Diva Vs. Real Analog

[Acid Mitch]

Didn't Urs say that he made Diva sound brighter than the thing's he modelled because he thought the vintage stuff was too dull/muffled ?
Seems foolish to expect Diva to sound the same as it's hardware counterparts when it was never designed to.

[EnGee]

It haunted me. I kept thinking about it. I missed it. I looked for a more suitable synth, but everything I looked at had a major flaw. I think the closest thing I came to was a Nord Lead A1, but their stupid ignoring of aftertouch as a modulation source made it a no-go. Even my cheap Nord Lead 2 rack could recieve it and use it.

I did only spent 10 mins or so with the King Korg (while the dealer was swapping my Blofeld with another one). He showed me how it did self oscillating and some nasty filter tweaking, then left me. I played with just Saw wave and different kinds of filters while playing with the keys little bit. I was blown away by how musical it can be! I just tried really simple things with the filters. But I stopped and return to see other things, because if I stayed more, I would mostly tell the dealer "I'm sorry, can I swap the Blofeld with King Korg?" and I really need the Blofeld as Midi controller as well as a wavetable synth!

I will try the Diva demo again now (while the echo of the King Korg sounds still in my head! ) but damn it man! I really don't like those noise periods in the Diva demo.

What about a hardware, a desktop like Waldorf Pulse 2, but with some Diva inspirations and u-he touches? Same price/quality built level with Pulse 2 and with analog filters. This is the future for u-he I think (Don't crucify me please! It is just an innocent dream!)

[2ZrgE]

You're a little bit new round here wagtunes, but I think you're starting to catch on. KVR isn't a forum about making music, it's a place where people come to compare gear and debate about peripheral issues which have about as much direct relevance to actually making music as the color of the cupholders have to do with how to drive an automobile.

Welcome!

Damn, and I thought KVR was mainly about selling preset packs, promoting special spring/summer/autumn/winter/Halloween/St. Patrick's Day/Christmas sales every other week, teaching people how not analog the new VA VST sounds, and - praising U-he synths.

[SLiC]

It's interesting how the plug in (vst) world is always trying to defend its self rather than celebrate the unique and interesting instruments and effects. I think some of it has to do with virtual copies of things vs the real thing, but if you go over to sites like muff wiggler (modular synth site) there us a totally different vibe where people put expensive all analog modules and spring reverbs next to digital oscillators - it's all good, embrace all the available tools and just enjoy making the music, as it is likely you will be the only person who listens to it in this world where there are more producers than consumers!

[EnGee]

... as it is likely you will be the only person who listens to it in this world where there are more producers than consumers!

You are damn right!

[Mutant]

The only one I believe it has a very affordable price is Waldorf Blofeld! But this is a wavetable synth.

I believe Blofeld has a set of basic VA oscillators + wavetables.
Not only wavetables.
Doublecheck it at the source though, because i am not an expert on Waldorf synths.

[EnGee]

The only one I believe it has a very affordable price is Waldorf Blofeld! But this is a wavetable synth.

I believe Blofeld has a set of basic VA oscillators + wavetables.
Not only wavetables.
Doublecheck it at the source though, because i am not an expert on Waldorf synths.

Yes, sure it has. It is very similar with Largo although there are of course differences, one of them that there is a PPG filter in the Blofeld but not in Largo. This filter (the PPG) is amazing. Very nice indeed.

Anyway, for analog (and vintage analog) sounds, the King Korg is more capable than Blofeld. It just depends on what your priorities are really. In my case, Blofeld covers 75-80% of my needs, so it is more important than King Korg (or Diva).

Anway, I demoed Diva (maybe this is the tenth time!!) and it sounds really great, no doubt. I loaded Vacuum Pro, and it sounded great also. I loaded MS-20 (the soft) and it sounded little bit less great than Diva, but still great!
But, I stayed playing with my absolute favourite analog emulation, and that is Arp2600V. So, low cpu usage with great great sound. I really love this sound!

Anyway, for Diva I like it really, but I would take King Korg instead. I mean really it is hard for me now to have instruments that eats half of the cpu meter!! I'm trying to find the weaknesses (or the not so great points) in the Blofeld and they are two for now. Analog vintage sounds (which I have some in a software) and the additive detailed sound (also I have it in Loom and Harmor).

But man! playing and hearing a great sound while your concentration is absolutely on the sound because there is nothing in the cpu meter to watch! That is just a wonderful relief

So, in the end for me I don't need Diva

[chk071]

Didn't Urs say that he made Diva sound brighter than the thing's he modelled because he thought the vintage stuff was too dull/muffled ?
Seems foolish to expect Diva to sound the same as it's hardware counterparts when it was never designed to.

Huh? Why was it modelled on all those vintage synths then if it's not supposed to sound like them.

[fluffy_little_something]

But, I stayed playing with my absolute favourite analog emulation, and that is Arp2600V. So, low cpu usage with great great sound. I really love this sound!

Strange, Arturia stuff is not exactly known for CPU efficiency, either. Nor are their older plugins known for the best sound quality. The SEM is said to be their best in terms of sound.

[2ZrgE]

All relative.

On my machine (5year old Core i3 Arrandale, 8GB, Win7) I can easily work with the Arp2600, but not with Diva, Spire or Serum (in practice).

Of course I can dial in and work with some patches on the latter ones, but I experience significantly more CPU crushing with those three, depending of course on the patch structure.

[fluffy_little_something]

Certain pads on SEM are too much for my computer, else I would have bought SEM, which sounds very pleasant to me.
I assume the older Arturia stuff uses less CPU than SEM, right?

[EnGee]

But, I stayed playing with my absolute favourite analog emulation, and that is Arp2600V. So, low cpu usage with great great sound. I really love this sound!

Strange, Arturia stuff is not exactly known for CPU efficiency, either. Nor are their older plugins known for the best sound quality. The SEM is said to be their best in terms of sound.

They are cpu friendly! In fact they consume less than M1 or MS-20 (software). For basses and sequences, Arp2600V has the minimum cpu usage among all the soft synths I have with 1% to 7% (With Diva for example is like 35% to 50% and MS-20 between 5% and 20% which is the same for M1).

edit:
I just saw your question about SEM, it is about 7% to not more than 15% for pads! You can download the demos and see by yourself. Arturia licensing now is very friendly (I think up to 4 or 5 activations, which you can control, very generous I would say, and no more e-licenser)

[fluffy_little_something]

Sounds good. Remains the GUI problem...

[wagtunes]

Sounds good. Remains the GUI problem...

If you're referring to the SEM, it's one of the few Arturia GUIs that you can actually see well aside from the Matrix 12.

[fluffy_little_something]

Sounds good. Remains the GUI problem...

If you're referring to the SEM, it's one of the few Arturia GUIs that you can actually see well aside from the Matrix 12.

No no, I was referring to the older plugins, some of which I demoed in the past, useless as far as I am concerned...
The SEM looks OK, but it uses too much CPU.