Native Instruments has introduced Massive X Player, a free version of its flagship software synthesizer.
Massive X Player lets you preview the platform, gives you access to a collection of synth presets, and gives you access to NI’s library of Massive X Expansion libraries.
Features:
- 60 synth presets, plus an extra free Massive X Expansion
- The Morpher lets you shift between parameters in real time.
- Animator introduces evolving movement and rhythmic modulation with just a few clicks.
- Use Randomize to spark ideas, break patterns, and make each sound your own.
Pricing and Availability:
Massive X Player is available now as part of Komplete Start, a free collection of instruments and effects.
Is it just me or is software going downhill? When my computer dies, I don’t see myself buying a new one since both major OSes are garbage. I haven’t updated or bought new software in years and I don’t intend to either. Cassette tape as a medium is starting to look more appealing every day
And cassettes never die?
Oooh the nostalgia… bring back the days of tapes spewing into your cassette player and tangling around the capstan. Slowly and carefully pulling a stretched and creased piece of tape out and winding it back into the cassette with a pencil only to listen to a garbled recording full of dropouts and distortion because the tape was too badly damaged. Don’t get me started on using tape as a recording medium and trying to minimize that noise floor (though a great big plus, is that recording on tape really makes you plan and map out what you want to do… no DAW-like endless number of tracks and effects).
I still have bags of cassettes from when I was a kid … some are still very playable and in excellent condition but the sound quality isn’t pristine anymore. Everyone and everything wears out over time.
It is just you, actually, it’s been as exciting in a long time. MacOS M series SoCs are so optimized you dont need a DSP and you can work with super high sample rates, no latency. Thing is EOL usually comes within 4-5 years. Hooray for non user replaceable batteries, non user upgradeable components and Planned obsolescence. Look for James Zhan on YouTube.
Windows is getting better for music production. They are in the MIDI2.0 council and have Pete Brown working on it. A great dude with a monumental task ahead of him. Still he has great blogs about the OS strides so with some elbow grease the OS can be viable for the life of the components or 10 years (I hace 1 dedicated win11 PC and one win11 laptop). Google Pete Brown, Sr Software engineer at Microsoft.
The other option Im about to investigate is Ubuntu Studio and install Bitwig Studio Ubuntu that I bought on their latest Summer Sale. For that I bought a Latitude 7490 which is more than adequate to research stability and feasability on the go. Yeah, Bitwig Studio was more expensive than the laptop. If Bitwig ends up beign more fun than Live (this includes stability since it aint fun dealing with bugs and crashes), I’ll be taking the PC Win11, clone to storage and install Bitwig Studio Ubuntu. There is no one giving useful infor on this so I’ll probably be the first.
IMO, no, software has simply reached a point of maximum development. Its hard to imagine it getting ‘better’ in any serious sense. I also don’t see the OSs as garbage. It takes added and sometimes aggravating effort to get things lined up, but the gains are worth it.
If you want to return to the tape world, go for it, but good luck dropping in corrective effects or adding new instruments. Hardware has its own issues. I had a nice rig, so I know from experience! The trick is to set up a practical system, solve the main issues and then resist piling new things on top until it clogs up the works. I now have a click & go system because I found the right discipline, that’s all.
Check out why Junkie XL sold most his hardware synths, Deadmau5 ans Steve Duda on new processing possibilities and AI, Universal Audio selling plugins even if you are not in their hardware ecosystem… there are so many things right now in the DAW space it is reallt exciting.
If you are comfortable with hardware only, go for it. However even for the most strict hardware guy out there I highly recommend them getting an iPad and a few $5-$10 apps. Treat it like a rack synth like a JV1080 or TX81Z but with a 1000% better UI although it wont last 20 years. A used $250 ipad can bring some of the greatest synths, grovebox, fx etc easy to use and sound super cool. I would say skip the ipad and use your iphone but Im old and my sight aint what it used to be
Well said!
software is by no means going downhill, but NI very much is – and has been for quite a while. It’s an absolute shell of a company at this point, really just a sample library clearing house to vaguely continue milking Kontakt for some kind of revenue. I think NI made some of the most truly groundbreaking, brilliant, and great-sounding devices some 15 years ago, but has been completely outpaced in more recent years and hollowed out by the VC acquisitions. This feeble Massive X Player is a perfect demonstration of how the brains and soul of NI has been sadly removed. there’s just nothing here of particular value, and for the size of this library, I’m just skipping despite getting my hopes up that NI may have had something to finally offer again.
Looks like they’re trying to do what Arturia does. You get access to the synth presets and a few key parameters. And you need to pay to have the full editing experience. Even Ableton is doing this with their Ableton Note iOS app which is going to have an in-app purchase for synth editing.