The catalyst for approaching a “sequel” soundset, more often than not, is having lots more unreleased patches from the programming session for the original.

For an Anahera soundset, things are a little bit different.

Whilst there are certainly some patches in Volume 3 that come under that category, the majority stem from spending more time with my hardware synths, including some new ones. New synths such as Moog Grandmother and Subharmonicon, and my Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 (re-issue).

Trying out and repeating those more tactile programming techniques with software synths is an interesting experience. Not everything translates very well. Some of the semi-modular routing possible with hardwrae synths is either more complex or even impossible with a software synth.

But, often it isn’t a case of precisely recreating those hardware methods, so much as feeling how they influence your decision making process. Diva makes things a little easier by being a “modular” type of synth, more in the architectural meaning than the synth one. You can mix and match oscillators and filters to help recretae the experience of using certain hardware synths, and you also have a variety of options lurking on the Modifiers and Trimmers pages of the GUI.

So, with Anahera Vol 3, I needed some sort of concept to help me add to the existing volumes, without feeling I was repeating myself too much. I wanted to explore the power of Diva; it’s breadth.

And that doesn’t just mean making huge and epic sounds but, also exploring the spatial quality of its sound (width and depth), as well as the wide range of textures that are available. In that respect, using both the analogue and virtual analogue oscillators in Diva it felt like, out of the hardware synths in my studio, the Access Virus TI2 Polar and the Arturia Minibrute 2 were bringing the most influence on my decision making.

Both the Virus‘ and Minibrute‘s sonic precision and grit, so useful for cutting throguh a mix, helped bring a wealth of weight and dynamics to the Anahera Vol 3 patches, without overwhelming everything with too much… well, everything.

Anahera Vol 3 ranges from some pretty gnarly and vast sounds, right down to some delicate and subtle textures, whilst managing to hold together a definite, cinematic “feel” that makes them uniquely suitable to this soundset. I think, at least!

Diva remains a wonderful sounding and versatile synth. There’s still much to explore, both in terms of being influenced by hardware programming techniques again and, also approaching it for its own built-in strengths.

There’s more Diva to come, for sure, but for now, please enjoy Diva Anahera Vol 3. It really is probably my favourite Diva soundset I’ve made so far.