KVR Audio

Gribs · Post by **Gribs** » Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:03 am

FWIW, after watching a couple of the Dan Worrall videos on Falcon on UVI's YouTube channel, I think the workstation compares better with Halion 5 than with Omnisphere 2. Halion 5 is similarly complex and modular and has a tree structure for various objects.

Honestly after looking at the Falcon videos, given that I have Halion 5, Serum, and Komplete, I am not sure what Falcon would buy me. I will echo a thought from someone in one of the other Falcon threads, which is that if I were just starting out and wanted a singular workstation instrument that covers many bases this would be a good choice.

MarlaPodolski · Post by **MarlaPodolski** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:38 pm

JUST stopping by this thread to report that, after reading the several threads and many great comments and insights, and after having read some manual chapters, and even after taking some surgical gloves to that filthy filthy dirty demo computer containing Omni at the way huge massive 10,000k guitars full big box music store and trying hard not to puke while touching the horrible computer there ...

... as if ... really ... as if there was ever any real question which one I would buy and cherish ...

Hands down! OMNISPHERE 2

Yes, don't intend to necro and pursue this thread further, but wanted to give result. Yes, Falcon is incredibly complete and powerful ... and modern ... and .... and does everything .... so what, though?

In the end, I find that Omni 2 has ten times as much real soul, character, spirit, (even funkiness?), call it what you will .... It called out to me and I answered.

Very very happy I was able to resolve this, but the answer came easily, naturally. Falcon has a very useful, modern look and operation. The GUI looks a bit like my SERUM's design a little. And it is possible to find your way around and become comfortable without much pain and a good bit of reading and effort. And yes, good sounds and powerful, flexible.

But Omni 2 in several ways just opened up to me, so easy to understand, program, audition, what have you. Much better supply of patches and banks of course, as well. Even though money really was not the issue, I realised that I'd need to acquire
MachFIVE banks and UVI compat stuff, and in the end be paying for more than the cost of Omni 2 and a half dozen or so 3rd-party Omni banks.

Omni is just so cool and inviting. I did not experience the same when checking out Falcon. THANKS everyone for your reviews, advice, opinions!!!

---marla

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 11:21 pm

MarlaPodolski wrote:JUST stopping by this thread to report that, after reading the several threads and many great comments and insights, and after having read some manual chapters, and even after taking some surgical gloves to that filthy filthy dirty demo computer containing Omni at the way huge massive 10,000k guitars full big box music store and trying hard not to puke while touching the horrible computer there ...

... as if ... really ... as if there was ever any real question which one I would buy and cherish ...

Hands down! OMNISPHERE 2

Yes, don't intend to necro and pursue this thread further, but wanted to give result. Yes, Falcon is incredibly complete and powerful ... and modern ... and .... and does everything .... so what, though?

In the end, I find that Omni 2 has ten times as much real soul, character, spirit, (even funkiness?), call it what you will .... It called out to me and I answered.

Very very happy I was able to resolve this, but the answer came easily, naturally. Falcon has a very useful, modern look and operation. The GUI looks a bit like my SERUM's design a little. And it is possible to find your way around and become comfortable without much pain and a good bit of reading and effort. And yes, good sounds and powerful, flexible.

But Omni 2 in several ways just opened up to me, so easy to understand, program, audition, what have you. Much better supply of patches and banks of course, as well. Even though money really was not the issue, I realised that I'd need to acquire
MachFIVE banks and UVI compat stuff, and in the end be paying for more than the cost of Omni 2 and a half dozen or so 3rd-party Omni banks.

Omni is just so cool and inviting. I did not experience the same when checking out Falcon. THANKS everyone for your reviews, advice, opinions!!!

---marla

Without a doubt, if you're not really into programming, Omni 2 is probably the better value. Falcon is more for the person who wants to dig deep inside a synth and suck as much life out of it as possible. So in that respect, I probably agree with your choice. Not that Omni 2 can't be programmed to pieces as well. However, the price tag being over double what Falcon was initially, for the programmer who doesn't already own Omni 2, Falcon is a no brainer and probably the biggest "steal" on the market.

I'm very happy that I own both but if I had to give up one, it would be Omni 2.

C-note · Post by **C-note** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:20 pm

Have Omni 2 and will never buy Falcon. Stuck with Mach 5 which is a pita and have never liked the UVI UI and workflow - so many unintuitive paths.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:47 pm

C-note wrote:have never liked the UVI UI and workflow - so many unintuitive paths.

Couldn't disagree more.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:11 pm

C-note wrote:Have Omni 2 and will never buy Falcon. Stuck with Mach 5 which is a pita and have never liked the UVI UI and workflow - so many unintuitive paths.

