U-he offer from Native instruments

[Local Man]

It's one of the few plugins that feel like a cohesive musical instrument to me (which I think explains why out of so many synths it has amongst the highest level of playable patches

I agree very much with this. A lot of Synths may be more programmable but in brief time using Diva, I have to say it is one of the most "playable" and "musical" I have ever used. Many of the patches I've used lend themselves more to traditional keyboard playing than most other synths. It doesn't just sound good, it also feels good.

[Fleer]

Same feeling here.
As for Repro, some say it has the edge.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t hang onto it.
Never really liked Prophets. Too edgy.

[SteveWZ]

Same feeling here.
As for Repro, some say it has the edge.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t hang onto it.
Never really liked Prophets. Too edgy.

I think that really depends on the presets.

Brian Eno used the prophet on some of his recordings.
Very nice sounds, not particularly edgy.

[BONES]

That's the thing - if the edge is there, it can always be tamed, either with filters or envelopes (or both in combination). If it's not there, there is bugger-all you can do about it. Ultimately you are better off with the edge than without it. Even the "Bite" modules in Diva aren't all that edgy compared to RePro's default state.

For analog sound, DIVA would be my first choice.

Why assume he's necessarily after analogue sound? He never mentioned it but did say he was just starting out so I think something that offers a range of flavours would make more sense, hence the Hive recommendation. Hive is also the same price as RePro, Diva is more expensive and chews through CPU cycles.

Fair enough. I guess it depends on what you look for on a synth. If you look for THAT particular sound and features, then, as an emulation, it sounds great.

The thing is, most of us don't look at it like that. To me, for example, any good V/A is as close to analogue as I need. e.g. I'd likely choose V Station over Diva because V Station sounds plenty analogue enough for me without the CPU hit I'd have to take from Diva.

But if you look for a good variety of analog synth sounds, RePro is limited. But maybe I'm biased here - Prophets were never my dream synths, anyway.

What a narrow-minded attitude. I bought RePro because it sounds incredible, much better to my ears than anything I managed to get out of Diva. That it happens to be an emulation of something from the 1980s is actually a negative in my view, even though so many of my favourite live bands from back then used the originals, because it imposes unnecessary limitations on the product.

To everyone else, not new, I think you have to own both Diva and Repro.

THat's not the conclusion I came to. RePro was an absolute no-brainer for me but Diva just didn't do it for me. I remember trying the demo a while ago and being hugely impressed with the sound but absolutely terrified by the CPU usage. But when I tried it again during this sale, I was mostly quite underwhelmed. To be fair, I think the presets are partly to blame, they are mostly very uninspiring, but even playground from the INIT patch, it never felt like it had the balls to do the stuff that RePro does so effortlessly. I also found that simple things, like setting up a nicely detuned unison sound, were much harder than they need to be.

I think RePro and Hive are the killer combination. Diva is more for divas who are anal-retentive about analogue. (How's that? Two double entendres exposed in one sentence!)

It's one of the few plugins that feel like a cohesive musical instrument to me (which I think explains why out of so many synths it has amongst the highest level of playable patches - both in the factory bank and add-ons and even ones I made myself - it's hard to make it sound bad - possibly some of the architectural constraints help there too)

That, of course, is hugely subjective. I found Diva's presets mostly dull and lifeless. They sort of sound like things from the 1970s with all the limitations of that period. Things that were never as good as what came after them. I found them mostly very uninspiring. OTOH, I was blown away by how punchy RePro's presets were, almost from the first one. To me they seem to be on a whole different level that I felt I would always be chasing with Diva but never quite matching. Which is why I bought RePro and passed on Diva. I can appreciate the quality of Diva, it just didn't seem to want to do the kinds of things I'd want to use it for.

[Fleer]

Still, difficult to describe: there’s an absence of liquid smoothness in Prophet pads, for lack of a better adjective. Maybe I’m one of few to see (and feel) it this way. Diva brings me that molten milky sweetness I crave for.

[codec_spurt]

Repro is the pinnacle of software emulation.

Felt so good, I did it twice!

I'm now a proud u-he customer.


I've waited my whole life for this. Only used the Pro-1, so the 5 is a nice bonus.

An absolutely incredible achievement.

If it was not for this sale I'd still be holding out. I'm in now.

Best you don't say anything about my new best friend Urs.

