Unifying UVI Falcon 2 Libraries

I'd be interested in this, too. Also a Falcon owner.

Hi there! If you would like to try to Unify one of their libraries, you have our blessing. I have Falcon 1 - I'll probably upgrade to Falcon 2 when I get a Unified library to try out.

Follow the guidelines I posted here for Macro knob assignments and naming conventions:

https://forums.pluginguru.com/unify-patchbook/unified-libraries-how-to-sign-up/#post-8497

Keep us posted to your progress. We will have to check to see if similar issues to those with Kontakt libraries exist. For Kontakt libraries to work correctly, the Unify patches have to be saved with the full master library residing in the "PlugInGuru Links" folder in either the Shared (Mac OS) or

BTW, Bernd, do you live in Portland, Oregon? If so - hi neighbor 😀

@pluginguruforums as a matter of fact, I do live in North Portland, yes 🙂  I meant to reach out and invite you for a beer over happy hour, but I am still wary of going out yet. Maybe some day later this summer?

@pluginguruforums ... also take a look at this, I hadn't tagged you so it might have flown below the radar... https://forums.pluginguru.com/postid/8854/.

It is about how to integrate the track en/disable with the fader control for volume and macros. Since you have a Maschine Jam, you can put all the functionality into one device instead of having the little Nano Kontrol laying so precariously on your master keyboard 😉  

Greetings,

Here are a few UNIFY patches for UVI's Falcon 2 plugin (mostly for Falcon's FACTORY soundbank). This is just to test compatibility, per John's message above, related to lessons learned from unifying Kontakt patches. If you have UVI's Falcon 2 plugin, please try out how these new Unify patches for Falcon 2 work for you and let me know. Also take a look at the patch naming pattern and the tags I added, please let me know if they are useful and make sense, or propose alternatives, if not.

UPDATED 2021-04-19: Removed "Preset Tour" patches that caused trouble (because they are not part of Falcon 2 FACTORY soundbank). Added 42 more patches -> 75 total now).

Thanks,

Bernd

PS: Installation.... unzip the attached archive into your ..\PluginGuru\Unify\Libraries folder. When done you should have a sub folder looking like this ..\PluginGuru\Unify\Libraries\Unified - FALCON2\Patches" with about 33 *.unify files. Then click on the lightning bolt icon in the upper right corner of your Unify patch browser for "Quick DB rebuild"

@berndpdx THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I loaded up your file and everything works great except...

I'm getting errors on all of the "Preset Tour" patches - Is this a Falcon library from a demo version? I own the full version of Falcon, and all factory sound banks, and I have nothing called Falcon Presets Tour. These presets ARE in the regular Falcon Factory bank.

Also - I don't know what other libraries you own for Falcon, but as I said, I own all of them, as well as PX Memories, and the new Quadra instrument, so maybe I can help with Unifying these other libraries - If you want, please let me know and we can talk about it - It might be better if they are done as separate banks?

Thanks again for this, it's awesome!!!

[img] [/img]

@hexabuzz This is exactly the kind of learning we need to prototype a unified library. This is what John was alluding to with Kontakt, which apparently had similar problems with hardwired content in presets. So this is a great finding, and thank you so much for volunteering as test lab subject 😉

I realized I should test the installation process between different computers here. I was testing it on the same computer I created it, which had the exact same setup. 

I think the "Preset Tour" came with UVI Workstation, which must have been a different install than Falcon 2? 

I like your idea of each UVI/Falcon soundbank being its own Unify library. I started it that way, but heard the concern over too many Unify libraries. 

For now I am focusing on the Falcon factory library, and I should dismiss the "Preset Tour", since these presets do appear also in the Factory library as you said. Beyond the "Factory" soundbank, I have the one listed below. So if you want to work on Falcon unified patches in parallel, perhaps you could focus on the other ones not listed here? But either way, I probably will take a while with the Factory one, so any other will probably work out well in parallel. And we can learn from another.

• Atmospherics
• Cinematic Shades
• Ether Fields
• Plurality
• Voklm

@berndpdx Glad I could help in some small way.

I don't see how, with so many UVI libraries, that there's any other way than to do separate Unify versions, not to mention that if you only have the Factory set, you wouldn't want to load a Unify set with hundreds of presets you can't use.

If you want me to help, I'd need some guidance on how to actually create the libraries, but I'd be happy to lend a hand for the Libraries that I own that you don't. Send me an email hexabuzz@hotmail.com if you'd like me to help.

