Swan Audio presents a pack of 80 presets and 3 great looking GUI ‘skin’ variations to give an Oberheim style experience ‘in the box’ using u-he Diva. The presets were carefully selected and tirelessly modeled from my Oberheim OB8 creating what I believe is the most ‘analogue-like’ plugin polysynth experience to date. The 80 sounds are classic analogue style and intended to be playable, musical and inspiring – what analogue does best.
When first using Diva in truth I did not find the sound to be ‘that’ authentic analogue. It was only in tests with my analogue hardware that I realized it needs to be set carefully within certain parameters, then it can in fact sound very close to the real thing. This is what sets this soundpack apart – the sounds are modeled directly from an analogue synth by someone with a great deal of experience with them – not from a memory or idea of what one sounds like. Check out this blind A/B test against my OB8. Can you tell which is which?
But how does it stack up in a layered scenario in a track? Here is a blind A/B test ‘synth disco’ track… The ‘top line’ track is a Moog Source which is matched by the Diva Moog modules in the other example. I threw the Moog in there as I had it and so does Diva.