[glokraw]

FWW - disagreed. I now have both, and while Diva is a wonderful synth, with the great mix-and-match modules, it somehow never manages to be more than the sum of its parts. Architecture is still pretty limited really... personally I'd rather have had them push the boat out that bit more with the modulation options. The end results sound great, but imo not demonstrably better than other good analogue soft synths.

The Repros on the other hand just blow me away.

I think the state of the art is so great, that we are mainly
standing on our desks/tables/amps, and tapping/pounding (gently?)
on the glass ceiling, as our floors are rising towards it.

The sounds today are so great, and so numerous, that little
will be missed even if one chooses purchases based on
any two of: a developers honesty, friendliness, and customer service.
Fortunately, I've not yet encountered a lying, grumpy dev who took the money
and had only lousy service.
Around here, it seems like 365/24/7
Cheers

[BONES]

Yeah, definitely. There was a time when soft synths did the job but, to me, never seemed worth paying a lot of money for . i.e. The best commercial synths weren't really much better than the best freeware. But today the gap is so huge that it's easy to see the value in spending $100 or more on a single plugin.

[elxsound]

Yeah, definitely. There was a time when soft synths did the job but, to me, never seemed worth paying a lot of money for . i.e. The best commercial synths weren't really much better than the best freeware. But today the gap is so huge that it's easy to see the value in spending $100 or more on a single plugin.

That might be because of inflation too.

Anyway, just like all KVR threads, the only consensus is that there is no consensus which is why demos are so very important. Demo, demo and demo some more.

And you know a thread is over when people start talking about liquid smoothness and molten milky sweetness. Can't compete with that. Just get the damn cat pix out and be done with it.

[martinjuenke]

Still, difficult to describe: there’s an absence of liquid smoothness in Prophet pads, for lack of a better adjective. Maybe I’m one of few to see (and feel) it this way. Diva brings me that molten milky sweetness I crave for.

What‘s wrong with prevalent liquid harshness and crystalized milky citrons?

[Fleer]

I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK

[Deep Purple]

...and go to the lavatory....

[rod_zero]

After all these years Diva is still my favorite, I have bought all u.he synths at some point, except for zebra which UI is not my cup of tea.

And I always come back to Diva, and now with the System 8 that can map Diva almost 1:1 it is the perfect world for me. The perfect world would be Diva in Hardware form.

[Tj Shredder]

Here you go:
http://www.synth-project.de/diva.html
(you still need a computer though...)

[Echoes in the Attic]

Fair enough. I guess it depends on what you look for on a synth. If you look for THAT particular sound and features, then, as an emulations, it sounds great.

But if you look for a good variety of analog synth sounds, RePro is limited. But maybe I'm biased here - Prophets were never my dream synths, anyway.

I'm usually not at all fussed about what the hardware is or was, unless I'm reaching for something really specific for a specific project. My point really is that the ground that Diva covers has a lot of competition, which sounds essentially as good imo or in the same ballpark. Of course there's no exact like-for-like alternative, some synths offer more, some less, some are part of bundles, some are all integrated. For example, many cite Monark as superior for a minimoog emulation. My Korg MS20 vst actually sounds excellent next to Diva's MS20 modules and - gulp - I think I even prefer it. This is kinda my point... if you have very few other VAs from this era of synthesis then Diva is a solid buy, but it offers less if you are pretty well stocked.

And I do want to emphasise - I'm not griping. It was a killer deal in the sale, its a really well made synth and a ton of care and love has gone into it. This is all about comparison with the competition.

I have nothing else that really sounds like the Repros. I think maybe that's 50/50 the amazing emulation job and the killer built-in suite of effects. YMMV of course, but assuming someone already has other good VA soft synths, I'd nudge towards the Repros as the priority.

I pretty much agree. I love Repro, but I wish that I liked Diva more. I should - I love the Minimoog, Junos, MS-20, Oberheim etc., but when I use a different emulation of one of those things, like The TAL Juno, or Monark, or the OP-X, I think oh yeah i like this better. I would think I'd love an U-he MS-20 but it doesn't quite do it for me. Take Repro and put it through the Drop filter though, now we're talking. The Korg MS-20 has nice filter drive but it's just crap for Bass as the oscillators are too weak. Diva has good powerful oscs but overall the synth just isn't bright enough like the originals, or it's missing the sparkle that I get from those other ones I mentioned. A repro quality u-he MS-20 would be great, it's a bummer that I don't like the Diva version more.