I don't know. Falcon in tree view is probably the easiest complex synth to navigate that I've ever used. Much easier than Omni.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:09 am

MarlaPodolski wrote:Omni is just so cool and inviting. I did not experience the same when checking out Falcon

IMHO, that entirely personal (and perhaps unexplainable) feeling is at the heart of choosing one instrument over another.

LarsErik · Post by **LarsErik** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 6:48 am

wagtunes wrote:
MarlaPodolski wrote:Thanks, all who have commented so far. Thanks in particular to wagtunes for some very insightful opinions. I expect I'll be on the fence over these two for a while, but there's no rush. Perhaps the biggest reason for only going with one of these is that I know there is a learning curve with each. I was able to download Falcon's manual and began reading it already. Does anyone know if Omni 2's manual can be downloaded? I have so far bookmarked its online page and have had an account there for ages. It's a little easier to have these longer manuals in hand than lengthy staring at a screen.

Please, anyone else - add your opinions on these two marvellous synths as your time allows!
I have yet to find a downloadable Omni 2 manual. It's the one thing about the synth that kind of bugs me, not that I need one at this point but what if I don't use it for a while and forget some things? A PDF would be really nice.

https://support.spectrasonics.net/manua ... ide_v2.pdf

kelvyn · Post by **kelvyn** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 9:21 am

Got both... In a nutshell I feel they are different beasts Omni is the best Rompler on the planet with amazing sounds and tweakable to a degree whereas Fakcon is a workstation that is incredibly deep on many levels - Sample/Synth/Granular - I feel they compliment each other.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:05 pm

LarsErik wrote:
wagtunes wrote:
MarlaPodolski wrote:Thanks, all who have commented so far. Thanks in particular to wagtunes for some very insightful opinions. I expect I'll be on the fence over these two for a while, but there's no rush. Perhaps the biggest reason for only going with one of these is that I know there is a learning curve with each. I was able to download Falcon's manual and began reading it already. Does anyone know if Omni 2's manual can be downloaded? I have so far bookmarked its online page and have had an account there for ages. It's a little easier to have these longer manuals in hand than lengthy staring at a screen.

Please, anyone else - add your opinions on these two marvellous synths as your time allows!
I have yet to find a downloadable Omni 2 manual. It's the one thing about the synth that kind of bugs me, not that I need one at this point but what if I don't use it for a while and forget some things? A PDF would be really nice.
https://support.spectrasonics.net/manua ... ide_v2.pdf

Thanks. I wonder when they put this up?

ckam03 · Post by **ckam03** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 3:22 pm

kelvyn wrote:Got both... In a nutshell I feel they are different beasts Omni is the best Rompler on the planet with amazing sounds and tweakable to a degree whereas Fakcon is a workstation that is incredibly deep on many levels - Sample/Synth/Granular - I feel they compliment each other.

"Sample/synth/Granular" You just described Omni. Tweakable to a degree? Nope. Much more tweakable than just to a degree so I dunno what you're talking about. I do wanna get my hands on Falcon to go along with Omni though. That thing looks sweet!

Nrt · Post by **Nrt** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:39 am

I'm a bit surprised to find all of Falcon's vintage synth library demos at their site share very similar sound character, bright, digital and bland, compare to the real hardware, or compare to Kontakt third party sample library of the same instruments.

Probably one of the reason is their demo is heavily processed with digital post processing, such as reverb, maximizer, etc., so it could be the raw samples represent the original instrument better than those demos, but I'm afraid it could be the sample themselves or their audio engine (including filter) coloring everything to make their sound the same.

I own Omnisphere, which audio engine is also somewhat colored, but it seems to be much less colored than Falcon. Coloring or Character is not a bad thing, of course, but it's not what I want for a sampler / romper. I know Falcon is more than that, but it's not the point here.

I wish I can hear demo without those digital processing.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:43 am

Falcon does not “color“ sounds in any way unless you want it to.

Nrt · Post by **Nrt** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:49 am

[quote="Sampleconstruct"]Falcon does not “color“ sounds in any way unless you want it to.[/quote]

Thanks. Can I find any audio demo without digital processing?

The reason why I'm asking this is the sound of all Falcon demo song doesn't match to my music style at all, but I'm interested in their sample handling capability, including IRCAM grain effects. Also I'm interested in their sample libraries, but from what I can hear from their demo, EII doesn't sound like EII at all to my ear.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:52 am

Nrt wrote:
Sampleconstruct wrote:Falcon does not “color“ sounds in any way unless you want it to.
Thanks. Can I find any audio demo without digital processing?

The reason why I'm asking this is the sound of all Falcon demo song doesn't match to my music style at all, but I'm interested in their sample handling capability, including IRCAM effects. Also I'm interested in their sample libraries.

There are tons of Falcon demos and videos out there, all my demos are 100% Falcon, just a limiter on the outputs, so that should give you an idea. Just browse the Soundware forum to find them or visit my page.

Well? Falcon vs. Omnisphere 2