Massive X !

Discuss VST stuff here!
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esselfortium
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27 Jun 2019

Played around with it a bit this morning before work, seems like a monster! Looking forward to digging deeper into it.
Sarah Mancuso
My music: Future Human

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QVprod
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27 Jun 2019

Only preset dived so far. I'm liking it a lot! And there's far more than growl stuff in here.

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Boombastix
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27 Jun 2019

Ah, a synth in 2019 and I'm actually excited! Was thinking some time ago:
* That you really need to get going with some very feature rich modulation that is easy to use, such as switchable LFO pattern. CHECK
* Good FX so the patches are mix ready CHECK
* Good manipulation of oscillators in useful ways CHECK
* Nice BIG gui CHECK

Seems this is a winner and for the Komplete $199 upgrade, I can just say "come to papa" :lol:
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

Steedus
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27 Jun 2019

Fwoah now that's a nice gui

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reasonsuser88
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27 Jun 2019

I wasn't really curious but I saw this in my feed. I find this to be interesting although I'm sure it will be addressed soon.

The time has come for you to take care and comb your hair. :wave:

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manisnotabird
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27 Jun 2019

reasonsuser88 wrote:
27 Jun 2019
I wasn't really curious but I saw this in my feed. I find this to be interesting although I'm sure it will be addressed soon.

I'm not able to reproduce his results. I'm making a pure sine wave on Massive X and looking at it on a frequency analyzer, and even at over 19kHz with the pitch being modulated by an LFO I'm not seeing or hearing any aliasing reflections (just the one pure fundamental). I'm running it on an iMac running Reason with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. A very high sine wave into the distortion insert with the HQ turned off, I can see and hear aliasing, but turn HQ on, and I can see it on the scope but not really hear it. No aliasing using a pure saw wave. I have it so high only the fundamental is below 20kHz, and all I see see on the analyzer is the fundamental.

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reddust
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28 Jun 2019

To be honest, what I can listen to in the youtube videos sounds very thin to me, I like the GUI but I'm not really impressed about its sound so far.

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miscend
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28 Jun 2019

reasonsuser88 wrote:
27 Jun 2019
I wasn't really curious but I saw this in my feed. I find this to be interesting although I'm sure it will be addressed soon.

The video was shot down pretty quick on KVR. The guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

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16BitBear
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28 Jun 2019

Well, I was excited to see this appear in Native Access. I have the Elitebook 8740w with a Core i7-940XM running at 2.13 GHz with a full 8MiB of L3 cache that quite capably runs every piece of pro-audio software I own. I can run every DAW, all VST's, and with the 32GB of ram, I rarely have issues. But this CPU does not apparently include support for the AVX instruction set. So, I can not even install MassiveX.

I won't have a problem on the slightly older desktop, but if you are running an older laptop CPU be aware it might not even be allowed to install.

As I bought my original Native Ultimate through Sweetwater, I purchased the upgrade there as well. No where on the sales page is it even mentioned that MassiveX will require an AVX compatible CPU. Very poor marketing of this especially in their sales channels. I predominantly bought the upgrade for Kontakt 6 & MassiveX. Ah well, one out of two ain't bad.

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selig
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28 Jun 2019

QVprod wrote:
27 Jun 2019
Only preset dived so far. I'm liking it a lot! And there's far more than growl stuff in here.
I'm finding the same. Not sure it's quite as intuitive to setup modulation as Pigments (at least to the way my mind wants to work). But it's deep, looks great, and has plenty of presets to get you going. And for the record I love presets that are from outside of my usual genres. I like to cross-pollenate anyway, plus you can always tweak out the growl and have a quick variation on any preset you would otherwise love.

Was a little surprised to not find nice big LFO waveform and Envelope shape displays on this baby, seems pretty standard these days. Would be interested in reading about the design decisions for this synth.

Bottom line - making music already, which is always the goal of any new toy for me!
:)
Selig Audio, LLC

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Enlightenspeed
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28 Jun 2019

Liking it so far :) Presets are pretty decent sounding.

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Enlightenspeed
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28 Jun 2019

selig wrote:
27 Jun 2019
esselfortium wrote:
27 Jun 2019


Hmmmm. It's telling me "Downloading Massive X failed: resource was not found". Might have appeared prematurely, assuming this isn't just a glitch on my end.
Worked ok here - maybe servers getting hammered? I saw this post and checked every 5 min or so and must have DL'd before the big rush?

One weird thing - was going to run standalone to update the database, but there's only "Documentation" in the new folder generated by the DL. But it opened fine in Reason - already have my first tune started with the first random patch I pulled up! ;)
I think it mentioned this in the Native Access blurb somewhere, but there is no standalone as yet, it's VST/AAX/AU so far.

This will turn up soonish I guess, I remember standalone's always turning up a bit late from NI.

