Divalious Soft Synth

[U.Honey]

Based on recommendations on another thread here at KC I went and downloaded a demo version of u-he Diva, and man, it sounds good! I can't really express what exactly it is that sounds so good but it feels inspiring to play it and I feel I want to somehow add that to my live gig rig too. Needless to say that a GAS attack is what follows..

 

Anyways, It's priced about $190 at u-he website but Native Instruments has a u-he sale until Jan-10 and the Diva is priced at $90. That sounds like a great deal but I wonder if there's some catch 21 there. Does anyone know if it's the same version that's available at u-he website or is this some Native-Instruments version that requires Kontakt or some other NI software to run it?

Also, I can't figure out how to run the Diva demo version as stand-alone, that is, without a VST host like Logic or MainStage. Is the Diva only available as a VST plugin and not as stand-alone app?

 

[Bill Heins]

It's the same version at both places and it's plugin only, you need a DAW host to run  it.

 

Bill

[Al Coda]

4 hours ago, U.Honey said:

Is the Diva only available as a VST plugin and not as stand-alone app?

 

Like Bill said,- plugin only.

But when you´re on PC w/ Windows or Linux,- this free host makes a "standalone" VI from every plugin.

Just only copy the file into the same location where the plugin is and rename to the plugin´s name.

The result is an executable standalone instrument.

But I dunno if that works w/ VSTplugin demo-versions.

 

 

A.C.

[Tusker]

I used this sale to pick up Repro. The plugin works the same way as the ones I bought directly from U-He. I love how it sounds through PA speakers, without effects. Definitely giggable. The Mono Repro-1 is gnarlier and much more to my taste than the poly Repro 5.

 

Decided to hold off on Diva because I have some Moogs and Jupes (and I have a Reaktor MS20 whose filter screams fairly authentically). But U-He is special and I could be tempted. Also, Diva has a per-voice tuning scheme and a per voice modulator. This seems like the doorway to very large pads and atmospheres without reverb, chorus and delay.

 

Give us a review once you've got things working?

[Al Coda]

34 minutes ago, Tusker said:

I have a Reaktor MS20

 

 

Is that available in the user library ?

I never recogized ... any link available ?

 

thx

 

 

A.C.

[Tusker]

2 hours ago, Al Coda said:

Is that available in the user library ?

I never recogized ... any link available ?

 

Al, there are few more modern versions but the one I like was patched by a guy called Solar X about twenty years ago. Matthias Schaffner put it into ensemble form about 9 years ago.

 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/8188/

 

And quite recently Paule gave it a new skin ...

 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/11291/

 

[U.Honey]

Thanks to everyone for comments. I’ll pull the trigger and acquire the Diva. I can’t believe it’s been around for a decade already. Where have I been all these years..

[Al Coda]

22 hours ago, Tusker said:

Al, there are few more modern versions but the one I like was patched by a guy called Solar X about twenty years ago. Matthias Schaffner put it into ensemble form about 9 years ago.

 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/8188/

 

And quite recently Paule gave it a new skin ...

 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/11291/

 

 

Thank you !

I didn´t visit the user library for a loooong time.

I better should in future.

 

 

A.C.

[Irena]

I'm guessing you're really going to love it. The manual is solid, but a few things I wish I'd paid more attention to in my first hours with it:

 

- The "TREASURE TROVE" bank in the preset browser. It's easy to miss in the third party preset folder, and has quite a bit beyond what's offered in the other banks.

 

- DSP consumption. Diva's infamous for this and owns up to its name. While I knew that much, I didn't really sweat the "Accuracy" parameter when I first started creating Diva sounds for DAW projects. What I didn't count on was that I would like Diva so much that I would be reaching for many of my patches live, and often several at once. Result: major glitching. I've since gone back and remedied that with "Lite" versions of go-to poly patches that run at lower rendering quality, but it's been tedious. (Note: even at lower quality Diva still sounds great.) Given your intention to use it live, you might consider keeping an eye on DSP resources and benchmark your rig as you go so that you can dial in that Accuracy parameter as you build up your sounds.

 

- If using Windows: This may be fixed now, but back around the time I was first setting Diva up the VST3 version had some bugginess with learning CC controllers. The consensus in the forums I visited was to use VST2 instead, and that's worked fine for me. 

[Fleer]

Urs wrote they’re working on a standalone version.

Anyway, just got the bundle. Marvelous stuff. 

[U.Honey]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:43 PM, Irena said:

I'm guessing you're really going to love it. The manual is solid, but a few things I wish I'd paid more attention to in my first hours with it:

 

- The "TREASURE TROVE" bank in the preset browser. It's easy to miss in the third party preset folder, and has quite a bit beyond what's offered in the other banks.

 

- DSP consumption. Diva's infamous for this and owns up to its name. While I knew that much, I didn't really sweat the "Accuracy" parameter when I first started creating Diva sounds for DAW projects. What I didn't count on was that I would like Diva so much that I would be reaching for many of my patches live, and often several at once. Result: major glitching. I've since gone back and remedied that with "Lite" versions of go-to poly patches that run at lower rendering quality, but it's been tedious. (Note: even at lower quality Diva still sounds great.) Given your intention to use it live, you might consider keeping an eye on DSP resources and benchmark your rig as you go so that you can dial in that Accuracy parameter as you build up your sounds.

 

- If using Windows: This may be fixed now, but back around the time I was first setting Diva up the VST3 version had some bugginess with learning CC controllers. The consensus in the forums I visited was to use VST2 instead, and that's worked fine for me. 

Thanks for the tips! I'm running it on 2017 Mac and so far haven't had performance issues.