Diva vs Analogue - a real world test

[fluffy_little_something]

Hm, is Diva really so much brighter than OB-8? And does the OB-8 really have such a muffled, odd low end, and odd oscillator sound to it? Hard to believe tbh... well i don't know what you did with the EQ so. Not playing bad loser here, but i guess myself, and the lot of other people who voted incorrectly kind of could have sworn that it would be the other way around. At least i was 99% sure.

Well, i guess what has been said in the other thread is true then, that Diva was made to have a brighter top end, because that's the one thing i noticed first when comparing the high end, that it's a lot more present, and wider in example A.

Um, I thought it was the other way round, I voted for A = hw because B sounded brighter to me

Congrats on your 5000th post

[chk071]

Thanks. Oh no, it's 5002 already now.

[samsam]

Well played OP.

[hakey]

Answers:

Synth A: u-he Diva with Classic OB presets
Synth B: Oberheim OB8

Haha. Red faces all around. Great news for u-he.

"all A examples sounds to me infinitely better/more real/ than B"

"A: OB B: DIVA If i'm wrong I will buy Diva for sure"



(what was the final tally of right to wrong guesses - anyone know?)

[hakey]

[double post]

[Hank the Knife]

Lol, anyway: I think the Diva sounds much better. But hey.. I hope I'm not getting punished for my preferences. Isn't this a great day?

[wagtunes]

listened again with fresh ears today and the differences are more dramatic than I expected, now to me:

A sounds like a real synth
B sounds like a real plugin

I prefer A in any test sample by miles...so theres no doubt that A = hardware /otherwise I will happily eat my ears/

other thing is that analoguesamples /intentionally?/messed with samples in many ways making them harder to compare...

Would you like some salt and pepper for your ears?

[fluffy_little_something]

Well played OP.

That might be the problem. I would certainly not buy either one based on this test. Only if I did the comparison myself would I trust what I hear

Didn't know Diva was skinnable, maybe someone will get rid of those microscopic labels one day

[Lotuzia]

.......

Cheaper
Weightless
Takes up no space
No cables needed
Less electricity used
No repairs ever
Can have as many instances as my PC can handle

Those reasons alone are enough for me to choose software over hardware 100% of the time unless I have to play out live which I never do as I am a home studio musician.

Just playing a bit the devils advocate Steven. You know I like both Hw and sw

Cheaper : True Weightless : True No Space : True Less Electricity : Depends but lets say true

No repairs : Well I could not repair all the soft synths that dont work anymore because of : OS changes, 64bit, C/R Protection methods, Companies vanishing in the dust, etc etc. Also vintage analogs have no bugs etc etc Wich soft synth will still works in 15 years ? I honnestly have no idea. My Odyssey probably will.

As many instances : You can record as many tracks of your hw synth as well. Accordingly,not really similar workflow.
I'll add, just for pleasure
Money : My analog synths have better value now than when I bought them. How about software ?
Playability : I wont insist on this one Different workflow, different joy
And on the other side, for the pleasure also
Polyphony, velocity modulations, multiple EVs, LFOs, never seen modulations, etc. All that is in favor of software.

And finally : Some people prefered that sound, ond some other this sound. No probs. Doesnt it demonstrate at the very least that that sound and this sound are not 100% equivalent ?

[fluffy_little_something]

.......

Cheaper
Weightless
Takes up no space
No cables needed
Less electricity used
No repairs ever
Can have as many instances as my PC can handle

Those reasons alone are enough for me to choose software over hardware 100% of the time unless I have to play out live which I never do as I am a home studio musician.

Just playing a bit the devils advocate Steven. You know I like both Hw and sw

Cheaper : True Weightless : True No Space : True Less Electricity : Depends but lets say true

No repairs : Well I could not repair all the soft synths that dont work anymore because of : OS changes, 64bit, C/R Protection methods, Companies vanishing in the dust, etc etc. Also vintage analogs have no bugs etc etc Wich soft synth will still works in 15 years ? I honnestly have no idea. My Odyssey probably will.

