u-he

Donmich · Post by **Donmich** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:27 pm

I was a latecomer to the U-He synths. The first products I really worked with were MFM and Ubhik. I bought ACE later and love it. I knew the synths were great but I had already invested in so many others - the entire Arturia collection, DCAM, Alchemy, Komplete etc that I didnt want to really immerse myself.
Unfortunately curiosity got the better of me and I have had Zebra and Diva demos on my system for months now, gradually allowing myself to hear what they can do.
Tragically, they are so incredibly good that I find virtually all of the other synth plugs I own unlistenable. I play on Diva or Zebra and then load up another synth and feel let down. They have ruined me for other synths. Maybe not DCAM but these just dont fill me with the gushy love and inspiration I feel with the U-he synths.
People are divided on Arturia but having been reasonably well exposed to all of the synths they have made emulations of back in the 80's I honestly found that they did a very admirable job at recreating the essential behaviours and characters of these synths.

The annoying little snaps, pops and clicks on bass sounds with fast attacks were something I just lived with by increasing the attack time a few ms.

Diva and Zebra dont have this.
The headroom and "bloom" of the filters and envelopes make me realize I was missing stuff I wasnt aware of.
I cant go back and have a good few thousand dollars worth of synths that will now gather dust.

Damn you U-he!

EsmileZ · Post by **EsmileZ** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:23 pm

Donmich wrote:I was a latecomer to the U-He synths. The first products I really worked with were MFM and Ubhik. I bought ACE later and love it. I knew the synths were great but I had already invested in so many others - the entire Arturia collection, DCAM, Alchemy, Komplete etc that I didnt want to really immerse myself.
Unfortunately curiosity got the better of me and I have had Zebra and Diva demos on my system for months now, gradually allowing myself to hear what they can do.
Tragically, they are so incredibly good that I find virtually all of the other synth plugs I own unlistenable. I play on Diva or Zebra and then load up another synth and feel let down. They have ruined me for other synths. Maybe not DCAM but these just dont fill me with the gushy love and inspiration I feel with the U-he synths.
People are divided on Arturia but having been reasonably well exposed to all of the synths they have made emulations of back in the 80's I honestly found that they did a very admirable job at recreating the essential behaviours and characters of these synths.

The annoying little snaps, pops and clicks on bass sounds with fast attacks were something I just lived with by increasing the attack time a few ms.

Diva and Zebra dont have this.
The headroom and "bloom" of the filters and envelopes make me realize I was missing stuff I wasnt aware of.
I cant go back and have a good few thousand dollars worth of synths that will now gather dust.

Damn you U-he!

he he me too...

PanzerD · Post by **PanzerD** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:37 pm

...and don't forget thousands of free presets. I mean FREE!!!:shock:
The fact that I don't have to pay for them is just unacceptable.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:48 pm

Donmich wrote:...they are so incredibly good that I find virtually all of the other synth plugs I own unlistenable. I play on Diva or Zebra and then load up another synth and feel let down. They have ruined me for other synths.

This is what I told Urs a while back. Exactly the same here.

(...except that I started buying a few pieces of analogue hardware for the first time in decades)

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:50 pm

I hate the fact that i'll have to upgrade my crusty old Q9400 in order to get the best out of Diva.

And yes, it IS different

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:55 pm

tehlord wrote:I hate the fact that i'll have to upgrade my crusty old Q9400 in order to get the best out of Diva.

And yes, it IS different

Computers don't get old... software just gets newer.

PanzerD · Post by **PanzerD** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:59 pm

...and what about their customer support. I mean those guys should be tracked down by CIA and locked away for next hundred years so that no musician should ever be treated like a human being by any software company, ever!

Donmich · Post by **Donmich** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:10 pm

PanzerD wrote:...and what about their customer support. I mean those guys should be tracked down by CIA and locked away for next hundred years so that no musician should ever be treated like a human being by any software company, ever!

Bastards.

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:20 pm

I've also discovered that I despise the way that I can simply drag and drop presets from one folder to another in the Diva GUI!!

Assholes!!

VSTJuNkiE · Post by **VSTJuNkiE** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:32 pm

If anyone is looking to get rid of their "worthless" U-he stuff I'll take it. Heck, I'll even slide ya a couple bucks for it......

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:33 pm

From my cold, dead hands.

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:47 pm

Donmich wrote:The annoying little snaps, pops and clicks on bass sounds with fast attacks were something I just lived with by increasing the attack time a few ms.

Diva and Zebra dont have this.

Although I also find Zebra's envelopes to be great and better than in many other soft synths .. but still, Zebra's envelopes have some catching up to do ... once you get used to the ultra tight and clean ones in Diva, it's hard to wanna use something else.

...and yeah, Diva's envelopes have some catching up to do too

(flexibility from Zebra)

Donmich · Post by **Donmich** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:04 pm

3ee wrote:
Donmich wrote:The annoying little snaps, pops and clicks on bass sounds with fast attacks were something I just lived with by increasing the attack time a few ms.

Diva and Zebra dont have this.
Although I also find Zebra's envelopes to be great and better than in many other soft synths .. but still, Zebra's envelopes have some catching up to do ... once you get used to the ultra tight and clean ones in Diva, it's hard to wanna use something else.

...and yeah, Diva's envelopes have some catching up to do too (flexibility from Zebra)

This is true. Diva hurt Zebra a bit in this regard, but this will be remedied soon enough with V3 (and hopefully will be ported to Zebrafied!)
Worth noting that the only company to really gain on Zebra, imo was U-he.

I do wish Diva had a sequencer.

Zebra killed Massive (and several others) for me. Diva killed most of Arturias stuff for me except maybe Modular V (despite its comparitive flaws) which I'm sure bazille will accomplish when it comes out (if zebra 3 doesnt do it first).

VSTJuNkiE · Post by **VSTJuNkiE** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:37 pm

tehlord wrote:From my cold, dead hands.

Sorry, can't kill ppl over the Internets (Not saying I would either)..

penguinfromdeep · Post by **penguinfromdeep** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:45 pm

I only like Diva and Ace .... Uhbiks for example never did anything for me, nor did Zebra

u-he

KVR Audio

Why I Hate U-He :-)