Massive Mega Guide PDF

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Native Instruments Massive Mega Guide

By Krux of Knowledgeable Producers Forum

This is Massive, a very daunting looking synthesiser made by Native
Instruments. The labels on the following diagram indicate the chapter heading
for the rest of this guide (with a few additions):

Filter section

Effects Section

Oscillators

Modulation and
the central panel

Modulation

Oscillator

Noise

Oscillator

The Macro
Feedback
The insert effects Controls
control

Massive is a subtractive wavetable synth. See the sound design guide for more
information on synthesisers, but this means that it is a mix of Wavetable and
Subtractive synthesis.

This video gives you a walkthrough similar to that in this guide, but I recommend
you look at both in order to learn the most:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzsAzrj8XNI

http://knowledgeableproducers.com/forum/

1. Oscillators

The following picture shows the oscillator section of Massive

Using the arrows, or
using the dropdown
Clicking this blue dot menu will allow you to This menu selects what the
will turn the oscillator choose a wavetable. intensity knob does.
on or off.
This slider adjusts

how much of this
sound is sent to
each filter.
This number
indicates the pitch
of the oscillator.
Hold alt to move
in multiples of 12 The volume control for
(octaves). the oscillator.
What this does depends on what mode you have set for the oscillator:
Spectrum:
Moving this alters the waveform that This allows you to change how many upper harmonics there are. (A
the oscillator produces by changing Lowpass filter).
the position of the wavetable. See the Bend -:
sound design mega guide for more This stretches out the middle of the waveform, while squashing the
information on wavetable synths. start and end.
Bend +:
For all dials in Massive, drag or scroll This one squashes the middle whilst stretching the beginning and end.
on it to change its value. Bend-/+:
This allows you to do both of the above functions with only one dial.
Formant:
As you turn up the intensity, it gradually increases how much formant
action there is in the wave. Try for yourself!

All 3 of Massives oscillators are exactly like this one, and having multiple allows
you to layer your sounds up.

2. Modulation Oscillator
While it labels itself as an oscillator, this section doesnt produce sound of its
own, but changes the sound that the other oscillators make.

The numbers indicate which
oscillator each mode is assigned
to. You can have multiple modes
The standard blue, on/off button. acting on the same oscillator at
It goes grey when off. once, but you cant set one mode
to be on two oscillators.
An identical pitch control to the

standard oscillators. This pitch
value applies to all different
modulation modes.
Turning this allows you to alter the

amount of each mode in operation. You
can have different values for each mode.
These are the modes, which you can choose between.

Ring mod:
Ring modulation is effectively a very fast tremolo. You can experiment with what it does by bringing the pitch
down really low and then turning the amount up; you will hear a slow tremolo.
Phase:
Similarly, this is a very quick vibrato. Phase is basically another way of saying FM synthesis, which also refers to
modulating the pitch. See the sound design guide for more about FM synthesis.
Position:
This allows you to modulate the wavetable position of your chosen oscillator. Think of it like a quick way of
putting a tuned LFO on your wavetable position (Ill get to LFOs later).
Filter FM:
This is like standard FM, but it works on the cutoff of your filter (see chapter 6). There are only two numbers
because there are two filters. However this doesnt work on Bandpass, Bandreject, Scream or Comb filters, and
the number will be come greyed out if you try to do so.


3. Noise Oscillator

This is much like the other oscillators; only it doesnt produce a sound with a
pitch. Instead it produces white noise or a variant.
Change the type of noise
On/off button. (I will stop using this dropdown menu.
mentioning this from now
on).
Alters how much of the

sound goes through each of
the two filters.
For all the noise

waveforms, turning up the
color makes the noise
brighter in some way.
This allows you to change

the volume of the noise
oscillator.

4. Feedback

The feedback section is located just to the right of the Noise Oscillator. Feedback
allows you to reprocess your sound with the effects and filters multiple times.

This allows
you to
increase the
This tells you where volume of the
the feedback is feedback.
coming from, which
can be changed in the
The standard
routing tab
filter mix
slider.
Pre A
Post A
F1
F2
Circled are the options for the feedback (FB) routing. Once the source has been
chosen the sound always returns to the oscillators to be processed again.

