UVI Falcon

[Nestor]

Soundisigner, the problem is that this synth can be used only in Reason, it is not a VST you can get access, unfortunately. I know Sample Modeling, they are absolutely great, but they are not really into synths, they are rather into acoustic instruments like violins, flutes, etc., as far as I know.

[Nestor]

Objekt seems to be a GREAT instrument overall, I didn't know about it, because of it is for Reason.

[Nestor]

In my search for instruments, while composing, I can say I tend to use, most of all, conventional instruments that I like already very much, like you could like a dish that you know you will eat over and over again, every time you are hungry, those will be the main instruments I would choose, with some variations.

When inspiration hits hard, I don’t tend to search for new sounds, on the contrary, I go straight to what I feel already like my friends, and start playing as soon as possible to build the foundation of the song, then, when the song is already build, I would eventually use some new sounds to embellish the final mix.

In some rare occasions, perhaps something like 5% out of the whole thing, (that is, the 100% of songs I could produce in a year), I would go for some weird or unusual instruments, samples or self-made instruments.

UVI Falcon in that regard, it is more suitable to my way of working than Objekt, as it is a more conventional instrument.
You know? One of the most powerful ways I have to compose, (and what I’m going to say it is death simple, even ridiculously simple), is based in combinations. I prepare instruments and get them ready to be loaded in a few seconds, previously mixed, win their own EQ and FX already, carefully build to my taste and reaction to the keyboard wheels, and this is one of the most powerful and beautiful sounds I can get out of the DAW. This process takes hours and hours, but once you have them in your hands, it is wonderful.

I mix, (to your surprise probably) two or three basses, two ore three drums, two or three pianos, and this is particularly great when mixing lead instruments, I can go as far as mixing even more synths together with very satisfying results to my likes.
I say that because it is one of the best ways to expand your tools, without getting a new one, even if I’m crazy about Falcon

Do you guys do this? It is perhaps so obvious what it is kind of silly to ask, but I truly wander if you do the same ore not.

[Sounddesigner]

What I was asking was what your first portion of your reply contained: how does object compare in terms of range of sounds as well as quality of synthesis. If I want an accurate instrument I will record it played by an excellent player, simple as.

Got it! Yea, nothing ITB beats a real Musician playing a real acoustic instrument if he/she is very good and the exact sound of that instrument you want.

As good as AI and PM may get i'm not convinced very skilled people will ever be replaceable, for one reason or another. But new dimensions to Music Production are certainly being added and improved upon.

[valis]

I don’t understand concerns about replacement. The Roland drum boxes (and TB303 etc) were met with the same concerns, yet people still play the drums and bass guitar.

[Sounddesigner]

I don’t understand concerns about replacement. The Roland drum boxes (and TB303 etc) were met with the same concerns, yet people still play the drums and bass guitar.

Both your examples are great examples of new tech improving the industry and making small Studios more capable.

My problem with some of the new tech is not that they will steal jobs from talented people but that people use some of it as a crutch and this contributes to music sounding worse.

AI often is substituted for further development of skills. People lean on Autotune for pitch correction too much, rather than learning to sing better and living with the minor human imperfections in pitch.

Izotope and Sonible are some of the leaders in AI plugins. Their plugins basically do all the Mixing for you, you just press a button and they analyze and apply Efeects to your Track/Mix/Master. The AI always determine you need Effects processing and it usually does'nt sound good. This Custome preset is almost always over-the-top to me. AI is no substitute for improving Mixing skill and i think these type plugins make music sound worse when people lean too heavily on them and make a constant crutch of them. I welcome the new tech, its just a Custome-preset and there is nothing wrong with presets. One just need to be smart when using the smart-tools . Presets make good starting points but the overall sonic picture should come from your mind not a plugin, IMO.

I don't fear this type of AI taking jobs, if anything it might create more work for skilled Engineers cause it sounds so horrible at present time. I do think it contributes to Music sounding worse today and the laziness of this new generation of Composers and Engineers who seem to love Loops, Autotune, AI Mixing, etc. Just my 2 Cents.

[astroman]

... I mix, (to your surprise probably) two or three basses, two ore three drums, two or three pianos, and this is particularly great when mixing lead instruments, I can go as far as mixing even more synths together with very satisfying results to my likes.
I say that because it is one of the best ways to expand your tools, without getting a new one, even if I’m crazy about Falcon

Do you guys do this? It is perhaps so obvious what it is kind of silly to ask, but I truly wander if you do the same ore not.

