Possibly the most used soft synth I own

An absolutely stunning sounding soft synth. Diva stands for Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue, designed to replicate many of the analogue dinosaurs that have become classics from the late 70s onwards...think Roland, Korg, Moog etc. It's not set out to do just one synth, with a modular plug n play setup that allows you to take the oscillators from one synth, the filters from another, the envelope from a third, and mix and match to create your own unique hybrid.

There are plenty of tweeks you can make under the hood, osc stability, voice drift, detuning etc to give you a huge sonic range from modern in your face punch to classic sounding to outright wonky.

Did I mention the sound quality? It's incredible. Truly. THIS is my go-to synth for bass. I've hardly used anything else since. It has a sound and punch and presence I've not found with anything else. How do you express solidity? It's that fatness, punch, oomph, that 'thing' that makes a sound stand out. Of course, you can do thin and weedy, but it's much easier to take a fat synth and make it weedy than taking a thin-sounding synth and making it sound fat. But it doesn't just do bass, it has a fabulous library of pads and leads to die for. Moogy Lead? You've got it. Juno pads? Sure. Weird LFO fx? Absolutely. Whilst it comes with a load of very very respectable presets, programming it is a piece of cake.

Like the Virus TI (the only other synth I find as easy to dial in a sound) it's a dream to program. The interface is simple, clear, and well laid out on several pages so it never feels cramped or difficult to read, or adjust something. It's a pleasure to experiment with. As much as the preset library is great, it's often faster and more fun to knock up something of your own. I tend to make chunky dance music with an industrial edge and this is ideal for that. Bring able to blend in some FM edge to analogue richness is fantastic. I haven't found anything that sounds as good as this.

On weaker systems, it is quite resource-heavy, but in that regard, I've found you get what you pay for...though there are options to switch to Eco modes that reduce the CPU hit without really hitting the sound quality. In fact, sometimes it can sound better. I wouldn't say it ever sounds bad, more different. On a powerful system it will split across multicores if you let it making great use of the available power.

About the only negative I can think of is that I'd like to be able to rename the Favourites banks instead of Favourites 1, 2, 3 etc. That's pretty much it.

Overall: it's a rock solid performer, the best-sounding soft synth for my money if you want a classic analogue sound without necessarily wanting to ape a particular machine. It can give you the vibe of particular machines, but you also have the flexibility to go 'off piste' and mix Roland VCO's with a Korg Filter and Moog Envelopes. It's a no brainer to have DIVA in your arsenal. It's proved to be an absolute workhorse in my studio and gets used more than anything else. I literally can't think of a track I've made since getting it that doesn't use it.

If sounding like old analog is your aim, don't waste time with anything else

I've got a Jupiter 6, a Juno 60, a JX-3P, SH-101, etc etc sitting right next to me as I use Diva... and I've been using it since it launched. Does Diva sound exactly like any of those synths? Yes and no... it's not aiming for perfect emulation of every parameter, so you're not going to be able to perfectly capture every nuance of every synth it claims to (partially) emulate. But after 20+ years of using various software and hardware VA synths, this was the first one to make me stop wishing I was using "the real thing" and just enjoy the results I was getting.

Being a lucky (old) skunk who has most of the original hardware this thing is trying to emulate, I'll say that it makes a reasonable case for me selling my Jupiter 6, but a weaker case for selling the Junos and Moogs. Diva provides very warm and usable mini moog-type basses, but I've yet to successfully clone some of the funkier mini moog baselines, eg Kashif's work on "Love Come Down"... but that's a pretty specific and niche sound that I'd probably still struggle to emulate with a Voyager or Sub 37. On the juno front, the pads always seem to be too thick, even when using one of the HPFs... my real Juno and JX tend to respond to their HPF and settle into the a specific sliver of the mix spectrum easier than Diva (TAL's Juno emulator is a bit closer to the real deal in this regard), but I should probably just EQ it and/or stop worrying about sounding authentic... the results are great regardless.

