What would you like to see added to (or improved upon) with Diva?

[Ah_Dziz]

Interface update ( proper mod matrix, less tabs). Effects similar to bazille/repro with reordering. Always happy to have more models (OSC, env, filters) and more capabilities (more complex LFO's, ability to use LFO's to drive envelopes etc) but DIVA does fine at what it does.

[Supercollider]

Maybe a more ergonomic user interface.

A little mod matrix, 4 slots would be better than nothing.

But I think there is little sense to add all kinds of new features, like borrowing this and that from Repro.

It is what it is, and shouldn't be turned into yet another Swiss army knife that does it all.

Even though I started this thread with the somewhat spur-of-the-moment thought that it might be cool for u-he to add a Roland Alpha Juno / MKS-50-style filter option to Diva and perhaps "cleverly" call in "Alpha" or something like that, I too wasn't envisioning turning Diva into "a Swiss army knife that does it all."

As you say, Diva is what it is. If u-he could figure out how to add a small 4-slot mod matrix as part of a UI "streamlining" effort, that might be cool. But there doesn't seem to be much point in basically reimagining the entire synth from the ground up (not that anyone has proposed anything that drastic). At that point I would prefer u-he to finally release "Zebra 3.0" that truly is one of those Swiss army knife synths (and is great because of it).

Even though there is the "ZebraHZ plugin with unoptimized Diva filters as I understand it, I would like to see all of these Hans Zimmer-requested features and more rolled into a consolidated Zebra 3.0. That seems like a better use of u-he's precious resources than completely remaking Diva.

Also, it would be great to add all of the cool FX algorithms from Repro-5 to Uhbik. That's another "v2" product that seems to be stalled at u-he for some reason.

But still, like some people have requested, it might be cool to add a wavetable oscillator option to Diva. That would fit within the same architecture and would just be one additional "module" that users could use or not use depending on whether they find that useful. u-he already has that technology as part of Hive so it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to add something like that to Diva. I don't think it would cannibalize sales of Hive at all or confuse prospective users into which u-he synth plugin to buy. Diva and Hive would still be very different synths even if both could do wavetable synthesis of sorts.

Anyway, my initial request for an Alpha Juno filter option that would allow me to recreate some of my MKS-50 patches has been met and more with my recent discovery of TAL-Pha from TAL. That's a spot-on emulation of the Alpha Juno 2 and is actually patch-compatible with the hardware. Amazing! Kudos to TAL for creating this synth.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-pha

[Nicolau]

Maybe a more ergonomic user interface.

A little mod matrix, 4 slots would be better than nothing.

But I think there is little sense to add all kinds of new features, like borrowing this and that from Repro.

It is what it is, and shouldn't be turned into yet another Swiss army knife that does it all.

Even though I started this thread with the somewhat spur-of-the-moment thought that it might be cool for u-he to add a Roland Alpha Juno / MKS-50-style filter option to Diva and perhaps "cleverly" call in "Alpha" or something like that, I too wasn't envisioning turning Diva into "a Swiss army knife that does it all."

As you say, Diva is what it is. If u-he could figure out how to add a small 4-slot mod matrix as part of a UI "streamlining" effort, that might be cool. But there doesn't seem to be much point in basically reimagining the entire synth from the ground up (not that anyone has proposed anything that drastic). At that point I would prefer u-he to finally release "Zebra 3.0" that truly is one of those Swiss army knife synths (and is great because of it).

Even though there is the "ZebraHZ plugin with unoptimized Diva filters as I understand it, I would like to see all of these Hans Zimmer-requested features and more rolled into a consolidated Zebra 3.0. That seems like a better use of u-he's precious resources than completely remaking Diva.

Also, it would be great to add all of the cool FX algorithms from Repro-5 to Uhbik. That's another "v2" product that seems to be stalled at u-he for some reason.

But still, like some people have requested, it might be cool to add a wavetable oscillator option to Diva. That would fit within the same architecture and would just be one additional "module" that users could use or not use depending on whether they find that useful. u-he already has that technology as part of Hive so it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to add something like that to Diva. I don't think it would cannibalize sales of Hive at all or confuse prospective users into which u-he synth plugin to buy. Diva and Hive would still be very different synths even if both could do wavetable synthesis of sorts.