David

@transmit Thank you for your feedback! Check out the original post, I updated it with a newer version, leaving out the troublesome patches, and adding 42 more from the FACTORY soundbank.

@hexabuzz Splitting the Falcon 2 soundbanks into individual Unify libraries make sense to me, for said reasons. 

I'd like to draw some attention to this from the broader Unify community, since we probably run into this with other plugins' vast and diverse libraries as well. Looks like in Kontakt we are already doing this, each sub-instrument on Kontakt the plugin, seems to get its own Unify library. 

But I also read about concerns of having too many Unify libraries to scroll through. Maybe there's an opportunity to provide a more nested/layered hierarchy in the Unify preset browser, @getdunne?

For now, I shall tag my Falcon 2 Factory Unify patch bank as "Unified - Falcon 2 FACTORY", so as to not clash with David's parallel effort to Unify other Falcon 2 libraries. 

What do other Falcon 2 users think?

@berndpdx

I can start working on a library today - since I'm new at this, Why don't I work on one that we both have, so you can check my work?

Just let me know which one you'd like me to do.

@hexabuzz Sounds good David! I was thinking of you pick a library that I also have, I can cross-check your work, you can use me as a guinea pig whether your patch bank works when installed on a different computer. I am very flexible in terms of trying out early versions even if things still evolve. Its exciting to be part of something new 🙂 So how about you go ahead and start with the ATMOSPHERICS soundbank? I have that one too, and it is one of my favorites 🙂 You could start with just a dozen, share it, we'll test it, and then incrementally update more patches as we learn more about the method and naming. 

One of the open questions is how to map the Falcon 2 macros, the ones they have on their instrument "Info" page with the pretty visuals. I mean, I know how to do it technically through Unify, but whether there should be some consistency/pattern in terms of e.g. always put filter/reso on the same Unify macro etc.

@berndpdx I'll give it some thought, too - I can work on this later, and I'll send a ew patches to make sure I'm on the right track, then do the rest. Talk soon.

D

Posted by: @berndpdx

Maybe there's an opportunity to provide a more nested/layered hierarchy in the Unify preset browser, @getdunne?

This is on the list, but it's a very major change and won't be easy or quick.

@getdunne Understood. Humble patience here 🙂 In the meantime, is it fine to create multiple Unify libraries for a 3rd party plugin that has a vast sound bank eco-system? Which scalability challenge is worse, the number of patches within a Unify library, or the number of Unify libraries? (the latter probably more of a usability challenge, eh?)

Posted by: @berndpdx

@getdunne Understood. Humble patience here 🙂 In the meantime, is it fine to create multiple Unify libraries for a 3rd party plugin that has a vast sound bank eco-system? Which scalability challenge is worse, the number of patches within a Unify library, or the number of Unify libraries? (the latter probably more of a usability challenge, eh?)

Just my opinion, but we have many, MANY libraries for Omnisphere preset packs... I think this just falls into the same category.

Posted by: @berndpdx

@getdunne Understood. Humble patience here 🙂 In the meantime, is it fine to create multiple Unify libraries for a 3rd party plugin that has a vast sound bank eco-system? Which scalability challenge is worse, the number of patches within a Unify library, or the number of Unify libraries? (the latter probably more of a usability challenge, eh?)

Go ahead and create more than one library if necessary. Make sure all their names have the same first part, and differ only at the end, so they sort nicely together in the libraries list.

If you/we decided to coalesce some libraries later, this is straightforward; I have a tool to change the library-name for a whole folder-full of patches at once.

@hexabuzz and others, here's a quick video walk-through how I started the Falcon 2 Unify library. It's my first attempt at a Youtube video, so go easy on the criticism 😉

Unify Patch Library Creation for Falcon 2 - YouTube

@berndpdx Can you PLEASE email me directly regarding this project so I'm not cluttering up this thread with questions and attachments of test files?

Thanks!

@berndpdx The updated guru file works well - sounding good, thank you.

@pluginguruforums One of the things we forgot to do ahead of the Falcon Unification effort is to reach out to the vendor (UVI) to get their permission for this. I thought I had a connection to UVI through a French friend, but I was mistaken. And after I had reached to an unrelated presets vendor along the lines of unifying their presets to the advantage of them getting more market exposure, and I got a nasty response, I lost my mojo "asking for permissions" for a non-commercial volunteer effort that actually benefits the vendor and not me. I don't want to get involved in the politics and sensitivities of the music industry. I picked up electronic music as a hobby to distract myself from the other corporate bs I have to go through in my profession.

