Diva Vs. Real Analog

[osiris]

What does Diva stand for? I;m thinking Digital Imitation of Virtual Analog.
(and no, I'm not trying to be funny or mean, I really want to know)

[standalone]

Click Urs' link and...

Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue

[Gonga]

What I want for next Christmas, along with a Unicorn:

Midi controller with swappable controller bed. The bed itself has a grid of slots, each fitted for a control module. Each module might house a knob, button/button-grid, slider, maybe a generic data entry/display to cover the bases with drop-downs and mod routings, etc. Some modules (like sliders) may take up more than one slot. Empty slots have covers.

You purchase these separately (knobs come in continuous, single polarity, dual polarity with center detent, etc.) Insert them where you wish. The entire bed can be swapped out of a main unit which houses the MIDI, power, USB smarts, etc., and optional keyboard with pitch/mod/aftertouch.

Purchase extra beds and knobs when you have the money. Comes with mapping software wich auto-loads when inserting a hot-swappable bed. Pre-configured beds available from the plug developers at reduced costs (since they purchase in volume).

Available in two sizes.

Yeah, there's lots of technical hurdles, and cost factors, but these are overcome - good engineering always looks like magic before it's done.

Make a Diva control bed, a Largo control bed... swap as needed. The dedicated controller aspect of hardware is the most insurmountable hurdle. They'll still be a few guys left to debate with scopes in hand, the rest of us will

Great idea Joe, you and I think alike

I am always "harping" on about how lame keyboard designs are. Keyboard players need to be able to customize the left-hand controllers like guitarists order custom builds. The only reason these aren't available is because only a few people talk about it - if more musicians were players instead of programmers, and talked about this stuff, it might just happen one day. Unfortunately, the high art of actually playing a synth - and using tons of left-hand controllers and pedals for subtle sound control - is dying out imo. Everyone's happy with knobs and sliders even when they have to remove their hand from anywhere near the keyboard to tweak them Anyone who wants to watch the master at work - going back and forth between two hands and the left-hand controllers (multiple) just watch a good video of Jan Hammer.

Check out "Advantage" if you can stand a little Al DiMeola, Anthony Jackson's 6-string bass and Steve Gadd or "Cruisin'."

http://danling.com/studio/sounds/diva/s ... 5b2%5d.flv

http://danling.com/studio/sounds/diva/s ... 5b1%5d.flv

Indeed, that's Jan playing "rhythm guitar" on a Powel Probe analog (his sound generator at the time was a 6-voice Oberheim SEM btw).

On the other hand, Jan can keep up with Jeff Beck even when he's playing a crap little Yamaha "keytar" with a too-short strap!

http://danling.com/studio/sounds/diva/japan_86[1].flv

p.s. I dialed in some sounds last night with Diva that catapulted me back to 1980. I got so into playing that I woke up the house with the keyboard noise before I realized I was getting carried away. Unfortunately, I'm working on a bunch of rompler soundtracks right now but I'll be posting some music with Diva in a few months that will showcase what this little monster can do, and it will blow you away. That's a promise!

Diva can do some shockingly gorgeous stuff I haven't even been able to do with Zebra (although my programming is very very old school so it's prolly a personal limitation rather than a limitation of Zebra). It's killing me that I haven't been able to work on a Diva project yet...

Sorry about the derailment

[djsubject]

What does Diva stand for? I;m thinking Digital Imitation of Virtual Analog.
(and no, I'm not trying to be funny or mean, I really want to know)

"Direct Input Virtual Analog"

DI-VA!

[ShamanicRitual]

Dope for Imagination and Virtually Awesomeness

[JoeCat]

Great idea Joe, you and I think alike

TY

Even if we are not quite all the way to analog yet (and it's debatable - here mostly!), as instruments like Diva close the gap, the controller issue will be one of the biggest arguments. Even outside of live playing, patch creation and performance in the studio are the biggest gaps between a dedicated hardware controller and plug-ins (IMHO). A $1,000 extensible controller that can replace 2 or 3 pieces of analog hardware would still be a good deal, considering how inexpensive the plug-ins are.

