Massive X 1.6.1 update (September 2025)!

[swilow11]

More wavetables would be nice but not essential. I just want oscillators I can pan independently and a second filter bank. And allowing more modulations per parameter and maybe a mod matrix.

[nightjar]

Kontakt for samples, Reaktor for synths. Seems simple enough.

..... And they've now said even Battery is ultimately going to be migrated to Kontakt (but not before an update). So:

Kontakt for everything. Except Massive X.

Simon's posts from NI Community Update didn't say that Battery was being migrated to Kontakt. Instead he said the "Use case" of Battery was coming to Kontakt.

So a new Kontakt product very much like Battery in function, but not an update to "Battery".

[noiseboyuk]

Simon's posts from NI Community Update didn't say that Battery was being migrated to Kontakt. Instead he said the "Use case" of Battery was coming to Kontakt.

So a new Kontakt product very much like Battery in function, but not an update to "Battery".

Yes, fair dos - that's a better way of putting it.

It reads to me that Battery is now where Reaktor was 2 or 3 years ago. It's getting one last compatibility update, it will be around for a few years but has no long term future. Whatever the Battery replacement will be is going to be Kontakt.

It's kinda weird that the two products left standing are Kontakt and Massive X. What is it about Massive X, among all of NI's non-DJ music-making products that keeps it as a unique platform? I've never understood the excitement of Massive X, I hear the cold and sterile thing that I don't hear on, say, Pigments (a broadly equivalent digital synth). Pigments is also much more user-friendly and has a good browser. I know there's plenty of people who say my ears are crap, and to be fair they are. But I've no axe to grind, that's just how they sound to me.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

No news on that front.

I would say to all producers: first try to have fun with 170 factory wavetables and all the wavetable mangling modes (which all do extremely interesting things, in many cases unavailable in any other synth) before exhausting sonic palette that they offer.

Ok,but why factory wt do not grow,why 170 but not 1700?
I don't think there will b enough wt for demanding users ...
Back in early 90s if remember correctly prediction about hdd was that nobody will need more than 40gb hdd and bigger drives are waste of space and money...well it seems that was wrong...same with number of wt :):)

No one needs 1,700 wavetable variations of mediocrity. It’s really not about how many wavetables you can cram into a synth, it’s about how well you use the ones that are already there. We get it... you'd rather wade through an ocean of wavetables than actually learn how to master the synth. Focus on skill over stockpiling.

But what really grinds my gears is that we still don’t have MIDI learn functionality. It’s ridiculous! Massive X is packed with insane potential, but the fact that not a single parameter is visible to the DAW (aside from the macros) makes it frustrating to use. Imagine owning the most advanced gadget with all the bells and whistles, yet no way to interact with it directly.
Among all the missteps in synth development, this has to be one of the biggest blunders in history. Even if they eventually fix it, this will always be the thing people remember!

heehe that's good advice actually for newbies (focus on skills:):):),instead spending money,but to me is do i need it,is it offering something i miss from my other 50 synths,is it more convincing inside the mix compared to synths i use to work with,so on...
Downloading the demo and gonna test it,everything i watch so far in youtube sounds great,but personal touch is best to justify the money...don't need new synth actually,but like the sound of it a lot
About too many wt not agree,browsing through them give inspiration and ideas you can't get from a sine wave,no matter how crazy modulations you gonna use,otherwise all future synth will use only one sin wave as osc.
Some wt have unique character i am not sure could be simulated / recreated with modulations...will check in anyway

[EvilDragon]

But what really grinds my gears is that we still don’t have MIDI learn functionality. It’s ridiculous! Massive X is packed with insane potential, but the fact that not a single parameter is visible to the DAW (aside from the macros) makes it frustrating to use. Imagine owning the most advanced gadget with all the bells and whistles, yet no way to interact with it directly.

Frankly, MIDI learn will be useless because you just get 0-127 value range, and MX controls have a LOT more finesse than that.

[concealed identity]

Wait, there's no way to automate any of the parameters in a DAW without assigning it to a macro first?

[EvilDragon]

Correct, as it stands. OTOH, you get 16 macros. How many simultaneous parameters do you usually automate? Surely not 50.

[noiseboyuk]

But what really grinds my gears is that we still don’t have MIDI learn functionality. It’s ridiculous! Massive X is packed with insane potential, but the fact that not a single parameter is visible to the DAW (aside from the macros) makes it frustrating to use. Imagine owning the most advanced gadget with all the bells and whistles, yet no way to interact with it directly.

Frankly, MIDI learn will be useless because you just get 0-127 value range, and MX controls have a LOT more finesse than that.

I guess the counter-argument is that many parameters work just fine being controlled on 128 levels (as used by the majority of soft synths) and always having to go via a macro is a tedious workflow.

[billinder33]

Another extra step for a synth that already requires a bunch of extra steps over something like Serum.

X sounds great but for a modern, non-emulation synth it's completely unintuitive compared to other modern offerings. One of the big benefits of abandoning analog designs in software is improved ease of use, but NI missed that memo.

I force myself to use it from time to time because it forces me to make decisions and generate sounds that I normally wouldn't, so my productions don't get stale. But it's less like fun and more like swallowing bad tasting medicine.

[liv]

Good to hear the development is continuing. This might've been the incentive I needed. So off we go!

[perpetual3]

Besides the trackers, I find it sufficiently intuitive.

Another extra step for a synth that already requires a bunch of extra steps over something like Serum.

X sounds great but for a modern, non-emulation synth it's completely unintuitive compared to other modern offerings. One of the big benefits of abandoning analog designs in software is improved ease of use, but NI missed that memo.

I force myself to use it from time to time because it forces me to make decisions and generate sounds that I normally wouldn't, so my productions don't get stale. But it's less like fun and more like swallowing bad tasting medicine.

[Stirner]

In my opinion the workflow in MX is better than in Hive or in Dune.
What I dislike the most is the wating time on opening the GUI, sometimes it takes up to 10 seconds or so.

[pdxindy]

Wait, there's no way to automate any of the parameters in a DAW without assigning it to a macro first?

Yes, there is no way to automate a parameter directly. And no, macros are not a substitute. That's why lots of synths have macros and parameter automation.

Because there is no direct parameter automation you cannot map it to a midi controller. You cannot assign a knob on your controller to cutoff. You have to assign your controller knob to an MX macro and then save every preset, one by one, with cutoff assigned to that macro in order to have that work. In most any other synth, it is a simple one step operation.

It's one of the stupidest decisions ever not to have parameter automation.

[enCiphered]

Correct, as it stands. OTOH, you get 16 macros. How many simultaneous parameters do you usually automate? Surely not 50.

Really? So we're just going to keep defending every odd decision NI makes, even when it’s clearly impractical? The workaround with 16 macros is not the same as having full control over the parameters of a synth. It's a stupid, cumbersome limitation, not a feature. Honestly, how defiant can someone be when they work for the company? When was the last time you actually tried making music? 25 years ago?

[swilow11]

In my opinion the workflow in MX is better than in Hive or in Dune.
What I dislike the most is the wating time on opening the GUI, sometimes it takes up to 10 seconds or so.

That is kinda annoying. I also find that it freezes momentarily when I select the performers in a fresh instance- I guess because it had to render them?

Would be great if NI could drop some hints as to what improvements they are talking about.