KVR Audio

whassup · Post by **whassup** » Fri Jul 03, 2026 7:25 pm

TechHaus wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2026 4:10 pm Watching...

Bad Gear - Massive X

Cool Video, as always.
MX sounds really good in this Video.
Almost as good as... or I rather don't do that.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Jul 03, 2026 7:32 pm

EyeCloud wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 4:31 am I haven’t had Massive X installed for quite a few years now and didn’t ever use it that much when I did. It just seemed too niche for me.

I love Zebra 3 though, and find it way more satisfying to tweak and shape.

For me, these discussions take place within a context of having so much great synthesis that I can afford to be picky. Massive X doesn't make the cut. Not that it isn't an excellent synth, but because it has enough limitations/dead-ends that even when I had it installed, I turned elsewhere.

Zebra 3 on the other hand, has quickly become my most used synth. I like doing sound design and it's fun to play around and find happy accidents, but the most important thing for me is being able to go from point A to point B efficiently and reliably. I've spent so much time over the years tweaking a sound to have the timbre I want, and then trying to make it pleasing over a 2-4 octave range, to fall off how I want over time and of course to fit into a given composition.

Zebra 3 is the most effective synth I've used at directly controlling these fundamental aspects of a sound. First, I can draw the waveform I want, including by frequency. Second, the Spectral Decay Osc Effect is brilliant. I can control how a sound falls off over time by frequency. Third, an MSEG can be used as the Amp Env. And because the MSEG's can morph between curves it is easy to draw an amp env curve for the low notes and a different curve for the high notes and morph between them via key-tracking. So direct and immediate.

Most of my sounds are relatively simple... for me, it's in these basics of sound design that Zebra 3 sets a new standard.

Dalle · Post by **Dalle** » Fri Jul 03, 2026 9:56 pm

Saw a comment saying Massive X has an ”overall rubber tube timbre” and somehow that makes perfect sense to me.

trusampler · Post by **trusampler** » Fri Jul 03, 2026 10:22 pm

i like them both.. whats cool is you can get one, then get the other. not everything in life has to be either or. sometimes you really might want both flavors, and that's ok.

digitalboytn · Post by **digitalboytn** » Fri Jul 03, 2026 11:53 pm

trusampler wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2026 10:22 pm i like them both.. whats cool is you can get one, then get the other. not everything in life has to be either or. sometimes you really might want both flavors, and that's ok.

THIS

SamDi · Post by **SamDi** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 3:38 pm

DSP-wise, I consider them on par. Both are not perfect in GUI-topics (compared to Serum or Pigments) IMHO, because in 2026, I expect fully visualized modulation rings and ENVs/LFOs.

Anyway, while Zebra it's on it's way to get improved, MX is way more annoying to me.

It starts, that you can even not rearrange Fx-order or store Fx presets and apply it to another slot. So if you wanna have it in another slot or even wanna swap two FX, you need to set them completely new.

Furthermore, what me always disturbed AF at MX, ist that Fx parameters or OSC-Fx parameters never start from gentle senseful values, they are mostly too cranked up. I mean, when I enable Hardsync on OSC, I want to start from 0% not from 100%. Who on QA has let this strange behaviours go out? It are these small but in sum annoying details, which prevent me from wanna using MX.

So in comparison to MX for me Zebra 3 all the way.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 6:49 pm

IMO neither Serum nor Pigments are perfect as far as GUI.

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:10 pm

Which software would you think is as close to perfection GUI wise?
Pigments gets my vote.
rsp

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:20 pm

Massive X is lacking an arpeggiator,

oobesan · Post by **oobesan** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:27 pm

I have too many software and hardware synths. But, MX is the best sounding one of them all. And I’m very excited about the future of MX.

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:29 pm

zvenx wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:10 pm Which software would you think is as close to perfection GUI wise?
Pigments gets my vote.
rsp

OG Massive is a pretty great UI!

I also like Equator and Thorn layouts.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 8:12 pm

zvenx wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:10 pm Which software would you think is as close to perfection GUI wise?
Pigments gets my vote.

Pigments is nausiating to me, too many colors and too much movement.

It's a really hard question because there is no objective answer. Plus, perfection is unattainable. But I would say the likes of FabFilter and Tokyo Dawn Labs are doing stellar job at this.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 8:13 pm

Zebralette 3 is a work of art

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 8:13 pm

zvenx wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:10 pm Which software would you think is as close to perfection GUI wise?
Pigments gets my vote.
rsp

For me there is no such thing... nor do I need there to be. I can be happy with a variety of GUI's as long as they are above a certain threshold of ease of use.

Pigments is not a favorite of mine because I find all the visual movement something of a distraction. I prefer a calmer GUI, but it is still easily above the ease of use threshold so I consider it plenty good enough.

martinjuenke · Post by **martinjuenke** » Thu Jul 16, 2026 9:25 pm

MassiveX is far better sounding than this sterile Zebra thing.

Massive X vs Zebra 3