So if someone wants to tie that lose ends, I'm happy to continuing unifying Falcon 2 presets from UVI. @Hexabuzz has already done a great job doing the Atmospherics soundbank.

@berndpdx and @hexabuzz

Pending the outcome of you seeking permission from UVI...

I was talking to a buddy last night who owns Falcon 2 and Unify. Due to Covid restrictions here at the moment we are only allowed to meet outside but he is willing to let me borrow his laptop so that I can Unify the Falcon 2 Factory patches. I'm pretty sure that I can get it done using AHK in a couple of hours or so for circa 1200 patches.

He also has Atmospherics and Digital Motion expansions for Falcon 2 so as you have already done the former I could try and convert the latter if I have time.

I'm not sure how far you guys have already got with these and if you would rather carry on as you are then that's fine, but I thought I would at least offer as I know it can be a slog to manually work through large libraries.

@zinct Jeremy,

I certainly wouldn't object to you working on Digital Motion.

What I'd really love is some insight from someone more experienced in "Unification" like you in streamlining the process.

This applies to all Falcon presets, but some only have 3 or 4 controls to be assigned, while others like this patch in the Pulsar library has 28 knobs and 3 switches, and as far as I can tell, each one must be manually clicked on to "Assign to Host Automation" to enable it to be linked back to a Macro Knob in Unify. Obviously doing this 28 times, and then ANOTHER 28 times to assign each one to a MIDI CC is beyond painful and time consuming.

Of course, we could just create each Unify preset with just the Falcon preset, but the whole point, to me, at least, is to have these assignable controls available as well.

Thoughts?

[img] [/img]

I have several Falcon libraries including some already mentioned (Atmospherics, Cinematic Shades, Digital Motion, Ether Fields, Plurality, Voklm) so I could help with any of those plus I have Analog Motions and Devinity and the new Quadra which I have not seen mentioned. I have not kept up with threads about converting libraries so can someone please sum up what extra programs, procedures etc and how to go about doing it? I'm happy to take this offline with direct email. I have a PC but Falcon is not currently installed on it so it would be better for me if I can convert on the Mac, like I said I haven't been keeping up with the library conversion threads. Let me know. Thanks!

@hexabuzz

David, I've not found a way to automate the macro knob assignment part of the process.

The main thing that the automation achieves now is having all of the patches for a plugin saved in Unify with useful names (e.g. Category - Patchname).  Originally the automation process also used to re-categorise the patches according to Unify naming, copy the patch name to INST1 name and apply a standard set of AUX and Master effects, but most of this can now be done with Utilities afterwards. So you end up with patches that look like this for example:

Even so, the automated transfer of patches into Unify still saves A LOT of time and the pain of doing something so repetitive in a manual way. One way to look at it is that you will have all of the patches available to you in Unify so that when you come to use one it's there, and you could then add the necessary tweaks that you will use for that patch such as Macro assigments and save/update the Unify patch so that they are also there for future use.

For all of the libraries I have done so far, I have passed them to John for macro assignment before release to GuruNation. 

One of the things you can do is to save/load Macro Definition presets and also CC Knob assignment presets which might help in this case if there are a lot of presets that use the same bunch of assignments (as is sometimes the case).

@eddrake Ed, feel free to contact me directly at hexabuzz@hotmail.com

I can at least share my experiences with using Unify with Falcon, since we're still a bit in limbo here awaiting permission from UVI, so this may become a strictly personal, "out of the official Unify community" project.

I have Quadra, also, as well as PX Memories and Synth Anthology 3 (not to mention all 15 of the Falcon sound banks) - it's a little weird because although Quadra runs inside of Falcon, it's not actually a Falcon sound bank - Falcon also acts a bit like Kontakt Player sometimes, becoming a host for other UVI products.

Thanks for offering to help!

David

@zinct Unfortunately, although there are some Macro assignments (like Delay and Reverb) that are present in like 90% of the patches, the problem is that sometimes they are the only ones, and sometimes they are 2 of 4 or 5 or 6 parameters. Even then It might help a little if in those cases the other parameters being controlled were consistent in name or function, they almost always differ from patch to patch, so you might have a lot of patches with 4 macros, the last 2 always being Delay and Reverb, but the first 2 are always different, so you end up with A - B - Delay - Reverb, C - D - Delay - Reverb, A - G - Delay - Reverb, so there isn't even a consistent pattern 🙁

Just now catching up with the discussion here...

