Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[faun2500]

NI, if you're reading this. Please add proper 3rd party preset support.

NI, if you're reading this. Please add proper preset support.

JUST F&*&*&G DO IT ALREADY!

[faun2500]

NI, if you're reading this. Please add proper 3rd party preset support.

NI, if you're reading this. Please add proper preset support.

People have been asking for that since before COVID.

Yes, literally 5 years!!!

[faun2500]

finally supports arrow keys now, but still wants you to hit enter to load presets... because we don't want to make it too easy, right?

I keep click the preset name to bring up a list of presets to scroll through, NOPE! Have to go to the browser and change views. lol

Oh and LFO phase? Is that some kind of futuristic feature soon to be discovered?

[faun2500]

because apparently there is no way to set LFO phase in this *checks notes* next generation synthesizer.

This turns out to be an intentional design decision Mike Daliot made, waveforms in the Switcher LFO are phase-corrected in Uni Z mode. There was quite some psychoacoustic research involved in this, in fact.

There were other LFO modules designed but not implemented (sigh), Switcher LFO was supposed to be a very simple affair where the user was not supposed to care or think about the phases.

Interesting, and bonkers.

[faun2500]

Why? If you love the sound of MX why not support it having a wider range of sounds provided by a wider range of waveforms and wavetables to choose from?

All factory wavetables have additional metadata which is required for some of the shaper modes. None of the 3rd party wavetables out there would work properly in those modes then.

Ah! That would explain that then. I myself and not too bothered about no wavetable import. The wavetable shapers are very powerful and offer a lot of choice and sound variation. This is a minor feature compared to bad overall modulation and all the other basic things it lacks.

Here's the thing, to play the sounds/presets in Massive X is fine. To program them is far more difficult that it needs to be. Why can't I use mouse wheel to scroll boxes/options?!! I have to click every box and select things. Same with modulations, click-->drop, adjust range, back to click-->drop, adjust range, over and over.

[faun2500]

10 different ways, each of them having some sub-options that change things. And that is BEFORE you use the phase mod oscillators on top of everything...

And then you can even stop the internal phase accumulator of the wavetable readout (Int on/off), which makes ANY waveform in the oscillator a waveshaper... And that's a dynamic waveshaper, because the actual curve is your wavetable itself, so the morph parameters all still work!

Really, you have basically endless waveforms right there.

Yes, that is all awesome. The most powerfull oscillators know to man, and 3 effects slots.

[faun2500]

No. When was the last time you really needed to host automate more than 16 parameters simultaneously? I mean REALLY needed, that your life depended on it?

At least half of the sixteen macros are already mapped to things. So to automate multiple parameters, in addition to assigning all of them to macros, you also need to hunt down and remove existing mappings. Automation should also be able to change parameters you can’t assign macros to. It’s a completely ridiculous limitation that slows down workflow.

[faun2500]

The development is not dead, just FYI.

That is great news!

I would love to see easier/faster preset browser.
I am (at least now) using mostly ready to made presets so that would be good.

The workflow is somehow not intuitive for me but that is maybe just me (but then again it seems I’m not the only one feeling this).

But the sound is very good and there are very good presets inspiring and giving new life for my music

It's not only you, we've all felt the same since day 1. Only to be ignored for 5 years.

[faun2500]

They are working on things other than OS compatibility updates.


"Dated" GUI? This ain't Synth1, yo. THAT is a dated GUI. MX is not. Lack of mod matrix is not making it "dated", it is an explicit design decision (OG Massive also didn't have it, and it was perfectly fine - a synth doesn't NEED to have a mod matrix, there's more than one way to skin a cat).

Absolutely. Use a nice, sharp knife (mod matrix), or a spoon. Still gets skinned in the end.

[faun2500]

I can only speak for myself, but I have lots of synths with a wealth of possibilities that don't have the ridiculous limitations of MX. Given this, there is no reason to waste my time on something only half implemented.

MX does some things better than any other synth out there. Not every synth needs to have everything.

In your opinion, what are the things it does better than any other synth?

[faun2500]

I want Pigman with MX sound

That would be a dream come true!!

[faun2500]

At this point, I’m starting to wonder if the Massive X dev team is just a group of highly talented sound designers trapped in the wrong meeting room.

No, no, no, no, no! If that were the case, MX would NOT be like this!

In fact, surely it must be the exact opposite.

[faun2500]

Today (or yesterday?)
2. But you cannot load any 3rd party presets from files, so even if you download some presets from internet and put them into user presets folder - they will be visible in browser, but you'll get info that you have no license for them. So basically you're limited to factory collection (or presets that someone else sends you as a DAW project).

OMG, please tell me you are joking? Seriously, please....

[EvilDragon]

That is standard behavior for all NI players regarding 3rd party content. In Kontakt and Reaktor you have a 15 minute timeout for 3rd party content that is not encoded, for example.

[EvilDragon]

In your opinion, what are the things it does better than any other synth?

Unique wavetable mangling capabilities that produce as little aliasing as possible. The best distortion and reverb effects in a synth plugin ever. Generally you can push things further than in practically any other synth without the sound falling apart.

Some people have also said "it sounds like hardware", which might mean nothing for some people, for others it's the highest praise possible.