Massive X: A Symphony Unfinished

k999

Hello synth aficionados and plug-in pros,

Time to talk about the elephant in the studio - our beloved Massive X. A sonic giant in the world of soft synths, painting auditory landscapes that have coloured many a composition. Ah, Massive X, how we adore thee!

You arrived with lofty promises, an ode of evolution and adaptation, a symphony waiting to unfold with each update. "MASSIVE X will grow, adapt, and evolve with regular updates..." you proclaimed, setting our creative hearts aflame.

Yet, despite a new language skill (that M1 compatibility update was a necessary touch) and a flashy new preset browser, the symphony seems to have stalled mid-overture. Like a tantalizing tune left hanging, our dreams of sonic symbiosis feel somewhat...incomplete.

We understand, transitions can be tricky. New ownership, new direction, the uncertain hum of change. But Massive X, you were born to inspire. And inspiration requires brave new frontiers.

So, dear Massive X, dare to evolve. Let's explore uncharted sonic territories together. We might be a tad disappointed, but we remain hopeful. We're waiting for you to hit that high note.

Jon Watte

It sounds like what you really want is Reaktor?

KennyV9

I'm not sure what your expectations are, but I have been loving Massive X lately. I have Komplete 14 Standard, so a lot of sounds, but the Massive X sounds seem to me to be particularly vibrant. I have tracks that I use nothing but Massive X for that reason. I am more into using presets than programming my own sounds, but I am a guitarist turned electronic music composer.

abnegative

I couldn't agree more. For me Massive X is so close to being the perfect synth, yet it leaves some basic things to be desired.

Here's my wishlist:

• A built-in limiter (like Guitar Rig)
• Single-click to load preset
• Clear buffers upon a reset message from the DAW
• State Macros (i.e. being able to automate whether Unison is on/off)
• Stateful views (when I save the plugin state, I should be able to return to the same open tabs, like the Voice tab or Routing tab for example)
• Mapped parameters should move whenever the mapped macro moves
• Per-voice unison
• Faster startup time (if feasible)
• Import wavetables (I'm being a little greedy here as there is already a great selection of wavetables)

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/88217#Comment_88217

Plus a functional preset manager

abnegative

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/88219#Comment_88219

Yeah it would be nice to have user banks.

I can think of a few more things:

• undo/redo (this is huge for workflow)
• when you hover over macros or click them, the mapped parameters are highlighted.... except for the case where the parameter is not currently in view. I suggest highlighting the the section identifier when the mapped parameter is out of view
• scale the main menu text and apply the OS system theme

regarding "Mapped parameters should move whenever the mapped macro moves", this is already true for 1:1 mappings ( I was using a modulation instead.. my mistake)

While there was undoubtedly a huge amount of effort poured into creating Massive X (and I appreciate it!), it still feels like an unfinished product unfortunately.

Maciej Repetowski

Browsing presets with computer keyboard.

abnegative

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/88219#Comment_88219

I didn't realize how broken the user presets feature was...

I save my go-to instruments as track templates in Reaper. If I start Massive X with my track template shortcut, I can design a sound and save it as a Massive X preset, but the preset is saved in a way that it cannot later be opened by Massive X.

However, if I load Massive X from scratch, this is not an issue.

What I've noticed is that if you are about to save a preset and the "Author" field is blank, you will run into this problem. If the "Author" field is not empty you won't have this issue (even if you edit it).

So far my experience with Massive X has been like owning a brand new Ferrari where the engineers forgot to add a reverse mode to the transmission... I love driving it, but it's a huge pain not having the most basic needs met.

Splicer

New update today. Still no single click to load a preset. Still needs a decent preset browser. Still has slow loading GUI. A shame to see such a great sounding synth be neglected like this.

Kymeia

There is now a third party solution to creating preset banks in Massive X and Komplete Kontrol - it's free if you don't need to rename vendor (which is not a good idea for Massive X presets anyway)

https://www.doobox.co.uk/apps/mac/nksf_preset_banker.html

You too can have your user library in Massive X looking like this:

abnegative

I'm happy the user preset recall is fixed.