Falcon 2 is a different beast in terms of how it integrates with DAWs or a performance tool like Unify. Most plugins (VSTs) that I have and use automatically surface their key parameters (if not all) via MIDI. So when I plug them into Maschine, or Bitwig, or Ableton, I can already see the plugins internal "knobs" so to speak. Falcon presets do not have this default mapping. While the Falcon/UVI presets have a beautiful user interface page with their internal "macros" visible, and even automatable, they have to be mapped via "Host Automation" to be visible and usable outside of the plugin. Add to that the rather click path heavy way Unify makes you assign its macro knobs to the plugin parameters, that is the part that makes unifying Falcon tedious, if not even un-automatable.

I personally don't have a problem doing the unifying manually, since I do preset surfing anyway, and having to go through all the Falcon presets and their individual macros is actually fun for me. But it will take time, so if people are eager to get Falcon unified sooner than later, then by all means use automated methods if you find one working. As a technologist I worked all my life on automating human processes with computers and software, but now I am finding more muse in doing things manually, deliberately, slowly, consciously, focusing on the journey, not just the speed of having results. I am decelerating my life so to speak 🙂

Thanks for the email reply from Hexabuzz telling me the unifying needs to be done manually. Yes it will take a while to do one but I can certainly start the process. To avoid duplication which libraries are already being unified and which ones do people want done next? 

When assigning macros is there a standard scheme to assign the CCs or does each preset stand on its own as far as macro knob assignments? I notice the number and type of macros in Falcon varies per preset. Is everyone adding a LoudMax to the master Out set at -3 db per John's request for Unifying libraries?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Based on your responses, I was going to put this on ice but my buddy was quite keen on being able to use Falcon 2 inside Unify.

So I went over to his and got the Factory Library (1280 patches), Atmospherics (134) and Digital Motion (115) done this morning.

I have read different opinions of Falcon 2 but I must admit it, to my ears, it sounds amazing and has some outstanding patches! It's definitely going on my "to buy" list but I'll wait for the 30% off deal which includes a voucher for expansions (unless another deal comes up in the meantime 😉 .

I won't share anything here until UVI has confirmed that they are happy for Unified Falcon 2 libraries to be shared.

@zinct Bernd and I were already working on the Factory set and Atmospherics. In fact, Atmospherics is completely done already, including all macro assignments. I wish you had contacted us first...

Anyway...

Did you also do all the macro assignments? If so, id love to know how you did it so quickly since its taken me probably over 10 total hours to do Atmospherics since there are 6-10 per patch that need to be done, including setting up all the host automation and midi cc assignments inside Falcon.

@hexabuzz

Yes I know that you were working on these but it's unknown yet whether anything can be shared.

My buddy just wanted access to the patches within Unify so it was straightforward to do that but without knob assignments. As I mentioned above that's still a manual process. So the work that you guys are doing is still worth doing. I just hope it can be shared.

Assuming that it can be shared do you want me to send you Unified Digital Motion so you can add knob assignments?

Posted by: @eddrake

I have several Falcon libraries including some already mentioned (Atmospherics, Cinematic Shades, Digital Motion, Ether Fields, Plurality, Voklm) so I could help with any of those plus I have Analog Motions and Devinity and the new Quadra which I have not seen mentioned. I have not kept up with threads about converting libraries so can someone please sum up what extra programs, procedures etc and how to go about doing it? I'm happy to take this offline with direct email. I have a PC but Falcon is not currently installed on it so it would be better for me if I can convert on the Mac, like I said I haven't been keeping up with the library conversion threads. Let me know. Thanks!

Ed,

Why don't you work on Digital Motion.

Here's how I personally have been working with the Falcon patches:

Here's a screenshot of a preset from Digital Motion:

[img] [/img]

Each area circled in red can be assigned to a Macro knob in Unify - I have NOT been doing the On/Of switch controls. That would be easy enough to add later from a regular controller with a regular cc.

I just work my way from left to right, top to bottom. For each, I right click and Assign Host Automation, going from 1 to however many I need.

Then, for each, I right click, MIDI Learn, and start with CC14 and proceed up the list.

Once that's all done, I go to the Macros in Unify. For each one, I:

Click the "Dot" to open the controls, then go to Linked Parameters.

From the window, I select the second "square" with the linear response, then click the +

I follow the flyout menu Inst: > 1: > Plugin Falcon > then click on the appropriate linked control, then close the window.

Double click the Macro1 name and rename the control to match the Falcon parameter.

Do that for each macro you want to assign. If you have more than 8 you'll need to go to the second tier of Macro knobs - Make sure you also assign a MIDI cc if it doesn't have one.

