Native Instruments Massive tutorials

Dubstep Bass Synthesis Tutorial for NI Massive

OhmLab — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:01:00 +0000

We welcome back Deadly Habit for another informative and entertaining NI Massive video tutorial video, this time he shares how he goes about creating a dubstep bass instrument.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Experimentation Works!

Never shy away from playing around in NI Massive, it’s how new discoveries are made!

Rochester New York native Deadly Habit loves production and his 15+ years at it has racked up a handful of releases and accomplishments to attest to this fact. With appearances of his tracks on Marcus Intelex’s FabricLive CD, unsigned tune of the month in Knowledge Magazine, an appearance in the beatport drum and bass top 10 chart, and various vinyl and digital releases chances are you’ve heard some of his tunes without realizing it. Not wanting to be contained to just one genre or style you can catch him both producing and djing a wide variety of tastes from the eclectic to the mainstream, depending on what catches his ear. Currently hoarding a variety of tunes for a forthcoming LP and EP, there is no doubt that if you haven’t been exposed to his music before, you will be soon enough.

In this video, he begins by explaining the idea behind wavetables in NI Massive and how it allows you to create almost limitless variations in any sound. Starting with a complex wavetable rather than a simple waveform gives you the chance to design much bigger and unique instruments. When creating a bass for dubstep, it is usually a goal to provide a good amount of flexibility through filters, pitch, etc so you can modulate the sounds over time, like with an LFO to create a wobble. It is also an added bonus with Massive to be able to build in even more control through the use of Macro controls.

Over 30 minutes is spent going into great detail of his way of experimenting and testing many different ideas and playing around with parameters to find the sounds he’s after. The workflow in this video shows that by taking your time and not being afraid to try new and uncommon things, you can easily end up with some pretty unique and awesome sounds. If you enjoy his videos and sounds, show him support by checking out his SoundCloud profile and various other links! http://soundcloud.com/deadly-habit

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Modulation Overview With NI Massive

OhmLab — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:45:58 +0000

Taking a look at the basics of modulation and the effects on the actual sound waves when changes are made through envelopes, filters, LFOs, etc. Perfect for beginners and sound design fans.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Basic Knowledge!

Understanding what modulation is and what it does is something you need to know!

Sometimes it is easier for people to truly understand a complex concept when they have the chance to see, hear and follow along with the instructor. In this case, you have the unique opportunity to see the waveforms changes as various forms of modulation are introduced to the sounds being used throughout the video. This one can be pretty helpful for those who struggle to grasp exactly how the sounds are being changed or affected when twisting knobs within NI Massive, and is also useful for getting a better idea of the frequency spread of a given sound. All this info becomes invaluable when it comes time to proper mixing and making room for everything in your mix. The more you know about your sounds, the better your songs will sound in the end.

Covering basic envelopes, filters, the performer, pitch and more, this video is meant to be a simple introduction to the idea of modulation with the aide of visuals to help drive home the ideas presented. The idea is simple, you affect and/or control a sound through the use of tools that shape the sound waves by altering their delivery and/or development, or by introducing another sound which impacts how the first sound is heard when the waves begin to interact. Although he idea is simple enough, it is one of those things that you can spend the rest of your life experimenting with and hopefully perfect over time.

Perhaps the most important benefits of gaining a deeper understanding of modulation and the concepts and theories surrounding it, is the ability to create any sound you desire, as well as the ability to properly mix your sounds and projects. These two things are priceless and, for many, are the main focus of the lifelong pursuit of sound creation, music production and the drive to constantly improve n the studio.

If you have a request for more basic concepts to be shared in upcoming NI Massive tutorials, please let us know by leaving a comment below or by send us a message directly. Thanks for stopping by!

Modulation Tutorial by Deadly Habit : http://soundcloud.com/deadly-habit

Links to grab the plugins in the video:
Voxengo Span – http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/
s(M)exoscope – http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Massive Power Pack Vol 1 (133 sounds)

SteveF — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:07:29 +0000

Custom hand-crafted Patches for NI Massive that are aimed at virtually any musician that uses synthesizers for their musical production – many of these Pataches are sounds that are (in our opinion) missing from the factory voicing! You will also find inspiring patches that are aimed at being the SPARK that gets YOU fired up and writing new music!

133 Mind-numbing patches for one of the most popular soft synths on the market!

Throbbing basslines, booming subs and insane bass wobbles live beside beautiful bells, Über-flexible bpm-synced pulsing synth patches, the warmest lush pads you’ve ever heard Massive produce, aggressive leads, epic unison synth patches, twisted SFX and even guitar, harp, keyboard and wind patches.

