Music Radar review of UVI Falcon

Chris Catalano
I got it. Considering it has been out for a month, a suspicious lack of reviews out there. Nothing. Not one.

How is it Chris? It looks to be quite an elaborate product. I have been very impressed with the various UVI things I have bought. Everything performs well with no weirdness which can't be said of most software. Maybe people aren't reviewing it because it is expensive and they are not giving away copies (speculation). With UVI being a french company maybe there are some French music magazine reviews.

Chris...It's been out only two weeks... I just picked up Falcon a few days ago after conversing with Simon and Evil Dragon, both of whom feel Falcon is something special...while the initial sample pool is small, after mucking around with the bird I have to agree...Falcon is an amazing creation.  Far deeper and more impressive than Iris2 which has crappy sample stretch/timing abilities that limits what can be done.  Serum is quite good and has lots more going for it than Iris, IMO...and some real good work by 3rd party devs... but it is very limited in what it can do even more so...
 
The auto sample mapping and configuration system is quite nice and will encourage devs to put in the time.   The effects, like Spark, are amazing and the layering/additive abilities of stacking synthesis varieties is, well.... mindboggling.
 
Some of the patches are truly unfathomable although many others are boring.  It's about 50/50... Personally I will be spending loads of time with Falcon this winter mapping vocalisations to it.  I'm quite sure it will become a favorite of Skippies and Simon is already adding to the sample pool... in 6 months I expect we'll be awash in lovely bird song from all of the best sound designers as it is a very well thought out powerhouse and absolutely a blast to work with once you get the hang of it.
 
It's the first hybrid, synth or sampler animal I've found myself wanting to dig into.  Generally I focus on songwriting and support the creative efforts of others developing patches/sounds.  Falcon urges you to take flight on your own.
 
The price, around $75 with my MachFive discount and $100 voucher was ridiculous.  It actually is the best thing I got out of MachFive... Now I'm just hoping UVI will offer up some new sample material/programing that I can use my voucher on.  Their older stuff is... nothing I don't already have. 

Good points, Vastman. I need to give it some time, and look forward to experiencing the great time/pitch flex performance you talk about. I realize it isn't meant to be a preset machine and ultimately I will have to do a lot of dirty work to feel buying it was a good idea. I agree about Iris 2...It is very unique, and makes cool noises with stuff I import, but man is Izotope stuff ever CPU unfriendly! Nearly every track I have used it and Nectar production suite with either needs a Declicker in an FX insert slot, or the entire project needs the buffer adjusted to ridiculous latency levels to be heard without glitching (Late 2013 MBPro, SSD, 16 Gigs of RAM). It makes me think that Izotope makes all those repair tools to fix the stuff they mess up in the first place. Brilliant plugins, but in that area, easily the worst I have ever used.
 
I will try to stay patient with the UVI Masterpiece, Lol...It sure does sound pristine. 

I got into Alchemy via the iPad, and have been a Logic user since 2008. I got lucky...Alchemy is just a beautiful, fun, amazing Sound Machine. I love it. I got it on an older Mac too, works beautifully. Just saying...200 beans, with a pretty darn fine DAW thrown in...

Right on, Dana. You'll even love Logic Pro X. It has Alchemy2, but so much more plugin-wise. And it's a pretty consistent DAW.