Diva vs Analogue - a real world test

[2ZrgE]

On the other hand, some dance or EDM genres it's better doing them with a mouse and a piano roll, not even playing any keys or a controller. In that workflow, it is very convenient to consider a soft synth to load in the laptop.

Speaking of workflow - the only hardware I own currently is a Korg Volca Bass, and I'm even too lazy to switch it on and setting it up/recording sounds with regularily because I have so many good soft synths which get the job done so much faster (the other disadavantage is that I'm producing with a laptop so it's mostly better to stay in the box if I want to finish stuff on the road.)

[Locus M]

Then sometimes on this forum, I get the feeling that a guy making music with an hw analog synth older than 5 years is someone just inbetween the dinosaur and the alien

How can you say that when so many HW enthusiasts are moaning for ancient synths now a days?

What I can say is that if those tiny differences presented in this thread are what drift us apart we have become spoiled beyond measure.

When I was young in the 80s you simply had to choose between a life and a synthesizer. The choice was whether you would save up for years for a used car and get street credit and girlfriends or whether you wanted to save up for a synth and spend your youth in a cellar.

And it was certainly not the sound that was most important but whether you would have gear enough for at least a minimal synth studio. In the beginning you had to team up with other synth owners to achieve that (and that was kind of positive). To this end synths without midi were of limited use and usually seen as ancient crap. Later small miracles started to show up in the shops. The first real usable studio I had with a band mate consisted of a TR707, a SH101, a Poly 800 and then the miracle: A Tascam Portastudio 4 track tape recorder!

Man oh man! You could record a sync signal from Poly 800 to one of the tracks and then overdub it SEVERAL TIMES! We synced the sh101’s CV by virtue of the rim out of TR707, which was driven by midi from the P800 tiny sequencer and then bounced one track after another until the tape couldn’t take anymore. We could even use this principle live and sound like a whole synth orchestra with only two synths on stage.

Then the workstations made their way into the home studios. My first was an Ensoniq 1. Now I had a WHOLE SYNTH STUDIO in ONE SYNTH Later I got a Roland W30 and the euphoria just wouldn’t stop. I could sample sounds from other synths and other sources in amazing 12 bit quality!

And look at us barking about Daws with 203086 features and insignificant differences in sound today. Oh Maker! How low can we go in the ongoing gear limbo?

[Synthetic Wav]

Urs no plan for a oversampling mode for Zebra ?

Is there a need for that ?
With my limited time with Zebra2 demo in 44100, i don't remember hearing any aliasing.

maybe saturation ,filters, syncro and fms would get a benefit of it, also the oscillators, it's just a guess but often higher sampling rate improve all this.
it s seems to me it s the difference between analog and digital..analog don't have digital artifacts and that's the main reason why it sound analog to our ears. you can twist the knobs in all direction and in extreme theritory it will be more forgiving cause there is no digital artifacts.

[Urs]

Urs no plan for a oversampling mode for Zebra ?

Is there a need for that ?
With my limited time with Zebra2 demo in 44100, i don't remember hearing any aliasing.

maybe saturation ,filters, syncro and fms would get a benefit of it, also the oscillators, it's just a guess but often higher sampling rate improve all this.
it s seems to me it s the difference between analog and digital..analog don't have digital artifacts and that's the main reason why it sound analog to our ears. you can twist the knobs in all direction it will be more forigiving cause there is no digital artifacts.

Some areas are oversampled when necessary.

Thing is, each module needs to be oversampled individually in order to reduce aliasing. There's not much use in oversampling a complex synth as a whole, it would just cost twice the CPU for only a 6dB reduction of aliasing, or four times the CPU for 12dB.

[Hank the Knife]

Masturbation filters.. what are these for???

[Synthetic Wav]

Urs no plan for a oversampling mode for Zebra ?

Is there a need for that ?
With my limited time with Zebra2 demo in 44100, i don't remember hearing any aliasing.

maybe saturation ,filters, syncro and fms would get a benefit of it, also the oscillators, it's just a guess but often higher sampling rate improve all this.
it s seems to me it s the difference between analog and digital..analog don't have digital artifacts and that's the main reason why it sound analog to our ears. you can twist the knobs in all direction it will be more forigiving cause there is no digital artifacts.

Some areas are oversampled when necessary.

