FM8 Vs Massive

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Deekay[AUS]

Buffy's Bedtime Slayer
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Location
Western Australia
Wondering what the deal is, why do people fancy Massive so much over FM8?

I can understand people do get some good sounds happening with it, but it just doesn't sound that crash hot tbh.

FM8, yes there is a bit of work getting that sound you desire amongst all the bouncing down and processing etc.

Views?
 
Massive is easier to understand. And there are a hell of a lot more tuts on it. I dont think people prefer its sound, they just cant use fm8. Fm8 is the daddy
 
there's people that actually like Massive more than FM8? that's news to me. i think the only one i've heard of who likes Massive over FM8 is Kill The Noise cuz he said FM8 was too difficult for him. i heard that from someone who said he said it, so don't quote me on that. i don't think there's any more work in one than the other, they're just different and the amount of time is spent in different places. personally i feel like if you put them side by side without additional plugins, etc, that FM8 has a MUCH better sound to it. yeah they sound way different, FM vs wavetable, but as far as sound quality goes i say FM8 without a doubt.

Massive's sound quality leaves alot to be desired IMO. i love it's capabilities, for example to get movement in Massive you have tons of modulation and wavetables to get movement in your sound. if you don't mind all the processing, EQ'ing, plugins, layering to make Massive sound good then it's a great tool. so I usually spent most of my time trying to get my Massive patch actually sounding good. it seems with Massive that less is more, try to keep the patches simple and not necessarily use all 3 oscillators.

FM8 doesn't require as much processing after you finish the patch you're working on. the time-consuming part of FM8 is all the experimentation you do in order to find a good sound because frequency modulation can be very touchy when you use one operator to modulate a chain of others, etc. FM8 has a different point of view when getting movement into your sound - you can automate the amount of modulation between operators and also draw out the envelope for each operator, so some operators can come in at a curve then dip in and out and release... or you can draw a formant envelope. a small change can make a big impact so coming up with the initial sounds can be tedious. but the more you use it, the better feel you have for it. so i spent most of my time in FM8 just programming the patch then it requires minimal work after that.

anyway that's my 2 cents based on my time spent with them, others might disagree if they have different experiences with them
 
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i like fm8... never given it time though... i dont even know who to like automate and macros and such but massive is easy...

tbh i use alot of logic's built in synths... they have some superb sounds and are so fucking easy to handle.

alot of people turn a blind i to them
 
Where is FM8 you have to craft like a blacksmith, forging that beautiful piece of weaponary and when you have have finished, you have more respect it. Massive comes along and says "Hi, dial up 3 synths and you can sound like Skrillex" but meanwhile sacrificing a beautiful sound.

Before the great hdd crash of '12, I had just started getting into using FM8 and I really embraced getting in there and actually learning about the sounds I was creating.
 
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well for anyone who really wants to learn FM8, i have notes i took while watching a video training series about it. there are 2 small incomplete spots i don't think i ever updated but aside from that, it's all good stuff and is organized. maybe someone can benefit from it cuz that video series really helped me get my head around FM8. the notes won't be as easy as videos but i typed it down in an easy-to-follow way, it has all the info the video series had:
http://www16.zippyshare.com/v/27880110/file.html
 
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all in the processing though.... a simple saw wave from any synth can be converted into a jaw dropping beast of a sound...

- - - Updated - - -

noisia (again) deep bass in the devil may cry soundtrack started off as a tuba or something
 
D-Jhepz said:
all in the processing though.... a simple saw wave from any synth can be converted into a jaw dropping beast of a sound...

- - - Updated - - -

noisia (again) deep bass in the devil may cry soundtrack started off as a tuba or something
Click to expand...

Yeah, they are the kings of sampling. Running fingers along a balloon for that ripping sound, recording a high pressure washer, washing their windows.

Also cheers dizzy, mad props.

Also, I would actually rather read about using a synth than watching a video.
 
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They're both popular because they have straight-forward user interfaces, combined with the fact that they can very easily make "that" sound, that mainstream whatever is cool in "EDM" this week type of deal. In conjunction with the "I'll watch a video tutorial and suddenly be rollin' next deep in an estrogen ocean from my phat beats" crowd that fuels a sort of hype machine built around those plug-ins specifically, they're pretty much the top of the market in the soft-synth industry.
 