What REALLY sets a PlugInGuru Power Pack apart from any other patch library is the depth of programming applied to each patch. EVERY patch has comments, is categorized and most importantly, ALL 8 real-time performance knobs are assigned to parameters to modify the patch to suit your needs. We give YOU the steering wheel to warp these patches for unrivaled creative control in a live or studio environment! Massive is NOT sample-based so by adjusting knobs with creative names like MONSTER, Dirt, Color, Chord, Sizzle and Freakt, (along with more typical OSC1 Vol, Cutoff, Reso, Attk, Decay, Release etc) – thousands upon thousands of radically different patch variations are waiting to be discovered by YOU!

What’s in the pack?

If you’re looking to see what Massive can truly sound like, then the Massive Power Pack is THE place to start.

9-Bells
31-BPM Synth Pads
4-Brass Synth
27-Synth Bass
7-Wobble Bass (totally morphable!)
7-Special FX
2-Guitar
1-Synth Harp
2-Keyboards
2-Organs
14-Synth Lead
10-Lush to EPIC Synth Pads
14-Fast Synth
1-Magical Wind

Where to get the sounds?

For more information or to download this pack click here

How to Make White Noise Effects in NI Massive

OhmLab — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:34:18 +0000

This is a nice video tutorial focusing on what many people assume is a very easy thing to do, and yet we still receive a lot of questions about how to do it. So here you go!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

It's The Little Things!

Attention to detail adds up over time and in the end helps to make a memorable production!

A solid NI Massive video tutorial from YouTube user ResonationOfficial providing some insights into how he produces his popular and highly effecting white noise effects and sweeps. The very first thing he points out is that there is no need for any of the three main oscillators, this is because the noise panel is an independent oscillator in itself. After this he walks you through the process step by step, and makes it all very easy to understand how to create a very professional sounding effect that you can drop into a wide range of projects without further tweaking. Of course, there is also still plenty of room for your own signature if you want to change things up a bit and make the sound your own.

He prefers to use the Tape Hiss setting on the Noise oscillator to produce a sound with a little more character, and modulates the amp parameter through an LFO controller. He then adds a Daft filter and assigns a macro to the cutoff for easy manipulation and automation later on. The reverb and synced delay both add a bit more size and development to the overall sound, which is nice in most productions. After all this, the last thing to take care of is the EQ. Make sure you pay attention to the parameters he talks about, as they allow the most important sonic elements to come through in the mix.

Like this one? Have requests for other simple elements, effects, etc to add to your music projects? Let us know by leaving a comment below or sending us a message.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Deadmau5 – Professional Griefers Bass Tutorial for NI Massive

OhmLab — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:32:49 +0000

It’s been a little while since we last featured K0SM0KAT here, but this NI Massive tutorial is well worth taking the time to rectify that. Learn how to recreate yet another popular Deadmau5 bass!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Is That!?...

Yes. That is the voice of a woman kicking down the sound design knowledge for y’all!

As with most of her video tutorials, YouTube user K0SM0SKAT gives you the low down on how to make this sound in a walkthrough fashion, showing you each of the settings needed to make this bass turn out right. This sound is huge, and she has the idea of cloning, or duplicating, the first bass she shows in the video and setting up an envelope a little differently on the second to create the layered effect. In a male dominated world of sound engineering and design, KAT consistently sets herself above the banter of her gender and delivers quality tutorials and insights with a humble and friendly approach. If you enjoy her videos, please show her some support and check out some of her links and social profiles to see what else she’s up to.

This sound starts off with a square-saw wavetable on OSC 1 running in Bend -/+ mode, a DigiCook 1 wavetable on OSC 2 running in Spectrum mode and a Screamer wavetable on OSC3 running in Bend + mode. All three are routed directly to filter 1, and all three are tuned three octaves, with some slight variations in semitones to create some gentle phasing as the sounds combine. The pitch value of all three are also being modulated by an envelope to create the movement, in the form of a pitch bend, needed for the sound being recreated.

Next she inserts a Parabolic Shaper before moving onto to setting up the envelopes. The first envelope is assigned to modulate the cutoff of a Daft filter on the filter 1 panel. The second envelope is the previously mentioned envelope creating the pitchbend on the OSC panels. The main amp envelope is also tweaked a bit before moving onto setting up the FX and EQ tabs. Here she adds a Small Reverb and a Synced Delay to create a bigger and wider sound. The EQ is set to boost all the parameters a bit to sharpen the sound.

