Native Instruments Massive

I've been making music for a while, recently I headed towards the film music industry, making music for films, commercials and documentaries. I use Cubase SX3, with windows, and do not own any hardware synths, although I've tried a decent number of software synths through the years. I record music rather than program it, though I use Battery (very, very good) and Massive when I need "electronic" sound.

Absolutely a breeze to use, unless you've never touched a synth before. It is downright simple compared to Arturia's Moog Modular, clearly color coded and you soon get the feeling of what it can do and what it can't. The flow chart is a good reminder of standard subtractive synthesis signal path (you can tweak it to a certain degree). Patches are tagged with keywords (i.ex. dark, soft, digital, harsh etc.) and it's easy to find a preset matching your imagination.

I love the fact that it gives you no numeral information (except the pitch in the oscillator stage), because you're listening better, IMO. It's the same with EQ plugs with no visual information, you start to listen instead of "reading". Thumbs up!

I'm sure you've read the specs and heard the demos, but the demos are nothing, and the patches are nothing, until you start building up the sounds from scratch. I spend a long time on the oscillator section alone, testing and trying and playing, with no reverb and no filtering, because that's the core sound of any synth. And the sound is strikingly vibrant, it feels alive and warm, and plainly right. The filter section is excellent, and the effects are convincing. But the big, big thing is the modulation section. You can modulate everything, easily. All parameters can be randomized, in discreet or dramatic ways. Experiment as much as possible, and save a patch when you have something, and move on. I've created tons of interesting patches on my way to a specific sound! That just hasn't happen with any other synth until now. And when you're done creating, assign the makro controls to the key parameters, and you've got a highly expressive patch which integrates beautifully with the project you're working on.

It costs nothing, considering it's a real instrument. I would easily spend ??10.000 on a grand piano. And with Massive, as with the piano, learn it, try to master it, and you'll find out that the instrument is in someways bigger than you.

If i tried to find flaws in this piece of equipment, I sure would have found it. But it sounds beautifully, and is very intuitive in use, which means more time hearing and less time head-scratching. It is, though, a real CPU hog, but it doesn't change the overall impression.