I finally have some money!!!! NI Massive, worth it?

[tastypants]

Well I finally have some money saved up, and I believe it's time for me to start adding more to my set-up!

I don't have much because quite honestly I understand that it's not ALL about the equipment!

But I need to add more! In school I've been working with Native Instruments- Massive with ProTools ... and my goodness it's beautiful! I honestly love it! (massive that is)

I've been thinking about purchasing it to help give myself more of an edge when it comes to my production. I seem to have an issue when it comes to synths and basslines.. I feel as if this may give me more a variety, and essentially will give me what I want!

So do you think NI Massive will be worth the investment? If you honestly do not like it, let me know and give me some food for thought!

Thanks all

[kitekrazy]

Sure it's worth it but save some more money and buy Komplete when it goes on sale for half off.

[Angstrom]

Depends what you mean by "bass" do you mean meaty analog beef, or dubstep warbling, or techno fat ripping bases?

I got Massive with one of those NI Komplete package deals they do every now and then, and I wouldn't pay full price for it. I didn't think I'd use it much when I got it , ... but was actually surprised how much i do use it, because it fills a little niche as a mid-range workhorse synth.
Massive is a good purchase as an all-rounder, and I certainly have used it on bass. However, I personally wouldn't consider it as a "bass " synth if I was going for a deep fat bass, unless your idea of bass is somewhat dubstep "warble warrpoo paaarp " , there are probably better options for low-end meat. Massive is essential a soured up wavetables synth, and they aren't noted for success at low pitches.
. You can beef Massives signal path up through use of the feedback functionality, which is certainly powerful, but I think that if you are specifically looking at a bass soft-synth my own personal pick is Arturias Minimoog V.

[eddiex]

i have most of the NI synths. MASSIVE and ABSYNTH are my favorites. i think it is worth the money, especially since you are already using it, and digging it.

[login]

Why not cheking other synths on the market?

Stuff by U-he (zebra, diva), Arturia (minimoog v, jupiter v, oberheim), Sugarbytes, Image line (HArmor, biohazard).

So many good synths aoutthere, you mus check them out before you buy.

[humnumb]

Well I finally have some money saved up, and I believe it's time for me to start adding more to my set-up!

I don't have much because quite honestly I understand that it's not ALL about the equipment!

But I need to add more! In school I've been working with Native Instruments- Massive with ProTools ... and my goodness it's beautiful! I honestly love it! (massive that is)

I've been thinking about purchasing it to help give myself more of an edge when it comes to my production. I seem to have an issue when it comes to synths and basslines.. I feel as if this may give me more a variety, and essentially will give me what I want!

So do you think NI Massive will be worth the investment? If you honestly do not like it, let me know and give me some food for thought!

Thanks all

Massive is definitely worth it, especially if you already enjoy using it like you do. If you'd also like a free hardware controller for Massive (and more), consider buying Maschine (Maschine comes with Massive, as well as Komplete Elements, for free) which acts as a fully hands-on dedicated hardware for all of Komplete (all presets will show up automatically to be browsed and loaded on the hardware).

[eddiex]

[yur2die4]

Are there rumors of Komplete 9 on the horizon??

But yeah, I'm very happy having Massive included with my Maschine!

[jestermgee]

K8 is on sale right now (Ultimate is $699 down from $1099) which is a great deal if you are in the zone for new plugins. But it would also suggest that a new release is round the corner and offer expires in a month.

An upgrade to K9 would probably work out the same as full cost of K8 so it's like a "buy now for a discount and pay later for the upgrade" deal but you get to play in the mean time.

EDIT: sorry, see you are intersted in just Massive. Still a nice synth but there are a lot of other options in that space for less.

[login]

Also, Native Instruments has had sales on cyber monday for some years, usually with 50% discount on plug ins.

[d.reamonn]

I'm still going with Predator->better filters, easier to program, 27 built-in effects, can be used in FX mode, and now has all kinds of weird interactions between osc, namely:

- FM
- RM
- PM
- SIGN
- MIN
- MAX
- S&H
- MIX

[re8]

Massive Pros: Used alot in everything from pop to rap to underground dance. Tons of patches everywhere. Really fun to tweak.
Massive Cons: Used everywhere.

I would suggest lurking on KVRaudio for a bit, & checking out all the many other synths if you can only afford to buy 1. Or just grab all those free ones & make your own racks.

[beats me]

Most listeners don’t know or give a shit if a certain plug-in is being used all the time. How many great songs have you hated or refused to buy because you recognized a preset? It’s not worth worrying about.

[UltimateOutsider]

I'm working on some projects that will use various hardware analog synths, and I've been looking for a good VA plugin that I can use to slap together presets quickly when composing my song, and then replace my VST presets with equivalent patches I design on my hardware synths. Over the weekend I compared NI Massive, Waves Element, and LennarDigital Sylenth1, looking specifically for the configuration parameters that my hardware synths use, and how easy it is to design vintage-style patches.

Massive and Element cost the same, I think Sylenth1's a tiny bit cheaper. I ended up going with Element because it was the most similar to my HW synths, but all three are very good VA plugins. There were a number of trade-offs- for example, I think Element has the best UI layout, but it's got goofy controls and it's not very well documented. Here's how I would rank them in various respects, from best to "worst."

Preset quality: Sylenth, Massive, Element
Preset/patch management: Massive, Sylenth, Element
Programming ease of use: Sylenth, Element, Massive
UI complexity: Element, Sylenth, Massive.
Documentation: Massive, Sylenth, Element
Programming flexibility/features: Massive, Element, Sylenth
Programming similarity to vintage Roland synths: Element, Massive, Sylenth

All three synths sound great, and there is a lot of functional and sonic overlap, but Massive has insane envelopes and waveform possibilities, and Element offers some very interesting OSC modulation options beyond its mod matrix. All three have their place. At the end of the day, Massive's probably the most powerful, but it's definitely not the easiest to master.

I do not own u-he Diva, so no idea where it would fall in my opinion. It looks pretty daunting, frankly, but it definitely gets good reviews. I own Sonic Academy ANA, as well, but I was pretty tired by the time I got through the other three, and I was already pretty satisfied with Element. It's pretty good, though.

Most listeners don’t know or give a shit if a certain plug-in is being used all the time.

Agree 100%

[patrick.olson86]

To whoever said save money and buy komplete when half off... great advice. I bought Komplete Ultimate 8 last summer for a crossgrade price on top of their sale (as I owned Maschine), and it's totally worth the extra cash. Not only do you get Massive (which is like $125 new right?), but you get FM8, an insane amount of synths in Reaktor, retro synths, great piano software.. additional drum sequencer in Battery if you feel so inclined to use it.. Scarbee basses, scarbee's funk guitarist, and my favorite, George Duke's Soul Treasures which is full of Mr. Duke's personal electric piano and organ loops that you can drag and drop right into your DAW or pin them to pads.. etc etc..

Also, guitar rig 5 is great. Not only does it have great effects for your guitar, but you can route drums through these effects and get some really cool sounds to vary up your productions (transient master is sick!)

I think it all came to like $400. Massive is $125... all of this was $400. Totally worth the extra cash if you can save up and wait for the deal.