u-He Intros DIVA – Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue Synthesizer. But Can Your Computer Handle It?

u-he has introduced DIVA (Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue), a new virtual analog synthesizer for Mac & Windows.

Here’s what u-he has to say about DIVA:

The oscillators, filters and envelopes closely model components found in some of the great monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers of yesteryear. Modules can be mixed and matched so you can build hybrids, but what sets DIVA apart is the sheer authenticity of the analogue sound.

This comes at the cost of quite a high CPU-hit, but we think it was worth it: Diva is the first native software synth that applies methods from industrial circuit simulators (e.g. PSpice) in realtime. The behaviour of zero-delay-feedback filters when pushed to the limit clearly demonstrates the advantages of this groundbreaking approach.

Diva works without restriction until December 31st 2011. From then on you will notice a mild crackle, the demo restriction that will remind you to visit our shop.

Check out more than 1200 presets. If your computer can handle it, try them in “Divine” mode.

Diva for Mac & Windows (VST/AU) is available now for US $119 through January 15th, 2012 ($60 off regular of $179).

12 thoughts on “u-He Intros DIVA – Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue Synthesizer. But Can Your Computer Handle It?”

  1. I downloaded it for a test-drive on my top-of-the-line iMac (2011 model, OS X Lion, 4-core 2.93 GHz Core i7 with 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive). This thing sounds awesome!!

    Also, lots of pop and crackle, while the CPU is certainly not fully loaded. It seems as though one instance of Diva only uses a single core. I tried both Logic and Live and this problem seems this occurs more in Live than in Logic, for some reason (I tried both the AU and the VST version of the plugin).

    If you’re interested in this (and again, it sounds awesome) give the demo version a try first. Even at normal quality setting (let alone the ‘Divine’ setting) I get audio drop-ours.

  2. Small update: in Logic or Mainstage, if you view the interface of the plugin as ‘Controls’ instead of ‘Cocoa View’ (the fancy view), one of the options listed is MultiCore, which lets you specify how many cores (an instance?) can use. The default is 0. If I set this to a higher value (4 for example), it seems to use a core per note playing (note, not voice).

    With the value of MultiCore increased, I can now use the ‘Divine’ setting with 2-4 stacked voices (depends a bit on the patch) without any stutter or noise.

    I wonder if this is a setting of Logic/Mainstage, or the plugin (because the interface doesn’t show it). Live has multicore support turned on in its settings, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

  3. This synth sounds fantastic! It’s very usable on my iMac i7 with 12mb of ram. I’m sure there will be optimizations in the future too. The range of tones is really great and it’s easy and pleasing to use. I’m pretty sure this is going to become a go-to synth for me.

  4. sounds great 🙂
    found a patch that uses 80% of my cpu according to Live (in a 2,5ghz dual core mbp with 6gb ram) 😉

    1. correction: 98% and lots of crackle 😀

      Try “HS Lotus Blossom” from the Poly Synths presets and give it a polyphonic kick 😀

  5. Christmas can come…I have a Diva in the house…sounds musical, is nice to play with and has my zebra favorite:the return/forward button…a very dynamic way of comparing soundcrearions on the fly…

  8. Jesus. This thing is on a completely different level than any vst Ive even used in terms of sound quality… I know a lot of people who are huge u-he fans but I personally could never get into any of the Urs releases… until now.

    Take note: DIVA is a milestone in vst development. This will set the marker of how future virtual synths can and should sound like. Respect.

    1. Ok. I understood how to set up the “Divine” mode in Logic and it works well (I just love this synth !!!!), but how to manage it in Ableton Live? Does anyone know it and can help me. Thanks.

      1. What do you mean exactly with ‘setup’? Changing the ‘Accuracy’ setting is the same for Logic and Live, since it’s a Diva setting. In the first post for this article I was messing with the multi-core settings for Logic, but I think that’s it – the setting for Logic, not Diva.

        Btw. some patches really sound better with the draft setting, as the filter responds differently. In the patches window there is a section with patches (BigTone bank for draft mode) with some patches made for the draft and fast setting – at the bottom of the patch description it lists the recommended accuracy setting. Try one of the draft ones with divine (or a fast one with draft), some sound quite differently that way. The difference between fast and divine is also there, but is much more subtle.

        I read on the KVR forum Urs was trying to get multi-core support for version 1.0, but he also said he wouldn’t delay the release of Diva if he couldn’t get it in on time, in which case he would probably include it in the 1.1 update. No idea if multi-core support made it into version 1.0 or not.

        I’ve long since bought Diva and am still loving the sound 🙂 I hope the performance can be improved further though. I might get rid of my MKS-50, as this one does the Alpha Juno sounds so well.

  9. Ok, I saw it now in the Patches pannel and that was exactly what I was looking for 😉 Thank you for giving me your apreciated help…

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