Atm I rather try to avoid it... because I suffer from a simple decision problem: which sound to take ???
I already have way too many: Yamaha DX, Casio CZ and VZ, at least 10 Scope synths considered „essential“, 10 more on iPad, 2 dozen great Akai CDs...
Yet I can‘t resist to search for „new“ sounds.

But your approach is very common: it‘s what Korg, Roland and Yamaha do for decades, just with more limits compared to your way of manually arranging parts.

[Nestor]

Yeah, I understand, these keyboards have done it for decades, I have had them too, but my approach is quite different as there is much freedom involved, including the addition of any FX and routing, then I save them as a single preset through Blue Cat's PatchWork, which is great. I am most exigent with myself when coming to leads sounds particularly, they MUST inspire me to a point melodies and solos go by their own, then musical lines just come out of you easily because you like it so much. I have created a few of those already, they take a long time to be build true, but nothing comes even close to them in any synth preset you can buy, either in multis or combinations, you have to build them from scratch yourself to reach what you "exactly" want, it is not easy, it takes a lot or patience and work, but they become priceless. These are "instruments" (if you want to call them like that), that you will always use, they do not get old.

I will give you a musical example, here you have several instruments of the same realm used in subtle ways, there are two basses at first, sometimes three bases, there are at least, in the whole track, 6 drums that overlap with each other, there are several guitars, synths leads, etc. Think about it more like adding layers sometimes, but sometimes is like an EQ, an Fx or a difference in dynamics an timber, sometimes it might be only the tail of a timber what you hear coming from one instrument, and the attack coming from another, etc., etc., it will be quite difficult to distinguish for you because when you listen to them they will sound like a single instrument, but they are several. This, I have found, it is one of the most convenient ways to reach exactly the kind of sounds and textures I want without burning my brain and spending so much time.

This is my latest song called "World Government", which is in Spanish. Here you will see what I mean, everything goes this way, (by the way, I have used the DT 770 Pro to mix it), sorry it is a crappy mp3, listen:

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code ... 0NbBEs3nO7

[astroman]

Good song... I assume you intentionally mixed the vocals a bit up front to focus on lyric content.
So the details of the instrumentation are somewhat hidden, but who cares ? After all it‘s a song.
I get your ideas about „instrument design“ and the freedom gained, though.
Better than to browse hundreds of presets anyway
Respect to your composition skills, impressive !

[Nestor]

Yes, perhaps the lyrics are a bit loud if we take them as a melody only, the emotional content of the song is in the lyrics, it's true, in the meaning of the words, it talks about having what we deserve because we vote those crazy guys that are up in power today.

Anyway, it is difficult to realize there are several instruments of the same kind, you see?, because they sound like one, except, perhaps, the drums, which are sometimes quite obvious in their overlap.

Thank you for your comments Tom.

[Nestor]

I am getting myself the time to really get into Falcon, little by little. Guys..., this is a serious weapon, I am in awe. The deeper I get, the more I like it. THE SOUND it produces, IT IS FOR ME.

I'm really getting in trouble now... I must get it.

Gave up on many other things already, including some great ones like Harrison Mixbus, (but it is too expensive and I can achieve similar things anyway, I found how with other means). Falcon, nevertheless, is winning in all terrains, I feel it could be a forever companion for me. We'll see...

[Nestor]

I've got it! I cracked on it. It is one of the very best investments I have ever made, top notch in every aspect. Very well thought, light, fast, reliable, "different from all the rest" (which is a plus), great FXs, multilayer possibilities beyond imagination, SUPERB SOUND. Just amazing, it is worth the plunge. I'm very happy with it

[Sounddesigner]

Congrats on the beast! Hope you can tame it, meaning those type mega-instrument workstations have a serious learning curve generally. Their capabilities are mind-blowing compared to the synths of old. Mega-Workstations and sophisticated channel-strips/multi-effectors are a large part of the might of the modern era. I prefer Reason but i know that people who use Omnisphere swear by it likewise those who use Falcon, Halion, etc, they all are juggernaut powerfull.

