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Massive is an interesting case for me, because the first time around, it didn’t really click with me. I purchased it a year ago on impulse, used it a little bit, and eventually decided that it sounded “too harsh.” Recently, I started trying to give it another go and spend more time with it, and I have to say now that my first impression was wrong. Many of the factory presets are on the harsh and biting side, but by no means are rude and in-your-face sounds all that this synth is capable of.
After picking up the Massive Expansion Volume 2 collection (which has many sounds that are more up my alley than some of the factory presets) and investing more time in tweaking, I’ve found that Massive can indeed get punchy, defined, analog-type bass sounds suitable for busy, funky basslines (one category of sound that I had mistakenly assumed it couldn’t do well my first time around with it), delicate pads, metallic and mallet-type sounds with an extremely clear and defined attack, and a great many other classes of sounds. Some of the cool, icy, airy pads are just to die for. I think that one can perhaps get the impression that Massive sounds harsh or brittle at first listen because it has a very present and clear top end, unlike some other synths, but once a programmer gets a handle on the voice architecture and wavetable choices, it’s not that difficult to tame down those crystalline highs and get a warmer sound out of it if that’s what you want for a given sound.
There are a handful of areas where things could be developed further, such as offering individual panning control for each oscillator (i.e. a fully stereo signal path) and further broadening the choice of wavetables, but it's a very powerful synth as-is.
I look at Massive as almost a kind of turbocharged, ultra-modern PPG Wave. The facilities available for molding and shaping the raw sound of the wavetables go very deep indeed – there is more to Massive than first meets the eye from just a quick glance at the GUI.
Speaking of the GUI, this is, hands down, my favorite user interface out of all the softsynths I’ve used. I find it as beautiful to look at as it is clever and functional. The drag-and-drop modulation routing and “rings of Saturn” displays around the knobs to indicate modulation ranges are absolutely brilliant. The GUI makes it very easy to visualize what’s going on with the patch, as well as making the synth a genuine pleasure to work with.
Massive is a little more CPU intensive than many other synths, but now that I’m on an Intel Quad, I find that I can use several instances without a problem. I almost always run it in “Ultra” mode for the best fidelity and consider the CPU hit a worthwhile tradeoff for Massive’s excellent, clear, detailed sound.
To sum up, what started out as a synth that I had put off to the side (mainly because I failed to spend enough time really digging into it) has done a complete 180 for me and is becoming one of my favorites. Don’t automatically write it off if many of the factory presets are not to your taste - I think many of them are better viewed as showcases for the more elaborate tricks the synth can do than as everyday-use patches you can drop right into your tracks.Read Review
After picking up the Massive Expansion Volume 2 collection (which has many sounds that are more up my alley than some of the factory presets) and investing more time in tweaking, I’ve found that Massive can indeed get punchy, defined, analog-type bass sounds suitable for busy, funky basslines (one category of sound that I had mistakenly assumed it couldn’t do well my first time around with it), delicate pads, metallic and mallet-type sounds with an extremely clear and defined attack, and a great many other classes of sounds. Some of the cool, icy, airy pads are just to die for. I think that one can perhaps get the impression that Massive sounds harsh or brittle at first listen because it has a very present and clear top end, unlike some other synths, but once a programmer gets a handle on the voice architecture and wavetable choices, it’s not that difficult to tame down those crystalline highs and get a warmer sound out of it if that’s what you want for a given sound.
There are a handful of areas where things could be developed further, such as offering individual panning control for each oscillator (i.e. a fully stereo signal path) and further broadening the choice of wavetables, but it's a very powerful synth as-is.
I look at Massive as almost a kind of turbocharged, ultra-modern PPG Wave. The facilities available for molding and shaping the raw sound of the wavetables go very deep indeed – there is more to Massive than first meets the eye from just a quick glance at the GUI.
Speaking of the GUI, this is, hands down, my favorite user interface out of all the softsynths I’ve used. I find it as beautiful to look at as it is clever and functional. The drag-and-drop modulation routing and “rings of Saturn” displays around the knobs to indicate modulation ranges are absolutely brilliant. The GUI makes it very easy to visualize what’s going on with the patch, as well as making the synth a genuine pleasure to work with.
Massive is a little more CPU intensive than many other synths, but now that I’m on an Intel Quad, I find that I can use several instances without a problem. I almost always run it in “Ultra” mode for the best fidelity and consider the CPU hit a worthwhile tradeoff for Massive’s excellent, clear, detailed sound.
To sum up, what started out as a synth that I had put off to the side (mainly because I failed to spend enough time really digging into it) has done a complete 180 for me and is becoming one of my favorites. Don’t automatically write it off if many of the factory presets are not to your taste - I think many of them are better viewed as showcases for the more elaborate tricks the synth can do than as everyday-use patches you can drop right into your tracks.Read Review
