MX4 Is The Best $280 I Ever Spent

[fontane]

I noticed some lack of chatter going on here and a few dissappointing posts so I had to drop some positive two cents

I just picked MX4 up the other day. Was kind o impulsive, but I read about it as much as I could and although there was nothing out there to convince me to buy I had to take the leap of faith.

I already have Kontakt 2, Sample Tank 2, great drums and DP 4.5 but none of these instruments can create the sounds I have heard on MX4.

As a matter of fact, my friend is not so happy with his Nord after hearing the MX4 last night. If you need some killer dance music or sound design sounds... THIS IS IT.

Very programmable and with 2.0 FREE it has a great variety of patches and mega features.

I was so affraid to invest and pick it up that I called MOTU twice and asked them to "sell" me and both times I just couldn't get myself to do it.

Well, I am glad I did. Once again, if you write house, techno, trance, electronica, electro, electro/rock, etc GET MX4.

[Nama]

It's hard to program a MX4 patch because I tend to spend too much time just playing and having fun since the MX4 makes such beautiful sounds without complex programing.

[Akai96]

Originally posted by fontane:
I noticed some lack of chatter going on here and a few dissappointing posts so I had to drop some positive two cents

I just picked MX4 up the other day. Was kind o impulsive, but I read about it as much as I could and although there was nothing out there to convince me to buy I had to take the leap of faith.

I already have Kontakt 2, Sample Tank 2, great drums and DP 4.5 but none of these instruments can create the sounds I have heard on MX4.

As a matter of fact, my friend is not so happy with his Nord after hearing the MX4 last night. If you need some killer dance music or sound design sounds... THIS IS IT.

Very programmable and with 2.0 FREE it has a great variety of patches and mega features.

I was so affraid to invest and pick it up that I called MOTU twice and asked them to "sell" me and both times I just couldn't get myself to do it.

Well, I am glad I did. Once again, if you write house, techno, trance, electronica, electro, electro/rock, etc GET MX4.

I feel you on that.I just downloaded the demo yesterday and I think it's got to be my favorite softsynth yet.I have Machfive,Sampletank,And Intakt.

[fontane]

Definitely...

The only situation i just ran into was:

How do i run a mono output of MX4? Like, for bass lines ya know?

The stereo imaging on bass is a no go for 12" records and for clubs... any ideas?

im running dp 4.52

i tried running an instance of MX4 (which only appears as a MAS stereo) and then bussing it into a mono aux track, BUT upon loading the song back up DP launches an error that says that instance of MX4 is missing and asks it to be cleared...

i have narrowed it down to running stereo in mono, that seems to be the problem...

so, how can i run a fat mono bass? ideas anyone? lol

[chrispick]

Originally posted by fontane:
Definitely...

The only situation i just ran into was:

How do i run a mono output of MX4? Like, for bass lines ya know?

The stereo imaging on bass is a no go for 12" records and for clubs... any ideas?

im running dp 4.52

i tried running an instance of MX4 (which only appears as a MAS stereo) and then bussing it into a mono aux track, BUT upon loading the song back up DP launches an error that says that instance of MX4 is missing and asks it to be cleared...

i have narrowed it down to running stereo in mono, that seems to be the problem...

so, how can i run a fat mono bass? ideas anyone? lol

Run MX4 out normally, as stereo, then apply the Trim plugin to merge the stereo signal into mono.

<small>[ May 08, 2005, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: chrispick ]</small>

[stretta]

How do i run a mono output of MX4?

Short answer: like a Minimoog Voyager - just tap one output. Use a send, or tap one output of a stereo bus.

Long answer: The synth engine of MX4 has two modes: mono and stereo. However, the output of MX4 is always stereo because the effects output is stereo.

If stereo on MX4's synth engine is off, and the effects are off, the output is essentially two copies of the mono signal, left and right. But really all of this does not really matter, just tap off the left or right signal, bus it into a mono channel and listen to it. If you like what you hear, you're all set.

[RhythmRmixd]

I've been seriously considered picking up this soft synth, and now you guys might have pushed me to go ahead and buy it. I already use MachFive for a lot of my rap/hip hop needs, and I love it, but all the modulation and LFO options in MX4 look too good to pass up. Maybe I'll just pick up MX4 to keep me busy until the Symphonic Instrument comes out!! Does MX4 import the sample formats that MachFive does?

[stretta]

Does MX4 import the sample formats that MachFive does?

MX4 is primarily a wavetable synth, not a sampler. Wavetable synths operate on a single cycle of sampled audio. So, instead of square, and saw waves that you would see with a normal subtractive synth, MX4 includes 90 wavetables - each wavetable containing anywhere from 4 to 256 waves. The steps between the waves are interpolated so you can 'morph' from wave to wave. Naturally, this is all under the control of the modulation system.

Anyway, no, MX4 does not import sample data.

[RhythmRmixd]

So you can't add additional samples (presets) to those bundled with MX4? Does it come with a large library of sounds?

[chrispick]

Originally posted by RhythmRmixd:
So you can't add additional samples (presets) to those bundled with MX4? Does it come with a large library of sounds?

No, MX4 is not a sampler; it's a synthesizer. It does ship with a bunch of preset sounds, but all are of a synthesis variety. Think techno music.

You can download a time-limited, fully-functional demo of MX4 from MOTU's website. Then you'll know exactly what kind of sounds it ships with.

<small>[ May 09, 2005, 02:25 PM: Message edited by: chrispick ]</small>

[RhythmRmixd]

Will do, thanks.

[stretta]

So you can't add additional samples (presets) to those bundled with MX4?

You can not add additional sample data to MX4.
You can add as many presets as you like to MX4.

Think of the Prophet-5. It had three waveforms. (square, tri, saw), yet there are thousands of sounds that use those basic waveforms.

MX4 has many basic waveforms. If each wavetable represented a single waveform, there are at least 90. But, there are many waveforms per wavetable.

You can create any number of presets from a single waveform, like the Prophet 5.

[fontane]

Originally posted by RhythmRmixd:
I've been seriously considered picking up this soft synth, and now you guys might have pushed me to go ahead and buy it. I already use MachFive for a lot of my rap/hip hop needs, and I love it, Does MX4 import the sample formats that MachFive does?

it wont import samples, BUT if you know any producers using nords ie wu tang, lil john, i dunno - lots of hip-hop producers you will enjoy it for its killer bass sounds

[fontane]

Originally posted by Matthew Davidson:

How do i run a mono output of MX4?

Short answer: like a Minimoog Voyager - just tap one output. Use a send, or tap one output of a stereo bus.

i tried running it this way in DP 4.52 - i opened mx4 stereo instrument track and bussed it to a mono aux track... works great until i load DP back up... DP won't find the MX4 instance and asks to clear it...

am i doing something wrong?

[fontane]

si never used trim before... DP newbie... i guess just drop it on the MX4 instrument track and tweek the trim plug in L and R knobs so that they both read "center" and then i will have a mono correct mono signal?