5. Insert Effects

Since we have just been looking at the routing tab, now is a good time to look at
the inserts, which are located to the right of the feedback section. You have two
of them and they are basically effects, though very simple ones. What makes
them so good is that you can choose where to put them.

Choose which effect you want using the drop

down menu.
The right dial changes depending on which effect

What the left dial does changes depending on you choose, but its label is often a good indicator
what effect you choose, but in all cases apart from of its purpose.
HP LP Filter it is labelled Dry/Wet. This allows
you to control how much of the sound is being
effected by the effect; all the way to left does
nothing, all the way to the right is 100% wet.

As mentioned before, what makes the inserts so great is how you can adjust
where they affect the sound, and this is done in the routing tab:
The circled areas indicate where the inserts can be placed. You can only have
one in a certain place at once, and cant have both inserts at the same place.
Also note that the section in the bottom right will only work if you have enabled
the feedback.

6. Filters

The filters are located to the right of oscillators one and two.
Once a filter type is selected, this becomes This dropdown This is usually the resonance control, but
a cutoff dial, which allows you to select selects filter type. becomes feedback when using the comb filter.
the frequency targeted by the filter.
This slider controls the mix
between the filters,
allowing the user to bias
This slider changes the one over the other.
mode from series (top), to However its exact purpose
parallel (bottom). When on depends on the position of
series the sound will go the slider on the left.
through filter 1 and then
filter 2. In parallel, the
signal is split and it partly
There is one of these on
passes through both, where
both filters, which acts as
the distribution is adjusted
another volume control.
with the mix slider.
The central dials use changes depending on which filter

mode. A lot of the time it is disabled, but sometimes
controls the bandwidth.

7. The Effects Section and EQ

We have looked at the insert effects, but there is also the main effect section
found to the right of Filter2.
The EQ can be
There are two identical effects sections, where the desired effect accessed here.
can be selected from the dropdown as normal. The only Remember to turn
difference is that FX2 does not have any Tube distortion so if it on by clicking the
you want to use any, make sure you do it on FX1. grey dot.
The next three vary depending on

The far left knob always functions
which effect is selected, so youll
as a Dry/Wet control, which
need to experiment to find out
adjusts the percentage of the
what they all do!
sound that the effect is influencing.
Boost and Frequency work together, where

boost adjusts the gain of a band, and frequency
adjusts that same bands frequency.
This lets you change the

volume of the low
frequencies in the sound.
This allows you to boost or

attenuate the treble
frequencies in your sound.

8. Amp, Bypass, and Master section

In the top right of the Massive window you should see this section:
The pan wheel lets you pan your

sound left and right.
The number in this box The master dial turns

selects which of the your sound up and
envelopes controls the down. You can use the
master volume. More meter on the right to
on envelopes later, but check that it isnt
I recommend not clipping and is at a
touching this. sensible level.
The bypass section is special and requires another visit to the routing tab.

What this does is allow one of your oscillators to bypass all the filters and inserts. This can be
useful for many reasons one being the ability to make a bass and use a built in sub without it being
filtered or distorted.
These red circles change which of the oscillators

are being bypassed. Select one of the four options
and then follow the yellow line down to the right
You now have three options about where to route

the sound into again: Before FX1, before FX2, or
before the EQ.

9. The central panel

- Osc tab
Other than the macros, the only area left to look at is the central section.
Unfortunately there are a lot of things to look at in this central panel, starting
with the osc (oscillator) tab.

As a side note, some of the features in this section are dependent on other
features being enabled in other tabs. For example, glide will only work if you
have monophon or monorotate selected in the voicing tab.

If in doubt turn this on by clicking

where it says, restart via gate.

What it does is restart all of your This is the internal envelope.
Select which tab you want to view Envelopes will be explained later,
by clicking here, in this case, click waveforms at the beginning of their
cycle. You can then adjust at what but just remember, this is the same
where is says osc. as that, but an extra one for
point in their cycle they begin at by
moving the sliders below. exclusive use within the osc
section.
This allows you to slide between

overlapping notes, also called
portamento. Turning up the time This is the vibrato section. Rate
increases the time to slide between controls the speed of the vibrato,
notes. and depth (unsurprisingly)
Changing these values alters the controls the depth of it.
Equal - the time to slide will be the maximum and minimum values
same regardless of the pitch for the pitch bend. Above the two dials there is a
difference of the two notes. Mono button. This means you can
You can use this in real time if keep the vibrato in the same phase
Rate - the time to slide is your keyboard has a pitchbend for all the voices playing (assuming
proportional to how far apart the wheel, or you can automate it you have activated multiple voices
notes are. Short distance = short time. using midi afterwards. in the voicing tab.

