Diva Alternatives

[dylmac]

Im thinking of purchasing Diva, are there any other plugins I should consider first?

[BBFG#]

No.

[zerocrossing]

Sure. Diva is great but it’s sort of like a buffet of classic synth types. There are plugins for every single Diva model that do a better job at accurately emulating the original synths, but they also don’t have all the extras that Diva has. Some do have some cool extras, though, like the Arturia plugins. Even U-he’s Repro has a small mod matrix and a bunch of cool effects and does a much more accurate emulation of a classic analog synthesizer. (Pro One and Prophet 5)

If you want to mix and match component types, Diva’s still probably the best for polyphonic work. VCV Rack Pro can also work like this, but be prepared to do some work to create your patches.

Some synths, like Dune 3, don’t really emulate analog oscillators, but do include many classic filter models. Pigments and Modwave also have some classic filters that are very well done.

[Leo1999]

"Instruments" forum is where you should go! You have 1545 pages to get some informations about a lot of synths!

[Ah_Dziz]

Diva is nice but it's very focused on being a relatively simple analog style subtractive synth. I'd get Zebra and zebraHZ (it has the diva filters) before diva, or even Bazille. Those both can do amazing subtractive sounds but also do much much more as well and that's just staying with Uhe products. You didn't say what intend to do with diva so it's difficult to recommend much. Diva is very nice though. I like it for very thick chords, keys, and pads mostly.

[Korg Supporter]

Saurus, OP-X Pro II, TAL-MOD and J-8 together, Messiah (Windows only), Softube Modular.

[BONES]

Im thinking of purchasing Diva, are there any other plugins I should consider first?

What are you looking for, accurate emulations of shitty old synths or something that's capable of producing the kinds of sounds we associate with those instruments? If it's the former, Diva is a good choice, in that it will give you a wide range of options to sound like various different shitty old synths.

If it's the latter, buy Tone 2's Saurus. It's almost one-third the price at the moment and it's a great synth, well supported by its developer.




If you want something that sounds amazing and is really easy to use, try GForce's SEM, which is also on sale at the moment for a stupidly low price. It is monophonic, though, and the poly version, OB-E, is not quite as much fun to work with.

[mabian]

Diva is nice but it's very focused on being a relatively simple analog style subtractive synth. I'd get Zebra and zebraHZ (it has the diva filters) before diva, or even Bazille. Those both can do amazing subtractive sounds but also do much much more as well and that's just staying with Uhe products. You didn't say what intend to do with diva so it's difficult to recommend much. Diva is very nice though. I like it for very thick chords, keys, and pads mostly.

It depends if you're looking for sound fatness and organicity or synth flexibility and versatility.
The first - Diva with no questions, the second - as suggested Zebra Legacy.
I think Zebra doesn't even come close regarding lively and warm sound (the filters alone make a lot of difference).

[vata44]

I own Diva and do not really understand the hype. It’s sounds good, but so do a lot of others, like Dune, FabFilter Twin 3, and SynthMaster.

I bought Diva because of all the hype here, but I find that its effects are severely lacking and the sound does not seem to be leaps and bounds better than others, imo. I also find the modulation/lfos way more annoying to use than synths like Synthmaster and NI Massive.

I agree with others though, it does seem to model a lot of other vintage synths well, but there are a lot of synths out there that seem to do a great job at that for less money.

[dlandis]

Im thinking of purchasing Diva, are there any other plugins I should consider first?

This is a very fair question, but shouldn't you fill us in on just why you're considering Diva? I mean, it's a great synth, but like Bones said, what are trying to do/come up with/accomplish? There are about a billion soft synths out there, some strong in some areas, some emulative, some definitely attempting to forge new areas, and so forth. A little direction on your particular interests would increase your chances of getting usable comments. If this is difficult, just do the best you can.

[nusound mind]

PolyMax by UAD is comparable to some degree, at least soundwise, although it's much more basic.

[ampetrosillo]

I mean, you can cover all your synth needs with a free synth like SurgeXT, since it comes with everything *and* the kitchen sink.

[martiu]

get surge xt and buy some beer and beef with the money for diva

[Chris-S]

Tyrell N6.

[musicproducerdee]

If you want to create music in genres like Synthwave, Synthpop, Techno and some EDM genres, DIVA is good, it sounds great and has a lot of commercial sound banks available.

Alternatives:

Check out ANA 2 by Sonic Academy, it's on sale right now and sounds great. It can do everything DIVA does and more, it's good for instruments as well, not just synth sounds.

If you're into sound design, check out synths like Phase Plant, UVI Falcon. You can practically create any kind of sound with those. But they're way more complex than DIVA.

I recently demo'd Saurus as well, and it sounded good to me, had a lot of usable presets too. Maybe you should demo it before making a decision.

Also, check out Dune 3, it's not emulating an analog synth, but it sounds very nice. It's what I'd have hoped Sylenth1 to be, if they released Sylenth2, only it would've been more popular.

Emulations wise, Synapse Audio Obsession sounds great to me. Roland Cloud has good Roland synth recreations ofcourse, and they sound good.