Thing is, each module needs to be oversampled individually in order to reduce aliasing. There's not much use in oversampling a complex synth as a whole, it would just cost twice the CPU for only a 6dB reduction of aliasing, or four times the CPU for 12dB.

thanks for explaining indeed oversampling just what is needed make a lot more sense seeing it like this .
But zebra is so cpu efficient i feel like even with X8 or X16 oversampling it would not be a cpu monster but yeah maybe the gain would be too little compared to the cpu it takes,i have no ideas.
from synth that have oversampling as a whole, i feel like at least X8 is needed to hear real improvment and X16 is great. the good thing about this is that the synth can have different caractere with audio rate modulation depending the amount of oversampling. from Va style Fm that sound like noise when pushed to clean one

[Examigan]

Urs no plan for a oversampling mode for Zebra ?

Is there a need for that ?
With my limited time with Zebra2 demo in 44100, i don't remember hearing any aliasing.

maybe saturation ,filters, syncro and fms would get a benefit of it, also the oscillators, it's just a guess but often higher sampling rate improve all this.
it s seems to me it s the difference between analog and digital..analog don't have digital artifacts and that's the main reason why it sound analog to our ears. you can twist the knobs in all direction it will be more forigiving cause there is no digital artifacts.

Some areas are oversampled when necessary.

Thing is, each module needs to be oversampled individually in order to reduce aliasing. There's not much use in oversampling a complex synth as a whole, it would just cost twice the CPU for only a 6dB reduction of aliasing, or four times the CPU for 12dB.

Yes it sounds great already, but I wonder when Zebra 3 will arrive?

[Gamma-UT]

Then sometimes on this forum, I get the feeling that a guy making music with an hw analog synth older than 5 years is someone just inbetween the dinosaur and the alien. With added snobbery of course. This is wrong. In my book, it's simply ..... a musician.

I you hang out on the Electronic Music subforum at GearSlutz it seems to be more like Civil War re-enactment. You can't make techno UNLESS IT"S EXACTLY THE RIGHT GEAR!!! NOTHING ELSE WILL DO!!!

[Freaqpeak]

Seriously. This discussion in 2015? Come on.

It IS a matter of taste only. And it is a matter of how you like the workflow with software compared to hardware.

With that said: I prefer hardware synths for inspiration and making patches.
I even got myself a modular eurorack collection now that I can afford it. I have nothing against software per se, I have produced and released a lot of songs made with software only.

...it is STILL a matter of taste!

And with THAT said: I mostly prefer the sound of Diva in THESE examples. Diva sounds wonderful...

Expensive synths will not make your songs better but they might inspire you in a way that software never will. I know it works like this for me personally.....

[zerocrossing]

and also bought the soundset just few days ago

Now you just need to buy the OB noise files and add them to the sound and you have yourself a real analogue sounding synth

Frankly I think the type of sounds presented here are pretty bread and butter. Couldn't they be reproduced roughly by many decent synthesizers, analogue or VA, without damaging the intented effect in a mix? In other words: Can someone tell me what all this has to do with music?

Absolutely nothing.

[penguinfromdeep]

Yup. I have few real analogue polysynths myself, this test actually didn't diminish my lust still to get some more, I was actually eyeballing OB-Xa myself a while ago, darn expensive though. Still one day I'd like to get one First I want the new Prophet though...

[david.beholder]

2) Urs has made a digital synth that sounds more "analogue" than analogue synths

At certain extend I agree with this.

I actually find sound of Diva more "analog" that things it's modeled after.
It has more even, ear pleasing sound and less unwanted artifacts. Sometimes some simple sounds on Diva are causing me goosebumps and when I'm trying to repro on real synths i feel like "Diva sounds bit better, it's perfect in imperfection".

The only thing Diva lacks -- knobby interface. But someone would do one sooner or later.

[david.beholder]

and also bought the soundset just few days ago

Can someone tell me what all this has to do with music?

Absolutely nothing.

(sorry for caps )
*drumroll* ARE YOU READY TO DEFINE WHAT IS MUSIC?

[trimph1]

and also bought the soundset just few days ago

Can someone tell me what all this has to do with music?

Absolutely nothing.

(sorry for caps )
*drumroll* ARE YOU READY TO DEFINE WHAT IS MUSIC?

Oh no....please... not this again.

[Locus M]

ARE YOU READY TO DEFINE WHAT IS MUSIC?

If you can walk, talk and write but does not have a clue what music is you will never find out. Can I kindly recommend another career? How about being a gardener, a chimney sweep or a part time Santa Claus?