The long DIVA thread

[Fritze]

I'm still on the fence about posting examples from the synths we've modelled, because it would be fairly easy for us to make them sound bad compared to Diva (and vice versa).

I would like to come over to see that happen! I hate fake.

[Fritze]

It might be nitpicky for some but when it comes to Electro House where you have a bassline that carries the whole tune that "little extra" does matter, a weak bass is like playing Beatles without harmonies or ACDC on a Fender.

You're right. ADCD on a Fender:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Highway_Cow_Bell.wav

[Howard]

Does anyone else think this synth shares some characteristics with the blofeld?

Absolutely not! I find the Blofeld sound rather annoying / gritty in a bad way (I still have two Blofeld protos here). You have tried the various Accuracy settings in Diva, right?

[hakey]

Was a solution found to fake free-running oscillators so as to allow the Minimoog trick that Gonga mentioned - setting attack and decay at near zero and sustain quite low for a very snappy 'compressed' bass sound?

I've tried it but can't get a consistently loud attack from one note to another.

[RiffsAndBeats]

You're right. ADCD on a Fender:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Highway_Cow_Bell.wav

[Urs]

Was a solution found to fake free-running oscillators so as to allow the Minimoog trick that Gonga mentioned - setting attack and decay at near zero and sustain quite low for a very snappy 'compressed' bass sound?

I've tried it but can't get a consistently loud attack from one note to another.

The solution exists, but hasn't been implemented yet.

Mind you, the Mini isn't all that even either.

[hakey]

Mind you, the Mini isn't all that even either.

Makes sense - the oscillators will come in and out of phase.

[EvilDragon]

I love the sound of Waldorfs, Blofeld is an amazing sounding machine to me. But I wouldn't compare it with Diva at all. Yes, Diva can be very bright and punchy, unlike a lot of vintage analogs, hence some of us eagerly await the "Muffle" parameter!

[hakey]

Re the sensitivity of filters to oscillator level - might it be possible to have a little more output volume for patches with very osc low gain?

And thinking about this idea that with real analogues two handed osc gain/output volume balancing is easy, a slightly wacky idea, how about the ability to link osc gain to output volume, so that changing osc gain inversely changes the output volume?

EDIT: scratch that silly idea - too many variables affecting volume (filter type, cut-off res, osc type, gain etc).

[HanafiH]

I'm somehow surprised by the overall positive feedback. I was expecting many, many comparisons that are conducted to romanticise analogue gear.

I don't see why that should be. I have (too many) real analogues, and comparing Diva to real machines might reveal differences, but Diva stands on its own two feet as an extraordinarily good synth. It can be set to create sounds that have a silky perfection quite impossible from any physical box. It does genuinely sound very good.

I'm a bit unhappy with CPU performance in the beta I've tried. It limits the synth from going into its best performance modes.

I don't know whether anybody else has mentioned this, but you should check out the claim that Diva is the first VA to use circuit modelling. Yamaha made expressly this claim for the AN1X/PLG-150 VA that fooled so many pro musicians, when it came out, into believing it was a real Prophet 5. The claim about their method was so similar to yours, that I (a mere earthling in the land of martians) can't tell whether they're the same or not.

[Aiynzahev]

im just killed be the delay time adjustments - i there will be something like a synced delay option added ... its really hard to get a rolling delay ...

The delay *is* synced - set integers. There is likely to be a non-syced option at some point.

We'll see... I'd want to evaluate if the 3-tap delay is accepted at all - it may seem confusing at first.

What exactly are non-syncing delays needed for? (Honest question, I simply never used that myself)

This is a really good sounding synth. I'm still learning many features.

I really like the 3 tap design. I also use non-syncing delays. They are also good for slightly off rhythmic effects. So please be sure some people do use it, although I have other delay effects I could use, it is very useful when dialing in patches and recalling them.

Now there are many posts so I couldn't look through all of them, but did somebody mention a supersaw Osc? That would make this synth really versatile.

I don't find the modulation page that user friendly right now but I will spend more time learning it.

I don't know if this is appropriate in this thread, but I made a song entirely from the Diva. I also used Battery and various effects but no other synths at all were used.

[Urs]

I don't know whether anybody else has mentioned this, but you should check out the claim that Diva is the first VA to use circuit modelling. Yamaha made expressly this claim for the AN1X/PLG-150 VA that fooled so many pro musicians, when it came out, into believing it was a real Prophet 5. The claim about their method was so similar to yours, that I (a mere earthling in the land of martians) can't tell whether they're the same or not.

Nah, we don't do circuit modeling per se. We do however use circuit simulation techniques, that's a massive difference. And of course we say native softsynth, not VA

[rockin1]

What exactly are non-syncing delays needed for? (Honest question, I simply never used that myself)

Non-synced delays are really important! Setting very short delays panned differently with slightly different delay times is a great way to make some kinds of sounds come alive, especially in the stereo image. This is especially powerful when you can use pan and filter feedback for each delay indpendently. Even better to have 3, 4, or 5 delays to spread out instead of just left and right...

[Aiynzahev]

Edit: I just saw the DIVA sound examples thread. I will post it there instead.

[Howard]

Re the sensitivity of filters to oscillator level - might it be possible to have a little more output volume for patches with very osc low gain?... (snip) EDIT: scratch that silly idea - too many variables affecting volume (filter type, cut-off res, osc type, gain etc).

The trouble is - people tend to turn everything up without thinking. The psychologically better method than more oomph on the Master knob could be to have a "boost" switch that immediately goes into the red when applied to "normal" patch volumes.