Minimoog Softsynth Shootout: Diva MiniV3 Monark Legend Minimonsta vs Model D

[fluffy_little_something]

Peak level display has little to do with loudness.

Loudness of the patch Jupe-8 (mix knob to VCO1) measured with youlean:

Note C2: -10.8 LUFS
Note C7: -5.9 LUFS

So, the high note is actually louder than the low note.

How is that possible?

[bmrzycki]

How is that possible?

Our ears and brain do not have a flat response curve. It looks like this:


In essence this graph shows that for absolute loudness our ears "hear" it louder or softer depending on the frequency of the content. That downward bump around 3KHz, by the way, is exactly the frequency range where babies cry. We've evolved to find that frequency very sensitive for the survival of our species.

It's imperative to understand this when mixing to keep sounds "right" in the mix.

[fluffy_little_something]

Hm, and what is the bump at about 14 kHz for? Women screaming out at the sight of a spider?

[Mutant]

Peak level display has little to do with loudness.

Loudness of the patch Jupe-8 (mix knob to VCO1) measured with youlean:

Note C2: -10.8 LUFS
Note C7: -5.9 LUFS

So, the high note is actually louder than the low note.

How is that possible?

It is how saw wave oscillators behave.
Most synths compensate for that loudness loss on high notes.
Some synths compensate less, for example Jupiter 8.

Imagine a rising ramp.
On low notes it has a lot of time to rise all the way to the peak.
But on higher notes, it gets reset to next cycle before it can rise as much as on low notes.

[Aliens]

Diva seems to employ some internal equalization

Nope, doesn't.

(It may *seem* so, but it's just the interaction of the parts found in those synths. What I'm saying is, we didn't model the synth and then add an EQ to make it sound better. It sounds like it does because of the accuracy of the models)

Thank God we've put that to rest. Now we can stop with these stupid, unfounded assumptions.

To be fair to FLS, they're not unfounded assumptions. He may be wrong about eq, as Urs has stated, but clearly the phenomenon exists in the modelled software as it does the hardware.

I'd call it a score draw and let the fight club mentality fade out.

[Richard_Synapse]

Hm, and what is the bump at about 14 kHz for? Women screaming out at the sight of a spider?

There seems to be somewhat different graphs on the net though. I personally don't need to boost a 14 khz tone this much (20-30dB) in order to match a 4 khz tone in loudness.

Richard

[fluffy_little_something]

As far as my hearing is concerned, you can cap your synth at 13 kHz anyway

[EnGee]

Just played around again with the Legend, and man! This synth is 'magic'! Anyway, the presets in the Legend are top notch and very usable. Diva comes second (in the presets using the moog components) in my opinion of course.

I did just one track that I participated with in One Synth Challenge some months ago. I thought to make the same also with Diva and some other synths as well, but I only did few demos for another synth!

Anyway, this is the Legend only with factory presets (some are from RH himself and also one from Ingo besides other sound designers)
https://soundcloud.com/engeemoon/cyclone

[HunterKiller]

The Legend is so good, Synapse should do an emulation of the Taurus MKI pedal.

[Ingonator]

This improvisation track (recorded "live" using 3 keyboard controllers) was posted at my thread about free The Legend patches at the Soundware forum almost 6 months ago:
The Legend - Improvisation 01_Variation 1

I only used my own The Legend patches including the drums and also the bell like sound. AFAIK all patches should be included in my free patches collection and/or in the factory presets. Additional patches were added to the factory content with the last bigger update, additionally to the presets that were alraedy included.

The arpeggiator was done sending the MIDI output from my Novation Bass Station 2. You could record the notes output of both the Arp and step sequencer in a MIDI track at your DAW/host. You have to use a certain combination of buttons to activate that feature.


This was the first version of the track using the same notes but some different patches (still my own ones):
Ingo Weidner - The Legend - Improvisation 01

[Richard_Synapse]

The Legend is so good, Synapse should do an emulation of the Taurus MKI pedal.

Sure, would be great- if we can find one on ebay or elsewhere, should be fun to do They seem to be extremely rare though

Richard

[egbert101]

<delete>

[Richard_Synapse]

I would guess that the mkI pedal probably derives its oscillators from the Moog Modular, basically a longer kind of sawtooth shape, which seems to give a deeper more powerful bass tone compared to the minimoog's.

Could be, schematics look very different, only the filter core is similar.

Richard

[egbert101]

<delete>

[HunterKiller]

The Legend is so good, Synapse should do an emulation of the Taurus MKI pedal.

Sure, would be great- if we can find one on ebay or elsewhere, should be fun to do They seem to be extremely rare though

Richard

There is an easier way, when you can't find one or buy one, just hit some forums around the web, talk to some people. Tell them that they'll get your plugin for free, when you use their hardware to emulate it. Some people are so generous, you'll end up with more than one piece of the same gear, giving you a wider variety and more research and possibly a better overall product. It all depends on how much one is willing to interact with people, form partnerships and be a generally all-round great person to deal with. Anything can be done when people come together in aid of one another. When competition is transcended and co-operation becomes the norm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7-i87UyLUU