Anyway, my initial request for an Alpha Juno filter option that would allow me to recreate some of my MKS-50 patches has been met and more with my recent discovery of TAL-Pha from TAL. That's a spot-on emulation of the Alpha Juno 2 and is actually patch-compatible with the hardware. Amazing! Kudos to TAL for creating this synth.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-pha

Frankly, if I already had Hive, I would not miss Diva for a minute.

[dblock]

A better than bare bones arpeggiator that had some real thought go into it.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I had started a thread on a "Diva 2 wishlist" in the U-he forum a while back. But my basic list has changed slightly. Most if the list is stuff they've already done in Hive and/or RePro. But I'd like to see:

• Improved MIDI mapping. Octave, Semi, and Coarse tune options get decoupled from a MIDI control perspective. Add a preference to make the knob center value 64 (U-he uses 63, but my controller transmits 64 at center so a preference to toggle between 63 or 64 with different scaling would be incredible).
• Hive's mod matrix. Including all the modifier options, scale quantizer, etc.
• 2 to 4 MSEGs.
• Repro's FX? Yes, please!
• Repro-1's sequencer with the option to act as a mod sequencer. Or just a straight 4-lane CV sequencer that can output to pitch via a quantizer/scale quantizer, and various other destinations.
• Better envelope scaling. The envelope scaling in Diva doesn't devote enough real-estate to the "faster" settings IMO. I think the times are spread out pretty linearly across the range of the knob or fader. Would like to see more real-estate dedicated to the faster times on the attack/decay knobs in particular.

I could see Diva 2 being something like Diva meets LegendHZ but with U-he's better workflow, browsing, GUI, etc. I don't even necessarily want new modules. Just keeping what's there and improving the above would be a killer v2 update. But Z3 needs to happen first.

[pocvecem]

With plugmons MONA skin I'm very happy as everything is on one screen.

I keep forgetting to buy that one, thanks for the reminder!

Feels almost like a new synrh with this skin.

[pocvecem]

Has Urs ever hinted at a Diva 2?

Some time ago somewhere in the u-he forum it was mentioned that u-he is working on a new gui for DIVA.

[Supercollider]

A better than bare bones arpeggiator that had some real thought go into it.

Yeah, that's a bit of a head scratcher. It's almost like u-he just tacked on the most basic arpeggiator they could and called it a day. I don't need some crazy complicated arpeggiator/sequencer where I can create and import my own patterns. But a few more interesting arpeggiator patterns would be a nice addition and wouldn't require any redesign of the interface.

[pocvecem]

Sorry for somewhat ot.

There's also a plugmon MONA spin-off skin for Tyrell for free.

images.jpeg

[dblock]

A better than bare bones arpeggiator that had some real thought go into it.

Yeah, that's a bit of a head scratcher. It's almost like u-he just tacked on the most basic arpeggiator they could and called it a day. I don't need some crazy complicated arpeggiator/sequencer where I can create and import my own patterns. But a few more interesting arpeggiator patterns would be a nice addition and wouldn't require any redesign of the interface.

Yeah, I'm still amazed that for such a great synth the arp part seemed to be just a lazy just throw it in there add on. Missed opportunity in that department. I hope they intend to do better with it.

[Supercollider]

This is both a nice patch set and a fun Diva skin. Sure, it won't fool anyone into thinking that it's an actual Juno-6. But it does add a bit of flair to the standard Diva skin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsz22DUUkRc&t=1s

[vitocorleone123]

It doesn’t sound bad, but it’s not at the top. If it was, maybe I’d not have sold it.

What is?

To my ears, most new "high-end" things coming out now sound better. It wasn't long after synths like Model 84 came out that it was clear that Diva's days at the top, sonically, were done for. But even Hive 2 and Repro sounded better to me than Diva.

I'm sure it's fixable, u-he would just need to prioritize it some year after the next zebra.

[Supercollider]

To my ears, most new "high-end" things coming out now sound better. It wasn't long after synths like Model 84 came out that it was clear that Diva's days at the top, sonically, were done for. But even Hive 2 and Repro sounded better to me than Diva.

I'm sure it's fixable, u-he would just need to prioritize it some year after the next zebra.

