I know it doesn't directly help with the subject line, but thought I'd add that Massive isn't the only synth that does this, Harmor is another option.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0_00HKA24
I think the resynthesis of samples helps with the gritty vocoder kind of sound, and visualizing the LFO while varying the rate sort of helps the creative process. I'm sure there are many ways to process a sample and feed it into Virus to accomplish same, its just some synths seem almost designed for this kind of sound. I really don't make these kinds of sounds much (maybe during periods of indigestion but not on a synth
but I have dabbled in it before and came to the conclusion that the harmonic base kind of needs to be right to start out with (or at least its easier that way).