All of the Mega-Instruments plugins i mentioned except for Halion and Icarus are limited to only a single CPU core and cannot span multiple cores when you get sophisticated with layering. Omnisphere, Reason, and Falcon are all single core users. This generally is'nt much of a problem with modern computers but some still run into the problem especially as the size of the project grows and you are running many plugins with the mega-instruments. Due to past bad experiences i now try to get the fastest CPU i can when it's upgrade time to avoide this problem permanently if possible. It generally should'nt be a problem with a recent computer but also i don't know the size of your projects.

I'm sure your gonna have a lot of fun with her as she is impressive. Did you catch a sale price?

[Nestor]

Thank you, my brother!

No, I did not catch a sale price! My anxiety grew up and up and up as I investigated more in depth all about it, read endorsements, followed tutorials, etc. It was a matter of time for me to get it, price never got down, so I did. I’m convinced it is worth the price, it is a serious effort you get in your hands there, probably, after many, many years of burning their heads on how to make it better. I imagine it is a team of several people behind it. This HUGE and ULTRA-CAPABLE instrument is damn close to perfection!

It is not as difficult as it might seem to be at first, because the same logic is applied everywhere, if you learn a few steps, it becomes more and more intuitive. Once you get to know how to build a layer, save it, add FXs, you know pretty much how to build all the rest of an instrument. The FX section, well…, it is quite intricate, because you can do anything there, so yes, there you need lots and lots of hours to get acquainted with. In my way of working, nevertheless, I don’t need to get that deep at all. I like to play with some “experimental sounds”, now and then for a particular passage or project, but I am not into experimental music, I am much more interested in the traditional timbers I like to use for my music.

I don’t get short in power because of the single core usage. (I didn’t even know or paid attention to this point until now, I did because you mentioned it here, otherwise, I did not even notice a shortage in power at all). But, I have a way of working I have developed after many years which allows me to save resources, I am very used to work this way today and so I spend few resources to build very big projects. How do I do it? It is very simple, I build my project section by section, then render to wav the finished section and keep going with the following one. It is complicated at first, but if you know what you want to do in detail, it’s not really a problem, now I am very used to work like this, I don’t mind. Eventually, I would compose and mix an entire song, convert it to a single wav, insert it in a new project and go on with the rest of the instruments and details I would like to add. I repeat this as many times as needed. I have even go to almost 400 tracks recently with a classical piece and did not have mayor problems, it has become a natural thing to me.

[Nestor]

Fantastic instrument, loving it!
Yes, I recommend it entirely.
FXs are about the very best I have heard, at least, I can say they are of my taste.

[Sounddesigner]

That's good Falcon's learning curve is'nt that big to you. You're probably faster then me at that. I try not to buy too many big synths/workstations as i felt too much of my time went into learning them, almost like learning a DAW and with Reason it is a DAW to. I've had GALAXIAS with my Roland Subscription for many months now and never touched it due to time.

Have you tried Falcon's Bowed String Oscillator and IRCAM Multi-Granular-Oscillator yet? Those two really caught my attention and the audio demos especially the granular sound nice. I really like the experimental stuff wich Reason and SCOPE Flexor does very well. Icarus does most things well to as it does about 65 different types synthesis and about 65 filter types probably close to a 100 different oscillator types including mega Oscillator-Stacks all of wich is extra-terrestrial.

Falcon certainly has some attractions, the FM seems a little limited tho and only has about 4 Operators, but the overall enviroment makes every module powerfull, much like Reason.

With SCOPE, Reason, and Icarus i certainly don't want or need any more Mega-Instruments and i likely will never use or get serious use from GALAXIAS. I prefer the simple synths Roland and some others have.

What i do like about Falcon is that it is UVI's baby so they upgrade it frequently and take care of it unlike Omnisphere wich was released in 2005 and is still on version 2. Falcon is'nt upgraded as regularly as Reason but certainly regularly enough. Below is upgrade cycles:

Omnisphere- released 2005 version 2.8
HALion released 2001 version 7
Icarus about 8 years old version 3
Reason released in 2000 version 13
Falcon released 2015 version 3

UVI care about their baby and do strive to make it number 1. Looking at feature set, upgrade cycle and road map they deserve that much credit. Big mega instruments usually are rarely upgraded, just look at Reaktor, Zebra, Tassman, etc.