She sets up the voicing Unisono at a value of 3 and makes the synth a monophonic to allow for glide. She then turns on the Pitch Cutoff feature to introduce some phasing and the Pan Position feature to spread the sound out a bit. Setting the Pitchbend to +/- 12 on the OSC tab, and setting up the internal envelope, wraps up the sound! All that is left after this is the duplicating/cloning procedure mentioned before.

If you have a NI Massive tutorial you would like to share with the MassiveSynth community, we would love to help you out. Send us a message and we can chat about how to get your stuff live on the MassiveSynth.com website!

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Studio Update Growl Glitch Bass Tutorial for NI Massive

OhmLab — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:19:20 +0000

Another great NI Massive video tutorial from EmcFRAKTAL showing you how he designed a cool growl bass, and then add some glitch effects and sub bass to make it awesome!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Awesome Bass!

Some nice Performer programming and a little phase and glitch effects go a long way!

He never disappoints in his videos, which is why we love him here at MassiveSynth.com, and this installation is no exception. Going above and beyond the call of duty, pointing out a bunch of features, techniques and reasoning that went into making this sound possible while he runs through the steps you need to follow to recreate it yourself. This is a ton of time, talent and effort being put forth, so if you like what he’s doing, please take some time and visit his various social profiles, websites, etc and show some support!

It does take a few minutes to get into the making of the patch, but the things shared at the beginning of the video may be of great interest to a lot of you folks out there using Ableton live, and/or a Windows PC user into adding some glitch elements to your productions. The actual bass instrument designed in NI Massive starts out with OSC1 running the AdditiveOctaves wavetable in Bend -/+ mode and dropped two octaves. This is then routed through a Band Reject filter.

A Performer controller is then set up to modulate the amp parameter of the main oscillator, as well as the cutoff and bandwidth knobs of the Band Reject filter. Some phasing is introduced through the Modulation OSC panel and a Parabolic Shaper is inserted. This wraps up the sound design portion of the video for Massive. The rest of it focuses on using and manipulating the sound inside of Ableton. You can use any DAW, of course, and achieve the same results.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Scary Alien Spaceship Sound in Massive!!

OhmLab — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:38:01 +0000

This sound is billed as a scary alien spaceship kind of sound, but really it is an awesome and intense distortion build-up effect that can worked incredibly well in a wide range of music.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Epic Effect!

This sweet riser build-up sound is bound to make your audience happy!

Sounds like this one are ideal for building tension around breaks, drops, intros, outros, etc in a very wide range of music genres, from drum n’ bass and dubstep to hip-hop and glitch. The feeling of hard distortion that generates so much of the character can easily be changed up to fit any kind of mood, to better match the kind of music you happen to produce. All you need to do is experiment a bit with different wavetables and modes until you have a base sound that is closer to what you desire, and then apply the rest of this sound design process to get he long riser kind of build-up that makes it so cool.

This sound starts with all three main oscillators dropped one octave and running in Bend -/+ mode. OSC1 is set up to run a SineFormant wavetable, OSC2 is running a Melofant wavetable and OSC3 is running a Chrome wavetable. Right away you can hear the cool metallic alien sound that makes this synth so cool!. This sound is then run through a Daft filter.

An LFO is assigned to modulated the rate of another LFO. This second LFO is then used to modulate the cutoff of the Daft filter. A Hard Clipper is the inserted to rough the sound up some. A Tele tube amp is added to boost the drive and add some more distortion. A Dimension Expander is used to widen the sound and the EQ is tweaked to finish shaping the sound.

Do you have a cool sound effect you have made that you want to share with the rest of the MassiveSynth community? Just send us a message letting us know about it and we will be happy to help!

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

How To Make A Fat Saw Wave Monophonic Lead In NI Massive

OhmLab — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:33:31 +0000

A solid NI Massive video tutorial showing you how to make a professional quality fat sounding lead super-saw monophonic synth in just a few minutes.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Pro Sounds!

A well-made lead synth is often times a simple and straightforward sound design process!

This one is a real quick and easy lesson on how to make a mono super-saw synth that sounds big and will stand up in a professional mix with no problems. Ideal for any level of Massive user, regardless of experience or knowledge of sound design. YouTube user garethkickback has made it easy to follow and recreate the sound featured in this video and does a good job of explaining each step of the process without any confusion. So many parameters are left untouched when he is done, that it will be easy for you to begin making this sound your own all within Massive.

