Future of Massive X

Vfold

Nobody from Native Instruments wants to comment?

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/150704#Comment_150704

As mentioned on Page 1 ( and referenced elsewhere on the forums by NI back in March 2024):

“There is no current or planned development of these products at this time”

Nuff said I would think.

VP

Cinamyn

We're not going to see any Massive X updates????

I think it can be a very competitive synth with proper updates

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/150740#Comment_150740

That would be absurd, with that attitude no one will buy it and NI will then of course blame that for discontinuing it somewhere down the line. To attract users there needs to be visible investment in development.

Maciej Repetowski

I don’t think they want synths and Reaktor in their future. They are concentrating all efforts on KK and Kontakt. Sadly.

nightjar

Massive X is well represented with expansions in new "360 subscription" plans.

This bodes well for its future in NI development.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/152276#Comment_152276

I see no mention of new expansions. What is needed is development to address the shortcomings it still has and improve it further. The most critical one is making it viable to save user banks as that will finally make it more appealing for sound designers to create banks for instead of relying on NI to create expansions, creating a more engaged user base instead of passive recipients of goodies from NI.

chk071

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/152246#Comment_152246

True. Unfortunately, the reality looks like it wasn't exactly a success, otherwise it surely would have seen more updates and enhancements.

But, before I falsely call it "abandonware", like some people here already do again (really, so little patience these days…), I'll wait and see what the future will bring.

Unfortunately the least "musicians" understand the importance of economic efficiency.

nightjar

Again.. only Massive X and NOT Massive is included in the new "360" subscription.

And a whole bunch of Massive X Expansions are included too.

NI has clearly shown their intention of where they are going with synthesis with the 360 offering.

And Battery 4 is in 360 too.. so perhaps that foretells some updates to come.

NI wants new users to use these tools vs other older stuff.

Vfold

This teaser from six years ago shows a stepper LFO which was never added… Something like this would be a very welcome addition since the current LFO is quite limited. Or new effects, MPE, automation? Anything? Where are the regular free updates that make Massive X grow, adapt and evolve as promised?

DS99

Personally, I find it very sad that no one from NI has come forward here yet. And since I assume that this will no longer happen or that there are really concrete statements on the subject, that says it all. Come on NI!

chk071

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/152329#Comment_152329

First and foremost, I think they should expose parameters for DAW automation. That's pretty much an essential must have feature, which really any other soft synth has. Then, I'd like to see wavetable import.

Really, the synth has so much potential, and is the best sounding wavetable synth there is really, maybe with Serum. It would be a shame if it stays as half-baked as it is.

Splicer

Massive X is dead. They released it unfinished, consequently it didn't sell despite the incredible sound and potential (also a marketing failure - it probably shouldn't have been called Massive), and now it's a cold business decision to let it rot. All they will do is sell new presets - sorry, 'expansions' 🙄.

I will be very happy to eat my words.

iNate

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/149076#Comment_149076

That's by design. The idea is to wall off the garden and profit off of people paying for access to deliver a better user experience. It's like Apple not allowing side loading or 3rd party app stores on Mobile devices. Developers pay for access, and they get a cut to generate profits.

Sound designers will avoid Massive X because end users won't want to buy preset expansions for a Synth with such mediocre patch organization and management. Even with Massive Preset packs often get split up into 3-4 different folders in the browser, creating an absolute mess of everything.

It is a major issue for users who want to organize their own personally designed presets in the patch browser, and I don't see this changing soon.

Kymeia

I know - this is why I say they have shot themselves in the foot over this. It’s a very unique synth and yet there are just a handful of third party banks for it compared to Massive which has hundreds. Stopping development because of this is ridiculous because this is a problem of their own making