E.M.P Synth Review - Native Instruments Massive

In my previous synth review for electronic music production, I discussed Xfer Records Serum and how it compares to other wavetable synthesisers. In this review, I mentioned multiple times that I would soon be writing another blog discussing Native Instruments Massive. Today is that day ladies and gentlemen, so lets get right into it!

Native instruments Massive

Massive is a wavetable synthesiser created by the company Native Instruments, which was founded by Daniel Haver in 1996 in Berlin, Germany. Although Haver does not run the company, he does play a very large role as CEO. He is also the mastermind behind most of N.I's major products such as the VST plugin Komplete 11, DJ software Traktor, the production and performance system Maschine and of course, the wavetable synthesiser Massive.

The music production revolutionary, Daniel Haver. Photo: (Native Instruments, 2018)

But what makes massive so special?

In reality, Massive has been a market leader in wavetable synthesis for the last 20 years due its significantly large library of sounds and its capabilities towards manipulating said sounds. What's more is that even though the, well, massive amount of sounds contained within the synth may seem a little overwhelming to handle, the control towards sound design is incredible.

Massive - Synth View

Massive comes with 3 in-built oscillators, with all of them being able to control and manipulate 85 different wave type variations of square, triangle and saw waves as well as others. Every oscillator also has it's own pitch control, this helps significantly when a user is really going for that deep, 'fat' bass sound for their track. To add to this, Massive also has 4 envelopes which can be individually attached to the waves and altered at will within the centre of the 'Synth' view. Mentioning views, Massive has 3 of them, 'Synth', 'Attributes' and 'Browser'. All three of these views serve a different function. 'Synth' view (shown above) is where the user goes to create and alter original or preset sounds to use in their projects. This is most likely the most used view within the software. 'Attribute' view enables the user to add meta-data attributes to a selected patch of their choosing to be able to use in the KoreSound Browser (Schwenke, 2010). This meta-data may consist of categorical information, artist information as well as author information. Last but not least, the 'Browser' view enables the user to browse among the 600 preset sounds contained within Massive to then take back into the 'Synth' view for altering if needed.

Massive - Attribute View

Massive - Browser View

Massive also has a function in the 'Synth' view known as the Macro Controls. These controls are incredibly useful as they serve almost as a 'skip the queue' master fader for certain FX throughout massive. This then saves the user from having to scavenge through all of their latest work on an original sound just to decrease one specific element. Above the macro controls towards the top of the 'Synth' view you will also find 2 filters as well as 2 FX areas accompanied by an EQ section. In this section, there are 12 different filter types to choose from on both filters as well as a multitude of FX. These can then all be monitored in the EQ section, which is attached to the FX section.

overall...

Just like Serum, Massive is a must have wavetable synthesiser when it comes to building your arsenal of VST plug-ins. With its very simple and easy to use layout, producers ranging from beginners to the best in the industry can use it without fail. From my own personal experience, I can safely say that Massive is an incredibly powerful synthesiser as I am currently using it to produce my first original track. Just the fact that sound designing is made easy alone should be more than enough to persuade a beginner producer to get their hands on it immediately. To conclude, there is an obvious reason as to why this synth has been crushing the market for the last 20 years and it doesn't look like it will be slowing down any time soon. As Native Instruments are constantly forming new technology and their firmware is consistently updated, it seems that Massive will continue to be, well, massive.

works cited

- Native Instruments, 2018, 'Daniel Haver, CEO', Last Date Viewed: 7/3/18 https://www.native-instruments.com/en/company/management-board/

- Schwenke, J, 2010, 'Native Instruments Massive', Last Date Viewed: 7/3/18 http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/massive.php