Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[perpetual3]

They have way and it works for them.

huh?

Wrong thread. My bad.

[fisherKing]

massive is from like... the 1940s?

there are a million things i like better in MX. even when i used the original massive, it always sounded kinda... plastic (can't think of a better word).

either way, MX is the present, and am really into it... in the present.

[digitalboytn]

I like the original version of Massive and find it a very practical tool for music making...

It sounds great in the mix,it's easy to tweak and it comes with a great browser...

If all you do is sit around and twiddle with synths,then I'm sure that Massive X is a sonic delight,but for real world music production where you have to work fast and focus on the bigger picture,then the original Massive is a clear winner for me...

It's a classic workhorse with an excellent reputation

[Daru925]

I love the way the macros work in Massive - a good sound designer, thinking particularly here of Leap into the void - uses the macros intelligently to expand the sonic range of each preset by creating additional sonic possibilities to explore.

I rarely give macros names like cutoff or res, more like "contrails" "whoosh" "roar" "tears" "forest/city" etc. I find that evocative names help (me) to use a patch to its full potential.
Or if come back to it later, i remember better what it does than cutoff starting at 1356,01 hz.
Just my way of doing things.

My old lpd8 + ableton autotakeover make working with massive family an easy task. Turn knob1, turn macro1. Switch/preset instance, same.
And i can always hardwire knobs across the board if need be.

I don't get the hate with the preset browser, but i barely need it anyway, 16 macros per instance is overkill for my smol brain, when so much stuff can be controlled with performers/lfo/controlled randomization keytrack etc and i get same fast results with massive x than i did with massive.
Massive became super redundant to me. (i only keep it for my old presets)

[fisherKing]

I like the original version of Massive and find it a very practical tool for music making...

It sounds great in the mix,it's easy to tweak and it comes with a great browser...

If all you do is sit around and twiddle with synths,then I'm sure that Massive X is a sonic delight,but for real world music production where you have to work fast and focus on the bigger picture,then the original Massive is a clear winner for me...

It's a classic workhorse with an excellent reputation

i never loved the sound of massive, but i enjoyed working with it. MX is deeper, far more complex in terms of programming, but it sounds so good, and that's my first priority, always...

[pdxindy]

No!!
Ok, maybe NI did the right thing then! I might be in the minority, but I like the original Massive much more (design and workflow), but of course Massive X wins in the sound quality.

Yeah, I also like the sound quality of MX better than the original, but in most other ways, MX went backwards. 3 years since the release of MX and you still cannot organize your own presets. It's shocking really. Massive is a solid and well rounded synth. By comparison, MX has a number of glaring deficiencies and the workflow is kinda tedious. I eventually stopped using MX cause it doesn't meet my needs. At this point, I don't expect that it ever will, which is unfortunate.

[SeeingInMidi]

Do plugins usually get major/minor updates when a new Komplete is released?

[jules99]

This rarely happens. Usually new versions of NI's plugins are updated after a new Komplete version comes out.

[EnGee]

No!!
Ok, maybe NI did the right thing then! I might be in the minority, but I like the original Massive much more (design and workflow), but of course Massive X wins in the sound quality.

Yeah, I also like the sound quality of MX better than the original, but in most other ways, MX went backwards. 3 years since the release of MX and you still cannot organize your own presets. It's shocking really. Massive is a solid and well rounded synth. By comparison, MX has a number of glaring deficiencies and the workflow is kinda tedious. I eventually stopped using MX cause it doesn't meet my needs. At this point, I don't expect that it ever will, which is unfortunate.

I rarely use it as well. If I want a wavetable, I prefer using Phase Plant, Icarus 2 or Wavetable if I'm in Ableton Live. Those are much more intuitive and friendlier than MX. They are also with great sound quality. Even Vital is more inviting than MX.
NI time has reached an end it seems. The final countdown has started

[kobal]

personally i love the Ui of massive X to me it s better than all synth you mentioned so really about personal taste .
massive 1 is classic, it has a sort of old VA sound compared to most modern digital synth so to me it can sound better than massive X depending the needs. i almost never used massive 1 i made maybe one hundred presets years ago .. and coming back to these after all this time i m pleasantly suprised, the caractere can be great...

[Biome_Digital]

The preset browser. Honestly.

[chk071]

I like the original version of Massive and find it a very practical tool for music making...

It sounds great in the mix,it's easy to tweak and it comes with a great browser...

If all you do is sit around and twiddle with synths,then I'm sure that Massive X is a sonic delight,but for real world music production where you have to work fast and focus on the bigger picture,then the original Massive is a clear winner for me...

It's a classic workhorse with an excellent reputation

I really like the operation. I don't think much of the sound though. Don't like the filters much, don't like the overall tone much. Massive X is ten times better in that regard. But worse in operation.

[chk071]

The preset browser. Honestly.

To each his own. That's the least of my worries.

[pdxindy]

I rarely use it as well. If I want a wavetable, I prefer using Phase Plant, Icarus 2 or Wavetable if I'm in Ableton Live. Those are much more intuitive and friendlier than MX. They are also with great sound quality. Even Vital is more inviting than MX.
NI time has reached an end it seems. The final countdown has started

NI may recover. Kontakt is too valuable for many users to lose. But it certainly has been a hard time for them.

The modulation in Vital is exceptional! MX is limited in comparison. For example, MX doesn't have MSEG's. The MX LFO's look capable at a glance, but are actually limited, inflexible and lacking any fine control.

[Daru925]

For example, MX doesn't have MSEG's.

I don't know what qualifies as mseg to you, but these are very useful...
You can morph each one into 12 variations, triger each variations with a toggable keyswitch, they can go bipolar, or unipolar...
But hey preset manager sucks.