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Falcon is worth buying

MSoundFactory.
This is true. But UVI really push Falcon as a sampler and there are third party libraries for it, whereas my contacts with Vojtek (Meldaproductions’ developer) asking him specific questions about MSF’s sampler have lead me to believe it is not the main focus of attention. He’s more like “MSF supports Sfz, I’ve implemented it according to the specs, so look up the specs and what you want to achieve should work - goodbye” ;)
 
I would also like to mention Equator 2, that kind of secretly has killer multisampling options. Great synth overall. I hope it will get the love it deserves. From ROLI or whoever may pick it up.
 
I would also like to mention Equator 2, that kind of secretly has killer multisampling options. Great synth overall. I hope it will get the love it deserves. From ROLI or whoever may pick it up.
When I was looking for a hybrid synth I considered Falcon and Equator. Ended up getting Bitwig for less than what Falcon costs and it's way more powerful.

For my own stuff, Bitwig is all I need, but at some point I'd like to release a hybrid library and I don't see composers buying Bitwig presets/libraries.

I guess Falcon would be the best option now that Equator's future is uncertain.
 
Falcon is an incredibly well designed package, and overall seems to be a wise pick. It does not seem to have a flourishing eco system in terms of third parties offering presets though. I’ve hardly noticed the regular suspects embracing Falcon, except maybe Simon Stockhausen who was very active for a while (some years ago now I might add). So this may either mean there may be a market of composers that is not yet served, OR that composers are still more versed in Kontakt / Omnisphere / U-he and (increasingly?) Pigments “land”…
 
Falcon is an incredibly well designed package, and overall seems to be a wise pick. It does not seem to have a flourishing eco system in terms of third parties offering presets though. I’ve hardly noticed the regular suspects embracing Falcon, except maybe Simon Stockhausen who was very active for a while (some years ago now I might add). So this may either mean there may be a market of composers that is not yet served, OR that composers are still more versed in Kontakt / Omnisphere / U-he and (increasingly?) Pigments “land”…
One thing that always bothers me about UVI products is iLok. And I suspect I'm not alone in this. NI and U-He have their own license/activation tech which is way more user friendly.

I also suspect big developers like Spitfire, OT, etc, would not risk investing tons of cash into Falcon products when Kontakt is already the de facto standard. Falcon might be more powerful with the IRCAM stuff, but other than Kontakt's ancient UI it does the job well for samples.

So basically the only company investing heavily into Falcon is obviously UVI themselves but their stuff doesn't have universal appeal tbh. There are also a couple of small companies and sound designers like Simon Stockhausen but that's not enough to shift the market away from Kontakt.

IMO UVI should make an aggressive push to increase adoption of Falcon. Maybe reaching to companies with an ample Kontakt catalog like say Cinesamples and offering to port their stuff to Falcon for free. I don't know, maybe UVI is just doing fine and doesn't care for more adoption.
 
One thing that always bothers me about UVI products is iLok. And I suspect I'm not alone in this. NI and U-He have their own license/activation tech which is way more user friendly.
You don't need an actual dongle, it's "soft" iLok.
I also suspect big developers like Spitfire, OT, etc, would not risk investing tons of cash into Falcon products when Kontakt is already the de facto standard. Falcon might be more powerful with the IRCAM stuff, but other than Kontakt's ancient UI it does the job well for samples.
I see Falcon mostly as a "start from scratch" instrument.
Still, I love some of the Falcon extensions/libs simply because they are open, so a beginner like me can dissect them and understand more about Falcon (and synthesis in general).
Yet, some of them (Cinematic Shades is a concrete example) are actually amazing.
I found myself using it quite a bit when sketching the temp soundtrack for my current movie.
 
Falcon is like Kontakt and Reaktor meshed into one.
Vaguely.

Falcon is a synthesis/sampling workstation with pre-built modules. It also allows some scripting.

Kontakt is a sampler that allows scripting.

Reaktor (and the same goes to Max/MSP, and others) is a graphical modular software that you can build your own modules from the ground up.
 
This is true. But UVI really push Falcon as a sampler and there are third party libraries for it, whereas my contacts with Vojtek (Meldaproductions’ developer) asking him specific questions about MSF’s sampler have lead me to believe it is not the main focus of attention. He’s more like “MSF supports Sfz, I’ve implemented it according to the specs, so look up the specs and what you want to achieve should work - goodbye” ;)
For MSoundFactory's sampler functionality, do I need the full version or is all of that also in the ME version?
 
All versions have the sampler for playback and can handle all presets based on samples, such as the Monastery Grand. If you want to edit your own patches, you’ll need MSF proper.
 
I also suspect big developers like Spitfire, OT, etc, would not risk investing tons of cash into Falcon products when Kontakt is already the de facto standard. Falcon might be more powerful with the IRCAM stuff, but other than Kontakt's ancient UI it does the job well for samples.
Also note, Falcon does not utilize more than one core per instance. Running highly-scripted libraries in Falcon would not work at all due to the constraints of today's single-core performance.

So basically the only company investing heavily into Falcon is obviously UVI themselves but their stuff doesn't have universal appeal tbh. There are also a couple of small companies and sound designers like Simon Stockhausen but that's not enough to shift the market away from Kontakt.
Falcon has never been seen as a sampler 'in my books'. The sampler module provides me the ability to add my own audio so I can sound design with it.
 