Both have their purpose imo, massive can make some utterly disgusting sounds if you're willing to experiment beyond what you can do with every other synth (And avoid Modern Talking ;) ).
 
Two different beasts that require two different modes of thinking when approaching sound design. I hated FM8 but eventually forced myself to use it and now enjoy it quite a bit, however, it's a huge beast to tame. What I mean is that (at least for me) the slightest change in values or placement of operators can turn a great sound in to total shit. Massive on the other hand is quite straight forward like many other subtractive sythesizers. While it's audio output may not be the best per se', that's what post processing FX and resampling are for. While there is always a great deal of hate towards Massive, if you take the time to explore the less popular wavetables and filter types it's very possible to come up with some original sounds that don't have that "typical" Massive sound.

Having said that, I've recently gone back to Predator in place of Massive. :) I had forgotten how great Predator is...and Rob continues to update it even to this day.
 
Some good points made in this thread.

I have both Massive and FM8 and love both!

I'm pretty tired of seeing all the comments about how generic the sound from Massive can be! If you are getting a generic sound from it, then you aren't using it to it's full advantage! Anyone on here who has heard my tracks knows about the deep kinda basses I create, and the majority of those are created within massive! You have to delve a little deeper, and learn it's full potential to be able to fully appreciate the power it has under the hood!

For me FM8 is really underrated, I put this down to most people not fully understanding FM synthesis. I tend to use this more for crazy modulated sounds like neuro bass, or weird atmospherics etc. You can still get the same kinda sounds out of it like you would any other synth, but there's a slightly different way to go about it. I'd highly recommend anyone who hasn't tried out FM synthesis yet to take the time to learn it, as for me it opened up a new window in production.

Also, I 100% agree with lost about Predator! it was the 1st 3rd party synth I ever Bought back when I was an FL user! And still to this day it gets used consistently for something in every track I make!
 
I haven't used zebra but both Massive and FM8 are good synths. Both are complex but Massive IMO is more user friendly.
Massive is probably more contemporary edgy with some unique filters and modulation system.
 
Comparing a VA/Wavetable synth to an FM synth is like comparing apples and oranges.

Anyway, I'm proud to say I use neither. E-MU samplers FTW! My sampler form the 90's can create the same types of sounds that soft synths of today can, only more raw and can get absolutely filthy. When I used Reason for my tracks it would take 20 or more devices just for the bass sound, but with my sampler I can pretty much get there by sampling one of my synths and using the "flanger lite" filter. Yes, that's the sound heard on many late 90's reese based dnb.
 
They are both great synths, people think it's cool to talk shit about massive because every bedroom producer bought (or hacked) a copy along with a vengeance pack and rinsed the fuck out of small area of of it's capabilities.

Fm8 requires abit more erm.... effort to get used to hence why Massive was the go to for many. That shouldn't take anything away from massive though, it's a a very versatile synth.

To be honest though anybody who has a genuine interest in sound design should be able to get good sounds from both.

Shout out to Absynth too, don't hear many people talking about Absynth and it's pretty sick!
 
JReilly said:
They are both great synths, people think it's cool to talk shit about massive because every bedroom producer bought (or hacked) a copy along with a vengeance pack and rinsed the fuck out of small area of of it's capabilities.

Fm8 requires abit more erm.... effort to get used to hence why Massive was the go to for many. That shouldn't take anything away from massive though, it's a a very versatile synth.

To be honest though anybody who has a genuine interest in sound design should be able to get good sounds from both.

Shout out to Absynth too, don't hear many people talking about Absynth and it's pretty sick!
Click to expand...


There's a dude on here who absolutely eats, drinks, sleeps, fucks, and shits Absynth all day; can't think of his name right now tho ;/

Also, IV4, agreed; With enough patience and a Combinator you can turn Thor into an FM22,050 if you wanted to.
 
Honestly FM8 is inferior to Sytrus, because of Sytrus additive capabilities. I never bothered to learn Massive, or any subtractive synth for that matter, so I can't really understand the subtractive paradigm. However, the reason poeple like Massive, is because is essentially more user-intuitive FM.
 
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