Free DIVA Preset Library Available

[dmbaer]

Just uploaded, a free collection of 66 presets for DIVA here:

http://u-he.com/PatchLib/diva.html
http://u-he.com/PatchLib/presets/diva/d ... r_diva.zip

The read-me file is reproduced below and explains what this collection is all about. I emphasize that these are more along the lines of preset starters to which some additional modulation and effects seasoning would be appropriate. What I was after was a collection of imitation orchestral instruments with no reverb, echo or other predominant coloring. I threw in the pad, bass and lead presets at the last minute because they were easy to create, but they're honestly mostly pretty lame. Time permitting, I may use some of these as the basis for a smaller set of fully-realized presets. For now, these will be of interest mainly to preset tweakers who like to roll their own. That said, there are a few outstanding sounds that are ready for prime time as is.


Here's the read-me file:

U-he Philharmonic for DIVA is a collection of presets taken from Fred Welsh's book Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook. If you're familiar with that book, you'll understand exactly what this is all about. If not, and if you're a dedicated subtractive synthesis practitioner, you owe it to yourself to get a copy.

The Synthesizer Cookbook includes around 100 "recipes" for a two oscillator synth. It assumes just one LFO is available and specifies nothing about additional modulation beyond that. It contains settings to create imitation sounds for a variety of real-world orchestral instruments, plus it has a collection of synth pads, leads and basses.

I've included 66 presets here, mostly omitting the untuned percussion recipes which hold little interest for me. These should be considered to be "starter" presets. They incorporate no effects and there are no mod-wheel or similar external modulation settings other than all of the presets offer conventional velocity sensitivity mapped to amp level.

I've made every attempt to recreate these presets as originally presented, with one exception. Many of the recipes called for two pulse waves with different widths. To accomplish that, I had to use DIVA's three oscillator option, and it seemed sinful to let that extra oscillator completely go to waste, so I added in a third waveform at a very modest level.

I don't know how close I managed to come to the original intent. My recreation of the filter cutoff levels and the envelope times should be right on the money. But other things like LFO speeds are very much in the "best guess" category.

I'm not crazy about many of these presets. The pads and leads in particular are not terribly exciting to my ears. Few of the traditional instruments sound very realistic either, but some are wonderful synth sounds. Be sure and check out the dulcimer preset and the three choirs (mixed, male and female). Even without effects, they sound pretty glorious to me.

To install, unzip the U-he Philharmonic for DIVA directory to ...DIVA Install Directory.../Diva.data/Presets/Data.

Enjoy.

[ddeez]

awesome!!! pls keep making presets

[core]

Thanks for sharing!

[Resonator63]

Thanks for sharing this.
Much appreciated

[aaron aardvark]

dmbaer,
Thank you for the patches! I like UHP-BS Growling Bass and UHP-LD Mellow 70s Lead (both with both effects on).

[markjones108]

How do you add this to the preset folder does anyone know?

[3ee]

^ Diva.data folder, presets, Diva

that folder should be somewhere where you installed Diva or within My Documents folder if you're on win.

[whet]

Thanks alot.

[lillloyd]

Thanks for uploading these!

I just picked up the Synthesizer Cookbook about a week ago, and I'm just getting to the "cookbook" portion. I'm also planning to use Diva for it.

--Did you have any issues with "calibrating" Diva (the section at the end of the book), or was it pretty easy to translate the book settings to Diva's?

--Also, are you finding that you are using the harmonics analysis techniques in the book to "reverse engineer" synth sounds that you like?

I'm looking forward to going through the patches, but more than that I'm *really* hoping that the harmonics analysis approach proves helpful in replicating synth sounds that I hear.

[dmbaer]

Thanks for uploading these!

I just picked up the Synthesizer Cookbook about a week ago, and I'm just getting to the "cookbook" portion. I'm also planning to use Diva for it.

--Did you have any issues with "calibrating" Diva (the section at the end of the book), or was it pretty easy to translate the book settings to Diva's?

--Also, are you finding that you are using the harmonics analysis techniques in the book to "reverse engineer" synth sounds that you like?

I'm looking forward to going through the patches, but more than that I'm *really* hoping that the harmonics analysis approach proves helpful in replicating synth sounds that I hear.

As to the calibration for DIVA, I did not use the methods suggested in the book. For filter cutoff, the most important, I used Voxengo Span to monitor frequencies. I set the filters at max resonance and just played a bunch of adjacent low notes producing saw waves. The peak (cutoff) was totally obvious except at extreme low cutoff values.

The times were more of a guessing game. I just recorded tracks (in Sonar) at various settings and looked at the waveforms, zooming as appropriate. I published all this data here on this forum at one point. Here's the link:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4807691

[lillloyd]

This is fantastic, thanks for posting your results!

[JacksonSandland]

Thank you for taking the time to post the link to these presets.