Diva vs OB-6 Blind Test

[SWAN808]

Hello U-he groupers...does anyone wonder how Diva (and effects) sounds next to an OB6?

...well now you can find out...!

I have had one for a year and been programming/comparing...(and I made a library of course )

As you all know I love Diva and I think it's fantastic how you can put it toe to toe with these machines (which I also love )

Let me know what you think!




....and a demo of the sounds in the library:

https://swanaudio.co.uk/modern-ob/

[D-Fusion]

A is Diva.

[Bulbizarre]

I have an OB6, I'm 99% sure it's A.
Your presets sound very close, good job.

[zvenx]

I am not sure which is which, but I definitely prefer A.
rsp

[SamDi]

I also like A better. The sound is a little bit more gritty and edged; B sounds a little bit more dull in direct comparison. But difficult to say, which is which. Since I am not a believer in HW sounding waaay better, I think one can get easily fooled. Take some subtle EQing and Saturation and B is going to sound better then. Nevertheless, let's follow the common scheme and assume the better sounding is the HW, thus:
A = OB6
B = Diva

[jcgam]

They are so close I don't think it matters which is which. Great job!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Friendly reminder: last time he did one of these videos and there was a general consensus that most people preferred one of them, it turned out that was Diva and not the hardware.

[SamDi]

Friendly reminder: last time he did one of these videos and there was a general consensus that most people preferred one of them, it turned out that was Diva and not the hardware.

Reminds me on a televison show, where they introduced a hightech-violin builder, who built violins with carbon-frame and other hightech stuff. He claimed, that they would sound better than a Stradivari. Then they made a blind test against a Stradivari with a jury of violin experts, who were 100% sure, that they can hear out a Stradivari with ease. Guess, which was then the instrument, which was rated with the better sound

[FapFilter]

There was once a TV show where they let a few wine experts test two wines per blind test in one of the episodes.
what they didn't know is one was expensive natural wine, while the other one was 100% synthetic from color to flavor.
I think all of them thought that the fake wine was the better tasting one.

[mholloway]

My gut reaction was always that B sounded better to me -- it was a always a little brighter vs. the generally darker sound from A.

I'd guess B is the hardware OB-6 simply because I've always found Diva a bit dark-sounding (whatever that really means) but they both sound really good, and I certainly wouldn't bet much on my guess!

[zerocrossing]

Friendly reminder: last time he did one of these videos and there was a general consensus that most people preferred one of them, it turned out that was Diva and not the hardware.

Preferred the sounds as presented, not the actual synthesizers. The fact that the sounds are a commercial product makes the comparison not really fair.

[mholloway]

Friendly reminder: last time he did one of these videos and there was a general consensus that most people preferred one of them, it turned out that was Diva and not the hardware.

Preferred the sounds as presented, not the actual synthesizers. The fact that the sounds are a commercial product makes the comparison not really fair.

Huh? Why ? Commercial or otherwise, it was a blind test of fairly standard synth patches -- strings, keys, bass, etc. If people preferred version X to version Y and version X was Diva, that tells you a lot about Diva and the hardware synth in question, regardless of whether the patches also happen to be sold commercially.

What are you suggesting would be necessary for a blind test to be "fair" ? I can't imagine your reasoning behind this assertion, tbh.

[pierb]

No idea but I prefer the sound of A. It's very close though and in a mix you'd never hear the difference.

[Echoes in the Attic]

My guess is Diva is B, but I have little conviction of that.

[zerocrossing]

Friendly reminder: last time he did one of these videos and there was a general consensus that most people preferred one of them, it turned out that was Diva and not the hardware.

Preferred the sounds as presented, not the actual synthesizers. The fact that the sounds are a commercial product makes the comparison not really fair.

Huh? Why ? Commercial or otherwise, it was a blind test of fairly standard synth patches -- strings, keys, bass, etc. If people preferred version X to version Y and version X was Diva, that tells you a lot about Diva and the hardware synth in question, regardless of whether the patches also happen to be sold commercially.

What are you suggesting would be necessary for a blind test to be "fair" ? I can't imagine your reasoning behind this assertion, tbh.

Then you have a complete lack of imagination. It’s pretty trivial to make two similar sounds on two different synths and have one sound a bit better. Could be something simple, like keeping the filter a bit more closed on the hardware synth. It’s nearly impossible to get two different synths to sound exactly the same on a wide variety of patches anyway, so you’re going to have to approximate. I don’t buy that the decisions of how that approximation are made are without bias. That said, the last time we did this I thought I got it wrong for the longest time but then I checked and I did indeed get it right. I’ve gotten others wrong, though.

I’m not saying Diva doesn’t sound great. Of course it does. I wouldn’t own it if it didn’t, but it also has limitations and if you push things a bit, the parts where it doesn’t quite sound analog become pretty obvious. Hell, even RePro sounds a lot closer to an actual analog than Diva does. Anyway, I don’t own an OB-6 but I’m 100% sure that I’d prefer it in a lot of different types of sounds, just like I prefer my Prophet 6 to RePro. That said, I do sometimes choose RePro because I find it sometimes works better, especially if there’s a lot going on.