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A new perspective on the sound of Falcon

This thread is a nice idea. Falcon patches for people who think they don’t like Falcon, to show what it can do that you might like. I’d love to see similar threads for other synths, or even developers. I would love to love Zebra, but haven’t yet found any sounds that have made me want to learn it. But I do recognise how great it is for usi with orchestral instruments.
 
Oh now you've made me curious!

What is it you're missing or don't like about Zebra?
If I described in words how Zebra sounds, those words would all be things I usually like. Yet somehow it doesn't quite work for me. A lack of substance and body maybe? Which may be why it works so well in hybrid music.
 
In case you're considering getting Falcon, here are some demos I've found that showcase a different kind of sound. Not the typical clincal precise stuff UVI is known for (I think).






Mikael is an excellent sound designer, but keep in mind his Falcon presets, at least the ones I have heard, incorporate samples. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but something to keep in mind when judging the sound. Richard relies more on programming wizardry in his Divinity soundset. However, if you are under the impression Falcon is only capable of clinical sounds you're focusing on the expansions and haven't explored Vintage Vault or Synth Anthology.
 
If I described in words how Zebra sounds, those words would all be things I usually like. Yet somehow it doesn't quite work for me. A lack of substance and body maybe? Which may be why it works so well in hybrid music.
I totally agree. I never cared for Zebra but do own Hive, Repro & DIVA.
 
I think I know what people mean when they think Falcon is clinical sounding. But I think that's mostly because all the presets are really clinical sound design. I've been playing with the vintage vault 3 that I got last week, taking instruments and presets and ripping them to bits and rebuilding them from samples up, generally to sound much grittier. This snippet is 100% falcon - only non-falcon is some EQ/compression. All fx, sounds etc are all from falcon. I think it's pretty vintage and gritty sounding, not clinical at all.
View attachment Song 2021-11-03 Melodic Techno.2 snippet.mp3
Oh no! So clinical I can smell the disinfectant! Or, you know, the total opposite of that...

I can still hear distinctively Falcon aspects to the sounds, but it lovely and rough-edged and organic.
 
I think I know what people mean when they think Falcon is clinical sounding. But I think that's mostly because all the presets are really clinical sound design. I've been playing with the vintage vault 3 that I got last week, taking instruments and presets and ripping them to bits and rebuilding them from samples up, generally to sound much grittier. This snippet is 100% falcon - only non-falcon is some EQ/compression. All fx, sounds etc are all from falcon. I think it's pretty vintage and gritty sounding, not clinical at all.
View attachment Song 2021-11-03 Melodic Techno.2 snippet.mp3
Just curious, why not equing and compressing in Falcon itself?
 
Although, I must say - the digital eq in falcon is really lovely to use. Makes me want to get Shade... maybe in the future. I've already got so many eq's that I don't use fully (550, 560, Nova, Schepps, SSL 4000, H-EQ etc etc - mostly waves as you can see I got sucked into their 29.99 sales... )
Wait, you managed to catch some Waves plugins while they were on sale?!
 
THe samples from vintage vault really give that organic feel - every note has a different sample in most instruments, so it feels much more alive than just digital oscillators. I think the distinctive sound of falcon is really SparkVerb - it has a certain slightly metallic sound, I really like it, but I do wonder if in a full production I'll swap out the reverbs on a few parts for IR verbs instead, or use IR-1 with some lexicon impulses.
It depends on what the reverb is doing. Often the internal reverb of a synth is not simulating spatial location. So you might want to keep SparkVerb for one purpose (sound quality and sustain) and add IR-1 very slightly to blend it with the other instruments.
 
Although, I must say - the digital eq in falcon is really lovely to use. Makes me want to get Shade... maybe in the future. I've already got so many eq's that I don't use fully (550, 560, Nova, Schepps, SSL 4000, H-EQ etc etc - mostly waves as you can see I got sucked into their 29.99 sales... )
Shade is great. I just used it on a track tonight. I often use it in place of Pro-Q3 while mixing.
 
Although, I must say - the digital eq in falcon is really lovely to use. Makes me want to get Shade... maybe in the future. I've already got so many eq's that I don't use fully (550, 560, Nova, Schepps, SSL 4000, H-EQ etc etc - mostly waves as you can see I got sucked into their 29.99 sales... )
H-EQ is a really musical equalizer, with some unique features. Quite like that one (the entire H-range is incredible really).
 
H-EQ is a really musical equalizer, with some unique features. Quite like that one (the entire H-range is incredible really).
As I experiment with different compressors, I still usually end up removing them and going back to H-Comp.

For EQ I jump straight to Maag 4 if I'm not sure what I need. It can get a bit samey, though.
 
The H-series and some of the Abbey Road series are among the most useful mixing plugins I’ve worked with to be honest. I am kind of liking skeumorphism as it indeed forces me to use the ears rather than look at graphs. I still tend to use my Waves stuff more than T-RackS and all of Melda. I guess it has to do with old habits, but I also wouldn’t if it just didn’t sound so good ;)
 
As I experiment with different compressors, I still usually end up removing them and going back to H-Comp.

For EQ I jump straight to Maag 4 if I'm not sure what I need. It can get a bit samey, though.
Yes. Maag 4 is great as well. I also recommend the LouderThanLiftoff ChopShop. Dead simple. Just works in a lot of cases. And my latest PA “discovery” (admittedly purchased for ridiculous reasons: the sale opportunity ITSELF haha) -> Lindell TE-100. Weird yet pretty cool sounding.

Anyway. Falcon.
 
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