Title says it all: What would you choose at half off - Diva or Arturia V ?
Gotta stay in budget 
Definitely Diva!
Itās THE synth for analog stuff. Stunning Oberheim-Sounds (and Arturia canāt compete with those) and moreā¦
As long as you have the resources to handle itā¦Diva. Lots of expansions all over the web for it. Most of them fairly cheap.
I still love several things about Arturia. Using the Arturia Lab is less CPU taxing, and I can get most of what I need there, plus it is cheaper. But if you have the need to tweak, and want to get under the hood, Arturia V is what you want. Some of their instruments are uselessā¦starting with the B3. But others are amazing. My 2 cents.
Hmmm. Diva is amazing and the right choice if you want what Diva does. Arturia is going to give you a lot more variety though. And if you want, say, the Synclavier or Fairlight (both awesome) thatās the way to go. But for pure basic analog fatness Diva all the way.
1 Like
If youāre doing cover tunes, Arturia may be better. If you get to play your own sounds and like making new analog-type sounds, Diva is your girl.
1 Like
And, as we have all spoken on, many times in the past, on many different threads, there is always Korg M1, which I use a lot. But this is about Diva and Arturia, so I digress.
1 Like
My experience with Arturia plugins is, that all of them try to emulate something but none of them is really stunning (like diva). Mini V is no to compare with Diva f.e. Of course you get more bang for the buck with Arturia and some sounds (Fairlight f.e.) you wont get somewhere else.
Maybe the best would be getting Diva and Arturia Lab. That might work out very well.
But in the end it really depends on what you want to doā¦
DIVA if you want the best sounding analog VSTi and have the horse power to run it (it is called DIVA for several reasons, including being very demanding!). Arturia V if you need to cover many bases.
Actually Diva is not as demanding as stated everywhere. Of course it is if you run it in āDivineā-Mode. But this is absolutely not necessary. If you run it in āgreatā or even in ādraftā it is very light on CPU. And the sound still is very very nice.
You still need a good spec PC even in draft mode. My old 2014 era Laptop that I used to run Cantabile on could not handle DIVA even in the lighter modes. My new NUC has no problem even in DIVINE mode, although if I am running mutliple VSTs then I will drop DIVA down the modes to lessen the load.
You are right to point out that you to have the option to lighten the CPU load with DIVA 
Hi,
I second everything that was mentioned and would personally decide for DIVA all the way. She has a powerful āpersonallityā with lots of character, can even be ābitchyā from time to time (not in a terms of stability!) and was my first vsti that felt like playing a hardware synth (at lesst to me). To my ears Arturia sounds āniceā - but nice is not great as we knowā¦ 
2 small additional aspects:
-
As both are on sale atm we talk about 90ā¬ for DIVA and 250ā¬ for Arturia. There is a gap of 160ā¬ that could be used for another great vsti.
-
Concerning CPU load of DIVA: additionally to not using devine mode there is the option to drive it in multicore mode which can tear down CPU load.
My 2 cents, humphrey
Absolutely agree. I donāt have a NUC, or a $3000 laptop. If I did, Omnisphere would be part of my arsenal. On many of the presets in Diva, even in draft mode, CPU load can overshoot. Add another VST, and I am back to M1. I love the sound of Diva, and would use it more, but would have to make a substantial investment to do so. The live atmosphere, in which I usually reside, doesnāt differentiate between great and mediocre sounds, and patrons usually do not know any difference anyway.
2 Likes
A non trivial choice in all this decision making about your music machine capacity involves your latency settings as they will also affect CPU hit and ability to process the heavy weight offerings out there. Some Vstiās I have tried required I increase the latency to get the quality and the pop and click free experience. Also I could run more layered instruments at higher latencies. I not talking unplayable amounts of latency either. 256 samples seems to be the most versatile setting for me to layer a lot up and still be able to adjust to the feel of it. I use 128 samples now, but had to upgrade to RME to achieve it with the sets of C3 songs I had already made. Clear sailing since but I donāt do a lot of complex switching, just 2 to 4 different vsti sounds a song as a rule. Some users here run waaaay more than that! That said I love Diva and wish I had been able to catch this sale. I am only familiar with the Arturia CS80 because I owned a hardware CS60 and could really manipulate that programming interface from hours and years of use! If I was aiming for era based vintage sounds where the interfaces were like old familiar friends (this is at least the case due to my age) the collection would be in my sights if I had the scratch. I wiggled the knobs on most of those instruments back in the day minus the fairlights and synclavs (never touched either). The rest were available to try at the music store and try I did, way more than I bought lol 
Dave
2 Likes
Wow. I wish I had access to a real CS80 to see what the original was like, but I am equally grateful that we are living in an era when the modelling in software will give you a large chunk of the character of the originals.
Ah, the Arturia CS80 is darn near worth the price alone, if thatās a sound you can use. I made a whole album, with the thing and now itās shelved. I have to figure out a way to re-write it and use the bits I canā¦
3 Likes
Thanks for all the advice. Went with Diva. Iāve been having fun with the Diva bass presets. Hopefully Iāll catch the next Arturia V sale
1 Like
Hi Fred, It would be great to hear more about this. Did you use an actual CS80?
Hi Dave,
When I click on the link Corky shared (in thread titled āU-he Synths saleā) it says the sale ends tomorrow morning at 10am EST
EDIT - realize that doesnāt help if you already have Diva 
No, it was the Arturia. Maybe if I get a minute Iāll post a rhythm track from it.