As many instances : You can record as many tracks of your hw synth as well. Accordingly,not really similar workflow.
I'll add, just for pleasure
Money : My analog synths have better value now than when I bought them. How about software ?
Playability : I wont insist on this one Different workflow, different joy
And on the other side, for the pleasure also
Polyphony, velocity modulations, multiple EVs, LFOs, never seen modulations, etc. All that is in favor of software.

And finally : Some people prefered that sound, ond some other this sound. No probs. Doesnt it demonstrate at the very least that that sound and this sound are not 100% equivalent ?

Another big advantage of sw is patch storage and management, we take that for granted now, but a couple of days ago I read on a hw synth site that the manufacturer was proud one could not save patches on their synth due to the 100% analog design

[Lotuzia]

yes because storing a preset means you choose a value fr a parameter to store it. OB-8 had presets however. Like a lot of oldies.

[wagtunes]

.......

Cheaper
Weightless
Takes up no space
No cables needed
Less electricity used
No repairs ever
Can have as many instances as my PC can handle

Those reasons alone are enough for me to choose software over hardware 100% of the time unless I have to play out live which I never do as I am a home studio musician.

Just playing a bit the devils advocate Steven. You know I like both Hw and sw

Cheaper : True Weightless : True No Space : True Less Electricity : Depends but lets say true

No repairs : Well I could not repair all the soft synths that dont work anymore because of : OS changes, 64bit, C/R Protection methods, Companies vanishing in the dust, etc etc. Also vintage analogs have no bugs etc etc Wich soft synth will still works in 15 years ? I honnestly have no idea. My Odyssey probably will.

As many instances : You can record as many tracks of your hw synth as well. Accordingly,not really similar workflow.
I'll add, just for pleasure
Money : My analog synths have better value now than when I bought them. How about software ?
Playability : I wont insist on this one Different workflow, different joy
And on the other side, for the pleasure also
Polyphony, velocity modulations, multiple EVs, LFOs, never seen modulations, etc. All that is in favor of software.

And finally : Some people prefered that sound, ond some other this sound. No probs. Doesnt it demonstrate at the very least that that sound and this sound are not 100% equivalent ?

There is no question, at least for me, that there is nothing that replaces the "thrill" of sitting behind a vintage synth and turning dials and moving sliders. This wasn't something I enjoyed with ARP synths as I hated the way they were designed, especially with those pressure pads. Didn't really like the Yamaha either. But the Moog and Oberheim synths were a joy. I could get lost in playing with them all day, which is something that's rare for a soft synth because the interface (mouse and keyboard) is so "non human" for me.

That's the one thing I miss about my hardware synths that no VST can replace. But the pros still outweigh the cons and as I am as poor as a church mouse, I simply can't afford to get all the hardware synths that I would love to have, like the new Schmidt or even the Studio Electronics Code 8, which I think sounds amazing. But good heavens, $5,000? I just don't have that kind of money.

So VSTs will have to do. Fortunately, they sound good enough that I can still make decent music with them.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Z1202]

I wonder what happens if now another test is run: some OB-8 owner takes these Diva presets and dials in the same sounds in the synth. I mean, the OP was likely motivated to show that Diva sounds better than hw, so consciously or subconsciously the Diva presets could have been dialed in to sound slightly more interesting. (I'm not insisting this is the case, just pointing out a possibility). So, it would be interesting if someone with an opposite motivation made an opposite test now

That said, as I mentioned earlier, personally I don't need to be convinced that Diva is good enough for this type of sounds. I also slightly preferred A for the first 3 or 4 sounds that I listened to.

[Lotuzia]

Most people insist on refering to terms as 'better' / Superior/Inferior etc* when probably just *I prefer this or that* would be enough, and difference in character/sound might be the keyword. But what do I know