UVI Falcon - v4 = 2026 released - rumors, ads, praise, kindergarden, auto-sampling and off-topic inside!

[machinesworking]

I find all this pretty silly really, show me a workstation all encompassing synth/sampler as powerful as Falcon with Hive/Serum wavetable synthesis, DX7 level FM, Diva Repro-5 analog components, AAS physical modeling? etc. etc. that's easy to use and capable of running at all on computers right now? What a load of garbage argument out of nothing.

Falcon started it's life as MachFive in collaboration with MOTU, it eventually started adding on granular synthesis etc. the collaboration ended and UVI used that tech for Falcon, which is a fantastic sampler with a ridiculously good sounding granular engine, dozens of components and effects to create totally unique patches if you want, or to add to existing UVI libraries.

It's complicated because it's powerful, like a lite version of Reaktor or Max. Definitely a "desert island synth" to me.

[gentleclockdivider]

Falcon's drum synth is a 1:1 carbon copy of one microtonic voice
Pretty nice if you ask me

[digitallysane]

While Falcon is capable and all, it's workflow is definitely not one of it's strong suits.

Quite the opposite, it's workflow is wonderful and elegant.

There is an initial learning curve, to understand the flexible architecture and the way you can layer your stuff at various levels, but once you understood its system, is very fast, elegant and clear.

If you don't want that infinite flexibility and prefer a fixed-number of oscillators type of synth, that of course fine, but it's not a weakness of Falcon.

[kobal]

I think people are conflating oscillators with sound. Because of Falcons powerful modulating and layering, you could really give your sounds whatever feeling you want - except maybe the classic "FM from B" dubstep growl since Falcon's FM capabilities are pretty limited (that'd be crazy awesome if it opened up).

with the wavetable osc it s possible.
i find when wavetable synth dosen t have fm (not the case here) their is workaround by making fmed wavetables using a other plugin and then loading them but it s not as convenient but once you have many it s ok..

[kobal]

Falcon's drum synth is a 1:1 carbon copy of one microtonic voice
Pretty nice if you ask me

never used it , thanks i will check

guys is there some features you really like to use in falcon? some sound design stuff , or some included modules maybe?

[functionform]

I think people are conflating oscillators with sound. Because of Falcons powerful modulating and layering, you could really give your sounds whatever feeling you want - except maybe the classic "FM from B" dubstep growl since Falcon's FM capabilities are pretty limited (that'd be crazy awesome if it opened up).

with the wavetable osc it s possible.
i find when wavetable synth dosen t have fm (not the case here) their is workaround by making fmed wavetables using a other plugin and then loading them but it s not as convenient but once you have many it s ok..

Of course, still, think how much more powerful it could be if we could modulate across oscillators, or even resample into a wave or wavetable. We would be able to eliminate the cpu drag of IRCAM oscillators or, create all sorts of wonderful combinations of sounds all within the plugin, without an external editor or process to do so.

Workflow is everything.

[dayjob]

Falcon's drum synth is a 1:1 carbon copy of one microtonic voice
Pretty nice if you ask me

never used it , thanks i will check

guys is there some features you really like to use in falcon? some sound design stuff , or some included modules maybe?

that's a pretty vague question. there's pretty much a tool for everything.. sequencing, granular synthesis, FM, wavetable etc.. it's all good imo.

[Neon Breath]

Yeah ‘sound design’ could be anything. What do you exactly mean by that? I’d like to help with tips but not sure here what you have in mind.

[Biome_Digital]

Falcon = options. That is its strength!

[spoontechnique]

I find all this pretty silly really, show me a workstation all encompassing synth/sampler as powerful as Falcon with Hive/Serum wavetable synthesis, DX7 level FM, Diva Repro-5 analog components, AAS physical modeling? etc. etc. that's easy to use and capable of running at all on computers right now? What a load of garbage argument out of nothing.

That's my overall point: Falcon is a jack of all trades, master of none. Since I bought Falcon years ago, I've used both hardware and software modular, where you can cherrypick exceptional modules of each category. I've also explored synths that are exceptional at one thing (Razor for additive, Prism for modal, AAS for physical modelling, Phase Plant for FM, Serum for WT, etc). Maybe that gave me unrealistic standards, but there's no reason a workstation synth can't rise with the overall caliber of synths.

Thank you for the bit of history on Falcon. It explains one of my major complaints: that Falcon's systems/routing/workflow seem jury-rigged. They kept adding components on top of what is now a dated structure.

with the wavetable osc it s possible.
i find when wavetable synth dosen t have fm (not the case here) their is workaround by making fmed wavetables using a other plugin and then loading them but it s not as convenient but once you have many it s ok..

Of course, still, think how much more powerful it could be if we could modulate across oscillators, or even resample into a wave or wavetable.

The dubstep growl "FM from B" Serum workflow isn't possible in Falcon's wavetable oscillator. Falcon's wavetable oscillator only allows FM from a sine wave. The FM from B workflow, in Serum, uses one wavetable oscillator modulating another wavetable oscillator. You can't emulate that in Falcon, since it requires two wavetable oscillators.

A good example of why Falcon feels limited. This workflow so easy to do in Serum that it's considered lazy by some...yet it can produce complex, interesting results. "Resample to wavetable" or some kind of "record to sampler" function in Falcon would be amazing.

