The Sound Board

This is for anyone who signs up to the u-He newsletter, or is already a subscriber - https://u-he.com/newsletter/ . New subscribers will receive a unique code in early July.

https://u-he.com/newsletter/

Since u-he don't do regular sales, this is likely the best discount to be had. I will once again ask myself if it really isn't time I bought Zebra 2 and / or Diva, even though I really don't need them.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 10:23 am This is for anyone who signs up to the u-He newsletter, or is already a subscriber - https://u-he.com/newsletter/ . New subscribers will receive a unique code in early July.

https://u-he.com/newsletter/

Since u-he don't do regular sales, this is likely the best discount to be had. I will once again ask myself if it really isn't time I bought Zebra 2 and / or Diva, even though I really don't need them.

Buying cooking, chocolate or a beer or the likes are also things we don't need to survive as human, however they are nice to consume.

And Thomas also selling his Zebra 2 I just saw: https://www.thesoundboard.net/viewtopic ... 215#p40215 combine that with the discount for Diva and you bought yourself a whole tin box of virtual chocolate!

My timing remains impeccible - I picked up Zebra2 and Dark Zebra a couple weeks ago.

I don't regret the purchase, but sometimes I do think the universe is having fun at my expense!

How are you finding them, Bill?

You need them, Guy. You just don't know it yet.

I also have 1 license each for Bazille and ACE up for sale.

Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Jaap wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Yeah, I mean it's pretty the much the price of both Repro-5 and Dark zebra combined, but I've already got Diva so I feel I'm covered in terms of analog goodness and Dark zebra is just an extension of Zebra, where as Avenger is a completely different synth. And it has some of the best soundsets on the market.

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:30 pm

Jaap wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Yeah, I mean it's pretty the much the price of both Repro-5 and Dark zebra combined, but I've already got Diva so I feel I'm covered in terms of analog goodness and Dark zebra is just an extension of Zebra, where as Avenger is a completely different synth. And it has some of the best soundsets on the market.

Yes very true, it offers a completely different thing indeed then the U-he stuff. Also a nice thing about Avenger is that it gets constantly updated and more and more features being added.

Go with Repro-5 if you can. It is just soooo juicy.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 1:11 pm How are you finding them, Bill?

I really haven't spent much time with Dark Zebra yet - auditioned a bunch of presets and yeah, they are cool, but I've spent the majority of my time just exploring Zebra, auditioning presets, taking them apart to see what makes them tick, and creating new sounds. I don't think I have had this much fun with a software synth ever. Repro 1 & 5 are fun, but they remind me of hardware synths of old. Zebra, to me, is a whole new take on synthesis. I am just loving it.

Now I may have to do some digging on Bazille and ACE, since Thomas is divesting himself of software synths.

On a separate note - there is an open source modular, VCV rack, which I took for a spin. Pretty cool. So I downloaded the trial version of Softube Modular. Wow is that amazing. First there is the sound which I would put at the top of the heap (along with Zebra and the Repro twins), and it just works so well. And there are all these cool modules you can add. For somewhere south of $90 right now I think I might go with that.

On the other hand, the u-He stuff I have sounds amazing, so Bazille is also attractive.

Man it's a good thing I'm not wealthy or I'd be broke!

So this would be a good time to pickup Diva then. Thing is, I tried the demo a little while back and just didn't see why I'd bother getting it as I can already make nice retro patches with Omnisphere 2. I can't help but feel I'm missing something though. Am I?

Ages, there's just something about Diva for me that elevates it above the rest[*]. It seems like all the patches that stopped me in my tracks were on Diva.

And the Hollo Divine soundset has for me been the most inspiring. The Humanized Picks patch is so magical that it's almost cheating.

I just haven't heard those same kind of warm, mellow, silky tones from Omnisphere.

Maybe it's all placebo.


[*] Where "the rest" in my tiny universe is Omnisphere and Zebra 2, so take all that with a grain of salt.

Jaap wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Jaap, can you talk a little about Avenger's soundset? I feel it's the one I need-something more aggressive and modern, maybe...edgier? than Omni.

Lawrence wrote: ↑Jun 20, 2018 1:12 am

Jaap wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Jaap, can you talk a little about Avenger's soundset? I feel it's the one I need-something more aggressive and modern, maybe...edgier? than Omni.

I have not really dived into the regular factory soundsets and mostly working with my own sonuds, but I bought the Cinematic 1 expansion pack as I heard a sound I needed for a project with a very tight deadline. It is a great pack, it is definately more aggressive then most of the Omni stuff, but this lies more in the fx sections from Avenger. I still consider the effects the "weakest" link in Omnisphere and Avenger (and Falcon even much more) have the ability to create a far more modern sound then Omni. In the end Omni can get there, but takes a lot more time and differrent approach in my opinion.
You can see with Avenger that is was created with the EDM market in mind, with easy aggressive modulation options, creating cutting edge weirdness with relative ease.

Ages wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 9:45 pm So this would be a good time to pickup Diva then. Thing is, I tried the demo a little while back and just didn't see why I'd bother getting it as I can already make nice retro patches with Omnisphere 2. I can't help but feel I'm missing something though. Am I?

What sold me was the Phemon soundsets (there's 2) from Unfinished. There's just nothing in Omnisphere that sounds like that.
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/diva-phenom-vol-2/
I think Omnisphere is a powerhouse, but it just can't match the analog sound of Diva.

Have their been any updates that improved the efficiency of Diva? I recall being floored by the trial version, but sadly my computer was crushed. It is a wonderful synth, but a little too resource hungry for me at the moment - or it was anyway. Reports to the contrary are more than welcome!

When did you last try it, Bill?

It is multithreaded and load can be distributed over multiple cores which helps performance substantially (but you have to explicitly enable multicore, it's off by default) and also there are different quality settings that can significantly reduce overhead without significantly altering the sound. ("Divine" quality indeed requires a fast CPU for many patches but "Great" is a good compromise of you need to squeeze some processing cycles out.)

Diva definitely runs much better after the update a long while back to utilize more cores. Zebra is great but Dark Zebra is especially awesome, because I love being able to see how Hans and Howard created the sounds for Batman. They were my first synths of any kind so seeing how those sounds were constructed was incredibly educational for me. I selfishly wish Hans would release more of his sounds!

I do very much like the design concept of Diva, modelling a bunch of classic modules and then being able to switch them out. That's a golden idea. Whenever I've demo'd it in the past there have been some lovely sounds. But honestly... not sure I've yet heard quite the difference between it and other big hitters that some clearly do. I do hear it with the Repros though.

It has been a while I think, I will download the latest version and take it for a spin,

Lawrence wrote: ↑Jun 20, 2018 1:12 am

Jaap wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 3:23 pm

Arcana wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2018 2:57 pm Hmm... wondering if I should get Repro-5 or Dark Zebra....although I'll probably just get Avenger instead, as they have a 20% discount

All of course but 20% off from VPS Avenger is great! Really awesome synth with amazing options

Jaap, can you talk a little about Avenger's soundset? I feel it's the one I need-something more aggressive and modern, maybe...edgier? than Omni.

There's a demo available where you can check out all the 900+ factory presets.
Only restriction is a noise burst every 5 min. or so and time out after 30 min.

I’m going to do that. Thanks, Arcana.

@tack & @Arcana - Yeh I've heard Diva is the best for that many times over the years and that's why it's always been on my radar. Thing is, when I tried the demo, I just didn't feel it was doing anything I couldn't do in Omnisphere, or at least nothing that was noticeable enough to really make me want to buy it. It's a shame because I want to want to buy it!! I'll try it out again and see what I think