[valis]

I have had several offers to grab falcon at a reduced rate due to owning a lot of their rompler products. Will consider it when I have extra pocket money.

[Nestor]

Go for it brother!
Go for it! You will absolutely thrilled yourself playing with it. I do not repent to have spend that much! I could not wait anymore anyway, but if you have this possibility plunge into these waters. Listening to your music, I know you will find endless uses for your style and ways. If you think well, as a musician, you spend lots of money in little things that do not do the job as you would like, well..., this is not the case, is Falcon really expensive? If you stop there because you are satisfied with it, you are saving money at the end. I have spend lots of money in single plugins here and there, but they do not add real value, they are installed in the PC, but I rarely use them. Falcon..., not the same, I use it all the time now, in everything, just as much as I use Kontakt.

I will go as far as telling you I will be getting in the future some of their soundwares offered in their page and will forget about any upcoming VSTi in the market, I am where I want to be right now, I feel I have everything I could possibly need with this addition, and this gives me a nice thought: CONCENTRATE ONLY IN MUSIC.

There are about 4 or 5 soundwares that are of my very taste that I would like to take in the future.
Of course, there are soundwares for everyone's taste and you can create your own and there are quite a few for free too.

I will go to the most important aspect brother: THE SOUND !!!, because this is the main factor. Falcon has a super inspiring, great, alive, warm sound, the FXs are very pleasant, like the best Indian spice you could find in the market to cook your own recipe.

[Nestor]

That's good Falcon's learning curve is'nt that big to you. You're probably faster then me at that. I try not to buy too many big synths/workstations as i felt too much of my time went into learning them, almost like learning a DAW and with Reason it is a DAW to. I've had GALAXIAS with my Roland Subscription for many months now and never touched it due to time.

Have you tried Falcon's Bowed String Oscillator and IRCAM Multi-Granular-Oscillator yet? Those two really caught my attention and the audio demos especially the granular sound nice. I really like the experimental stuff wich Reason and SCOPE Flexor does very well. Icarus does most things well to as it does about 65 different types synthesis and about 65 filter types probably close to a 100 different oscillator types including mega Oscillator-Stacks all of wich is extra-terrestrial.

Falcon certainly has some attractions, the FM seems a little limited tho and only has about 4 Operators, but the overall enviroment makes every module powerfull, much like Reason.

With SCOPE, Reason, and Icarus i certainly don't want or need any more Mega-Instruments and i likely will never use or get serious use from GALAXIAS. I prefer the simple synths Roland and some others have.

What i do like about Falcon is that it is UVI's baby so they upgrade it frequently and take care of it unlike Omnisphere wich was released in 2005 and is still on version 2. Falcon is'nt upgraded as regularly as Reason but certainly regularly enough. Below is upgrade cycles:

Omnisphere- released 2005 version 2.8
HALion released 2001 version 7
Icarus about 8 years old version 3
Reason released in 2000 version 13
Falcon released 2015 version 3

UVI care about their baby and do strive to make it number 1. Looking at feature set, upgrade cycle and road map they deserve that much credit. Big mega instruments usually are rarely upgraded, just look at Reaktor, Zebra, Tassman, etc.

Very interesting points and info brother, thank you.

No I'm far from being intelligent in terms of how to handle instruments. My drive is "enthusiasm", not knowledge or intelligence, I get to learn in unusual, practical ways, I try everything and listen to it on the fly, but I could not explain to you what I'm doing in technical ways, all I get is the sound I was looking for by the end of the process

I've tried all of Falcon's components, but, as I'm telling you, I just use them not understanding what they really are, but getting the sound I want a the end.

I am now having the same problem you have, that is, my eyes are less capable than they used to be. I need bigger monitors and more real state space, so I went back to two monitors, and I'm planning to go with three next month, we'll, see. This has a very straight relation with learning, I don't feel anymore following a two or three months tutorial, this must be in the past for me, that is why I go to the point and make music in unconventional ways. It is not the best, of course, but at the end I get what I wanted.

If you remember Ken Suguro, here, in the Z, our Japanese friend sadly gone, he was amazing..., such an amazing dude learning every single plugin in detail to the 100%, he had a brilliant mind I have to say, not my gift.

If you want to have a very nice reading about UVI Falcon, read this please, there you will find many of my affirmations about its greatness, cheers:

https://musictech.com/reviews/software- ... -3-review/