Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[vurt]

let me just get comfy and pick a side!

[jasonekratz]

Why would anyone blame apple????

Valhalla, Synapse Audio XFER and plenty of other companies all released compatibility fairly quickly. The fact that NI can't do that seems more like an NI problem than an Apple problem. It is the responsibility of the company to stay up to date I think.

Izotope is the same problem not updating to M1. You think that merger is going to make anything better? I think not LMAO

There is blame to go around. Massive X requires AVX which isn't implemented in Rosetta2 (Apple's issue). I don't know anything about the type of coding that goes into something like Massive X or other synth plugins but I imagine it's not an easy fix. Maybe Evil Dragon could chime in since he's worked for NI and is also involved in Surge which has some sort of AVX usage if I remember right. At any rate NI has finite resources to do the work and hopefully MX is higher up on the list.

edit: did a bit of searching and ED already chimed in on this a couple weeks ago in the NI forums: https://www.native-instruments.com/foru ... cs.448505/

[vertibration]

Why would anyone blame apple????

Valhalla, Synapse Audio XFER and plenty of other companies all released compatibility fairly quickly. The fact that NI can't do that seems more like an NI problem than an Apple problem. It is the responsibility of the company to stay up to date I think.

Izotope is the same problem not updating to M1. You think that merger is going to make anything better? I think not LMAO

There is blame to go around. Massive X requires AVX which isn't implemented in Rosetta2 (Apple's issue). I don't know anything about the type of coding that goes into something like Massive X or other synth plugins but I imagine it's not an easy fix. Maybe Evil Dragon could chime in since he's worked for NI and is also involved in Surge which has some sort of AVX usage if I remember right. At any rate NI has finite resources to do the work and hopefully MX is higher up on the list.

edit: did a bit of searching and ED already chimed in on this a couple weeks ago in the NI forums: https://www.native-instruments.com/foru ... cs.448505/

I just read that from Ed, yea sounds pretty brutal.....oh well, plenty of other synths

[jasonekratz]

Why would anyone blame apple????

Valhalla, Synapse Audio XFER and plenty of other companies all released compatibility fairly quickly. The fact that NI can't do that seems more like an NI problem than an Apple problem. It is the responsibility of the company to stay up to date I think.

Izotope is the same problem not updating to M1. You think that merger is going to make anything better? I think not LMAO

There is blame to go around. Massive X requires AVX which isn't implemented in Rosetta2 (Apple's issue). I don't know anything about the type of coding that goes into something like Massive X or other synth plugins but I imagine it's not an easy fix. Maybe Evil Dragon could chime in since he's worked for NI and is also involved in Surge which has some sort of AVX usage if I remember right. At any rate NI has finite resources to do the work and hopefully MX is higher up on the list.

edit: did a bit of searching and ED already chimed in on this a couple weeks ago in the NI forums: https://www.native-instruments.com/foru ... cs.448505/

I just read that from Ed, yea sounds pretty brutal.....oh well, plenty of other synths

Well and the other important thing mentioned in that thread was from NI itself saying they're working on it (back in Feb). Fingers crossed.

[LoveEnigma18]

People jump on glossy new things from Apple as if it is mandatory only to realize their stuff isn't compatible with it. I don't understand the urge. Not targeting anyone. Just something that I can't comprehend.

[Sinisterbr]

People jump on glossy new things from Apple as if it is mandatory only to realize their stuff isn't compatible with it. I don't understand the urge. Not targeting anyone. Just something that I can't comprehend.

Oh, I agree. I owned an iPhone 4, back in the day. Never again. And yet, we can't deny they have enough power to disrupt markets they're into, so, they can't be ignored.
About MX, I also think NI's silence a little worrying. Anyway, fingers crossed.

[EvilDragon]

AVX is a really good thing. It makes synths use more complicated DSP for less CPU usage (or rather - do more of the same operation on multiple inputs simultaneously - which is great for processing in blocks, which is exactly what audio plugins are doing).

