Sound Character Of Diva

[rouge]

I hear people rave about how awesome Diva is and I just don't see it. It's a nice synth but I feel that it has some weaknesses.

I find it sounds somewhat harsh in the higher frequencies, it's an unpleasant harshness that neither zebra or ace have.

The filters have some nice warmth to them, but the front to back depth is just not there. When you sweep the filters on the KLAE MS-20 or V-Station there is a front to back sensation of the sound jumping out at you, whereas in Diva the sound stays flat and 2-dimensional, regardless of the interesting warmth and harmonics going on.

The oscillators by themselves have a thinness in the upper registers.

For the sound it gives you it uses up rather large amounts of CPU.

Maybe this post will trigger some new ideas and thoughts. God bless.

How old are you? If you don't mind me asking... I think this maybe a case of your ears being more accustom to plugins and VA's. Have you ever owned an analog synth? The harshness you describe others may call presence when referring to the sound of analogs.

[SWAN808]

The guy reviewing Diva has been producing and making records for over 30 years.

That would be my fault. I told Paul to ask for that review. I was so taken with the sound of DIVA I thought that he should review it for SOS. Thankfully, he liked as much as I did.

cool - I 'think' this is Tony Allgood of Oakley. I have to admit I really wish Oakley would do a desktop monosynth - it seemed like there was a rack synth on the cards for a while...but it never happend...

Oakley Osc and Filters sound like real analogue gear should IMO and its way more affordable than for example Macbeth. Anyone who makes great sounding gear that is also affordable - gets major props from me....please tony consider a small format monosynth - new analogue era!

Anyway - praise for Diva from TA - is praise indeed.

[daExpert]

I hear people rave about how awesome Diva is and I just don't see it. It's a nice synth but I feel that it has some weaknesses.

I find it sounds somewhat harsh in the higher frequencies, it's an unpleasant harshness that neither zebra or ace have.

The filters have some nice warmth to them, but the front to back depth is just not there. When you sweep the filters on the KLAE MS-20 or V-Station there is a front to back sensation of the sound jumping out at you, whereas in Diva the sound stays flat and 2-dimensional, regardless of the interesting warmth and harmonics going on.

The oscillators by themselves have a thinness in the upper registers.

For the sound it gives you it uses up rather large amounts of CPU.

Maybe this post will trigger some new ideas and thoughts. God bless.

I have posted elsewhere that it does sound quite strident in the high freq. On the flipside - it is one of the few synths that captures the brightness of an analogue oscillator - and to do that - I think you need to oversample. Hence the CPU cost.

However - I feel some of the harsh high end is more to do with the fact that perhaps a high amount of high freq energy can sound harsh if it is quite static. So unlike an analogue high end - where there is some movement - Diva I suspect is quite uniform being a digital model.

Personally I feel that Diva filters are excellent. Very accurate - however as I also wrote elsewhere I feel there is some small thing missing which is again a lack of something - maybe dynamics or saturation - that means the sound is a bit muted when the cutoff is closed...

Not sure about the front to back depth issue you mention...I wonder if it is due to the fact that sometimes there is a volume change which means the sound is slightly quieter - making it not 'jump out' as much...

Well the front to back depth is a somewhat subtle thing. I might describe more as a punchiness, fullness, or roundness. Diva has some nice warmth, harmonics, and smoothness in the lower frequencies. But on a lot of sounds those high frequencies seem to have a more harsh, brittle quality. This could probably be interpreted as warmth or punch by some people.

I do think Diva has a lot of warmth, harmonics, brightness, and clarity. But it presents these sonic qualities in a slightly harsh, brittle way. The harshness might even be more accurate depending on what synths you are emulating.

[MickGael]

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not speak ill of Diva.

[OzWozEre]

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not speak ill of Diva.

Yeah, I've noticed this cult worship about Diva, which is why I think folks are trying to assertain "why".

Tell me, would this Diva be held in the same high-regard if it was bought and offered by NI and dumped in its $500 Komplete bundle?

That's what I wanna know.

[Fred_Abstract]

i wish the sound was more raw,i don't know if it's in my head but i find the oscs to have something i ear in all uhe synths

[djanthonyw]

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not speak ill of Diva.

