Diva tutorial video #1

[Urs]

Enjoy!



This is the first of a series of bite-sized tutorials aimed at users of u-he's latest synthesizer, Diva. Let's get straight to the nitty-gritty i.e. the fascinating subject of distortion.

Act I: Diva doesn't have a dedicated distortion module. Hardware analogue synths naturally distort at several points within the signal path, and because Diva is a close emulation, it doesn't need a dedicated distortion module either. Like in analogue mixers etc., "gain-staging" is rather important in Diva.

In search of the best distortion you don't always need to turn everything (oscillator levels and filter resonance) up to eleven! The first example here shows that turning ocillator levels DOWN is best for the typical "acid" distortion for which e.g. the Roland TB303 and MS-20 were justly famous.

Act II - beef: On the other hand, Diva's mixer (pre-filter) and amplifier will only distort if you give them plenty of signal. Here, the oscilloscope is left open to show the subtle waveshaping that can lead to a more beefy sound.

Act III: Not really distortion, but ring modulation between the two notes of a duophonic patch is a very characterful effect that also delivers enough grit to cut through a mix.

Act IV: OK, Diva DOES actually have a distortion effect! It's not "dedicated", but built into the Rotary (Leslie effect) module...

So - happy tweaking!

More to come...

Urs

[Aiynzahev]

Excellent!

[3ee]

Hey cool, thanks, looking forward for more!
At least to fill up the recommended youtube videos from here, some of them other Dive are scary!

[standalone]

Fantastic! I hope there will be a ton more.

But, on a second thought, you can just select "Watch on Youtube", as 3ee did, and check the related videos.

[edit: sorry, found those vids too distracting - Urs]

[evo2slo]

Thanks for the vid! I like the bite-size concept - fast and to the point. Great tip to turn the oscillator level down and tweak the bite highpass. Now I just want to play with Diva but I have work to do dammit!

[Urs]

hehe, yeah, interesting stuff on the side bar... (hehehe, but we don't really need that here, do we? )

[3ee]

hehe, yeah, interesting stuff on the side bar... (hehehe, but we don't really need that here, do we? )

Yeah, they will probably scare people away! + no matter how much makeup they use, still no Diva! Cold, harsh and with artifacts, they are the ones that need some saturation!

[jumpercable]

Thank you, thank you, thank you , thank you. Been waiting a while for this, but I think youve got a really good format for more quickfire tips and tricks - really looking forward to seeing more.

[hakey]

Distortion, Act V: Triple Osc Feedback?

[jumpercable]

Distortion, Act V: Triple Osc Feedback?

Is there a star wars pun in there? If it isnt, it still sorta works, and I clearly need to get out more.

[Howard]

Distortion, Act V: Triple Osc Feedback?

Good point... maybe should have been included. Looks like I'll just have to include that in an "HP" tutorial.

[Woody Aki]

I like the bite-size concept - fast and to the point.

+1. Most Youtube tutorials should be like this...lass waffling, more action!
Howie...left you a tutorial request on Youtube. What do you think?

[hakey]

Youtube tutorials should be like this...lass waffling, more action!

+1

[Howard]

Howie...left you a tutorial request on Youtube. What do you think?

Thanks - already replied there

[bmrzycki]

Thanks Howard for distilling your knowledge to us all. It's good seeing you back here doing things for u-he.