- KTR Osc
Firstly, I would like to recommend that you leave the KTR Osc alone. It stands
for KeyTrack Oscillator and it is the section that controls the intervals between
the notes you play. For example, when you play a C on your keyboard, what you
hear is a C, and the same goes for every other note. The KeyTrack Oscillator
allows you to change this. As you can imagine, this can end up sounding terrible.
This graph indicates the relationship

between the notes you play and the notes By default linear is selected, which
you hear. The straight angled line means that is usually what you want. Linear
the gaps between the notes are equal. gets you the straight, angled line.
Selecting off gets rid of

any relationship between
the notes you play and
the notes you hear. Now,
no matter what note you
play, you will always
hear the same thing.
Choosing user means you can change the

curve manually. Clicking it gets you this:
The red circles indicate the points that you can move. They move up, down, left and right.

Indicate with a yellow circle there are also two lines, which allow you to move all the points at
once while preserving their relationship with each other.

- KTR Filter
KTR Filter stands for KeyTrack Filter. This is similar to the keytrack oscillator as
it controls a variable depending on which note is hit, but rather than pitch, this
time it controls the cutoff of your filters. With it activated as you play higher
notes, the cutoff of any filters you are using will increase in parallel with it. You
cannot see this happening by looking at the filter section; this feature happens
invisibly.
Playing with the KTR Filter is a lot less damaging to your music that playing with
the KTR Osc. In actual fact, sometimes it can have some really interesting effects.

For the KTR Filter, you can create two

different user curves for each filter and
switch between them at will.
Again you have the input/output graph.
The off setting ensures that the filter

cutoffs do not move at all, no matter
which note you play.


- Voicing
Along with the osc tab, this section is probably the most useful.
These two numbers allow you to select the These boxes change the way that the synth responds to midi
number of voices your sound is playing. information:
Adding a new voice effectively duplicates - Polyphon = you can play 2 or more notes at once.
your oscillators. - Monophon = only lets you play one note at a time. Any previously
Having a max value (the left number) can playing voices will stop instantly.
stop your CPU dying from the overload of - Monorotate = again, one note at a time, but instead of an immediate
new voices. stop when a new note is played, the notes fade out (but very quickly).
The trigger options:

- Always = the notes will retrigger all envelopes regardless of note overlaps.
- Legato = playing overlapping notes causes the notes to swap without the envelopes being reset.
- Legato Triller = The step up from legato; a note can now be held down while others play, and
when the others stop playing, the sound will return to the original note.

N.B. Legato triller is not available when polyphon is selected.
Once you turn Pitch Cutoff on you can detune some of the voices from each other. This does of course
require that you have more than one voice in the first place. The two numbers either side of the central
slider adjust the maximal and minimal values that that slider can access. You can then move the slider to
move between those values.

Centered and chord are just two different algorithms for the way the pitches are distributed. For centered
the average pitch value is halfway between the left value and the value for your slider. For chord it
becomes a mix of the left value, and the value on your slider.
The wavetable position is similar; it allows you to have different wave table positions for all of the voices
you have activated. As you move the slider up, the bigger the range of wavetable positions are reached.
This allows you to give different pan values to each of your voices. Beware though, sometimes bringing it
all the way left, or all the way right can make it incredibly loud.
- Routing
The routing tab has already been covered in previous sections of this guide

- Global
The global section allows you to alter some parameters in your synth patch as a
whole and also some settings between different presets. A lot of the features in
this section are rarely used however:
This changes the sound quality of your

preset, which is good if you are having
Clicking this button resets everything in problems with CPU overload, but remember
massive to default. Dont do it by accident! to change back to ultra before exporting.
This lets you pitch your

entire preset up or down
by the chosen amount
Changes the bpm of

the preset (which
changes the speed of
LFOs, performers and
steppers). You can also
sync it to your DAWs
bpm if you are running
it within a DAW.
If you have the hold This central area contains the randomise and copy functions.
feature enabled in your Firstly, along the bottom you will see a number of copy and paste buttons.
envelopes, you can reset Other than the copy/paste all, each set of buttons corresponds to the
them to silence here, or section above it. Selecting copy means you can save the settings within one
choose to stop it when preset and paste them into another.
your DAW stops playing.
The rest of this section lets you randomise values within the preset. In
order for this to work you need to have set a number in one of the central
blue boxes, which indicates how much randomisation you want to occur.
You can either randomise individual sections of the preset (oscs, filters,
etc.) or you can randomise everything in the synth.
Overdoing this can get you some really messy sounds so I recommend you
dont pick large values in the blue boxes.