I stupidly bought all the various Softube synth emulations because I travel a lot for work and like having authentic "analog" sounds on my laptop with which to write music in my hotel room. However, I'm a bit underwhelmed by these Softube synth plugins after the fact. They sound great, of course, like almost all Softube plugins, many of which I own. (I'm referring to their many excellent FX plugins which I use all the time.)

But Softube has taken a weird (to me) "purist" approach to their synth plugins. For instance, none of them include any FX along the lines of the very charactful and inspiring FX in u-he's Repro, for instance. This seems particularly odd to me given the fact that Softube have an entire arsenal of awesome-sounding FX plugins in their product line. They could have drawn from many of these to really enhance their synth plugins, IMO.

And then Softube has done "dumb" things like not include an extra filter envelope, for instance, in their Juno 106 and SH-101 plugins which would have significantly enhanced the expressiveness of these synth plugins without detracting from their authenticity, IMO.

Softube even included that silly filter key tracking on/off button in their Prophet 5 emulation rather than a variable filter key tracking knob which would have fit in the exact same spot on the UI without most people even not noticing the difference at first glance. Even u-he wasn't that slavishly adherent to the original synth in their Repro-5 plugin.

I suppose if the Softube plugins were somehow patch compatible with the original synths, these design choices might have made some sense. But to be such sticklers for exactly mimicking 40 year old synthesizers seems like a wasted opportunity to create even better sounding instruments. A person could always turn off any "modern" features if they really, really wanted to feel like they were programming the original hardware.

So I'll continue to stick with Diva which is way more versatile than any of these 1:1 Softube emulations.

[vitocorleone123]

To my ears, most new "high-end" things coming out now sound better. It wasn't long after synths like Model 84 came out that it was clear that Diva's days at the top, sonically, were done for. But even Hive 2 and Repro sounded better to me than Diva.

I'm sure it's fixable, u-he would just need to prioritize it some year after the next zebra.

I stupidly bought all the various Softube "analog" synth emulations because I travel a lot for work and like having authentic "analog" sounds on my laptop with which to write music in my hotel room. However, I'm a bit underwhelmed by these Softube synth plugins after the fact. They sound great, of course, like almost all Softube plugins, many of which I own. (I'm referring to their many excellent FX plugins which I use all the time.)

But Softube has taken a weird (to me) "purist" approach to their synth plugins. For instance, none of them include any FX along the lines of the very charactful and inspiring FX in u-he's Repro, for instance. This seems particularly odd to me given the fact that Softube have an entire arsenal of awesome-sounding FX plugins in their product line. They could have drawn from many of these to really enhance their synth plugins, IMO.

And then Softube has done "dumb" things like not include an extra filter envelope, for instance, in their Juno 106 and SH-101 plugins which would have significantly enhanced the expressiveness of these synth plugins without detracting from their authenticity, IMO.

Softube even included that silly filter key tracking on/off button in their Prophet 5 emulation rather than a variable filter key tracking knob which would have fit in the exact same spot on the UI without most people even noticing the difference at first glance. Even u-he wasn't that slavishly adherent to the original synth in their Repro-5 plugin.

I suppose if the Softube plugins were somehow patch compatible with the original synths, these design choices might have made some sense. But to be such sticklers for exactly mimicking 40 year old synthesizers seems like a wasted opportunity to create even better sounding instruments. A person could always turn off any "modern" features if they really, really wanted to feel like they were programming the original hardware.

So I'll continue to stick with Diva which is way more versatile than any of these 1:1 Softube emulations.

That’s fair. I choose the sound instead. I have others for versatility if I want (that also sound better than Diva to me). Again, Diva sounded very good - it’s just not the best anymore. That’s all. Doesn’t make it a bad synth. It just wasn’t the synth for me. Anyway, I’m out of the thread.

[pdxindy]

That’s fair. I choose the sound instead. I have others for versatility if I want (that also sound better than Diva to me). Again, Diva sounded very good - it’s just not the best anymore. That’s all. Doesn’t make it a bad synth. It just wasn’t the synth for me. Anyway, I’m out of the thread.

There are other emulations that have surpassed Diva in the pure emulation sense... but regardless of that, Diva sounds beautiful... more musical to my ears than the emulations that have surpassed it. Plus Diva is sonically flexible and the CLAP version in Bitwig can make use of the unlimited per voice modulation system of Bitwig.

Because of those things, for me, Diva is a unique and gorgeous sounding synth that stands with any synth available today.