As with most super-saw synths, this sound begins with three saw waves layered, two of which have been dropped an octave and a few cents. This synth is then set up as a monophonic instrument on the Voicing tab, and some subtle phasing is introduced while we are here by turning on the Pitch Cutoff feature and tweaking the setting a bit.

Some basic reverb and a dimension expander are added to increase the size and space some. Lastly a hard clipper is inserted to add a little punch and an edge to finish it up. You may want to experiment some with different inserts, adding some filters, delay, or even modulating some parameters with an envelope ow two to change up the delivery of sound. A synth like this is always fun to play around with.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Electric Guitar with NI Massive and Guitar Rig in FL Studio

OhmLab — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:13:30 +0000

An interesting look at the behinds the scenes process of creating an amazing synthesized electric guitar using NI Massive and Guitar Rig inside of FL Studio.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Shredding Guitar!

With some simple amp modeling, NI Massive can deliver some serious electric guitar!

Before you get started on following along with this video, I would recommend watching it all the way through one time. It is a very good example of how to creatively use NI Massive and a program like Guitar Rig together to achieve sounds that many would consider impossible without the use of some kind of guitar during the process. Designing these types of sounds is not only a good showing of your understanding of a synth like Massive, but a great challenge and a lot of fun! YouTube user RaydenLGX has taken a lot of time to get this process worked down to a worthwhile and highly rewarding method, and has very kindly shared it with the rest of us. If you enjoy what he’s doing, please take a moment to visit his links and see what he’s up to. It means a lot to show your support and appreciation.

This sound begins with a wavetable within NI Massive that has become a topic of much conversation because of the widespread use of it while people try to recreate some popular talking bass and other dubstep style formant synths, the now infamous Modern Talking. The wavetable position of this main oscillator is then modulated with an LFO running a bending waveform/curve. This same LFO is then used to modulate the cutoff of the Scream filter the the sound is sent through. In the end, the LFO is swapped out for a Performer, but really this is a personal taste thing. You can use any of the controllers within Massive to achieve some cool effects like this.

The voicing of this synth is set up as a monophonic running in monorotate mode with a legato triller trigger, which allows for gliding and swapping between notes selected. A classic tube amp is added for a little distortion and added boost. Some chorus is added to widen it up a bit and add a slight amount of movement.

From here, some compression and EQ is applied in the DAW, in this case he is using FruityLoops Studio. And after this the sound is sent into Guitar Rig for some amp modeling and additional distortion. This is where the real guitar sound erupts. It’s all fine tuning to personal taste for your specific project needs from here on out. To make this sound your own, you should play around with various amp models, types of distortion, different reverbs and of course, parameters within NI Massive as well. You can get some very cool results by experimenting with wavetables nad inserts you do not commonly use when running sound through a program like Guitar Rig.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab

Dark Sweeping Pad Tutorial for NI Massive

OhmLab — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:12:58 +0000

A nice approach to creating a sweeping pad instrument in NI Massive, including the programming of macro controls and setting up the internal envelope of the main LFO.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Magic Macros!

A sound like this one is really brought to life through the macro controls!

Nizmo is back with another good tutorial, this time sharing with us the way he builds a dark sweeping pad in NI Massive. Although rather simple, he shows which parameters to take time with and what kind of attention to detail makes the difference. All throughout the video there is audio looping so you have the chance to see and hear the cause and effect of every change made during the lesson. This is always valuable because there is no spoken explanation needed when you can hear it all for your self, and replicate it while following along. A priceless learning tool.

Much of the real value of this instrument is found through the macro controls set up along the way. These can easily be manipulated during a live performance or controlled through automation in your DAW for recording purposes. Either way, you end up with an amazing range of sonic possibilities. As with many sounds of this kind, it’s the little things that make it all work so well. Like setting up a macro to fade between a sine wave and a sawtooth wave in the main LFO controlling the cutoff of the Daft filter. Or the fact that the Amp Envelope (4Env tab) is also modulating the intensity knob of all three oscillators that generate the sounds that make up this instrument.

The differing pitch values of the three oscillators give the sweeping pad its signature character sound and the controlled phasing introduced by the third oscillator being three semitones off a natural octave interval is what generates the main feeling of dissonance. This builds the first feeling of tension for the listener and is essential for a dark pad of this kind to really have the effect you want/need it to.

Of course, there are many opportunities here for variation on this sound, and if you decide to make your own after following this tutorial, we’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below, shoot us a message or join the ongoing conversation on our Facebook page and share with us.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab