Ableton Forum

crystalmsc wrote:

agent314 wrote:I would love it in Zebra but I am hoping for a standalone plug that I could use elsewhere

Saturation/harmonic distortion/overdrive is the one place where I have never heard digital match analog gear or even come close, but the bits of drive in Uhbik and in the filters in Zebra/DIVA are some of the better ones I've heard

U-he's sound quality is top notch - he/they are the one developer I would have faith in to reproduce something that is both authentic enough and user-friendly enough to really kick ass

As much as I love Zebra for what it is, but I can't wait for the Diva's quality oscillator in the next version. So glad that they made the ZebraHZ with Diva's filter in it. Their audio quality is great, down to the Triple Cheese I think we are going to see something soon, at least as an addition to the Uhbik bundle or as an additional feature to the existing products.

There's never been any talk of diva Oscs in the next zebra. Won't happen.

glitchrock-buddha wrote:There's never been any talk of diva Oscs in the next zebra. Won't happen.

Urs mentioned that oscillators are on the menu as well. Not exactly a 1:1 copy (post 2 from bottom), but at least derived from the same technology.

Great company...! The freewarestuff is awesome. I'm going to buy the uhbik package soon. I like those little things like the changeable size of the guis (Absynth 5, great synth. but so tiny on my iMac).
Thumbs up for U-he!!!

esky wrote:Great company...! The freewarestuff is awesome. I'm going to buy the uhbik package soon. I like those little things like the changeable size of the guis (Absynth 5, great synth. but so tiny on my iMac).
Thumbs up for U-he!!!

Yes, I like their guis..down to the Triple Cheese

crystalmsc wrote:

glitchrock-buddha wrote:There's never been any talk of diva Oscs in the next zebra. Won't happen.

Urs mentioned that oscillators are on the menu as well. Not exactly a 1:1 copy (post 2 from bottom), but at least derived from the same technology.

Ah ok, yes you did say "Diva quality". Yeah I find that Zebra oscs with Diva's filters don't exactly capture Diva's magic, not even close. I'd like to see the oscs improve in Zebra closer to Diva as well, as I find them a bit digital. But I'm sure Diva will always have a lot going for it that Zebra doesn't.

Not perfect but Diva is better than anything Native Instruments ever dreamed of.

glitchrock-buddha wrote:I'd like to see the oscs improve in Zebra closer to Diva as well, as I find them a bit digital. But I'm sure Diva will always have a lot going for it that Zebra doesn't.

Zebra is a wavetable synth, essentially a digital synth. IMO the real work in Diva or any good emulation of an analog synth is in the oscillators. Essentially in an analog synth at least a true VCO model, a lot of the character is coming from the sloppiness of the VCO's. IMO Zebra is a best of breed wavetable synth, in many ways beating the crap out of NI Massive etc. but it's never meant as a replacement for a Moog Voyager etc. like Diva is.

That's why I haven't gotten around to buying it, I bothered years ago to get a few old MIDI enabled analog poly synths and although I think Diva is the closest I've heard so far to totally replacing analog, it's still not as much of a joy to program as my old analogs. Zebra on the other hand I use all the time. the same thin cold digital etc, quality to it that makes Diva's oscs sound "better" to you is the quality that makes Zebra punch through a wall of thick analog fuzz!

mholloway wrote:that Diva Controller kinda doesn't make much sense

I'm more curious about the Ace controller, since one patch point can be inserted with many cables..how did they implement that with the controller? Also ACE XL is planned for becoming some kind of a double Ace..

SO the consensus here is that Diva is preferable to Zebra? I need to decide soon!

tintala wrote:SO the consensus here is that Diva is preferable to Zebra? I need to decide soon!

I don't think this is the case.

They are quite different synths as Machinesworking pointed out a few posts back.

It depends what you want in a synth.

BTW, do you have a powerful cpu, because if you don't, you can forget about Diva

tintala wrote:SO the consensus here is that Diva is preferable to Zebra? I need to decide soon!

Not at all. Zebra is much more versatile. I much prefer the sound of diva and it's much closer to an analog synth because it's meant to be. But it is just a preference. I like zebra for punchy arps and thin physically modeling type stuff, but not for anything that I would describe as thick and phat, which analog often is.

tintala wrote:SO the consensus here is that Diva is preferable to Zebra? I need to decide soon!

You could grab the freeware version of Zebra. There is also a version by the Computer Music Magazine. Its different from the regular Zebra light thing. Maybe you can find it anywhere. There are also many patches for those two at u-he's website.
Than you have covered those sound characters until you can afford the big Zebra. And you can buy Diva now.

glitchrock-buddha wrote:

tintala wrote:SO the consensus here is that Diva is preferable to Zebra? I need to decide soon!

Not at all. Zebra is much more versatile. I much prefer the sound of diva and it's much closer to an analog synth because it's meant to be. But it is just a preference. I like zebra for punchy arps and thin physically modeling type stuff, but not for anything that I would describe as thick and phat, which analog often is.

I mostly like Zebra for the punchy percussive material, weird fm stuff and imaginative digital sound.

esky wrote:You could grab the freeware version of Zebra. There is also a version by the Computer Music Magazine. Its different from the regular Zebra light thing. Maybe you can find it anywhere. There are also many patches for those two at u-he's website.
Than you have covered those sound characters until you can afford the big Zebra. And you can buy Diva now.

The Zebralette patches is even compatible with the full version of Zebra. So, anyone can start programming and update it later in the full Zebra. Tyrell also worth to get, it's like the Diva's teaser.

mholloway wrote:that Diva Controller kinda doesn't make much sense, considering that a major selling point of the synth is the numerous interchangeable modules based on (very different) analog synths; ms-20, minimoog, juno-60, alpha juno. Obviously you can just map stuff custom, but I feel like the whole idea of a hardware controller for a soft-synth would be to replicate physically the exact knob/slider layout, and with DIVA that's simply not possible.

Glad you don't want it... I'll take it!!