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miscend
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01 Jul 2019

Maybe it’s just me but MX seems buggy when you switch to using the computer’s keyboard for midi via F4. Getting lots of stuck notes.

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Loque
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01 Jul 2019

miscend wrote:
01 Jul 2019
Maybe it’s just me but MX seems buggy when you switch to using the computer’s keyboard for midi via F4. Getting lots of stuck notes.
Massive stucked notes? :o :lol:
Reason12, Win10

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Ahornberg
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01 Jul 2019

miscend wrote:
01 Jul 2019
Maybe it’s just me but MX seems buggy when you switch to using the computer’s keyboard for midi via F4. Getting lots of stuck notes.
Maybe we are Beta testers? No manual, a bit buggy, no state of the art graphic display of envelopes ... hm?
But it's a great synth. I like the remote octave create variations on a sound that can be switched easily like on Kontakt libraries (e.g. different articulations on a brass or string instrument).

dusan.cani
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30 Sep 2019

I am really shocked of all that stupid negativity and complains about Massive X. (all around the internet)...

This is fucking DELICIOUS synth where designing the own sounds is PURE JOY. The overall sound quality of algorithms are IMHO outstanding. Even in the most extreme waveshaping modulations and distortions you won't find any clue of aliasing in the high note spectrum (In contrast of Arturia Pigments, for example). I am also surprised that this synth does pretty well in the performance - a heavy modulated, long amp release, several voices unison, effected chords are usable realtime ! At least with my computer setup in Reason (it shows 2-3 bars of CPU meter when playing this heavy sounds).

Although it's true that first 2 days of trying this synth I was not such impressed (I felt little bit overwhelmed by the possibilities) the WOW effect instantly came to me after this period. And now, the more I work with the synth, the bigger joy I am experiencing. Don't judge this synth after a few minutes trial sessions but let's really dig into it and patiently explore the different possibilities it offers !

The sound design features and architecture is very sophisticated and flexible - you can tune the sound in nearly the all important aspects. The big advantage is, that this synth provides a LOT OF STUFF DOING ON THE VOICE LEVEL. You can put various insert effects in custom routings on the voice level and then spice up the sound with the Unison. But the Unison is placed in the end of the voice level, so it is possible to get amazing polyphonic unison sounds that are affected with folder/distortion. You can even fine tune the character of unison by freerun or phase reset mode - if you set phase spread you will get tight attack unison sounds with character determined by unison detune.

The oscillator models are beautiful. So inspiring. Never ending timbre variation ! The factory wavetables offers diverse collection of all kind of sound timbres which you can start with.

No comments on modulations, everything works perfectly ! Envelopes could sound as you whish, snappy or not, it depends on the shape of particular stages. The LFOs have nice icons of every waveform right in front of you, no hidden menu.

The user experience of modulation system is the best I've tried among nowadays synths. Just drag the always visible modulation labels to desired paramater, set amount directly on the knob and you are done ! Even the Phase Plant or Pigments don't have so smooth and comfortable modulation matrix workflow.

I am using the latest version of Massive X and I haven't recognized any problems so far...

Ok, I know that everything I write here is highly subjective perception of things, but comments like this:

comm2.PNG
comm2.PNG (20.81 KiB) Viewed 5553 times

or this >>>

" Seems neat, but without custom wavetables, a wavetable editor, and more than 1 filter, I think it's behind the competition. Really underwhelmed by how limited the modular aspect of MX is. "

Whaaaat ? ...behind the competition ? After the trialing other latest synths (Phase Plant, Pigments...) I found the Massive X gives you the most advanced and flexible sound design features available in this category of synths...

People with complains above evidently didn't grasp how to design the synth sounds.

Things like "custom wavetables", "wavetable editor", "more than 1 filter" are in case of Massive X totally unneccesary.

The factory in-built waveforms together with all oscillator modes and submodes gives you sound variety for thousands of years ! The filter module contains various top notch filter types with different parameters, so you forget that you will need another filter module ! (but one of the filter modes actually provides serial and parallel mode). Noise samples ? That person evidently haven't used the KILLER Noise section which is available. A HUGE collection of totally innovative noise textures ready for sound design. And combined with other synth abilities...again, never ending inspiration. An those comments about visual feedbacks...It would be nice, of course, but it's absolutely not something that prevents you to successfuly design beautiful and innovative sounds.

Imagine HOW BIG EFFORT is needed to develop software like this. From the point of the developer, people who spent hours, days, and months intensively working on such complicated and challenging product like these...and in the end they will see people saying that thay can't use this synth because of no visual feedback, no custom wavetables, not enough unison voices.. :shock: ...
Last edited by dusan.cani on 30 Sep 2019, edited 1 time in total.

