Review: Native Instruments Massive

X
Rishabh Rajan on Jul 05, 2019 in Review 1 comments

Back in 2007 Native Instruments brought Massive to the market, a software synth
that would come to define the sound of electronic music. Over the next decade, the
sound of electronic music changed and the domination of Massive as the de facto
wavetable synth started to wither away in the face of some very strong
competition. Now, in 2019 almost a year after the official announcement,
MASSIVE X is here. Are they too late or do we have another decade of genre-
defining sounds to experience with MASSIVE X? Let’s find out.

Interface

MASSIVE X is not an upgrade to Massive. It’s a completely different software

synth. It’s not a Reaktor ensemble, but a completely new application coded by the
original developers of Massive. The interface is the most obvious change when
compared to the original. Yes, it looks great, but it does take some time to get used
to. One of the biggest drawbacks is that there is almost no visual feedback of any
kind. Massive probably has more visual feedback than MASSIVE X. Having said
that, the software is a work in progress. The development team is working on
adding a lot of visual elements to make the synthesizer easier to work with. Most
modern synths have tons of visual feedback so this is an absolutely necessary
addition. For examples of this, see Xfer Records Serum, Arturia Pigments,
Ableton Wavetable & Roli Equator.

Wavetables
Almost every new wavetable synth on the market boasts tons of wavetables and
the ability to load in your own wavetables or just make a wavetable out of any
short audio sample. MASSIVE X has tons of wavetables but currently does not
have an import feature. This is definitely a major drawback but I have been told
that this feature is also in development and is coming soon. I remember when
Ableton gave us a preview of Wavetable, everyone wanted to know if it could load
custom wavetables and initially it couldn’t. So here’s another feature to look
forward to in the next release.

When it comes to wavetable manipulation modes, MASSIVE X blows the

competition away. Aside from the usual bending and wave folding modes, NI have
developed some really interesting new modes that open up a lot of sound design
possibilities within the wavetable section alone. The entire wavetable section is
highly tweakable and there’s enough there to keep the user engaged for a while
before they might feel the need to load in custom wavetables. As for dedicated
Oscillators, there is a dual wavetable engine, but there are also oscillators that can
be loaded into the Insert Effects. On top of that even the LFOs can run at the audio
rate and can be routed to the output. In total you can have 7 dedicated oscillators
running simultaneously.

The original Massive had a dedicated Modulation Oscillator, but now MASSIVE
X has two modulation oscillators that can phase modulate any of the two
wavetable oscillators and there is also the possibility of routing an external signal
as a source of modulation thanks to the very powerful routing tab.

Noise
I never thought I would need anything aside from white & pink noise until I tried
out Xfer Records Serum. MASSIVE X takes this a step further, adding a dual
Noise Wavetable engine with plenty of esoteric noise samples and dedicated pitch
controls for each. Some of the noise samples are a lot of fun to work even without
mixing the sample with the main dual wavetable.

Filters
In a way the filter section in MASSIVE X seems less significant than the original.
There is now just one filter but with a lot more filter options. There’s even a more
CPU efficient version of the Monark filter. There is also a parallel and serial State
Variable Filter module that addresses the need for multiple filters. Personally I
very rarely used the multiple filters in Massive, so simplifying this is a welcome
change. Having said that, all the flexibility that comes with routing oscillators and
noise to the two filters with the crossfader is now gone.

Insert Effects
Insert Effects have also become a lot more significant now with three separate
slots with 11 unique modules. Aside from the usual bit crushing and distortion
modules you get analog style oscillators that can be mixed in with the dual
wavetables. You also get a VCA in the form of a Utility module that can be put to
good use depending on how it’s set up in the routing tab. One of my favorites is
the Anima module, a cross between comb filtering and a flanger.

