Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[recursive one]

I do agree MX browser sucks, actually to the point of being unuseable. I downloaded some free presets over here and not only the respective directory in the browser was a complete mess but MX re-scanned these presets again EVERY F*CKING TIME I loaded it! Which was taking more than a minute each time (and there was not that many of them). Finally I had to delete these presets at all.

Luckily I rarely use presets not made by myself and I store these in my DAW browser. So it's not much of a problem for me in a real-life use (but it's just me).

But it's still the best sounding "modern" (i.e. not an emulation) synth and it's much more relevant to my music than something like Repro or Diva.

[v1o]

Doesn't NI have that NKS stuff it makes such a big deal about? How does that figure into this mess?

In the case of Massive X, the NKS presets just have the 16 macros and nothing else. For good reason though — there are way too many controls, and Massive X also has many swappable modules that each have different sets of controls. Everything that's underlined can be clicked to bring up a menu, and in many cases the option you select from that menu changes the controls around it. NKS is simply not dynamic enough to handle all that, so when designing a preset you have 16 macros available as performance controls, and those are what you can access on NKS hardware.

Komplete Kontrol is the best preset browser for Massive X. That's where the NKS comes in. Because the NKS standard is known DAW makers in theory could support the format and integrate it into their preset management systems.

[skottish]

This was the follow up response to my last message to NI regarding their poor preset browser and my telling them that I'm not going to give them money anymore if they don't care for their products:

I understand. Please know it is stll in the developers backlog. Unfortunately they don't have a timeline at the moment, that doesn't mean it will not happen at all. We might have more clarirty on this within the next weeks / month. Please feel free to reach out again.

KK is not an option for me. This needs to be part of a release quality product.

[octaveup]

KK + MassiveX + Ableton: Can't automate anything

KK + <Any other synth> + Ableton: Fine

So workflow becomes painful: Add KK, use it find preset. Close and delete that track. Add MassiveX and use the (bad) browser to re-find that preset if I can remember what it was called (and re-make any tweaks I've already tried when auditioning).

And why can't I resize the KK window

[pdxindy]

Doesn't NI have that NKS stuff it makes such a big deal about? How does that figure into this mess?

In the case of Massive X, the NKS presets just have the 16 macros and nothing else. For good reason though — there are way too many controls, and Massive X also has many swappable modules that each have different sets of controls. Everything that's underlined can be clicked to bring up a menu, and in many cases the option you select from that menu changes the controls around it. NKS is simply not dynamic enough to handle all that, so when designing a preset you have 16 macros available as performance controls, and those are what you can access on NKS hardware.

Sorry, but that is not true...

U-he added NKS support to Zebra which is semi modular and has swappable modules and more automation parameters than Massive X. If u-he can do it, so can NI.

[pdxindy]

KK + MassiveX + Ableton: Can't automate anything

KK + <Any other synth> + Ableton: Fine

So workflow becomes painful: Add KK, use it find preset. Close and delete that track. Add MassiveX and use the (bad) browser to re-find that preset if I can remember what it was called (and re-make any tweaks I've already tried when auditioning).

And why can't I resize the KK window

Automation with MX is the worst of any synth I use. MX also sucks for using Bitwig's modulation system.

MX is really frustrating cause on the one hand, the sound quality is great and on the other hand, in terms of integrating into my overall workflow, it is the worst synth I have come across.

[SeeingInMidi]

In 2 months, we'll hitting the 1 year mark since version 1.3 had been released. I wonder if an update is around the corner.

[Sinisterbr]

I contacted NI about the preset browser, because it's really, really bad and I can't work with it in any sane way. The response was:

Thanks for contacting Native Instruments.
Unfortunately it is not planned in the near future. I will forward your rightful comments to the developers team.

@Evildragon, do you have a new take about this NI instance?

[EvilDragon]

Support has newer info than me in most cases.

[skottish]

Make noise people! You paid for it, demand that it work! Contact NI support. Seriously.

[SLiC]

On the bright side, Absynth just got updated after 10 years

[_leras]

Is it really surprising? For me MX is abandonware. I don't expect any major update besides fixing OS compatibility issues maybe.

Perhaps you have some optimism deficiency?

I think they will sort out the browser for sure, and hopefully allow some more things to be automated - though I am also pretty ok with the macros.

[aMUSEd]

Why so much fuzz about the preset browser? Who uses presets still? Have kids not learnt the lesson?

Tweak it print it, Tweak it print it, Tweak it print it + harder better faster stronger

So that would involve making presets - which you then would need a functional preset browser to organise and reload them from.

[aMUSEd]

Doesn't NI have that NKS stuff it makes such a big deal about? How does that figure into this mess?

In the case of Massive X, the NKS presets just have the 16 macros and nothing else. For good reason though — there are way too many controls, and Massive X also has many swappable modules that each have different sets of controls. Everything that's underlined can be clicked to bring up a menu, and in many cases the option you select from that menu changes the controls around it. NKS is simply not dynamic enough to handle all that, so when designing a preset you have 16 macros available as performance controls, and those are what you can access on NKS hardware.

Komplete Kontrol is the best preset browser for Massive X. That's where the NKS comes in. Because the NKS standard is known DAW makers in theory could support the format and integrate it into their preset management systems.

Unfortunately while KK is a decent preset browser it is not great as a preset manager as there is no ability to create user banks and its usability is rather 'clunky'.

[aMUSEd]

I think they have KK as a solution. Personally, I don't like to use KK, but I might have to use it if it's the future to manage NI presets (Synapse Audio also depends on it as a solution).

It's not a solution because it is not possible for users to create their own banks in KK.

Damn! Do you know if this is the case also with Maschine software?

Yes - but I wouldn't recommend using MX in Maschine anyway because it doesn't support aftertouch which MX, KK and their keyboards support and use very well (NI seem to have a problem with 'joined-up' thinking)