and re-opened. The sound is still there but the patch name field is blank. And of course the patch browser is...horrid. It's frustrating that we waited so long for a sequel to Massive and it finally arrived only to be so fraught with problems. I do hope NI finally get a truly solid version out soon.

It's not really the sequel to Massive though is it? It's a totally new synth they built -- patches are not interchangeable, so what's the same except the name?

I fired up Native Access and I guess I've been away for a while cos Massive X is up to ver 1.2.1. I've been on 1.1. The new version seems more stable, time will tell, but I can actually use it w/o crashing Cakewalk.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:23 am

Great song! The arrangement is packed with varied tasty parts.

You got another YouTube subscriber.

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:50 am

Very cool song with lots of interest! Vocals sound good to me.
Well done!

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:14 pm

Thank you guys for checking it out and for the kind words - I appreciate it! And likewise, Frantz - subscribed to your channel as well.

Glad to hear the newest version of MX is not crashing your system, Death Row Archie. I think I'll hold off just a bit on updating and see how various reports of its stability go, but hopefully NI are starting to get the problems sorted.

Bansaw · Post by **Bansaw** » Wed Feb 26, 2020 12:09 am

Nice, liked it a lot.
0:34 nice twanging bass but would have liked to hear it beefed up in the mix, more low end in general.
A lot reminded me of Heaven 17.
I think its a well-crafted song, loved it. Some really interesting bits to keep me tuned in.
2:17-2:28 loved it.
Enjoyable listen and excursion back to the 80s!

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Fri Feb 28, 2020 7:14 pm

A belated thank you, Bansaw! (I had to look up Heaven 17 - despite having grown up in the '80s, somehow they never crossed my radar.)

empphryio · Post by **empphryio** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:37 am

Sounds really good. Like your voice. My impression of massive x so far is it somehow reaally gets an 80's sound from the few tracks I've heard with it.

Erisian · Post by **Erisian** » Sat Apr 18, 2020 12:36 pm

A really good track and well produced. I thought "Heaven 17" too (the second half of the Human League split) - seems Bansaw beat me to it!

"Sky Why" - synth-driven "prog", sort of (lots of Massive X)