Falcon 1.6 released

[Jaap]

UVI has updated Falcon to version 1.6 which is released today. Version 1.6 expands Falcon with two new effects: Digital Filter and Digital EQ, over 150 new factory presets and 40 new wavetables.
https://www.uvi.net/falcon.html#whats-new

And I created for UVI 30 presets for this release and you can all find them in the new Meditative folder, all the presets there are done by me

[heisenberg]

Hey Jaap, just went through your presets. Nicely done!!

[Jaap]

Thanks Andrew!

Falcon is on sale now as well with 30% off and you can add 2 free expansions of your choice (and also the 100 euro voucher is included). That is a heck of deal

[Marius]

Y'know, I might actually consider hopping in on this deal. Falcon's been on my radar since it was released.

What expansions do you folks recommend? A lot of them seem quite interesting and useful to me, so I'd love to get some opinions from owners.

[Thomas Mavian]

Falcon is on sale now as well with 30% off and you can add 2 free expansions of your choice (and also the 100 euro voucher is included). That is a heck of deal

OUCH!!! I've always looked at Falcon with lust in my eyes... Right now I don't have the money, but it's a good deal to say the least. I feel like it's the last software synth I'd ever need.

[Jaap]

Y'know, I might actually consider hopping in on this deal. Falcon's been on my radar since it was released.

What expansions do you folks recommend? A lot of them seem quite interesting and useful to me, so I'd love to get some opinions from owners.

I really really like the one Simon Stockhausen did, that is Ether Fields - http://www.uvi.net/en/falcon-expansions ... ields.html
The just released Devinity is also very well crafted. Splendid work Richard Devine did there, really using the Falcon synthesis at its best - http://www.uvi.net/en/falcon-expansions ... ields.html

Atmospherics and Cinematic Shades are the others I have and the first I like, but not as much as the previous ones. Cinematic Shades is nice, but dunno, never really grabbed me (but that is maybe a personal taste)

[Marius]

Thanks! I was leaning toward those two based on the demos, so it's nice to hear they live up to expectations.

[Jaap]

They are my personal favorites, but that is of course a matter of personal taste, but from a sound designers perspective I can also say that they are very well done

@Thomas - depends of course on your needs and such and it is a remarkable synth with a solid and robust engine and fx section, which they keep expanding. Downside is that it is not as intuitive and easy to fiddle around with as other synths, but once you grabbed the whole concept and how everything works, it can be really just the last synth you need.
What I personally like is that it offers even much more flexibility then for example Omnisphere when it comes down to mangling imported audio. It is a real hybrid synth and it goes deep, way deep haha

[Thomas Mavian]

Thanks Jaap!

It's not so much a "need" as a "lust" actually. I don't mind learning new stuff but I probably have every synth I could possibly need already. I like hardware though and with the latest addition, a Yamaha TG33 (finally!), I think I'm done with synths

Well, for this month anyway...

[Jaap]

Sometimes it can be really nice to just leave things and enjoy what you got!

[Thomas Mavian]

Sometimes it can be really nice to just leave things and enjoy what you got!

Indeed! And sometimes you just bide your time

[Guy Rowland]

I'm not really in the market for another synth - very happy with the set I have (Omni, Avenger, Pro 1/5 etc) and another steep learning curve is something I really don't need. Is that how you folks use Falcon, mainly? Organicy hybridy synthy stuff? Clearly this is a good deal and a terrific product, but I very much doubt how much use I'd get out of it.

[EvilDragon]

Falcon is pretty easy to get into, I would say. Just watch all Dan Worrall videos on UVI's Youtube channel and you're well equipped with knowledge to lose yourself in its depths for a long time, and just keep exploring.

[Guy Rowland]

Yeeeaaah.... thanks Mario, but that's the thing. I don't want to get lost in yet another synth's depths really. I think I've reached synth saturation point, at least for now.

Actually its the sampling side of it that is a little more appealing to me - I was so knocked for six when I realised how difficult it is in Kontakt to create a simple instrument with a couple of controls on the front panel, that its slightly piqued my interest in looking elsewhere. Can you easily do that kind of thing in Falcon? To be clear - looking for something dead quick to map a bunch of samples onto keys, then have a custom front panel UI. The UI can be totally plain, but it has to have just the controls I need - I don't want the clutter of pages of controls to wade through. In this case, its speed and pitch adjustment (using a really good quality timestretch algorithm).

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, Falcon has a concept of macro controls, which is pretty simple to use to create your own front panels. You can assign any number of parameters to a single macro (and pretty much that parameter can be almost anywhere in the instrument), adjust the starting value and scaling (effectively restricting the range of the parameter that you want the macro to control), invert it, make it bipolar, or just a toggle button. It's pretty great.

[Jaap]

Agree Mario, the tutorials Dan did are really good and solid (and dunno, just love listening to him haha). And for quick and easy sampling I really love Falcon. For me personally it works solid and easy and I prefer Falcon above Kontakt. As Mario also pointed out, it is easy to make a few quick controls via the macro (which you can also again assign to lets say aftertouch, mpe or modwheel and the likes).

[Guy Rowland]

Ah, this is sounding more interesting to me now - thanks you two. I'll do a little more investigating.

[Jaap]

If you have named your wav files nicely (and your probably do it is simply a matter of holding the alt button and drop them in the keyrange area and you can choose different mapping import options and all the work is done. Extending ranges is easily done and I think the timestretch of Kontakt is slightly better, but the one from Falcon is for sure not bad at all!

[EvilDragon]

IRCAM timestretch is great, but boy does it chomp the CPU.

[Jaap]

What is lovely again is that Falcon has an easy way via a script to set it up with a MPE controller such as a Roli Block/Seaboard.