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

[EvilDragon]

There are no real visual ques to separate Program from Layer from Keygroup from sample/oscillator.

...except there's the Tree view right there. The main editing area doesn't need this nesting because it takes away useful space. The main editing area is a simple top-to-bottom orientation. Seems simple enough to me, and I wouldn't say UVI didn't give it any thought....

Now, having some subtle shades of color per section in the edit view, that I agree with, could be helpful.

[dandezebra]

There are no real visual ques to separate Program from Layer from Keygroup from sample/oscillator.

...except there's the Tree view right there. The main editing area doesn't need this nesting because it takes away useful space. The main editing area is a simple top-to-bottom orientation. Seems simple enough to me, and I wouldn't say UVI didn't give it any thought....

Now, having some subtle shades of color per section in the edit view, that I agree with, could be helpful.

That would be quite amazing.

[David]

I often wonder in these sort of "discussions" how Halion6 manages to get ignored. To me, its interface seems like Falcon's less lovely sibling, maybe even smarter, but only speaks in riddles using a private language.

[Charlie Firpo]

I find Falcon very straightforward, and really like the workflow. But a +1 on Evildragons shades of color! Looking forward to future updates (eventhough the current version would last a lifetime. It really is fantastic as it is)

[machinesworking]

I'm trying to think of another super synth even that's a full blown sampler like Kontakt, and hits nearly every form of synthesis like Falcon does? maybe Omnisphere, but I don't think it's as flexible from what I can tell.
Most supremely powerful workstations require time and effort to learn, and there's a big difference between huge library, powerful engine etc. and access to that power.

Omnisphere is definitely nowhere near the complexity of Falcon nor the capability.

Just because something is powerful doesn't mean it can't be well thought out and intuitive. That's the whole point of good design.

The best example of something that was absolutely horrendous yet supremely capable and powerful is BLENDER. Only people without any capability of understanding good design and workflow thought it was brilliant, usually throwing out sentences like "Once you learn the keyboard shortcuts you can be super fast!".. as if that fixes bad UI design. Luckily there are some really smart and design focused people working with the code now so Blender 2.8 completely turned it all around and prioritized UI and workflow. It's even more ridiculously capable than ever before but the UI is much better.

Another example from the graphics world is GIMP. It's extremely capable yet supremely stupid in it's workflow and idiosyncrasies.

Falcon does NOT have good design in my opinion. It is capable yes, heck even the way things are shown is sort of logical and makes a bit of sense but it could all be much MUCH better. You could also make it a lot more accessible for inexperienced people without compromising anything for advanced user, right from the get-go, with various methods.


My point is: Just because something is complex and capable doesn't mean the user interface has to be too. Good design is as valid a skill and artform as anything else. It really DOES matter. Excusing bad design with ".. but but but it's complex and capable!" is futile.

Great post, I love examples rather than just emotional irritation etc.

I think you're also inadvertently making the point that it's not easy. The more complex a piece of software is, the more it can become unintuitive and obtuse from the outside. My case in point would be Ableton Live. Early versions were 100% WYSIWYG, now with Racks, Max 4 Live, and numerous bolted on features through the years there's a lot of things in Live you need to know, that aren't intuitive etc.

Plus my biggest fear with strict adherence to design is it will win out over features. Logic when bought by Apple tied its Mixer directly to its tracks window, because WYSIWYG etc. but this is counter intuitive to what you actually do in those windows. Tracks hidden in the Arrange window were summerly hidden in the Mixer, so things I normally don't automate like Aux tracks with reverb on them etc. had to be visible in the Arrange... Apple thinking about new users instead of power users.

None of this is easy, but I completely agree that Falcon could use some UX love.

[Smapti]

My most desired update for Falcon is something they might never do: I'd love to be able to route external audio through its effects & modulation. The reason they might not do it is because they already sell parts of the fx separately (eg Sparkverb). One can hope, though!

[bmanic]

There are no real visual ques to separate Program from Layer from Keygroup from sample/oscillator.

...except there's the Tree view right there. The main editing area doesn't need this nesting because it takes away useful space. The main editing area is a simple top-to-bottom orientation. Seems simple enough to me, and I wouldn't say UVI didn't give it any thought....

Now, having some subtle shades of color per section in the edit view, that I agree with, could be helpful.

I totally agree that the tree view is right there (and it's what I personally use constantly to navigate and tweak settings) but I can guarantee that it's not intuitive for most people.

Even the tree view could be better implemented though. It could have an optional graphical "node" view instead of the classic oldschool tree view. I suspect something like that would be much clearer for people, very clearly showing the structure. Then taking it further making it interactive where you double click a node or structure you instantly jump to exactly that place in the synth.

Again, my point is, there are tons of ways of doing these things. There are very cool modern ways of showing massive amounts of information and data without making it unintuitive or clumsy.

[osxmik]

please add multithreading-support...a lot of cores are sitting unused on the couch

[Biome_Digital]

Does falcon have drag and drop modulation?

[Whywhy]

Does falcon have drag and drop modulation?

Yes, assign modulation by drag n drop.

[Biome_Digital]

Great!

[andrewbrewer]

To anyone having trouble with glitches in Falcon in Ableton, I’ve found some things that work for me.
1) if you have komplete kontrol, open the kontrol plugin in ableton and then open falcon from within the kontrol plugin (i use this trick on other vsts that give me trouble—not sure why it works, but it does for me)
2) turn off OpenGL rendering in falcon
3) if you are using a sample based instrument, look at the sample information in falcon to see the sample rate, and set sound card sample rate to match this in ableton preferences (this really helps with cpu spikes in IRCAM stretch module)

[Saukar30]

Does anyone know what sfz opcodes are supported by Falcon for import?

[BeeDog]

Did UVI stop supporting Falcon, or are they cooking up a bigger 1.7/2.0 update? Any indications?

[otristan]

Does anyone know what sfz opcodes are supported by Falcon for import?

mapping, pitch env, amp env, filter env, filter lfo, pitch lfo, filter type and round robin regions