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5. Setting up a virtual Alpha Juno using u-he’s Diva

1 Though there are plenty of dedicated Roland emulations out there, one of the most effective methods for recreating Alpha Juno sounds comes in the form of u-he’s semimodular powerhouse DIVA. We’ll call up an instance and show you what we mean. Here it is in our DAW, with the plain ol’ default patch. 2 This configuration sounds nothing like an Alpha Juno. We’ll fix that by changing out the various modules for those that better match the Roland synth. First, click the arrow in the lower-left of the oscillator section and select the DCO option, with its sub-oscillator and an exotic waveform selection so like that of the Alpha Juno’s. 3 Similarly, go through and select HPF/Post for the next section, and VCF Multimode for the main filter. The envelopes should be Digital – DIVA offers one extra over the Juno. Now to reduce the Output level up top, as DIVA is quite loud. Once we’ve got all of that, we’ll begin crafting a chiming pad sound of the sort for which the Alpha Juno excelled. 4 Transpose the DCO to 2' for a highpitched tone, then select the bottommost Sawtooth wave – an unusual one it is, too. Select the second-from-bottom Pulse waveform, and bring the Sub down a little to better hear the main oscillator waveform. If you play a few notes, you’ll hear an organ-like tone. Not terribly inspiring, is it? 5 Let’s lower the filter’s Cutoff to about 65 and boost the Res to around 21. Yes ,it’s murky, so set the filter’s Env 2 to about 98. Also, set the filter’s Kybd control about half way, so that filter frequency follows the keys played. Let’s shape the sound with the envelopes. We’ll start with Env1: leave the Attack at nil, then set the Decay to 54, Sustain to 35, and Release to 44. 6 Now our sound starts strong, decays a little to a lower volume and fades when the note is released. For Env2 (the filter envelope), set the Attack at nil, Decay at 32, Sustain to 59 and Release to 68, so the filter opens and closes when a note is played. Now, go to the Effect 1 section and turn on Chorus1. Choose an Ensemble Type and set the Rate to 74.