10. Modulation
The modulation sources are located in the same
place as all the tabs in the last section, and they
consist of Envelopes, LFOs, Performers and
Steppers.
However, having this would be useless without
something to modulate, and Massive is one of the
best with things to modulate. All over Massive you
should see little boxes next to most of the controls.
These do have a purpose!

Similarly on all the modulation sources, you should see lots of little
crosshairs.

To map a source to a destination click on the crosshair and then click on one of
the little boxes. You can map to multiple destinations at once by holding shift and
then clicking wherever you want to put them.

Right clicking on an already assigned box will bring up a menu.
You can remove the modulator by clicking off

You can temporarily mute it and then unmute it using the buttons
below that.

The three sections below that allow you to change the current
modulator into any of the other modulators available.

Once you have assigned a parameter click and drag upward or downward
to assign the amount of modulation. This will create a line that moves
along the parameter.

The colour of the line will change depending on what type of
source you are using. Envelope, LFO/Performer/Stepper, Macro.

On parameters where there are more than one box you will see a caption
that reads SC. This stands for sidechain. Click on it to activate it, put a
modulator in the box above, and then click on the line below the thing you
want to sidechain until it looks something like this:

Now, the amount of modulation caused by Source 1, will change
according to Source 5 (in this example).
You can disable this feature by clicking again on the SC so that it is no
longer lit up.

- Envelopes
Below is a picture of one of the envelopes. There are four of these, all identical,
though please note that 4Env is linked to the master volume, so any changes
you make to that will also effect the envelope on the volume.

An Envelope is a method of changing something over time. The envelope used in
Massive is a development of the standard ADSR type. (Attack, Decay, Sustain,
Release).
Attack = Time from pressing note to fading in fully.
Decay = Time taken to reach the level indicated by the sustain.
Sustain = the secondary volume level reached after the decay time finishes.
Release = the time taken to reach 0 volume after releasing the note.

Gate = when a note is released the

sound stops instantly
One shot = when a note is released
the sound will only start to release
once it has reached the end of the
Starts the sound decay section.
These menus let you select save at the attack Hold = the sound will keep playing
every time a new Changes the
and delete envelope presets. even when no longer triggered.
midi note plays. curves to straight
lines.
These sliders
allow you to
influence the
envelope
according to
velocity and
the pitch of the
note youre
playing.
Delay = time Decay = time

taken before Attack = time
taken to fade taken to get
the sound change volume. Release = the
starts. in.
Level = volume time it takes
Level = volume
it fades in to. it changes to. for the sound
to fade to
silence.
This section is an optional extra that you can add to your envelope curve. To activate it, change Loop: Off to a number; the
number indicates how many times the section repeats. A new section and dotted line should now appear.
- The S Loop knob changes how fast this extra section happens.
- The level adjusts the amplitude of the new section
- The two other drop downs with numbers in are S Loop curves to choose between. Once two have been selected you can
merge between the two with the morph dial.

- LFOs
LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillator. When mapped to a parameter, the
parameter will oscillate back and forth in the waveform set by the LFO. Massive
by default opens with two LFOs activated (modulators 5 and 6), but you can have
up to four of them or none at all.

Turning on mono means that the You can change the LFO to
Like in the envelope these menus allow you to LFO moves in the same phase for a Performer or Stepper
select, save and delete LFO presets. all of the voices playing. using this menu.
Rate allows you

to change the
speed of the LFO.
An internal
You can also
envelope
sync it and use
like the one
the fraction to
mentioned
set its speed.
in the osc
Restart ensures
tab.
the LFO always
begins at the
start of its cycle.
Changes the
amplitude of
the LFO. Providing you have This diagram lets you
two different curves, see the waveform being This section changes the
you can mix between used. You can adjust waveform of the LFO. You
them using this slider. the phase by clicking have the four basic
and dragging left or waveforms but the
right. dropdown lets you pick
some more exotic ones.

