Future of Massive X
Hello NI team, I would be pleased to hear some meaningful news about the future and further development of Massive X. It's been a long time since the last update and when we ask about bugs and new features, all we keep getting is the statement that nothing of the sort is planned. For a flagship synthesizer, this is simply far too little and NI should finally turn to its customers with a good product policy who have usually (and not only for this synthesizer) invested considerable money in NI products. It would be nice if there would be a statement in this regard so that we know whether there will be any significant updates in the near future.
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Questions regarding Massive X were brought forward in the March 2024 – a community update from our Chief Product Officer thread but left unanswered so you probably should not expect any answer from N.I. to a more random inquiry !
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This question has been raised many times by many posters regarding many of Native Instruments' products, including Reaktor ensembles (Monark, Form, Rounds, etc.), Battery, FM8, and Massive/MassiveX. The response from Native Instruments has been pretty uniform, which is that there is no current or planned development of these products at this time. They have been pretty transparent that their current focus is on Komplete (you can see the investment in Play series), Kontakt, and new hardware. If they do decide to reinvest in any of these older products, it won't be until after their current strategy has been executed and reached the end of its own life cycle. My (pretty safe) assumption is that the life cycle of these older products should be viewed as completed, as the business case for further product development is probably a non-starter.
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Or you could just use it and enjoy?
Did it suddenly become less "good" by not getting a recent update?
Spectrasonics Omnisphere hasn't had a real showstopper of an update in years - and it is consistently part of an endless workflow over here.
VP
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Yeah but one key difference is with Omnisphere you can save your own user presets into their own bank, and there's a thriving community of third party content developers and ongoing interest in the plugin. In fact Spectrasonics clearly recognise the importance of cultivating this community, even making it possible to export a complete package of presets and samples ready to share or sell. With Massive X you can't do any of that and there never really was much development of a thriving third party sound design community or encouragement for it.
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Yes, you could also see it that way. But the crucial difference is that various essential bugs in Massive X have not been fixed for years (e.g. sustain pedal bug). Furthermore, the browser should at least be improved (user tags, right click loading of sounds).
When NI announces that it is a flagship synthesizer, these are the minimum expectations you have to have. Something like this must be fixed or improved in the short term. And that is also the main criticism of the users.
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I think getting an answer like "nothing of the sort is planned" or no definite answer at all is pretty much an answer in itself. There is likely no future for Massive X.
IMO, it would've been cool if Massive X was a bit more like Serum. The most common complaint in regards to Massive X was the lack of wavetable import.
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user tags
To be fair we do have user tags now (although it is clunky and easier to do in Komplete Kontrol tbh), but still no way to separate user content into distinct banks or even follow basic folder structures
but yes on the whole a number of bug fixes are still required let alone new features, for me the top ones would be user banks, poly aftertouch, MPE and microtuning support
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Totally understand.
But every piece of software (instrument/plugin or whatever) has bugs and yes - every instrument certainly "could" use an update now and then.
That said - there is a huge difference in encountering bugs that are showstoppers vs those that someone labels as an annoyance. Or that someone never uses or in my case - is even aware of.
Example: I use/enjoy Massive X all the time - but I have no idea whatsoever about a sustain pedal bug.
Then there is our built in expectation that just because something exists - that makes it automatically ripe for "enhancements" "improvements" or new features by default.
Now this is not to imply that this thing is as good as it could be, could not benefit from an update or two or to diminish anyone's request for bug fixes that DO effect them (or cool new features.)
But maybe what we got - is what we got?
Now - I do not recall NI ever calling Massive X a "flagship" but if they did - maybe it was way back when and is simply not a priority for them now. It's really not hard to see where their focus is these days.
And really - many of the same things above could be said for Omnisphere too. I sometimes stand around and wonder - just what the heck do those guys do over there at Spectrasonics all day long since April 2015?
Judging by what I see everyday on screen - it's sure isn't bug fixes or new features - that is for sure. Still doesn't stop me from using it.
VP
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Oh, I completely agree. If I started a thread on the appropriate forums to foster a discussion on making cool pads in Form, or growl basses in Massive X, the number of responses I would get is about 2 or 3. That is, unless I said one lucky participant in the discussion is going to win a mystery box of NI hardware.
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I don't know if I wish some update on Massive X, when I see what happens when NI updates its tools... We better keep a plugin that works (even "decently working" is better than "breaking something at each update")...
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There SHOULD be updates since NI has promised them for years. It still says so on their site:
“MASSIVE X will grow, adapt, and evolve with regular free updates – both inspired by, and to inspire, the cultures it helps to create.”
Guitar Rig 6 was sold on similar promises of rapid development but they did nothing, blamed the pandemic and released the promised features as a paid upgrade.
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Why would NI spend time and resources on massive x when they can just keep peddling play series romplers and take the lazy option?
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the cultures it helps to create
To promote a culture Massive X needs to have a much bigger and more active user base like the original Massive did, but for that it needs to be possible to properly save user banks
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To promote a bigger, more active user base you could argue that you would need to make it more desirable in the first place by supporting it.
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