[machinesworking]

I find all this pretty silly really, show me a workstation all encompassing synth/sampler as powerful as Falcon with Hive/Serum wavetable synthesis, DX7 level FM, Diva Repro-5 analog components, AAS physical modeling? etc. etc. that's easy to use and capable of running at all on computers right now? What a load of garbage argument out of nothing.

That's my overall point: Falcon is a jack of all trades, master of none. Since I bought Falcon years ago, I've used both hardware and software modular, where you can cherrypick exceptional modules of each category. I've also explored synths that are exceptional at one thing (Razor for additive, Prism for modal, AAS for physical modelling, Phase Plant for FM, Serum for WT, etc). Maybe that gave me unrealistic standards, but there's no reason a workstation synth can't rise with the overall caliber of synths.

Thank you for the bit of history on Falcon. It explains one of my major complaints: that Falcon's systems/routing/workflow seem jury-rigged. They kept adding components on top of what is now a dated structure.

Your overall point completely misses the point. Falcon is a workstation sampler with synth capabilities, it's geared towards people who want to make their own sounds, not a specific type of sound. I've never once opened Falcon and thought "I'm going to do physical modeling today", I've opened it and thought, "What if I take the pluck of physical modeling and toss it on an FM bass?" The whole point is not being tied to one approach, one sound engine etc.

It's not for you, that's really all there is to it. Personally it's in my top five, and realistically my desert island synth. So when you egotistically declare that it's got a "dated structure" (whatever that fugging means? Are we really convinced that every new approach is better these days??), you come across as your typical unintentional internet troll, venting all over a thread on a VI obviously a lot of people really love, for what reasons? Do you think it's helpfuL? Sell it and get on with your life.

[kobal]

The dubstep growl "FM from B" Serum workflow isn't possible in Falcon's wavetable oscillator. Falcon's wavetable oscillator only allows FM from a sine wave. The FM from B workflow, in Serum, uses one wavetable oscillator modulating another wavetable oscillator. You can't emulate that in Falcon, since it requires two wavetable oscillators.

A good example of why Falcon feels limited. This workflow so easy to do in Serum that it's considered lazy by some...yet it can produce complex, interesting results. "Resample to wavetable" or some kind of "record to sampler" function in Falcon would be amazing.

yes it would need to have more modularity that would be great, maybe in falcon 3.
you could render like 30 growling wavetable on serum and would be more or less sorted but more hassle than just using serum.. and there is probably some already in falcon , the overall caractere may suit some sound better than in serum so it might worht it for you, for me yes i like to program similar sound in both but uslaly the falcon one have a nicer caractere for my taste

[bmanic]

While Falcon is capable and all, it's workflow is definitely not one of it's strong suits.

Quite the opposite, it's workflow is wonderful and elegant.

There is an initial learning curve, to understand the flexible architecture and the way you can layer your stuff at various levels, but once you understood its system, is very fast, elegant and clear.

If you don't want that infinite flexibility and prefer a fixed-number of oscillators type of synth, that of course fine, but it's not a weakness of Falcon.

I have zero problems with complex synthesizers or software in general. Falcon's user interface and usability just doesn't work for me. I find it extremely clumsy and unnecessarily convoluted.

.. heck, compared to Falcon, I can absolutely blizz through Melda's MXXX system, and THAT thing is utterly horrible in terms of usability.

Falcon is a quite capable system but it's definitely not pleasant to use. This is of course just my personal opinion and I can definitely appreciate that some people find it quick to use. I don't. Simple as that.

[Neon Breath]

While Falcon is capable and all, it's workflow is definitely not one of it's strong suits.

Quite the opposite, it's workflow is wonderful and elegant.

There is an initial learning curve, to understand the flexible architecture and the way you can layer your stuff at various levels, but once you understood its system, is very fast, elegant and clear.

If you don't want that infinite flexibility and prefer a fixed-number of oscillators type of synth, that of course fine, but it's not a weakness of Falcon.

I have zero problems with complex synthesizers or software in general. Falcon's user interface and usability just doesn't work for me. I find it extremely clumsy and unnecessarily convoluted.

.. heck, compared to Falcon, I can absolutely blizz through Melda's MXXX system, and THAT thing is utterly horrible in terms of usability.

Falcon is a quite capable system but it's definitely not pleasant to use. This is of course just my personal opinion and I can definitely appreciate that some people find it quick to use. I don't. Simple as that.

I can understand that too. I don't especially love working with Falcon. It's not a nightmare, but not particularly fun neither. But the sound possibilities and creativity it opens for me largely compensate the workflow flaw.

[pierb]

Falcon started it's life as MachFive in collaboration with MOTU, it eventually started adding on granular synthesis etc. the collaboration ended and UVI used that tech for Falcon, which is a fantastic sampler with a ridiculously good sounding granular engine, dozens of components and effects to create totally unique patches if you want, or to add to existing UVI libraries.

Spectrasonics used tech from UVI to produce the first version of their plugins. Probably that tech ended up as Falcon.

STEAM is important to Spectrasonics future because it completes the technology transition from earlier performance virtual instruments that were based on the licensed UVI Engine.

https://www.spectrasonics.net/news/news ... .php?id=51