UPDATE 11/21: I just spent a few days with a borrowed Behringer Model D. The latest update of Diva more than held its own against the little analog MiniMoog clone when it came to bass sounds. In terms of being able to get the filter cutoff, filter envelope amount and the envelope attack, decay, and sustain settings into their sweet spots, dare I say I had an easier time getting Diva there than the Boog. You can still tell which is which when you directly A/B them, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you which was which if I was listening (blind) to one without the other to compare it to.

u-he Diva Software Synthesizer Plugin

The Spirit Of Analogue DIVA - Dinosaur Impersonating Virtual Analogue Synthesizer 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. Check out more than 1200 presets. If your computer can handle it, try them in "Divine" mode. Filters This is where a LOT of Diva's magic happens - Diva's zero-delay-feedback filters set a very high standard of authenticity. Each filter type closely models a classic analogue hardware filter (or two): You can already choose between Ladder, Cascade, Multi-Mode, Bite... and more are planned! Envelopes Two envelopes, one for the output amp and the other general-purpose. Again, there is a choice of several different models based on classic hardware synthesizers. The characteristics of amp and filter envelopes within the same synthesizer often differ.This important detail has also been carefully modeled. Mix & Match All modules in the upper rack can be replaced - send any of the oscillator models through any filter model to any amp / envelope model. The rack also offers highpass filter models (pre or post main filter) or feedback from output to input. Effects 3 x analogue chorus, 2 x analogue phaser, plate reverb, stereo analogue delay, rotary speaker emulations... The two effects are arranged in series - you can even use two plate reverbs, one after the other. Modifiers Modulation processors: Rectify, quantize, multiply, invert, lag, add modulation sources before using them. There are also several modulation options here that aren't available in all the main panels (e.g. filter resonance, feedback). Trimmers Diva shows her most esoteric side here as she saucily flashes those voice activity indicators! As well as detuning individual voices, a voice-specific offset is applied to cutoff, envelope times, pulse width and glide. Scope Every synth needs an oscilloscope! Diva has a no-nonsense scope that only requires two knobs - frequency and scale. Patches Diva comes loaded with over 1,200 presets sorted into various categories . Select a folder from the bottom left panel, then a preset from the main area.

Amazingly Analog

This soft synth sounds like a real-world hardware synth. The analog simulation is beautiful. Takes a bit of memory but has selections for using multiple processors and a quality setting to step down the CPU load. Presets are plentiful and sound absolutely amazing. The synth itself is fairly easy to understand and I am able to create my own sounds from the built in initializations relatively pain-free. Listeners won't be able to tell if you have a real synth or Diva. It is great for those who crave analog quality sound.

Actually, yes... it is the best synth I've ever used

I am such a hardware guy... but damn they really nailed it with this one. I love the ms-20 and jupiter clones. The moog style ladder filter is really sweet. My favorite part of Diva is how I can build a modular style synth. Clarification: for example... I think... gee... i want to make a synth with a three oscillator configuration like a Mini Moog, but I want to give it an ms-20 style filter.... no problem. Or, vice versa. How about an ms-20 with a moog style ladder filter. It's just too much fun. And, it's really straightforward and sounds amazing.

Diva, THE synth.

Well, I've just want to say - it sounds. If you need any oldschool analog-ish sound in your production, you're just found the goldmine. It's the most versatile synth, when you want to get "that sound". With all the respect, Arturia and Roland plug-outs are just step behind. Comparing A/B to actually analog, I found, that Diva has more colours and is more versatile, due to its modulation and "hacking" potential.

The greatest virtual analog synth of all time

Truly the greatest of all time of all the analog synths of all time. Very good features, and it makes awesome sounds.

10/10 would load in project again.

Smooth, user-friendly sounds.

I linked up to Diva randomly to try some different bass sounds outside of Serum/Massive and was able to get some pretty nice bass sounds started. However, the thing that got me the most excited were the presets that come standard with the synth, they were versatile and great to start creating tunez with straight away.

If you are into blended synths

This. Is. Your. Jam. Great analogue synths. Big sounds if you use divine button (lower middle as it took me ten minutes to find it). Modern. Throwback. It’s got your sounds.

Scarily good

I own hardware synths, so I usually don't really care about software emulations. Diva is one of the few "analog" soft-synths that actually sounds like the real thing, and I love how you can mix-and-match different sources and filter sections.