I haven't been adding Loudmax- I wasn't aware of that preferred procedure, but feel free to do so.

If you have any questions, please post or send an email.

David

@hexabuzz @zinct 

Thanks for the details on setting up macros!  

I actually started creating the library for Cinematic Shades as a proof of concept to myself but at this point only adding presets not doing macro knob assignments yet like Jeremy did. I'm happy to share the Cinematic Shade presets when I'm finished if someone else want to start adding knob assignments. I have not added a picture yet either.

If someone has already Unified the Digital Motions library I'm happy to start the Macro knob assignment process which is probably going to take a while depending on how much time I have to give to it.

Contact me offline at ed (dot) drake at gmail (dot) com

Thanks!!

@eddrake I'll do the macros for Cinematic Shades

Email it over when you're done getting the patches in.

@eddrake

You've got mail.

Good discussion y'all! One of the questions we had regarding mapping the macros in Falcon to Unify macros, whether to use the Linked Parameter way, which required setting up "Host Automation" within Falcon for each parameter. Or whether to use MIDI CC (MIDI learn on the Falcon side, and then Unify knobs->CC assing). Looks like two different ways of achieving the same result, and it wasn't quite clear what the benefit of either is in the context of Unification

Posted by: @berndpdx

Good discussion y'all! One of the questions we had regarding mapping the macros in Falcon to Unify macros, whether to use the Linked Parameter way, which required setting up "Host Automation" within Falcon for each parameter. Or whether to use MIDI CC (MIDI learn on the Falcon side, and then Unify knobs->CC assing). Looks like two different ways of achieving the same result, and it wasn't quite clear what the benefit of either is in the context of Unification

Is there any advantage of doing it one way versus the other? I'll be figuring it out as I go along which ever path I take so if one way is easier I'd rather go that route. It's going to be a bit of a drudge to assign macros any way you look at it. 

One thing I'm noticing with Falcon inside of Unify is any of the Falcon presets that have a BPM Sequence element or arpeggio are getting stuck or latched keys when playing my MIDI keyboard through Unify and might be related to the transport in Unify. If I play Unify's show midi keyboard there don't appear to be stuck notes. If I play the same patch in Falcon standalone with my midi keyboard there are no stuck notes either. This is happening with any of Arp and Seq BPM presets in the Falcon libraries that have been Unified so far. Has anyone else noticed this behavior? I have checked my settings multiple times. Thanks in advance!

@eddrake I haven't noticed this with an Arturia Keylab 49 MKII. What controller are you using?

Posted by: @hexabuzz

@eddrake I haven't noticed this with an Arturia Keylab 49 MKII. What controller are you using?

Never mind, I think I had a MIDI loop in my setup causing the stuck notes. I am emailing Cinematic Shades to you soon

Posted by: @eddrake

Is there any advantage of doing it one way versus the other? [MIDI CC vs parameter links] I'll be figuring it out as I go along which ever path I take so if one way is easier I'd rather go that route. It's going to be a bit of a drudge to assign macros any way you look at it. 

Parameter links are the way to go.

The problem with MIDI CC's is that different users have different MIDI controllers, which use different CC numbers, so no specific CC mapping can be good for everyone.

@getdunne I think the question was in the context of MIDI CC mapping from Unify to the actual plugin. I know it's confusing, since there are two layers of CC mapping in Unify....

1. the hardware MIDI controller to Unify 

2. the Unify virtual knob (macro) to the plugin's internal parameters

In the context of Falcon's macro knob mappings to Unify macro knobs, you can either assign a shared CC number, or you can use Unify's linked parameter feature of its macro knobs, and then you'll have to create a corresponding MIDI parameter in Falcon via "assign host automation". Either way, it has to be created manually on the Falcon side.  And the thought was if we create a "unified" standard mapping of the Unify knob macro CC numbers, then we don't have to create "linked parameters" on the Unify side, but just focus on mapping Falcon macro knob CCs according to our Unify standard CCs. Makes sense?

@getdunne Additionally, what is confusing, I can "MIDI learn" a Unify macro knob to listen to my hardware controller's knob at CC 22. I twist my hardware knob on CC22 and Unify macro knob will turn. But I also mapped Unify macro knob with "assign CC" menu to CC 14. Then I assign CC 14 to plugin macro knob. Now Unify macro knob turns when I turn hardware knob. But plugin macro does not move. When I move Unify macro knob with mouse, the plugin knob also moves. That feels very counter-intuitive.