How to Make a Simple NI Massive Toy Synth

Whether you are writing children’s music or just want to toss a classic throwback theme song from your childhood into one of your mixes, this easy to make NI Massive toy synth is one to add to your preset library. Resting somewhere between your classic toy piano and toy xylophone, with just a hint of penny store synth, this fun little instrument will be a great addition to your productions. The design is incredibly simple, so processing the sound and getting it to sit right in a mix is no problem. Let’s see how it’s made.

We begin making this NI Massive toy synth by loading a default Square-Saw I wavetable into OSC1 and raise the pitch value up three octaves. Next, load a Smooth Square wavetable into OSC2 and raise the pitch value up three octaves. Then, load a Frozen wavetable into OSC3 and raise the pitch value up three octaves. Refer to the image below to set the various parameters on each OSC panel.

The next step in making this NI Massive toy synth is to set the Main Amp Envelope curve. As you can see in the image below, I decided to assign a Velocity controller to modulate the Release parameter fo this envelope so when a softer note is played there is slightly less release time compared to when a louder note is struck. It helps to make this sound a little more believable.

Now our sound is routed through a Highpass 4 filter and a Comb filter to further shape it. The envelope we just set up is also assigned to control the Cutoff knob of Filter 1 and the Damping knob of Filter 2 to help affect the delivery of this NI Massive toy synth.

A very small amount of Metallic Noise and Feedback are added.

And two Hi/Lo Filters are inserted to shape the sound even more, shaving off some unwanted frequencies.

A Small Reverb a added to give just a little more room for this NI Massive toy synth to ring. A Dimension Expander is used to give the feeling of the instrument’s body. And the EQ unit is turned on and used to finish shaping the sound.

Below is a small audio sample of the NI Massive toy synth in action.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab