MASSIVE X browser is so bad the synth isn't getting used

Hi all new here, have to agree. It’s a complete minefield finding a sound. I purchased massive x a few days ago and while I luv the sound, I’m not liking the fact that they aren’t organised. Even the NI expansion are just all in together with no logical tags for bass, pad, pluck etc.

 

This was the follow up response asking about the poor preset browser and letting them know that I will not give them any more money unless they care for their products:

Make noise people! You paid for it, demand that it work. Contact NI support.

 

Hello Skottish, as I said, I forwarded your comments to the responsible team. It is in their backlog, we don't have a timeline yet. Flooding our support channels with the same question will get the same answer, it will not help to make your case.

 

If flooding support won't get customers heard, what would you suggest then? The Browser is something out of the 90's. It's abysmal.

 

Users have been heard, but there are more important things to solve first (AVX being problematic for Apple Silicon support) before focusing on the browser.

 

I wonder what the status is here really. I myself made this account right now just to state: I have not used Massive X since I first tried it, and I will not use it until it got a decent browser. I am not a sound designer myself, but rely on buying packages of presets other skilled sound designers have created. Using such packages in Massive X is next to impossible, because of the void of filtering options. Please fix it.

 

It isn't that bad. I couldnt imagine letting one of the most amazing synths on the planet sit idle because of a poor preset browser, but I guess my passion for audio isn't the same as everyone else's passion.

 

I find it really frustrating, when I have a preset package like Drive, or Mechanix, and I want to quickly mock up some synthpop or some industrial, I can not in advance know which sounds in Drive or Mechanix is bass, which is leads, etc. And the obvious solution is staring at me: If I could, for instance, select Drive and then control-click "Bass", I could watch the intersection of all Drive presets that happens to be labeled as bass. Something that simple would make Massive X so much better to use.

The way is is now just makes it useless. So I mock compositionswith other synths, with good preset browsing where I can quickly select a suitable sound, instead. And then I end up using these synthesizers instead of Massive X instead, because why would I want to go into massive x and spend hours trying to find a better sounding preset? I can try to tweak the mock synth I picked instead, with soundtoys and mixing and tweaking knobs in the other synth instead.

 

For the record: I also have tried komplete kontrol for preset navigation (after several crashes and freezes trying to to scan my VSTs starting up, even though I only needed it for Massive X), but it looks like it had the very same drawbacks. No way to filter preset sounds that are in a given package (say Drive) and is of a given type (say Bass). But it might be I am using KK wrong, I have never used it before....

 

Yeah you can - you navigate banks via a dropdown menu in KK and select Bass from the various tags

 

I totally agree with Lars-Erik Bruce and duppyman and it´s the really nastiest thing (besinde old Massive-spin-of-(t)error) I found in modern software! neither free-ware has such a boring preset-browser and in final words: NI this can´t get called "browser" !

 

That's wrong. There's lots of freeware out there with horrible (or sometimes even non-existent) preset browsers. There's even payware that has worse browsers than MX (Synapse Audio plugins come to mind).

Sure there is. You click on "All Banks" and you get... banks:


Then you filter by Bass tag and off you go.

 

My 3rd party libraries are all just thrown into the User library along with my own presets. They're not separated into different categories or even banks that make it easy for me to find what I'm looking for. I have a synthwave bank and a D&B bank by the same company and they use the same naming conventions for patches(which is sensible). I rarely use either kind of patch for the other genre, but I have to click on the patch to find out which bank it comes from. This is a colossal waste of my time, of which I only have a finite and diminishing amount. NI are not paying me for my time. I am paying for them to produce a product that is fit for purpose.

The synth itself is mostly great after the recent updates, but the browser is terrible. At the very least, I want the folder structure of the User folder to be reflected in this format User->Bank Name->Patch type(bass, lead, pad, whatever). It's not a great deal to ask for. There's no excuse for it being so useless, especially from a company like NI. They're not some noob startup by a couple of guys in a basement with very few resources.

 

sorry that I didn´t own all of them, neither free nor payware

do you really like the browser? I´m as many other here owning paid preset-packs (not from NI, but ADSR etc.) and they go out of view in a big sea of presets
if there where other synths from NI having the same and if more than the half in the industry the same, than we can think that it´s hard to program, but come on, all other NI-synths (except the also not easy for me Reaktor-synths) have a better browser than MassiveX, hasn´t it? am i now right EvilDragon ?
it confuse me that you always fight so hard for NI when users show faults, like you´re the one who made it (also in the old Massive-spinning-browser-thing...) - I´m for sure a NI fanboy, but you´re overrun it sometimes

regards
The Sarge!

hint: english isn´t my native speech/language

 

Not really, no. But to say it's the worst thing ever is a gross overstatement.

 

What did you ask exactly?
Our support team doesn't always have that level of insight and isn't able to really share information from our roadmap.
If the question was about the browser and if there will be some improvements this year, it's a yes.

 

I think the language they share may be financial.

I wish you would. What tools may we expect?

Personally, I'd like to see more of everything and some extras thrown in for good measure, although I don't imagine it'll happen in one update but feel free to prove me wrong.

And??

 

okay
tbh: I didn´t say "worst thng", I say "nastiest"! and allthough my language is german, I understand the difference between those 2 words. For me the MX-browser feels like a punishment from NI for us users - but what have we done wrong?? I f.e. rise always the NI-flag in a wellknown german-forum, but in the MX-browser-point I can´t do it

 

And that is not a gross overstatement?

I think it is enough when you say that it's something which is (in your opinion) not acceptable, and which should be improved.

You know, I just don't get why people always have to exaggerate like that to get their point across. It's probably the Zeitgeist. If everything is vastly exaggerated, then it has to be exaggerated even more next time.

I think everyone understands you when you suggest things in a normal manner.

 

thanks to the mod for deleting my post and let other german spelled topic run...

in my case it isn´t "Zeitgeist" as you call it (unfortunately, bceause "Zeitgeist" is in german a positiv word!) and I also don´t like this total shitstorm-like behaviour, but to be serious:
MassiveX was delayed again and again, what was something that me didn´t affect badly, no, I looked forward and thought "good idea NI, than you would not present us an unfinished Synth" - that´s 2 years ago
from the release on, everywhere (also in test) the browser-feature was marked as "bad", and now luckily due this thread Matt @ NI came with the info that it would be improved "this year" which is again a range from oneday to 7 months but good to know that there will something get changed and hopefully in a good way like Absynth-browser f.e. (or they go a few steps inside Berlin to u-he and beg for their great Preset-browser-code )
personal question chk071 : why only pciked/signed just me? why not the thread-opener and others? man, that´s something I hate in germany