Oberheim8000 / UVI Falcon Soundbank

[Piet De Ridder]

Oberheim8000, a project by Ratislav Vejo, has released a 200-preset-large soundbank for the UVI Falcon, called Digital Exploration. The presets use no samples (everything is generated with the Falcon's oscillators, filters and wavetables) and contains the categories Bass, Drums, FX, Instruments, Leads, Pads, Synths and resources (single waveforms and wavetables).
All the sounds in all of the demos below are from the Digital Exploration soundbank.

Price: 30€

[Thomas Mavian]

Sounds really good. Been eyeing the Falcon for some time, will probably get it eventually

Your thoughts on it Piet as I guess you have it?

[Piet De Ridder]

Falcon is great. Took me a loooong time to recognize that though, because, if you step in with a NativeInstruments-moulded mind, as I foolishly did (not knowing any better), Falcon’s structure appears at first very uninviting: you’re searching for most of its functions and features in all the wrong places and not finding them there, is a confusing and frustrating experience.

The result of that was that, for quite some time, I only used Falcon to load up my UVI libraries — Falcon allows for a degree of editing and tweaking that is, obviously, impossible with the UVI Workstation — but then, slowly, I began finding my way around the software and since then it’s been mostly one Wow!-moment after another. ‘Deep’ is a bit of a meaningless word, but Falcon is exactly that: deep.

It still feels like I’m only splashing about in Falcon’s shallow end, and there’s an awful lot I haven’t tried out yet, but I splashed and tried out enough to be able to say: seriously amazing piece of software.
If you’re prepared to meet (and explore) Falcon on Falcon’s terms, you will discover that MUCH quicker than I did.

I like many of the sounds in those Oberheim8000 demos too, I must say. The soundpack may be called Digital Exploration, but there’s an almost analog-hardware-like quality to the audio in several of these demos.

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[Thomas Mavian]

Good to keep in mind when the time comes. Many thanks! I think I'm still in search for "that" synth plugin that will end all searches. Logic have Alchemy (used to have it before it got incorporated) but I never clicked with it. Tried a few presets, tried to build some patches from scratch following YouTube tutorials but no. Can't connect to it. Either I'm a bit daft or stupid.

If I've understood it correctly, you can script in Falcon? Only for samples or can you do stuff to the "regular" synth oscillators as well?

[GR Baumann]

Simon Stockhausen created quite some useful videos & sound sets, using Falcon from early days on.

[Piet De Ridder]

If I've understood it correctly, you can script in Falcon?

Thomas, yes, you can. (Although, again, that's not really my area of expertise, not even an area of casual familiarity.)

Falcon has an 'Event Section' where you can control 'pre-synthesis' midi-data. Part of the Even Section is Falcon's ScriptProcessor. As UVI says: "Script Processors are custom Events which allow Falcon's functionality to be extended with the Lua language. Factory Script Processors include the Chorder, Harmonizer, Unison, Ensemble and many more. Load any Script Processor and click the 'Edit Script' button to take a look at how they work. Experiment with modifying them or write your own, Script Processors provide both an extremely powerful way to interact with existing instruments and a sophisticated code-driven approach to sound design. Falcon's generic event shell, Script Processor, contains a number of useful Event Processors and can be extended in near-endless ways with user scripts. Scripts are divided categorically for easy navigation and include Analysis, Effects, Harmonization, Performance, Sequencing and Utility sections. Effortless create chords with the Tonal Harmonizer, trigger sophisticated note sequences with Step Line or script your own processors to extend Falcon's functionality any way you need it."

Some of the possibilities listed are:
● sequencing, arpegiation
● performance tools to enhance and create more realistic sequences: Legato, Portamento...
● instrument-specific scripts to simulate idiomatic playing modes: chord recognition, chord voicing, string selection... etc
● harmonisation
● Ensemble/unison simulation
● generative/algorithmic music
● micro-tuning
● effects: echo, tremolo, vibrato
● complete synthesis engine scripting and remote control.
● transformations: mirror, scale constraints...
● advanced instrument user interfaces with custom graphics
● ..

This page is all about the UVIScripting.

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[Thomas Mavian]

Many thanks Piet! Quite an extensive scripting engine I must say. Seems that you can alter almost any parameter you'd like. Shouldn't be too much trouble to make one of those "one-knob-to-rule-them-all" scripts like the Punish knob in some of Heavyocity's Kontakt libraries (knob controls several parameters at once but with different ratios). Makes for much easier automation.

[wst3]

every once in a while a sound set comes along that justifies - or nearly justifies the purchase of an engine. This, I think, has made it necessary to investigate Falcon further, and probably I need to invest in Falcon as well. At present I'm trying to tidy up some of my older systems and gear, clean up the pedal board, build the 5E3 and b-bender tele, repair some shock mounts, fix the filter in the ARP 2600, finish the audio only slave computer, fix the tach in the JH16, gad, the list seems endless some days! And of course there is still plenty to learn about VEPro and the Kontakt libraries I already own.

Buy yeah, the OB8k soundbank is amazing. I don't think it sounds exactly like any Oberheim I'be played, but boy does it get the vibe right!

[EvilDragon]

I think anyone who wants to get to know Falcon more should DEFINITELY watch all of Dan Worrall's videos on it. Here's the whole playlist from the UVI YT channel (has videos other than Dan's tutorials, but all the tutorials are sequential, I am linking to the video at which tuts start):

Shouldn't be too much trouble to make one of those "one-knob-to-rule-them-all" scripts like the Punish knob in some of Heavyocity's Kontakt libraries (knob controls several parameters at once but with different ratios). Makes for much easier automation.

In Falcon - you don't even need to use scripting to do the thing you just mentioned. There are macro controls, they can be knobs or buttons, you can create your own simple user-made GUIs with drag&drop and these macro controls, slap a background on it, and done. This is what Simon is doing in his Falcon soundsets, for example.

[Thomas Mavian]

Thanks, watched the overview with the ever great Dan Worrall and I'm sold, more than ever. Seems like a very, very deep instrument with a lot of thought in the design of the different modules. I think I "get it" just by looking at it. Will buy as soon as I can...