Diva vs Analogue - a real world test

[SWAN808]

possibly motivated by the fact he got the test wrong?

I got the test wrong by gut feeling before i looked at the waveform display.
Then it just "proved me right" because i knew how Divas saws looked like.

yes the scope investigation was 'perhaps' because you got it wrong and suspected foul play...and also assumed it was 2 saw...

anyways...if you say 'post hoc' your main argument that you had excluded the idea of an extra oscillator 'in your head'...I believe you...

It was a good laugh at least for a while...I think tho you could have been more polite with Urs tho...as a person putting a test out I should expect the occasional accusation - but Urs considering he has made this synth for us to argue over, and is busy working on updates etc deserves a bit more respect IMO...

[Hank the Knife]

First video: Bass A has definitely more 'wah' than bass B. I may be a noob, but to me this is significant. The bass is also the dominant factor in the song video.
I didn't hear objections on my previous comment, so I thought I should proceed by starting a real analysis of sound
PS this is just a giveaway: commissions should follow next, if you get my drift.

[SWAN808]

I looked at my song session last night and contrary to the perception that analogue synths always have more bass - Diva in the song test had A LOT more sub bass than the OB8....the only track EQ I had to use in the test was to deal with that...I made a high pass filter in both bass sounds to control the bass - but in the OB8 example the high pass filter has a slight resonant bump. I remember I had to do this to make the difference less obvious...the problem I had to consider is that a significant difference would heavily bias the test one way depending on peoples perceptions...

Ive done a few tests now including on experts, but one thing that strikes me as influencing the results more than anything is peoples prception of what analogue sounds like. I notice that the characteristics, although you can generalise a bit, move around and are inconsistent. This I think is one of the biggest reasons why people get the tests wrong. Its really not a simple topic where you can rely on a generalisation, and people's ideas of what analogue sound like are not always accurate...

This is one of the reasons I made a pack for Diva...I found that matching closely next to an analogue synth made better results than just making 'analogue style' presets from memory or an idea of what analogue sounds like. You might say 'well Diva is an emulation so it should all sound like analogue'...however some of Diva parameters go well beyond an analogue synth - particularly the filter and filter envelope modulations...using the stock presets I thought Diva wasn't that close until I started doing the tests...

[Hank the Knife]

@analogue
You did a damn brilliant job there

[Urs]

Maybe we can keep it up until Diva does the Laser Harp sound. That's probably going to be the time where we'll post our own AB tests.

Ive got a Laser Harp test!

Anyone want to hear it?

Well, Diva can't do it for obvious reasons. Yet.

Funny enough, of all analogue synths we have only the Pro One comes close - it's the only one that can route VCO2 to VCO1 PW and at the same time use the filter envelope to sweep VCO1 tune. It still lacks the 3rd envelope to "whip" VCO1 tune at the beginning. From our plug-ins, ACE can do it very well.

(edit: that said, I'd whole heartedly welcome a Laser Harp competition in a few months, maybe around or after x-mas... we'll see...)

[olikana]

for classic analog sound diva's oscillators & in particular the saws should always be slightly adjusted as they just sound too sterile & dry in central position (maybe too perfect).
infact when trying to match diva vs monark the saws need to be adjusted a little towards triangle (around 4.50-4.70) and it gets very close ..and cosequently closer to sound of minimoog saws & other classic synths. (most classic analog saws have a little bias towards triangle, although some towards pulse).
btw i'm too late for the guess game...but i would have go it right by focusing on the bass ..the only percussive sound in the demo...the clarity of impact of the analog is still a fraction better leaving less mud in the mix (but maybe could have been 100% identical with oscillators perfectly matched, who knows)

[SWAN808]

Maybe we can keep it up until Diva does the Laser Harp sound. That's probably going to be the time where we'll post our own AB tests.

Ive got a Laser Harp test!

Anyone want to hear it?

Well, Diva can't do it for obvious reasons. Yet.

Funny enough, of all analogue synths we have only the Pro One comes close - it's the only one that can route VCO2 to VCO1 PW and at the same time use the filter envelope to sweep VCO1 tune. It still lacks the 3rd envelope to "whip" VCO1 tune at the beginning. From our plug-ins, ACE can do it very well.

(edit: that said, I'd whole heartedly welcome a Laser Harp competition in a few months, maybe around or after x-mas... we'll see...)

I thought Laser Harp was just a unison saw SYnc sweep sound?

[fluffy_little_something]

Laser Harp, wtf is that?

[Urs]

Maybe we can keep it up until Diva does the Laser Harp sound. That's probably going to be the time where we'll post our own AB tests.

Ive got a Laser Harp test!

Anyone want to hear it?

Well, Diva can't do it for obvious reasons. Yet.

Funny enough, of all analogue synths we have only the Pro One comes close - it's the only one that can route VCO2 to VCO1 PW and at the same time use the filter envelope to sweep VCO1 tune. It still lacks the 3rd envelope to "whip" VCO1 tune at the beginning. From our plug-ins, ACE can do it very well.

(edit: that said, I'd whole heartedly welcome a Laser Harp competition in a few months, maybe around or after x-mas... we'll see...)

I thought Laser Harp was just a unison saw SYnc sweep sound?

Not quite

In addition to the sync sweep it works by modulating the sync-slave's pulsewidth with the master oscillator, i.e. audio rate PWM. The master oscillator is set to PW as well and gets PWM by an LFO.

The slave oscillator has two envelopes to sweep the pitch. The filter envelope does a slow and long modulation while the auto glide does a short, fast "whip" over about an octave or so.

[wagtunes]

Laser Harp, wtf is that?

[fluffy_little_something]

Oh my, that's one irritating sound, glad Sylenth can't do that judging from the patch specs
But the synth as such is nice, and below it the Jupiter 8 it seems

[zvenx]

Thanks Wagtunes, I too didn't have a clue what it was or sounded like, and after the suspense of 29 seconds in the video, I was expecting well.........to each their own..one man's meat is another man's poison..

rsp

[SWAN808]

Here is a little Laser Harp test...ok its not true Laser Harp but similar...

Anyone want to guess which is Diva and which is OB8?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByOzK- ... sp=sharing

[Urs]

Thanks Wagtunes, I too didn't have a clue what it was or sounded like, and after the suspense of 29 seconds in the video, I was expecting well.........to each their own..one man's meat is another man's poison..

Hehehe, for some people this is the holy grail of subtractive synthesis.

[wagtunes]

Thanks Wagtunes, I too didn't have a clue what it was or sounded like, and after the suspense of 29 seconds in the video, I was expecting well.........to each their own..one man's meat is another man's poison..

Hehehe, for some people this is the holy grail of subtractive synthesis.

It has always been one of my favorite subtractive sounds next to formant sounds which I always thought were kind of cool and sorely lacking in early analog synths.