Now, ARM has something called NEON, which is also a set of SIMD instructions just like AVX... but they might not have EXACTLY the same instructions, so then stuff that AVX does in a single instruction, NEON might need 2 or more to get the same result. There are some other implementation differences, that make things trickier. There are great and open-source libraries that do SIMD porting between different instruction sets (SIMDe for example, which was used in Surge - but Surge only uses SSE2, not even the latest SSE4.2, so that's rather old and very simple to port and fully supported in NEON AFAIK), but that's just a part of the job. The rest is in profiling things and making sure performance is as best it can possibly be. If M1's SIMD instructions don't have a match for a considerable number of instructions used in MX, you can expect a performance hit for sure. This stuff is really really low-level, and making this perform as best it can is far from a simple task.

However, they are definitely on it. And many other things simultaneously (VST3 across the board, AS support accross the board). Consider the sheer amount of synth and FX plugins NI has to maintain (just count them), you can see how this can become a pretty huge effort.

[jasonekratz]

Yes its a huge catalog, unlike some of the other companies mentioned. Thanks for the post!

[Atlatnesiti]

People jump on glossy new things from Apple as if it is mandatory only to realize their stuff isn't compatible with it. I don't understand the urge. Not targeting anyone. Just something that I can't comprehend.

It is called progress my friend, coming from the richest company in the world.
Yes, it is “glossy new thing”, but hey there is much more to that.
Bottom line is and getting back on topic, NI stagnated over past 6 months and not updating their apps

[pdxindy]

People jump on glossy new things from Apple as if it is mandatory only to realize their stuff isn't compatible with it. I don't understand the urge. Not targeting anyone. Just something that I can't comprehend.

My current MBP 16" easily gets very hot to the touch and the fans are noisy. The M1 Macs are just as fast but stay cool and have no fan noise. That is a big deal for me. As soon as the 16" Apple Silicon MBP is available for pre-order, I'm getting one.

If at that point NI stuff is not native AS, I just wont be installing it on my new computer. I like having Komplete and all the plugins available in it, but I am prepared to drop it entirely if needed. I have enough other software instruments and FX to cover the loss.

[EnGee]

If at that point NI stuff is not native AS, I just wont be installing it on my new computer. I like having Komplete and all the plugins available in it, but I am prepared to drop it entirely if needed. I have enough other software instruments and FX to cover the loss.

This is exactly what I'm doing now! I haven't installed anything with Rosetta (except Bitwig, but soon I will replace it with the beta native one). I'm not installing Komplete or any NI software now (or any other synths). Massive X might get its way to the 2nd market as I'm almost sure the compatibility with M1 will come after every synth on the planet has it already

Well, Lazy iZotope + Lazy NI = A bigger Lazy company

Anyway, it depends on what you have already. For now, on M1 I have Logic and my MODX. I already have enough of everything I want! After that, whichever has M1 native support from my synths/drums, would get into my new brave world

[EvilDragon]

NI stagnated over past 6 months and not updating their apps

That is absolutely incorrect. There were updates to Absynth, FM8, Kontakt, Guitar Rig 6...

There's a ton of effects to update (and ALL effects including GR6 are handled by just ONE team). This takes time.

[pdxindy]

Anyway, it depends on what you have already. For now, on M1 I have Logic and my MODX. I already have enough of everything I want! After that, whichever has M1 native support from my synths/drums, would get into my new brave world

I use Bitwig and Logic and both are M1 native now... U-he, Fabfilter, Valhalla and others I use are already M1 native. Just need 3-4 misc plugins now to be all set.

[EnGee]

Anyway, it depends on what you have already. For now, on M1 I have Logic and my MODX. I already have enough of everything I want! After that, whichever has M1 native support from my synths/drums, would get into my new brave world

I use Bitwig and Logic and both are M1 native now... U-he, Fabfilter, Valhalla and others I use are already M1 native. Just need 3-4 misc plugins now to be all set.

Oh! I thought they just meant under Rosetta (u-he and others) when they said their software is compatible with M1! I need to check now

Edit:
oops! I found them here:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=556728

[digitalboytn]

NI stagnated over past 6 months and not updating their apps

There's a ton of effects to update (and ALL effects including GR6 are handled by just ONE team). This takes time.

That's right...we need to cut NI a bit of slack here....

Their team of bean counters are working overtime on the new DSP code