Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Teaser Photo of U-HE Diva’s New Modules

I just nabbed this off of the the U-HE Facebook page…click image to see full-sized view..

New Diva modules arriving in June: Digital Osc, Uhbie-Filter and Arpeggiator/Sequencer. Here's a preliminary screenshot :-)

I pulled further detail from some of Urs’s posts on KVR:

It's got two oscillators. Each with 8 waveforms. Each waveforms has two "Control" parameters that can be modulated.
Most notably:
- TriangleMod: Does a foldback-distorted triangle wave combined with a symmetry-warp function
- SuperSaw: Does a sawtooth with 6 additional sawtooth mixed in, ad variable detune
- Feedback: Does a sawtooth with distorted feedback at variable (tuned) delay and gain
- Noise: Does noise with adjustable bandpass filtering and cutoff
- PWM: Does PWM with an invented-by-u-he pseudo-resonance control
- plus another sawtooth and triangle waveform
Both oscillators can interact by Ringmodulation, Sync and Crossmodulation.

Urs also mentioned the Uhbie filter will also be in Zebra 3.

On the arppegiator Urs indicates:

The sequencer can work in step mode, where the white keys switch to "dub", "replace", "ins", "del", "startify", "<" and ">". The 3 black keys to the right become "CC", "pause" and "tie". CC records ModWheel, BreathCtrl and Expression for each step.

You can also record live, while the sequencer is running. You can layer notes, replace them, pause them, tie them on the fly.

On palyback you can switch between 7 sequences at any time. You can either noodle over them on the keyboard, or use the keyboard to transpose the sequence. You can even layer sequences in realtime, e.g. to add a little variation here and there.

The arpeggiator is very basic but very powerful. It can program the sequencer, and it can transpose it.

Mark Mosher
Synthesist, Composer, Performer
www.markmoshermusic.com

Sound Design Tip: Add Variability and Slop with U-HE Diva Synthesizer Trimmers

This month I’ve been focusing on writing presets from scratch with Diva. While I’ve had Diva for a  while I’m just now getting around to doing some proper programming from INIT. Diva has a reputation for crushing your CPU so it’s worth mentioning that 1.1 release uses up to 40% less CPU. The 1.1.1 update adds Mountain Lion support and some other bug fixes so make sure you update

One of my favorite parts of Diva is the “Timmers” panel. (P. 29 of the Manual)

This panel is the most ‘esoteric’ part of Diva – from the user’s point of view at least. As well as detuning voices (individual and/or stacked), a variable degree of slop can be applied to cutoff frequency, envelope times, pulse width and glide times.

Using Trimmer to Detune Voices

So lets walk through a simple example to get you going with Trimmers. In this example we’ll use the trimmers to detune voices.

1 – Load the template preset INIT Minipoly

2 – Got to the Trimmers panel and set voices to 2.

3 - Now with ever note press, Diva will round-robin between voice 1 & 2. The corresponding LED will light so you know which voice is sounding.

4 – Now turn the VCO1 Trimmer knobs for “VCO Voice Detune” in opposite directions detuning both voices up and down from center.

5 – Start playing notes and you’’ll hear the voices detuning with ever other key press.

More Ideas

Now that you know the basics here are some more ideas to try.

• Use more voices to add more variability
• Try stacking voices
• Use the “Voice Map Modulator” as a modulation source
• Walk through the factory patches with the “Trimmers” panel open to learn how these sound designers took advantage of these features
• ….

Wrap Up

As you can see using voice allocation as a modulator with these trimmers can add both predictable and unpredictable results (especially when playing polyphonically). So add this to Diva's fantastic analog modelling and you get a very organic synth that can sound very cranky and interesting.

-----

Mark Mosher
Synthesist, Composer, Performer
Boulder, CO
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

U-HE Releases Diva Synthesizer + Discount Extended + About Zero Delay Feedback Filters + Mindmap of Models

U-HE has released DIVA - http://www.u-he.com/cms/113-diva. The have also extended the discount to Jan. 15th. I just bought it and it sounds fantastic!!!

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.

Normal price: 179$ (+19% VAT in EU)
Introductory price: 119$ (+19% VAT in EU) extended till January 15th, 2012

 

About Zero Delay Feedback Filters

I found the following info in the quickstart. 

Most filters in old analogue synthesizers have one or more feedback paths. The input signal passes through a series of controlled resistors and condensers, and the output is fed back into the input (or to another point within the signal path). The classic Moog ladder filter has four simple lowpass filter stages and a resonance control that determines how much of the signal is fed back into the input. This feedback loop doesn’t introduce any delay, feedback is practically immediate...

 Digital models try to reproduce this by calculating the result of applying four simple lowpass filters to an input sample. Feedback means repeating the calculation using the results of the previous one.

 While real circuitry can process a signal within a few nanoseconds, digital models calculate per sample, adding in the region of a million times as much latency to each iteration. The cumulative effect of feedback latency in digital emulations is very noticeable. Oversampling and higher sample rates help reduce the latency, but conventional digital filters always “smear” at higher resonance levels.

 Ways to address the latency problem have been available for many years, but implementations either don’t model the inherent complex distortion inherent in real circuitry, or they aren’t suitable for realtime processing. Common to all methods is that they predict output values and use that prediction for the current calculation

 Of course we can’t see into the future, but our routines are fast enough to deliver at least a few voices in realtime. We calculate the filter with a few test samples and look at the deviation between the prediction and the result. We use that deviation to calculate a better prediction – the goal is to close the gap as quickly as possible!

We have applied a classic “trial and error” principle with a (we like to think) rather intelligent method of learning from our “mistakes”. As a rule, the filters in Diva have to be calculated 3 to 4 times in succession - but it can take up to 20 cycles e.g. at high resonance or if the inputincludes white/pink noise.

 

Mindmap of DIVA Anatomy

I created a mindmap showing the anatomy of the oscillators, filters and envelopes in relationship to the model template. View the map full screen by clicking here or use the viewer below.

 

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

U-HE Announces Public Beta and Introductory Pricing for New Diva Synthesizer

U-HE, makers for my favorite synths ACE and Zebra 2, have released a public beta for their latest synthesizers 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 emulators (search for "PSpice") in realtime! Especially the behaviour of our zero-delay-feedback filters, when pushed to the limit, demonstrates the advantages of this groundbreaking approach.

The beta version works without restriction until December 31st. Become an early adopter, play an active role in development as we nurture this baby to perfection over the next few weeks...

The latest builds are always available in our support forum: click to go there
Estimated price: 179$ (+19% VAT in EU)
Introductory price: 119$ (+19% VAT in EU) until December 31st, 2011

Sale starts Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 on http://www.u-he.com.

See the announcement here.

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com