Although the elements can be swapped freely, Diva's purpose is not to impersonate any one synth specifically. These fine instruments form the basis of Diva's oscillators, filters and envelopes, with a few judicious tweaks here and there.
In no particular order, they are: Moog's Minimoog, Roland's Jupiter 6, Jupiter 8, Alpha Juno and Juno 60, and Korg's MS20.
With one exception I've owned them all at some time or other, making this one of the briefest sessions of 'getting to know you' ever.īut what are these classic analogues from which Diva's inspiration is drawn? The manual doesn't say explicitly, but the hints are easy to follow, and if you need more clues, Diva's panel graphics and 'Init' patches should sort it. It's rare that a new plug-in feels instantly familiar, but Diva achieves this by sneakily borrowing important bits from a number of well-known synths. My appetite whetted, I installed version 1.1 on my Mac, keen to test the promised 40 percent CPU saving over version 1.0. But such realism has a cost, and in its highest resolution mode ('Divine'), Diva needs a pretty powerful computer to hit the 16-voice maximum that it can deliver. Its main components resemble those of half a dozen classic instruments and it boasts enigmatic 'zero-delay-feedback' filters. Uhe's Diva is proudly advertised as a 'game-changer': a software synth sounding so analogue you'll need to replace its capacitors in 30 years or so.
For many, the convenience, affordability and flexibility of modelled reality already trumps those final few percentage points of difference. In the cinema and in the studio, the gap between real and digitally created experience narrows each year. Not quite an MS20 - its envelopes weren't the best ever, so here are a couple of alternative choices and let's bung in a Juno high-pass filter too. Uhe's painstakingly authentic analogue emulation is pretty demanding.