Review of Massive by Native Instruments

[admin]

Review of Massive by Native Instruments
A Powerful new Software Synth
by Tweak

Read the full review here:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/reviews/revie ... e_inst.htm


Massive is a software synth for those who want to program their own sounds. Sure you can just use presets, and hundreds are supplied, but I think that would be missing the point. Even though you can find sounds amazingly fast, thanks to the "Kore style" browser, why hunt when you can make and bake? Massive is, for those who want to program, massive fun. Notice I said "those who want to" rather than "those who already know how to". Those who do know how to program synths are going to have a blast with Massive. There are few softsynths that you can tweak harder than Massive; it's implementation, in terms of synthesis is wonderfully complete. Yet its amazingly easy to learn, for those who have never programmed a synth, as easy as a simple analog synth to get started on, with its straightforward Oscillator-->Filter-->Envelope--Amplifier signal flow that the vast majority of synthesizers on the planet use.

[jsepeta]

how many presets come with massive? and you think there will be a group of people sharing sounds on the 'net? (just a guess)

[Tweak]

I don't know the exact number, might be on their site. Prob 250-400.

I would think people would enjoy making them and sharing them, much like they do with Absynth. In fact there are some similarities, but I would MUCH rather program on Massive than that gothic looking freak Absynth

[DGX305]

Rich: do you have KORE?
I know you got the ReMOTE SL, and I was wondering if you prefer to control Massive with ReMOTE SL over KORE?

[Tweak]

Kore is more than just a controller. In fact, as a controller, its not very good because it only works in kore. Not like a keyboard controller that tries to work with everything. I disconnected mine the day they opened up the code to let users disconnect. Its the software database and patch creating possibilities that are the main reason to go with kore.

[Erosion]

massive sounds awesome!

I just got it along with Komplete 4 and Kore.

It is replacing most of my hardware stuff for live performances.

I am a bit worried about consistancy, but my Macbook pro can run everything pretty well, and I haven't had any crashes yet.

Kore is a bit un intuitive, but after a good day of messing around and reading the user forums on NI's website I figured out basicaly how to do what I needed to for live performances.


Massive is a CPU hog though...no doubt. I don't run it on the highest level and its much better that way. Otherwise holding two notes of some big patches will bring my cpu up to 80%

[nishgriff]

The only thing NOT to like about Massive is the Massive CPU hit. You run out of voices real quick on some sounds.

[restonian]

Hi, I'd like to say that Tweak's reviews and tutorials have been very, very helpful in my studio-building and music-making efforts.

I picked up MASSIVE a few months ago, and was (and am) totally blown away. This is simply the easiest, most intuitive, and best sounding soft synth on the market, imho. Well actually, a few of the analog emulations like Minimonsta have their own unique sound that might actually be better in certain stuatons. But MASSIVE goes where no other synth has gone: I can say to myself "OK, I need a warble with an undercurrent of pusating rhythm in 3/4, ending in a chirp" or "I need a sound that sounds like "weow" and it take around 2-3 minutes in Massive to create the patch. I have never, ever, ever worked on a Synth where the connection between musical idea and the sound coming out of the monitors was just so hard-wired. I still use the analog synth emulations for their unique contribution, but other than those, Massive has replaced ALL of my other synth VI's, totalling around 8 in number. There is just no reason to use anything but Massive. Now, I'm not into additive or FM synth, just subtractive, so that might color my thinking, but at least in the area of subtractive synth programming, Massive is the bomb. NI hit a home run with this one. I am still waiting for the market to register and acknowledge what an astounding product this is, which hasn't quite happened yet. 3 wavetable oscs with very complex, rich waveforms, plus noise; two independent filters, and the real mindblower is the 4 envelope and 4 LFO/pattern/step modulators which can be freely assigned to anything in the synth, including other modulators, in fact including themselves (I have never seen that before - applying an LFO to itself to control, say, rate). Sometimes I spend / waste too much time on software and programming rather than making musc, and Massive definitely feeds that addiction, but for people like me who are enthralled with the technology and truly enjoy the process of making music in a modern computer-based studio, MASSIVE has no peer.

[Tweak]

Thanks restonian! Nice review.

[Duekay]

The only thing NOT to like about Massive is the Massive CPU hit. You run out of voices real quick on some sounds.

Hell yea, massive eats out about 30% of my CPU just having it running, I used full CPU just to make a tek bass sample, with nothing else running
I would be one of the most cleanest, easy to use, fat synth i have used.

Mostly everything is Midi CC assignable, Very nice presets is well for a good base sound to branch off.

9.5/10 i give this pup