Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[chk071]

the point was that NI has enough people to operate around the world even without being a megacorp and the idea they are in survival mode seems a bit silly. Their business problems are due to poor management, not COVID.

Business problems? Care to elaborate?

[Teksonik]

and it came with no demo presets so no way to judge the sound at all

The factory patch library for MX is a separate install that shows in NA as "Massive X Factory". Unsure if the same is the case for the demo, though.

That's probably it then. The Wavetables installed but no presets which wouldn't have been a big deal if I could have made a couple of my own just to see what sounds I could get.

[jasonekratz]

the point was that NI has enough people to operate around the world even without being a megacorp and the idea they are in survival mode seems a bit silly. Their business problems are due to poor management, not COVID.

Business problems? Care to elaborate?

You don’t get bought by a private investment company if you’re doing OK. But seriously? You don’t remember the 20% cut in staff in 2019 and the restructuring? Then the close of the purchase by the investment firm in January of this year (a process which started back in 2017 I think)? Those aren’t signs of a business firing on all cylinders.

Plenty of info out there and again it has nothing to do with COVID. I really don’t want to keep going on this line of discussion as its not really related to the topic.

[Teksonik]

In late June of last year I received the following unsolicited private message from an N.I. employee who I will not name:

"Most of the board has been fired, leaving sycophantic people behind. Online marketing and our 18 year old tech stack are a mess led by incompetent CMO ( Paul Jeszensky ) more interested in his own career. We never see him other than at All Hands or major announcements. Nicholas Goubert , Jan Wergin , Tracy Maraj all sacked within last 4 months. Women here are not respected and there is a culture of racism, fear and xenophobia. We worry for our colleagues and the future".

How relevant that information is nearly a year later I can't say.

I'm not an N.I. hater at all. Quite the opposite I really do like the products I still own from them. I wish them nothing but the best. But it appears there has been some unrest which is not uncommon in companies of any size.

When one says "big company" we have to take the size of the market into consideration. For example Google with it's search engine, Android, phones etc etc has a customer base in the billions.

"Considering that there are almost 4.39 billion internet users, the number of Google users worldwide is nearly four billion".

https://review42.com/resources/google-s ... and-facts/

When we take the potential customer base for all audio software I imagine it's in the tens or perhaps hundreds of millions at the very top and that's probably being generous.

So a big company in the whole of the tech world is far different than a big company in the music production software business so in that light N.I. is a big company. Does it have the same numbers of employees of say Microsoft? Of course not but then the size of the relative markets comes into play again.

[v1o]

In late June of last year I received the following unsolicited private message from an N.I. employee who I will not name:

"Most of the board has been fired, leaving sycophantic people behind. Online marketing and our 18 year old tech stack are a mess led by incompetent CMO ( Paul Jeszensky ) more interested in his own career. We never see him other than at All Hands or major announcements. Nicholas Goubert , Jan Wergin , Tracy Maraj all sacked within last 4 months. Women here are not respected and there is a culture of racism, fear and xenophobia. We worry for our colleagues and the future".

How relevant that information is nearly a year later I can't say.

I'm not an N.I. hater at all. Quite the opposite I really do like the products I still own from them. I wish them nothing but the best. But it appears there has been some unrest which is not uncommon in companies of any size.

When one says "big company" we have to take the size of the market into consideration. For example Google with it's search engine, Android, phones etc etc has a customer base in the billions.

"Considering that there are almost 4.39 billion internet users, the number of Google users worldwide is nearly four billion".

https://review42.com/resources/google-s ... and-facts/

When we take the potential customer base for all audio software I imagine it's in the tens or perhaps hundreds of millions at the very top and that's probably being generous.

So a big company in the whole of the tech world is far different than a big company in the music production software business so in that light N.I. is a big company. Does it have the same numbers of employees of say Microsoft? Of course not but then the size of the relative markets comes into play again.

I wonder what Evil Dragon has to say about this since he does some work for NI.

[jasonekratz]

I would suggest it’s not really relevant to the topic at hand and regret that I even brought the subject up. Let’s get back on topic? Not trying to be thread police but if we don’t get it back on topic ourselves someone will.

[spektralisk]

Going back on topic then, I think Massive X is really great synth. I've spent some time for last couple of months with it and it stands to its name. Sound engine is very good and effects are fantastic. We just need the browser to be improved.

I've recently released over 200 presets for Massive X, so leaving this here for people looking for some additional sounds for it.

[chk071]

the point was that NI has enough people to operate around the world even without being a megacorp and the idea they are in survival mode seems a bit silly. Their business problems are due to poor management, not COVID.

Business problems? Care to elaborate?

You don’t get bought by a private investment company if you’re doing OK. But seriously? You don’t remember the 20% cut in staff in 2019 and the restructuring? Then the close of the purchase by the investment firm in January of this year (a process which started back in 2017 I think)? Those aren’t signs of a business firing on all cylinders.

Plenty of info out there

Yeah, like, 2020 was the most successful year for them in company history.

But, you're right, let's stop the offtopic. Although it's a bit funny that that comes from you, considering you started it in the first place.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[midi_transmission]

Going back on topic then, I think Massive X is really great synth. I've spent some time for last couple of months with it and it stands to its name. Sound engine is very good and effects are fantastic. We just need the browser to be improved.

I've recently released over 200 presets for Massive X, so leaving this here for people looking for some additional sounds for it.

The sound and effects are truly great. But I dislike the UX so much when tweaking it, at the same time the browser is not that big of an issue for me, that I simply don't use it. I don't care about sound packs.

[chk071]

The synth lags upon opening

Just wondering, but, do you have some additional preset packs installed? From what I gathered, it only happens when you have a lot of presets which have to be loaded.

For me, the plugin GUI loads slowly. At least in Studio One, it loads faster in Cubase or Reaper.

[vertibration]

I have an M1 Mac........Cant even use Massive X anymore LMAO.

[chk071]

Blame Apple.

[PieBerger]

I have an M1 Mac........Cant even use Massive X anymore LMAO.

Only works on M1X

[jasonekratz]

But, you're right, let's stop the offtopic. Although it's a bit funny that that comes from you, considering you started it in the first place.

As I noted myself. Thats the funny thing about being an adult and being responsible, one can admit to perhaps making a mistake.