- Performers
By default there is only one performer activated when you launch Massive; it is
located at modulation source 7.
A performer is like a customisable LFO so you can change the curve even more!

This menu
Keeps the
allows you to
performer
change the
Selecting this brings up the The standard performer curve curve in phase
performer to a
curve library. load/save/delete menus. for all voices.
LFO or stepper.
Here you can change

the rate, sync to the
bpm of your track, and
choose to restart the
performer at the
beginning of its cycle.
The overall performer

amp control like the
one in the LFO.
This slider lets the user blend between This graph indicates the curve
Bringing the slider downwards lets you the two performer curves. All the way of the performer. There are
reduce the amplitude of certain up is the top curve, all the way down is two independent curves, the
columns in the performer. To choose the bottom, and the places in between top and the bottom.
which columns you have to click on the are mixtures of the two.
relevant rectangle along the bottom of
the performer window.

When you activate the load curve button, this menu appears:

These 16 tiles each contain a different curve. To select

one, click on it and then click on the main performer
graph where you want to put it.

To paste one curve in multiple boxes click and drag
over those boxes or hold shift and click on different
boxes that arent next to each other.

When you are done, click on the load curve button
again to close the menu.


- Steppers
The stepper is like the performer except that it only works with single values,
rather than rising and falling curves. As such, a lot of the controls on the stepper
are very similar to those on the performer.
This menu
Keeps the
allows you to
The load/save/delete preset stepper shape
change the
options. in phase for all
stepper to a LFO
voices.
or performer
Here you can change

the rate, sync to the
bpm of your track, and
choose to restart the
stepper at the
beginning of its cycle.
The overall stepper

amp control like the
one in the LFO or
performer.
This slider lets you add glide when This graph indicates the levels
Bringing the slider downwards lets you moving between different stepper on the stepper. When you
reduce the amplitude of certain values. Ensure you activate the boxes select a level, it will show a
columns in the stepper. To choose below the columns that you want to number from 0-12 so you can
which columns you have to click on the glide to. select values accurately. If you
relevant rectangle along the bottom of hold alt it moves in integers.
the performer window.

- Macros and Keygroups
Finally, the last feature in the modulation section is the macro section
in the bottom right of the Massive window.
Keygroups Macros
KTr = Keytracking
Vel = Velocity You can map these to
AT = Aftertouch parameters in
TrR = Trigger Random Massive too, and use
them to control
You can use the multiple dials and
crosshairs on these to sliders at once. You
link any of these can name them to
controls to influence a make them easier to
parameter. find later on.

Summary
So you have made it to the end of the guide; I hope you found it useful.
If you havent watched the accompanying video you should definitely do that
now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzsAzrj8XNI

Havent got Massive yet?
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/massive/

Also, please check out the people that made this guide possible, and be sure to
visit the Knowledgeable Producers forum:
https://soundcloud.com/kruxdubstep

While youre on the forum, take a look at the other guides to synths, DAWs and
general production.

Thanks again.
Krux and the Knowledgeable Producers Forum

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Native Instruments Massive Mega Guide

This slider adjusts

An identical pitch control to the

Turning this allows you to alter the

These are the modes, which you can choose between.

Alters how much of the

For all the noise

This allows you to change

Choose which effect you want using the drop

The right dial changes depending on which effect

The central dials use changes depending on which filter

The next three vary depending on

Boost and Frequency work together, where

This lets you change the

This allows you to boost or

8. Amp, Bypass, and Master section

The pan wheel lets you pan your

The number in this box The master dial turns

These red circles change which of the oscillators

You now have three options about where to route

9. The central panel

If in doubt turn this on by clicking

This allows you to slide between

This graph indicates the relationship

Selecting off gets rid of

Choosing user means you can change the

For the KTR Filter, you can create two

The off setting ensures that the filter

The trigger options:

This changes the sound quality of your

This lets you pitch your

Changes the bpm of

Gate = when a note is released the

Delay = time Decay = time

Rate allows you

Here you can change

The overall performer

These 16 tiles each contain a different curve. To select

Here you can change

The overall stepper

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