UVI Falcon - hybrid instrument - version 3.01 released - rumors, ads, praise, mud wrestling and off-topic inside!

[EvilDragon]

The thing is - I want to have all libraries that I have available INSTANTLY, not being forced to double-click them to mount and only THEN be able to use them, nor waiting for them to be automounted, either. I can't see why caching what's been mounted so that it's instantaneous on the next load is a bad thing.

I can understand a different philosophy, but it is not looking good if you stick to it and dismiss concerns from users who want a FASTER way to use your product. If it's different, it doesn't mean it's automatically better (well, apart from the fact that you can't accidentally remove the library presets, but that's really a very minor benefit I never had a problem with in the 8 years I've used Kontakt!). A simple suggestion of caching the automounting would work as a complete benefit for everyone...

[ThomasHelzle]

Design choice, different philosophy.

Sorry, with all due respect, that is not a "different" choice or philosophy, it's just a bad one.

If one similar library (in size) in Kontakt takes seconds to load and in Falcon takes a minute, what do I probably use in a large project where I have many?

As for flexibility of file locations: I had to create a frigging junction on windows to be able to have my library where I need it.

If I have absolutely no problem ever saving reliably in Kontakt, but in Falcon I have projects fail since the saving logic I thought I groked didn't work once again, what do you think is my first choice in the future? (And I don't even like Kontakt as a software, I planned to transition to Falcon actually since it's way more elegant and capable in so many aspects).

In my above example with Bohemian Cello, I saved in every possible way to be safe, and know what? Exactly that seems to have broken the saving in my DAW. I have absolutely no clue why that should be the case or even possible. The support at Virharmonic in the end seemed to suggest to not save at all in Falcon and let the DAW handle it, but come on, that's just totally bad stuff out of production nightmares.

And sorry again: don't be so dismissive with actually real user feedback (and I know the french tend to struggle with that one) - EvilDragon has seen a sample library or two in his life...

I had the same dismissive experience with your surround implementation after Falcon came out.
In reality, there is no real surround support in Falcon at all. Yes it can read multichannel samples and yes some effects support it, but in the end one can't do anything with surround other than the hard coded stuff you built in (and don't even mention the matrix thingy). That is NOT real surround support on a creative level.
It took a lot of private mails to finally get to the bottom of this and get a confirmation that this is the way it is supposed to be - and the end of the story.

All that fabulous potential is hemmed in by some very very basic bad decisions.
If that's the way you want it, sure, go ahead, but if you want to create a product that really works for people then this isn't the road to walk.

You know I was quite enthusiastic about Falcon once, participated in building Falcontinuum and wrote LUA scripts for me and other users, but over time I realised you seem to just want to stay in your little bubble and not be bothered.
That is a valid choice.
But not one I have to like or support as a user.

You do great work with sample libraries, your graphics designer is an absolute ace and does the most awesome work ever, but I currently don't plan to buy any more of your offers simply because Falcon and your "design choices" are in the way.

Cheers,

Tom

[otristan]

Ok. Love you remark about French people. Always nice to hear.

[EvilDragon]

Yeah Thomas perhaps you shouldn't have went there... Way to invalidate your whole feedback :/

[ThomasHelzle]

It's not some snarky remark out of whole cloth, just something I experienced often with companies like Arturia, UVI and others and some personal french friends.
Like people from the US are usually much better in relaxed public speaking than us Germans (who mostly suck at it big time).
If you want to work in a global market, you also have to consider your backgrounds strengths and limitations.
At one point, the "French pride" is just in the way of what you could do and be in the end.

And just for the record: I am not proud of being German, not at all, so this isn't some leg-kicking on that silly level...

If that remark "invalidates" my feedback, so be it (and this may point right back at the core of the problem and actually make my comment valid in a funny recursive way... ).

It does not change that Falcon won't get anywhere near Kontakt if it doesn't match it's loading speed and ease of reliably saving patches and modifications etc.

And dismissing power user feedback (not talking about myself here) with some high-handed statements will only make it worse.

Cheers,

Tom

[sircuit]

Just override the transport callback and play a note for a bar and voila !

Code: Select all

function onTransport (playing)
	if playing then
		playNote(31, 127, getBarDuration())
	end
end

You can use beat2ms() instead of getBarDuration() when you need tempo based timing but not the whole bar.

Well million thank yous, I had to modifiy it a bit as your code was only playing the first bar (in all honesty, this is what I asked for). I tried to place your code in a "while" loop (then even a for), to make it retrigger at every bar, but no luck, so I simply made it as below - at least I have a long midi input.

Code: Select all

local KnobSelector = Knob{"Knob", 0, 0, 3, true}

function onTransport (playing)
	if playing then
		voice = playNote(KnobSelector.value * 12, 127, 1024 * getBarDuration())
		else
		releaseVoice(voice)
	end
end

[otristan]

something like that would do the trick.

