Drive/Distortion in Diva

[Chris-S]

Ok, I confirm this in the scope.



(Full OSC level)

So, having a dedicated Load-knob is only for convenience.

[NadirToZenith]

higher output volumes (vca section, not global output knob) result in more distortion

and how always beautifully sweet that does sound...

[Urs]

So, having a dedicated Load-knob is only for convenience.

Yes, normally it is. But it also means "one more knob" in the gain staging carousel.

OTOH the gains in the Juno/Jupiter-inspired oscillator models are fixed, like in the original hardware. Therefore we are thinking of adding an extra gain knob to the trimmers page, as an extension to what's possible in the vintage hardware units.

[masterhiggins]

How is monark able to sound more aggressive? I know the feedback sounds like it's driven harder.

[zerocrossing]

How is monark able to sound more aggressive? I know the feedback sounds like it's driven harder.

That's the sound of your CPU being strangled to death.

[Chris-S]

How is monark able to sound more aggressive? I know the feedback sounds like it's driven harder.

Monark does have a Load (Overdrive) knob. In the leftmost position it is similar to Diva.
And yes, Monark's feedback is more aggressive IMO.

[Urs]

The makers of Monark had an early Minimoog as reference. I think they had a serial somewhere in the 2000s. Those are more aggressive sounding than the one we had, which has 9000+ serial number.

Monark also has that overload knob that isn't found on a Minimoog. Not entirely sure what it does, but it certainly adds a lot of distortion

[EvilDragon]

From the Monark manual:

LOAD: Load increases the signal level of the oscillator and noise generator. The authentic sound of the synthesizer can be heard with the knob in the left position. When the LOAD knob is turned clockwise more overdrive is introduced by the filter. For nostalgic reasons the lamp next to the LOAD parameter will light up as the level of overdrive is increased.




So, basically filter input gain, with unity at minimum value (only amplifies, doesn't attenuate).

[Urs]

Ah, so it's not related to the feedback, it's a general amplifier on the filter input.

We'll see. I'd also love to have a look at the Sub's MultiDrive thing. This should work in a similar vein.

[EvilDragon]

Yup, it's kinda-sorta similar, but it's a dual-purpose knob. From leftmost to 12 o'clock it's pre-filter gain, from 12 o'clock to the end it's post-filter gain, if I understood correctly.


EDIT: Not quite, here's a quote from an interview:

But seriously, we wanted to find a way to go beyond the overload circuit in the Little Phatty – which is based on mixer feedback and post-filter asymmetrical clipping. The LP overload can sound pretty hairy – but it doesn’t scream, and we wanted this synth to be able to get really dirty. The “scream” comes from a combo of overdriving the filter input with the mixer output, then getting overdrive in the filter output section followed by a fun little JFET drive stage which at low levels is warm and furry but gets snarly as the filter output section smacks it harder. The entire thing is really sensitive to the levels of the VCOs in the mixer, the shapes of the waves, the setting of the filter, so there are a lot of tonal nooks and crannies to explore. It’s a lot of fun.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/01/a ... interview/

[SWAN808]

yes Monark is just an older minimoog which has more dirt and grit...I'd love a drive function on Diva...phatty filter drive is excellent IMO but I dont like the newer multidrive - it goes into that farty feedback sound IMO...

[Urs]

Well, it seems that the Moog guys are stepping up their game by doing things that are very expensive in software.

I'll check those thing out. If the drive happens *outside* of the actual filter, i.e. inside or post mixer, at input stage or output stage, it should be possible to crank oversampling up for it while preserving the filter's CPU performance at moderate levels (in Diva terms). Or else maybe we'd have to filter the resonance.

In any case, I have yet to check things out and see how much I like them. I wasn't fond of the Little Phatty, but probably also because I have an early revision that I guess had some bugs and is in dire need of service.

[3ee]

here's an effective way to get drive/dist in DIVA:

- locate the amp volume (different than output volume) and bring it to maximum, compensate vol increase with output knob)
- volume modulation slot select "add" and bring the modulation to maximum (or whatever level of drive you want... )
- under add select voice map + voice map
- now on to the "trimmers" section and bring all the voice map mod values to max.

now for filters and oscs:

seems like the dual vco and the dual vco eco put the hottest levels so might be a good idea to select one of those if you want serious drive.
For the filter, the ladder filter would be the most prone for distortion (don't forget to try the filter slope switch)

....... now, to try to get even more hot levels from the oscs:
trimmers: under phase reset select osc reset and bring the osc phase knobs to 0 (or the same value), bring osc global detune amount and drift to 0 ...that way, the waves would be in sync resulting a volume increase for the oscs (for dual vco module: osc mix knob usually needs to be @ 50% for most volume)

another tip is to try the VCF feedback of course...

[hakey]

volume modulation slot select "add" and bring the modulation to maximum or the same value)

Does this add drive/distortion?

[3ee]

volume modulation slot select "add" and bring the modulation to maximum or the same value)

Does this add drive/distortion?

hmm... seems like you miss-quoted a bit ... I didn't write "...or the same value" but anyway...

Yes it does drive... but oddly, seems to work with the Ladder Filter only

Try this patch and mess with the amp and amp mod value:

https://app.box.com/s/st0lpm7p5hrk53auzrdkt66dzggwdwn1