Can Massive create any sound ?
- Thread starter OogyG
- Start date
You can select a presets and tweak it to your liking or create your own presets stacking 3 diffrents basic sound together and tweak it to your liking . Great tool for sound design for 808 or dubstep , trap lead ect . You can really morph a sound that will sound very different from what you were starting with . Its just lately i realize there were build in presets that come with this vst lol . Not sure sure if you can create ANY sound with it but possibility are endless with this vst . If your looking to build your own sound massive might be good for you .
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Wallengard
Manipulator of energy
I'm inclined to say a strict no to this question. Massive is what it is, it's wavetables are fixed, it's modules has its own character and it certainly has limits when it comes to modulation, even though it has more options than many others I just prefer to have a somewhat endless modulation matrix (it's pretty much locked to 2 modulation target slots per parameter, with a sidechain mod basically used to modulate the modulator, but you could use 1 envelope for all the modulation targets available (which I think is a really awkward way of dealing with modulation)). It doesn't have a global swing option for its step sequencer, and it has a maximum of 16 steps.
There are a huge variety of sounds you can get out of it, but just like any other vst instruments it has its own sound to it, which is why I don't really think there's one vst instrument to rule them all.
For instance, you can't make Massive sound like Diva, Harmor or Bazille, and none of them will sound like the others either.
I'm not bashing it. I own it, love it and use it frequently amongst others.. You just have to decide if you like the timbres that come out of it, but I wouldn't go in and say it can make any sound, because it can't.
There are a huge variety of sounds you can get out of it, but just like any other vst instruments it has its own sound to it, which is why I don't really think there's one vst instrument to rule them all.
For instance, you can't make Massive sound like Diva, Harmor or Bazille, and none of them will sound like the others either.
I'm not bashing it. I own it, love it and use it frequently amongst others.. You just have to decide if you like the timbres that come out of it, but I wouldn't go in and say it can make any sound, because it can't.
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scrapheaper
Moderator
No.
It can't do FM with more than operator, it can't do granular synthesis, can't do custom wavetables and it can't do weird modular routing things.
No synth can do it all. Massive can do a lot of things, synthmaster can do a few more (although it can't do some wavetable things massive can), serum can do more, alchemy does different things...
It can't do FM with more than operator, it can't do granular synthesis, can't do custom wavetables and it can't do weird modular routing things.
No synth can do it all. Massive can do a lot of things, synthmaster can do a few more (although it can't do some wavetable things massive can), serum can do more, alchemy does different things...
steffeeh
New member
No, no synth can create any sound. Creating a specific sound may involve loads of processing, resampling, routing etc, as a part of the sound design.
And Massive is only one among many different types of synths. Sure you can do some hacks with it and achieve technically similar results, but it will sound far from as good as a sound made with the right tool (just to take growl sounds as an example, you can be creative and make a nice formant growl sound in Massive, but it will sound far from as good as from a real haunting growl sound using FM, resampling, vocoding etc).
Anyway, what kind of sounds do you want to create?
And Massive is only one among many different types of synths. Sure you can do some hacks with it and achieve technically similar results, but it will sound far from as good as a sound made with the right tool (just to take growl sounds as an example, you can be creative and make a nice formant growl sound in Massive, but it will sound far from as good as from a real haunting growl sound using FM, resampling, vocoding etc).
Anyway, what kind of sounds do you want to create?
keepinitreal
New member
Try this: How To Make Any Sound In Massive
localspace
New member
No one synth can produce any kind of sound.
Massive is a very easy and flexible synth to work with a great starting point to get into synthesis.
Massive is a very easy and flexible synth to work with a great starting point to get into synthesis.
KonKossKang
Ozagas
Massive can create a lot of synth sounds and do very light FM type stuff, but not everything.
A hybrid synthesizer or a semi modular synthesizer can make almost any sound minus the acoustic stuff unless you really put the effort in abusing your synth. However, I honestly believe full modular synths can create any sound.
Wavetable synthesis would allow this to happen since it gives you so much control over individual waveforms, could be able to make any sound.
For instruments additive synthesis would prolly be better since those graphs seem to only show how to emu an instrument with a frequency chart.
Massive is hard to me since you can't do as much stuff in it, and it already sounds mixed.
Reason, xfer serum, maybe fm8?zebra would be semi modular/hybrid but if you'd want to get deeper you'd prolly want to delve into something like synthedit or Csound.
A hybrid synthesizer or a semi modular synthesizer can make almost any sound minus the acoustic stuff unless you really put the effort in abusing your synth. However, I honestly believe full modular synths can create any sound.
Wavetable synthesis would allow this to happen since it gives you so much control over individual waveforms, could be able to make any sound.
For instruments additive synthesis would prolly be better since those graphs seem to only show how to emu an instrument with a frequency chart.
Massive is hard to me since you can't do as much stuff in it, and it already sounds mixed.
Reason, xfer serum, maybe fm8?zebra would be semi modular/hybrid but if you'd want to get deeper you'd prolly want to delve into something like synthedit or Csound.
scrapheaper
Moderator
Here's a different related question: can synthmaster make any sound massive can make? ... I've looked into it extensively and the only thing I've found missing from synthmaster is the intensity knob and drop down menu.
Wallengard
Manipulator of energy
It probably can't.. Even if you come close they will have different characteristics. On the other hand, SynthMaster2 is much more versatile than massive.
Unfortunately, no, massive can't create EVERY sound. It is very versatile and sounds great as a subtractive synth, but it has its limitation. As others have said, it is incapable of fm synthesis, but more importantly every synth has a particular sound to itself. The sound source has its own characteristics, so you won't get a prophet 5 or minimoog to come out of massive, but if you have a firm grip on subtractive synthesis you can program similar patches.
B Lee
New member
Absolutely not. I love and use Massive frequently, and it is a true workhorse synth with wide capabilities, however, it has its limits. For example, compare the way Massive handles voice unison versus the way Sylenth or Hive does it. With Massive, you're limited to applying unison to the entire patch, which gets "same-ish" after a while if you use unison frequently on it. With Sylenth and similar synths, you can assign it to certain oscillators and leave it off in others. The FM synthesis in Massive is extremely limited compared to something like FM8 or Sytrus. Massive's overall sound is a bit cold, and the character of its filters are more digital and brittle compared to something like Diva or Sylenth. There's a lot of other things I could mention as well. That said, Massive kicks a** for hard and aggressive sounds, or complex soundscapes and sequenced patches.