Native Instruments Massive X Synth - Sequel to Massive (Out Now!)

[pdxindy]

Yes, there has clearly been some recent optimisation but like I said it was manageable on my old MacMini several weeks ago, the differences are there but not as huge as is being stated here.

Ok, so then it never really was a CPU eater and ED was just exaggerating a bit?

No it was absolutely eating CPU over here (even with no voices playing), but they optimized it quite well in the last couple of weeks. Could be there was lots of debug code still lying around, etc.

I see. It's pretty light on my machines now. I'd be more concerned about a heavy blocks patch.

It's really light with polyphony...

[ew]

Do you mean developing Reaktor further? I think that what Sefken meant was that for the last decade or so that all of their instrument products have been Reaktor or Kontakt based. That they almost gave up on the product in 2010 doesn't change that fact.

Yep. When the beta team was told that the version in testing would be the last one, there was a lot of noise generated, needless to say. It took the powers that be about a week to come to their senses, but they eventually did.

Wasn't the original Massive their last new native synth/instrument plugin?

If you don't count Maschine.

ew

[agharta]

Are all the Xeon PC workstations missing out on AVX?

Xeons are for Workstations and Servers so they tend to be released later than desktop/laptop chips as the validation process is longer due to the fact that reliability is more important in that arena.
So for the same generation of Intel chips, the Xeons arrive later but may have features that are not in the consumer versions.
So AVX512 which is the 3rd generation of AVX, there's also an AVX2, came with Xeons first and is only just starting to trickle down to consumer products.
MX only requires AVX so is hardly cutting edge.
Apple Mac Tower users were screwed over because the last Mac Tower was released after Xeon's received AVX. But Apple did a lazy mid cycle rehash of the platform so used the previous generation of Xeons which lacked AVX rather than validate the newer platform. Ouch.

[pdxindy]

I’m personally very happy with Massive X’s sound as is. If I were presented with the current crop of new wavetable synths, I’d pick it over any of them, and that’s still with a large list of things that I’d like changed or fixed. I just dig the sonic thumbprint of the thing.

I'm also happy with the sound of MX as is.

If I could only have one wavetable synth, it would not be MX because of no user wavetables. That is too much of a loss. But as a second wavetable synth in addition to say Icarus it works well for me.

[ghettosynth]

Yes, there has clearly been some recent optimisation but like I said it was manageable on my old MacMini several weeks ago, the differences are there but not as huge as is being stated here.

Ok, so then it never really was a CPU eater and ED was just exaggerating a bit?

No it was absolutely eating CPU over here (even with no voices playing), but they optimized it quite well in the last couple of weeks. Could be there was lots of debug code still lying around, etc.

I see. It's pretty light on my machines now. I'd be more concerned about a heavy blocks patch.

It's really light with polyphony...

Apples/Oranges, I was just saying that it's not at all CPU heavy. I would have to test further, but it seemed that Pigments was demanding more CPU, probably the U/I. It doesn't feel, for example, like Diva did on my 2600k when I first got it. Of course, my memory may be skewed, I suppose I could actually compare them, if I cared more.

[acYm]

BTW ppl, even original Massive didn't have real world values displayed, and you couldn't type them in. It's a design decision that MX continues.

in its proper host, and natural environment, you were able to see the values, though indeed you couldn't type them in, you had to turn the knob.

[Proxima4]

After spending about 10 minutes with it I found it’s new Oscillator modes to be ‘interesting,, it’s filter types to be ‘Cool’, it’s modulation paths to be ‘Helpful’ it’s routings to be ‘Familiar’ and it’s wavetables to be ‘Useful’.

Then I discovered it’s easy to use ‘Performer’, modulated ‘Lfo’s and it’s ‘Key Triggered’ sequences. After about a further 10 minutes.

I haven’t started to read the manual and I just watched a quick ADSR video on ‘Massaging the Performer’ which made my feet tingle. ; All though that maybe the Blueberry Gin.

But I have to confess. WTF are you lot on about?

Massive X is right on the F***ing money as far as I am concerned and I can’t believe anything you lot are saying, seriously with the greatest respect.

Try and filter some noise, give the product a few days on your HD and make an honest judgment after some more time.

The biggest bump at this point, like with everything else in studio acquisitions (unless it’s an egg shaker), is the price. As per usual.

Come on guy’s.

[EnGee]

Um... yeah, i'm sure he was "lying" to all of us, that godless bastard of the industry.

I don't think that he was "lying," and even if he was not expressing the full details of what he knew, that's the deal with non-disclosure, so whatever. I don't think that we should ask him anything, but, I do think that it's possible that it was expected to consume more CPU than it does and that the reason it doesn't is because "decisions" were made.

ED said they started tuning/optimizing MX for performance towards the release version which sounds completely plausible. If they can get even more juice out of it, all the better.

Well they can't have optimized it 2 or 3 times or more.... he said several times that it's quite CPU intensive - of what I've read, obviously not everything but still I got the idea. If what he said is true, this would mean that yes, some features have been turned off. I wouldn't equate this with oversampling or quality levels. Got to be real features, otherwise

I just want to mention, optimizing software for performance doesn't necessarily mean trimming back features or quality. It often refers to refining the code to perform the very same functions for the end user, but more efficiently.

or removing the cup holders and vr control

Leave the Vibration Reduction alone! Don't f*ck the synth! It's already been f*cked!

[pdxindy]

Apples/Oranges, I was just saying that it's not at all CPU heavy. I would have to test further, but it seemed that Pigments was demanding more CPU, probably the U/I. It doesn't feel, for example, like Diva did on my 2600k when I first got it. Of course, my memory may be skewed, I suppose I could actually compare them, if I cared more.

huh? I was agreeing that MX is really light on CPU... I have a project open (96khz) and I put MX in and picked a random pad sound, set polyphony to 64 and Env release to max and my Mac Mini handled all those voices just fine. Very impressive considering the amount of audio rate modulations!

(I do quite dislike the knob acceleration)

[realtrance]

Everything will be fine.

[Yorrrrrr]

given the wait, and what actually arrived, this is a piss poor update

Indeed.

EDIT: I just agree on the first part.

[chk071]

given the wait, and what actually arrived, this is a piss poor update

i cant see anyone falling for this scam

Indeed.

Man, what happened to you. You were such a decent user, before you started trolling.

Sad you joined the Dune inferiority complex crew.

[Yorrrrrr]

What are you talking about chk071, stop the ad hominem arguments. *I* genuinely consider this one a Massive dissapointment, nothing to do with DUNE, wth..if it rocks your world, then that’s great. But don’t worry, I won’t pollute the Massive X hype train crew anymore. Enjoy Massive X. Ill keep an eye for it in the future and hope they fix the aliasing fest, among other things. Bye.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Think this thing sounds fantastic. Love the gui, also. And due to the great demos that NI always offer, I can keep tinkering with it till either I become bored with it, or it becomes indispensable.

Anyway. Not sure if this has been covered, or if it's just me not being able to find it, but is there a touchscreen mode? It's present in other NI plugs, but I can't seem to find it here. I don't use a touchscreen, but the scaling of the 'mouse' acceleration also allows Wacom compatibility. Without it, adjusting any control is a nightmare

[Stefken]

There are a few guys here who like to personally attack anyone who says something bad about MX and control the narrative. Don't let them.