Unit Effects
The Master Effects section has also become a lot more significant than it was in
the original version of Massive. You get three effects slots and most of the effects
have plenty of dedicated controls. The Reverb is particularly flexible with 17
separate reverb algorithms so you are not stuck with just two reverb sounds like
you were in Massive. The Quad Chorus sounds fantastic and that too has a couple
of different algorithms to choose from. Overall the Unit Effect is great for adding
that final touch of sheen to your sounds and having three effect slots means you
can add that much more processing to a sound. Interestingly you can add the same
module thrice. Try adding three reverbs set to the Wanderlust algorithm and get an
almost infinite decay.

Routing Tab
For me this is hands down the best feature in MASSIVE X. Massive had some
flexibility with insert effects routing but in MASSIVE X, this seems more like a
full-on Modular system. Almost anything can be connected to anything else. Some
people are calling MASSIVE X a semi-modular synth but technically if nothing is
hooked up in the routing tab, you will get no sound. Just like on a fully modular
synthesizer, you have to patch things in to get sound. You can route LFOs to the
audio output in the routing tab. You can add a VCA control to any signal in this
tab. There is a lot of flexibility that you just don’t see in any fixed architecture
synth design.

Modulation
If the routing flexibility is my favorite feature of MASSIVE X, the new
Modulation capabilities seem to be the feature most strongly highlighted by
Native Instruments. In every sense, the modulation is above and beyond what you
get in any other Wavetable synth. There are 9 modulation slots, with one fixed as
the amp envelope and the remaining 8 able to be set to a modulation envelope, an
exciter AR envelope, a Switcher LFO or a Random LFO. That’s right - now we
have a real random LFO, unlike the previous wavetable-based random LFO in
Massive that wasn’t really random as it would eventually repeat.

To top all that off, there’s the all new Performer. The three Performer modulators
in MASSIVE X are everything the original one was and more. It’s probably the
most customizable modulation source since Absynth’s envelopes. There are
multiple shapes to choose from for quickly drawing in patterns. Drawn-in shapes
can be easily bent and deformed in all kinds of ways with the bezier curve editing
capabilities. On top of all that the overall Performer shape can be squished and
stretched like a DAW’s audio warping algorithm to produce some really complex
patterns that go off the grid literally and figuratively. To take this a step further,
each performer can also have 12 variations with the remote octave control. For me
this is overkill but think about morphing through different complex performer
shapes across the keyboard range or controlled via an external controller. You can
potentially create movement that is constantly evolving and never ending.

The Bad
Probably one of the biggest issues with MASSIVE X is the lack of visual
feedback in the GUI. This should be priority number 1 for the next update. The
synth doesn’t work with non AVX-compatible CPUs. AVX stands for Advanced
Vector Extensions which are extensions for the x86 instructions set architecture
introduced in 2011. In other words, you can’t use Massive X with a computer
released before 2011. This shouldn’t be a huge issue as computers tend to have a
relatively short life cycle and most people should have a compatible CPU. Having
said that there are still some folks who have older machines and wouldn’t want to
upgrade just for MASSIVE X.

The synth is also quite CPU heavy when compared to the original Massive ,
which in my opinion is probably one of the most CPU efficient software synths
out there right now. I’ve noticed this with many 1.0 releases. They usually tend to
be CPU heavy but eventually get to a more efficient stage in future updates. I’m
pretty sure MASSIVE X will get more CPU efficient in the future. Currently
MASSIVE X runs as a plug-in only. There might be that one person out there who
still needs to run MASSIVE X in standalone mode, but they might have to wait.
It's definitely coming. Lastly, MASSIVE X has lost the Program List feature. With
Massive 1 you could create a set list of 128 patches and recall any with Program
Change messages, which was very helpful for live performance scenarios. I’m not
sure if this will be back in MASSIVE X in the future but if there is demand, NI
might bring it back.

Pros: Great Sound, loads of flexibility

Cons: GUI doesn’t have any visual feedback, CPU intensive and doesn’t support
computers older than 2011

Web: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/massive-
x/?content=4371

Learn everything you need to know about Massive X: https://ask.audio/academy?

nleloc=course/3404/massive-x-explored