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One thing that always bothers me about UVI products is iLok. And I suspect I'm not alone in this. NI and U-He have their own license/activation tech which is way more user friendly.

I also suspect big developers like Spitfire, OT, etc, would not risk investing tons of cash into Falcon products when Kontakt is already the de facto standard. Falcon might be more powerful with the IRCAM stuff, but other than Kontakt's ancient UI it does the job well for samples.

So basically the only company investing heavily into Falcon is obviously UVI themselves but their stuff doesn't have universal appeal tbh. There are also a couple of small companies and sound designers like Simon Stockhausen but that's not enough to shift the market away from Kontakt.

IMO UVI should make an aggressive push to increase adoption of Falcon. Maybe reaching to companies with an ample Kontakt catalog like say Cinesamples and offering to port their stuff to Falcon for free. I don't know, maybe UVI is just doing fine and doesn't care for more adoption.
I don’t get all the Falcon vs Kontakt juxtaposition to be honest. I for one did not try to bend the discourse in that direction.

That said, I agree Falcon won’t be the next Kontakt, nor does it try to be - nor -imho- should it be a serious objective for UVI. I don’t think “adoption” is high on their agenda to be honest.

When I talk about Falcon I see it as a very well designed AND maintained super synth, semi-modular, really good sounding, and with a pretty cool set of add-ons, in terms of new preset packs, instruments, samples, EPs, pianos and even some orchestral packages. In that sense it is a flourishing synth. And when I spoke of third parties earlier I did not mean the Spitfires of this world but rather the Unfinished’s, Tom Wolfe’s etcetera, mainly because I was under the impression you were considering Falcon as a “platform to develop synth presets for”. ;)

TL;DR
I am not at all bothered by Falcon NOT being the next Kontakt. And that fact does not have any negative impact on my appreciation of the synth.
 
One thing that always bothers me about UVI products is iLok. And I suspect I'm not alone in this.
This debate will likely never die haha, rivaled only by Waves’ WUP and eLicenser dongle threads ;)

I use iLok without any troubles so I really don’t get why people truly dislike it, but of course that’s no valid argumentation either hehe. What I do know is that MANY composers on here seem to revere LiquidSonics reverbs, so that’s a category that apparently doesn’t really worry about iLok.

I don’t know if your hybrid library will rely (heavily) on samples, but a Kontakt or Omnisphere library seems to make more sense I gather than a Falcon one? (Purely from a commercial / sales POV).
 
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I'd say falcon 2 is definitely worth it. There is a learning curve, but some things are just easier to do within it compared to the alternatives. If you have the time to sit down and learn it and its architecture, Falcon is extremely powerful. It does take some investment—though. If you code LUA, it's even better!

Like everyone else, I wish its performance was better optimized.

One negative, if you fall into this category, is that there are not as many packs or third party presets made for it compared to the other engines you mentioned; so, if you heavily rely on the premade sound packs of say omnisphere or preset packs of phaseplant/serum, there is just not the same amount of support. If you are a do it yourself person, and you can learn from what packages are available for it, it's a rocket ship.

While I agree with Doctorremmet that you really shouldnt toss Falcon into the same category as Kontakt—as it really isnt a one to one—some of the best private libraries I have ever used are built in Falcon. Lua efficiency and flexibility with some of the functionality exposed under the hood makes it a walk in the park to do things that are a royal PITA with Kontakt.

However, while there are some neat libraries for it, I predominantly use it for sound design rather than a generic sampler.
 
@Piano Pete I have done quite a lot of patching in Falcon and recently downloaded IRCAM’s Modalys (with the intention to use the MAX for Live version). Both use LUA Scripting. Do you happen to know some sources / books / websites / courses about LUA, particularly geared towards use in the context of Falcon or Modalys? I do have a very basic knowledge of scripting in general, but I have never really been able to “start” my journey with LUA for Falcon, due to a lack of sources really. No idea how to go about such an endeavour ;)
 
You don't need an actual dongle, it's "soft" iLok.
I'm well aware of that. I use iLok because I own UVI and Waves products.

I guess it all comes down to the fact that I'm still pissed I lost a product license. A machine with iLok died on me 2 years ago and that was it. Also the fugly UI of the iLok software and the license transfer fee.

I don’t get all the Falcon vs Kontakt juxtaposition to be honest. I for one did not try to bend the discourse in that direction.

That said, I agree Falcon won’t be the next Kontakt, nor does it try to be - nor -imho- should it be a serious objective for UVI. I don’t think “adoption” is high on their agenda to be honest.
That's a good point.

I've always seen Falcon more like Omnisphere. Somehow a Kontakt with synthesis reather than a synth with samples, but now that I think of it you're absolutely right.

BTW the Programming in Lua book is probably the best resource to learn if you already know how to code. It was written by one of the lead Lua authors. Not sure how good it is for beginners in programming though.
 
Also note, Falcon does not utilize more than one core per instance. Running highly-scripted libraries in Falcon would not work at all due to the constraints of today's single-core performance.
Sounds more like Falcon is not very well optimized...

A single core should be able to handle plenty of stuff. Multi core is even disabled in Kontakt by default AFAIK. Heck, I can run dozens of Diva or Repro voices in a single core.
 
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