Native Instruments’ hotly anticipated Massive X lands

Within the last three months, Native Instruments has stoked excitement for Massive X with a blog series and audio demos. Now, the long-awaited successor to 2007’s Massive softsynth has finally arrived, offering state-of-the-art architecture, a vast array of sounds and expanded creative flexibility for users. Here are the highlights:

Oscillators

At Massive X’s core is a new oscillator section made up of two wavetable oscillators, 170 wavetable options and 10 oscillator modes with distinct sub-modes. Amongst the 10 modes, Gorilla and ART stand out. The animal-themed mode can be relied on for aggressive sounds, while ART “creates filters without filters”, according to NI.

Modulation sources

In addition to its oscillator capabilities, Massive X is well-heeled with a range of modulation sources. At your fingertips are nine LFOs and envelopes, four tracker modulators and a single voice randomiser.

Massive users will remember the Performer function that could assign modulation patterns to a parameter. Massive X ups the ante with three Performer modulators that let you draw in a maximum of eight bars of modulation patterns.

User-centric

Another highlight of Massive X is its user-centric approach. Crafting your desired sound has become more flexible, NI claims, with a host of switchable filters, noise generators as well as insert and master effects. You’ll also be armed with Saturn Rings modulation indicators – carried over from Massive – as well as a comprehensive preset library that promises production-ready sounds out of the box.

Routing

According to NI, routing has been bumped up to another level in Massive X. You’ll be greeted with an intuitive routing matrix with two main highlights. First, it lets you connect any output to an input. Second, the matrix allows for audio-routing to (or from) multiple components simultaneously.

Massive X retails at €199/$199. Massive users can also upgrade for €149/$149. More info at native-instruments.com.