Yeah, I've noticed this cult worship about Diva, which is why I think folks are trying to assertain "why".

Tell me, would this Diva be held in the same high-regard if it was bought and offered by NI and dumped in its $500 Komplete bundle?

That's what I wanna know.

Yes, but I don't see that happening considering NI has some of the most 'digital' sounding products, aside from what Softube made for them.

[djanthonyw]

i wish the sound was more raw,i don't know if it's in my head but i find the oscs to have something i ear in all uhe synths

I never liked the sound of any of the other u-he synths, but Diva is what got me. So I don't think it sounds like any of the others.

[SWAN808]

But on a lot of sounds those high frequencies seem to have a more harsh, brittle quality. This could probably be interpreted as warmth or punch by some people.

I do think Diva has a lot of warmth, harmonics, brightness, and clarity. But it presents these sonic qualities in a slightly harsh, brittle way. The harshness might even be more accurate depending on what synths you are emulating.

it sounds like we are partly in agreement - in that Diva has what you call a brittle quality to it - but for me also I find the high end a bit hard sounding. I dont feel Diva is that warm to be honest - in a way I think it takes a lot of the analogue sound - but without the warmth. Warmth for me is not a lack of high end - analogue synths often have plenty of high end - some people call it 'sizzle' - but the word sizzle infers movement. If you dont have movement in the high end I think it becomes harsh...

[Nightpolymath]

Tell me, would this Diva be held in the same high-regard if it was bought and offered by NI and dumped in its $500 Komplete bundle?

That's what I wanna know.

Oh man, most definitely. All they need to do is get Skrillex to devise some wub, wub, wub sounds for it and sales will multiply overnight. Diva bass wobble tutorials will inundate Youtube.

[Urs]

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not speak ill of Diva.

Yeah, I've noticed this cult worship about Diva, which is why I think folks are trying to assertain "why".

For me the "why" is, why can't people accept that Diva does the trick. The models we used behave indistinguishably close to the reference hardware we have, but we added bigger ranges of control and features not found in those vintage synths.

It's been a shitload of work and a massive investment. Buying and servicing the reference hardware is tens of thousands alone.

When then someone comes along like the OP and says Diva doesn't do anything for him, then, well, a Minimoog and a Jupiter 8 won't do anything for him either. Simple as that. But that by no means implies that Diva isn't currently *the* reference emulation out there. Some people then make the implication and here we go: Why?

[mcnoone]

@OP: Ridiculous.

[OzWozEre]

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not speak ill of Diva.

Yeah, I've noticed this cult worship about Diva, which is why I think folks are trying to assertain "why".

For me the "why" is, why can't people accept that Diva does the trick. The models we used behave indistinguishably close to the reference hardware we have, but we added bigger ranges of control and features not found in those vintage synths.

It's been a shitload of work and a massive investment. Buying and servicing the reference hardware is tens of thousands alone.

When then someone comes along like the OP and says Diva doesn't do anything for him, then, well, a Minimoog and a Jupiter 8 won't do anything for him either. Simple as that. But that by no means implies that Diva isn't currently *the* reference emulation out there. Some people then make the implication and here we go: Why?

Can't get any fairer than that

So the only thing left to say is: where's the U-He Bundle?!

[Urs]

Tell me, would this Diva be held in the same high-regard if it was bought and offered by NI and dumped in its $500 Komplete bundle?

Don't be fooled by the price tag of Kumplete. It's worth much more. However, NI has become a hardware manufacturer. Naturally they subsidize the software to sell more hardware. Like Apple does.

Yet, no-one can afford to buy Diva off of us. Some tried one way or the other, but as I wrote elsewhere, I wouldn't swap my passion for being bored shitless on a yacht.

And hehehe, poor those who can't stand the hype. It'll become much worse in exactly two months from today

[Urs]

So the only thing left to say is: where's the U-He Bundle?!

We'll be thinking about this. It's a bit of an effort because it entails additions to our licensing system and webinterface. Atm we're busy though with what I hinted at in the previous post, and preparations for our fun event, Musikmesse.