(I am now a proud Diva owner - just got in before the deadline)

[ShamanicRitual]

Great idea Joe, you and I think alike

TY

Even if we are not quite all the way to analog yet (and it's debatable - here mostly!), as instruments like Diva close the gap, the controller issue will be one of the biggest arguments. Even outside of live playing, patch creation and performance in the studio are the biggest gaps between a dedicated hardware controller and plug-ins (IMHO). A $1,000 extensible controller that can replace 2 or 3 pieces of analog hardware would still be a good deal, considering how inexpensive the plug-ins are.

(I am now a proud Diva owner - just got in before the deadline)

Keyboard players need XY foot pads!

[Urs]

Keyboard players need XY foot pads!

A so-called Carpet Controller with multi touch option. If two feet ain't enough, just drop your beer glass for the up beat.

[Fritze]

Keyboard players need XY foot pads!

A so-called Carpet Controller with multi touch option. If two feet ain't enough, just drop your beer glass for the up beat.

Hahaha! This instantly reminded me of the band LMFAO!
Looking forward to some cool upcoming controllers...

[sovietpop]

Here is my story.

I was saving for the Macbeth vortex (Mono analogue synthesizer).
This week i was on gearslutz (again) and thats where i've heard about Diva.
To be honest i am more a hardware kind of guy and i dont use softsynth for analogue sounds. I've tried the demo and ... holy crap !!! That thing is amazing.
I used to own a juno 106 for a long time and have experience with the Ms 20 and Minimoog. (never tried the Jupier).

This is the first time (imo) a VA sounds like an analogue synth.
The Juno emulation is so close its scary.
I compared my Dsi Tetra and Diva just for fun (for a fews hours) and i think i prefer Diva .

Anyway i am keeping my hardware synth but instead of buying the Vortex i've bought Diva today and i am going to replace my laptop with a more powerful macbook pro 4 core i7.

Yes its that good .

[goldenanalog]

Here is my story.

I was saving for the Macbeth vortex (Mono analogue synthesizer).
This week i was on gearslutz (again) and thats where i've heard about Diva.
To be honest i am more a hardware kind of guy and i dont use softsynth for analogue sounds. I've tried the demo and ... holy crap !!! That thing is amazing.
I used to own a juno 106 for a long time and have experience with the Ms 20 and Minimoog. (never tried the Jupier).

This is the first time (imo) a VA sounds like an analogue synth.
The Juno emulation is so close its scary.
I compared my Dsi Tetra and Diva just for fun (for a fews hours) and i think i prefer Diva .

Anyway i am keeping my hardware synth but instead of buying the Vortex i've bought Diva today and i am going to replace my laptop with a more powerful macbook pro 4 core i7.

Yes its that good .

Another testimonial from the converted! Reverend Urs' Church of DIVA is gaining new members daily

[Urs]

Here is my story.

Thanks so much - very appreciated

[Gonga]

Keyboard players need XY foot pads!

A so-called Carpet Controller with multi touch option. If two feet ain't enough, just drop your beer glass for the up beat.

You could curl your toes so you have 4 points of contact!

On my modded Roland, I have pitch bend, cutoff, resonance, 3-way transpose toggle, portamento on/off and rate, all reachable with fingers 3-5 without removing my thumb and index finger off the pitch bend pot.



'Course that synth has truly been retired by Zebra et al. Besides having only one oscillator (not a problem actually) and no midi, the truth is when I modded it I created a lot of noise in the audio. Some day if I win the lottery I'll have her restored. I can't bear to part with her though.

[AdmiralQuality]

Keyboard players need XY foot pads!

A so-called Carpet Controller with multi touch option. If two feet ain't enough, just drop your beer glass for the up beat.

You could curl your toes so you have 4 points of contact!

On my modded Roland, I have pitch bend, cutoff, resonance, 3-way transpose toggle, portamento on/off and rate, all reachable with fingers 3-5 without removing my thumb and index finger off the pitch bend pot.

Now if only you had a mod wheel! (Sorry, I just hate the sideways Roland "bender" and momentary mod-button. Give me Moog style pitch and mod wheels any day!)

[Gonga]

That wouldn't be too hard to do! I literally got most of the materials at Radio Shack!