Code: Select all

local id = 0
function onTransport (playing)
	id = id + 1
	if playing then
		spawn(
		function(id_) 
			while id == id_ do
				playNote(31, 127, getBarDuration())
				wait(getBarDuration())
			end
		end, id)
	end
end

[sircuit]

A sample preview in search browser (with a future upgrade to preview patches), similar with the one in file browser could come really handy.

At least previewing the samples is already possible in the right-side browser. See the bottom.

The main browser (when you double-click a part) could also follow these settings, right now it only does so for loops, but not for individual samples. Not sure why.

The audio preview works when using the File browser, but I was talking about the next tab, the Search - I can enter "Clap" and see all listed claps in various banks, but I can't preview them -

As for using the left-hand browser, I mainly use one program (it will kill my cpu anyway if I use complex patches layered in a single instance) and is also very confusing to browse for samples in left-side.
I mean, when I design a patch I know that the left pane is the inspector/tree and the right pane is the source for audio sources (oscs), samples and effects & modulations - neat and organised

---

@Olivier:
Trying to make a context here: I own the BeatBox Anthology, Percussion & World Suite - so I'm facing a huge amount of one-shots. Being able to search them in the right pane and NOT being able to preview them is deeply frustrating - the single place I can gather all sounds from all packs can't preview them. I am not your typical user of integrated (huge orchestral multi-channel out) solutions - even if I load the GUI of BeatBox, in 99% of the cases I will use one sound and process it further, either with Falcon's FX, either with my DAW insert FX. Still I consider my observation is valid.

Also, would love the posibility to add an entire drive (the root, not the folders inside) to Places - I have local drives (sparsebundles) with various type of samples - this way, no matter on what physical hard drive they reside in (when changing/upgrading drives), they have the same path when mounted. And I can't just compact them on a single folder in the root of the drive as already other projects depend on the files being at their respective location.

[otristan]

Preview in search tab should be possible to add and make sense. Will check this.
Scanning the entire drive sounds like the best way for newbie to make mistake to me but you can add as many folder as you want.

[EvilDragon]

Scanning the entire drive sounds like the best way for newbie to make mistake to me but you can add as many folder as you want.

Yes but sircuit there doesn't seem like a newbie, because he has all his sample folders across various local drives merged in a virtual drive/sparse bundle, so this helps in certain situations (which he also mentions - replacing drives but keeping paths the same, etc.). This is a very valid request I would also like to see working - why not add a whole drive to Places, really, instead of adding dozens of individual folders (and then if you change a drive the path breaks, ergh)?

Please don't dismiss power users!

[padillac]

You can index/search stuff on the HD folder if you add them to the soundbank preferences page and select indexed

Cool! Is there a way to re-index without restarting Falcon / removing and re-adding the path?

You can right click the Search node and call Reset Database and this will delete everything and start indexing from scratch.

Thank you! I had been using the right-pane search, but using the standard browser got me what I wanted.

btw any chance of a "preview instrument" button, where it plays a phrase using the instrument without loading it into the program? It would be cool to select from a number of phrases (bassline, scale, chords, melody) and preview a bunch of instruments quickly.

[EvilDragon]

That would still need to preload the instrument... which definitely wouldn't be instant, depending on the size of the patch...

[padillac]

Scanning the entire drive sounds like the best way for newbie to make mistake to me but you can add as many folder as you want.

Yes but sircuit there doesn't seem like a newbie, because he has all his sample folders across various local drives merged in a virtual drive/sparse bundle, so this helps in certain situations (which he also mentions - replacing drives but keeping paths the same, etc.).

How do you do that? I'm on OS X. Here's what I did:

* create a sparse bundle
* alias a folder into the sparse bundle

That let me see the samples no problem, but programs that referenced the samples expanded the alias to get the original file path. I tried it with a Finder alias and a terminal symlink (ln -s).

I would really love to do what I think you're saying... so hopefully you can share some info on how to accomplish it.

[padillac]

That would still need to preload the instrument... which definitely wouldn't be instant, depending on the size of the patch...

That's fine, I don't need it to be instant. Patches load quickly enough for me. It would just be nice to be able to preview without having to load it into a program.

[EvilDragon]

Scanning the entire drive sounds like the best way for newbie to make mistake to me but you can add as many folder as you want.

Yes but sircuit there doesn't seem like a newbie, because he has all his sample folders across various local drives merged in a virtual drive/sparse bundle, so this helps in certain situations (which he also mentions - replacing drives but keeping paths the same, etc.).

How do you do that? I'm on OS X. Here's what I did:

* create a sparse bundle
* alias a folder into the sparse bundle

That let me see the samples no problem, but programs that referenced the samples expanded the alias to get the original file path. I tried it with a Finder alias and a terminal symlink (ln -s).

I would really love to do what I think you're saying... so hopefully you can share some info on how to accomplish it.

sircuit is your man, I'm not using macOS at all (although something similar is also possible on Windows 10, I forget how it's called - EDIT: they're called Storage Spaces).