UVI Falcon 1.5 and Workstation 3 updates

[Guy Rowland]

Falcon 1.5



https://www.uvi.net/en/instruments/falcon.html

Falcon 1.5 enhances the factory library with 100 new presets that have been crafted to showcase Falcon's power and versatility. A Frequency Shifter has been added to the robust effects section, as well as new Event modules using the Script Processor such as MIDI Delay, Velocity Remapper and more, while the Wavetable oscillator now offers FM. Users can now also scale the user interface to suit their screen needs, and lastly, "Favorites" tagging makes accessing your most-used presets easier than ever.

Workstation 3:



https://www.uvi.net/www.uvi.net/uvi-workstation.html

UVI Workstation 3 introduces new features and enhancements focused on improving workflow and ergonomics. Notably, the user interface has been redesigned and is now scalable to suit all screen sizes. A new "Favorites" tagging option has been added, speeding up the recall of frequently used presets and patches.

[tack]

Looking forward to seeing if overall performance of Workstation has improved. The Bohemian has always been painful to use in terms of UI performance -- at least with Reaper.

[tack]

Looking forward to seeing if overall performance of Workstation has improved. The Bohemian has always been painful to use in terms of UI performance -- at least with Reaper.

Nope, it's every bit as bad as it was in terms of total DAW UI pauses. In fact it seems even worse now, as on the Bohemian when I click on the spanner/gear icon the audio cuts out completely while the UI is animating. I don't recall the previous version doing that (though I'm not motivated enough to reinstall it to double check).

[Guy Rowland]

That's all very odd Jason, I don't think I've ever had an issue like that with any UVI library Bohemian included. That said, I did a quick test here to be sure, and while there was no general lag or issue, when I clicked the spanner on Bohemain Violin there was a very brief spike which stopped the output for half a second. There was no equivalent of this in the Cello release, but that has a different UI.

[Jaap]

I can't speak for the workstation as I don't use that anymore, but Falcon runs just as normal and really loving the FM option for wavetables and this new frequency shifting modulation is really making my day!

[Jaap]

Mmm I have to adjust my answer. I am getting now and then the Cubase message " a serious error has occurred etc etc" when I insert an effect and this did not happen before the 1.5 update. Contacted support already and hopefully they have a clue.

[heisenberg]

Falcon is working well now that VEPro has been employed with Nuendo. Jaap is just dropped a bunch of Falcon EFX in a reasonably processor intensive patch and nothing blew up. Falcon is being hosted in VEPro though.

[EvilDragon]

Looking forward to seeing if overall performance of Workstation has improved. The Bohemian has always been painful to use in terms of UI performance -- at least with Reaper.

The main problem here is Reaper's undo. It's saving the whole plugin chunk there, and for Bohemian, since it has so many samples, this is pretty huge. Unfortunately this is not handled asynchronously (just like how there's no background loading) in Falcon/UVIW.

Some hosts (like Studio One) don't seem to have this problem. It does happen in Reaper, Maschine, and a couple of other hosts. It's pretty frustrating, not only for users, but also for Virharmonic guys, because it's not them who are creating the issue (well apart from using a LOT of samples - but in this game Kontakt is much more efficient than UVI's engine).

[tack]

The main problem here is Reaper's undo. It's saving the whole plugin chunk there, and for Bohemian, since it has so many samples, this is pretty huge.

Aha! Thanks for that bit of wisdom, ED. Indeed, using the "save minimal undo states" and "avoid loading undo states when possible" compatibility settings for the FX make a big difference.

Unfortunately this is not handled asynchronously (just like how there's no background loading) in Falcon/UVIW.

Given that Reaper itself completely hangs during this process, it seems to me that Reaper shares some of the blame here too. Even if I run the FX in a dedicated process. Really, blocking the UI should almost never be considered acceptable.

Anyway, much better now with those settings. Thanks!

[heisenberg]

Falcon is working well now that VEPro has been employed with Nuendo. Jaap, I just dropped a bunch of Falcon EFX in a reasonably processor intensive patch and nothing blew up. Falcon is being hosted in VEPro though.

[Jaap]

Falcon is working well now that VEPro has been employed with Nuendo. Jaap, I just dropped a bunch of Falcon EFX in a reasonably processor intensive patch and nothing blew up. Falcon is being hosted in VEPro though.

I will give it a shot then in hosting it via VEP then Andrew, it is not extremely problematic as it does not fully crash Cubase, but the error message is just disrupting and disabling/enabling the instrument track again lets it pick it up again.

[Jaap]

I managed to get the problem isolated. I sometimes add effects when having a few notes pressed at the keyboard and I guess this update doesn't like that anymore. Without touching the keyboard or having any kind of midi activity keeps it stable. Before that I tried it in VEP and also in the standalone version and had in both that it crashed and forcing a restart of VEP or the standalone version.
Just after a few times again in Cubase I noticed it was every time when I had midi activity going on (wasn't even aware that I did this haha, but seems to be quite an habbit as I started paying attention to it).

[EvilDragon]

Unfortunately this is not handled asynchronously (just like how there's no background loading) in Falcon/UVIW.

Given that Reaper itself completely hangs during this process, it seems to me that Reaper shares some of the blame here too. Even if I run the FX in a dedicated process. Really, blocking the UI should almost never be considered acceptable.

Anyway, much better now with those settings. Thanks!

I am not sure it's Reaper's fault because it also happens exactly the same in Maschine.

[Guy Rowland]

I am not sure it's Reaper's fault because it also happens exactly the same in Maschine.

...but if other hosts don't...?

I suppose every host has strengths and weaknesses - there's probably a real upside somewhere else to the reason why this is a pain in Maschine and Reaper.

[tack]

The UI blocking completely in Reaper is all I need to know that Reaper isn't doing something right here. At worst UVI should hang and probably the audio thread as well but I should at least be able to interact with the UI in Reaper to e.g. open a menu. It's acting like the main thread is somehow blocked on the FX, which can't be a good design.

[EvilDragon]

UI refreshes just aren't the most important thing in Reaper - I think it's designed in a way to never drop out audio as much as it's possible, UI and everything else be damned. (That would be the "upside" Guy is mentioning.)

[Jaap]

UVI contacted me back and notified me they released a fix for Falcon (1.5.1 and available from the my products page) and with some testing it seems to work fine as usual again.