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Loque
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30 Sep 2019

dusan.cani wrote:
30 Sep 2019
I am really shocked of all that stupid negativity and complains about Massive X. (all around the internet)...
...
Lol...must be the kind off ppl in the internet theese days. They expect 200% and want to pay 0% :-D

I did not tried Massive, because i have enough synths. Tbh, today a synth must have everything, that all the big synths have, even if ppl dont understand or never use it. I have features in my synths, i never really used. As an example, i just understood FM in Subtractor just a few years ago :-D And did not yet used all features in Europa or Grain in a song...

I have a few synths, which can do A LOT and they also need A LOT of time to be programmed...And in the end, nobody hears all that stuff which i programmed or can differentiate it. A synth sound is NOT the end of processing, it is just the source if you are looking for the final uber sound.

I dunno what ppl expect, if they browse a few patches of a synth. Probably the one-click-hit-wonder-synth :-D

Moaning is the new "Music making" :shock: :? :lol:
Reason12, Win10

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boingy
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30 Sep 2019

It gets a mediocre 8/10 in the proper music mag reviews. The main criticisms are that it feels unfinished and there is not enough visualisations of waveforms. One of the mags, Music Tech I think, had an interview with one of the devs and he pretty much admitted it was not finished and that it would see some significant updates in the coming months. Mind you, that was before NI announced all those job cuts!

For me I was surprised that it will not load patches from Massive. I know it's a completely different synth but I'm pretty sure they could have found a way to convert Massive patches into Massive X patches, even if it left half the new synth unused, and that would have been a real crowd pleaser.

dusan.cani
Posts: 472
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30 Sep 2019

In this fucking capitalistic world all human values are lost...This causes enormous pressure to survive the market. This causes a massive stress for human beings in companies. Capitalistic society taught the people to get everything as soon as possible. Buy, buy and buy as fast as you can. Don't wait, get it instantly. Then all the companies must adapt to survive. They are forced to work under heavy stress because the society wants products NOW. And If you release the first version of product with minor unfinished things, beware ! People won't forgive. They will blame. They will hate. They will not wait for quality products to be properly done. They don't understand that everything worth in this world takes some time to develop.

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Loque
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30 Sep 2019

dusan.cani wrote:
30 Sep 2019
In this fucking capitalistic world all human values are lost...This causes enormous pressure to survive the market. This causes a massive stress for human beings in companies. Capitalistic society taught the people to get everything as soon as possible. Buy, buy and buy as fast as you can. Don't wait, get it instantly. Then all the companies must adapt to survive. They are forced to work under heavy stress because the society wants products NOW. And If you release the first version of product with minor unfinished things, beware ! People won't forgive. They will blame. They will hate. They will not wait for quality products to be properly done. They don't understand that everything worth in this world takes some time to develop.
I think its a bit more complicated...The problem with Massive X is, it is not the "first" synth of its kind and they missed innovations over the years and this resulted in a pressure. They rewrite the code, which was probably crap code and rewriting is massive expensive and takes massive amount of time which is massive expensive (massive pun intended)...

The world is as it is. At first, always start by yourself before judging others. You can thow stones if you are not a sinner ;-)
Reason12, Win10

dusan.cani
Posts: 472
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Location: Slovakia

30 Sep 2019

Loque wrote:
30 Sep 2019

The world is as it is. At first, always start by yourself before judging others. You can thow stones if you are not a sinner ;-)
I' ve already started with myself ;) I HIGHLY appreciate the efforts of all companies who are delivering beautiful products for us...

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bxbrkrz
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30 Sep 2019

Loque wrote:
30 Sep 2019


The world is as it is. At first, always start by yourself before judging others. You can thow stones if you are not a sinner ;-)
Deep & simply true.
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WongoTheSane
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30 Sep 2019

dusan.cani wrote:
30 Sep 2019
I am really shocked of all that stupid negativity and complains about Massive X. (all around the internet)...
I completely agree, it's a beautiful synth, both deep and super easy to program, with an excellent sound. I do miss a couple of things like numeric display of some values (LFO speed) to be able to do sync work, and visualization of envelopes to quickly see what it's doing instead of having to check nine knobs to get a feel, but I'm quite sure it'll come in due time. And in the meantime, it's already usable for a wide range of sounds. It's my go-to synth now.

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miscend
Posts: 1955
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30 Sep 2019

It's still buggy for me in Reason 10 when I use the computer keyboard for note inputs. But totally fine using a midi keyboard.

What do you guys think of the unison?

dusan.cani
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30 Sep 2019

miscend wrote:
30 Sep 2019
What do you guys think of the unison?
It's superb :puf_wink:

One of the best unisons I've encountered. Even modulating for example detune gives you very expressive variations to the sound. And as I mentioned, you can get analog style in freerun mode or tight digital unison in phase reset mode.

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