Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Discussion of all things related to MOTU's awesome MachFive software sampler.

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ronjams
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Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Post by ronjams »

I must admit after spending a lot of cash on libraries for the MachFive I'm noticing more that there are more incompatibility issues with the Machfive and not seeing fast enough updates to remedy these issues. Basically I've been getting by using the UVI player which I don't want to use but I have to in order to make certain libraries work. Now the falcon has came out and of course some people have gotten on board with that product which appears to do everything that the Machfive does. Is there a secret issue going on between motu and uvi that the end user should know about?

I've become dependent on the Machfive when it comes to music production and I like programming with the Machfive and the libraries are nice though limited in number in comparison to the third party support for Kontakt and their free player. There should be more continuity and compatibility between Motu and UVI instead of what appears to be competition. I'm just a guy trying use his cash wisely and make a buck so to speak. Unfortunately had to jump over to Kontakt because I need stability and most of all the sounds. Please chime in with opinions please.
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billf
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Re: Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Post by billf »

For stability, I think the best route moving forward is to go is with Kontakt, which is what I am starting to do. If and when MOTU release a new MachFive version, I will revisit it. But for now I'm relegating MachFive to legacy, and have no plans to buy into any UVI products.
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monkey man
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Re: Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Post by monkey man »

I've put everything UVI on hold too, Billy.

Seems to be a recurring pattern: We get excited about MachFive with every major iteration, then things gradually drop off, probably due to the comparatively-low number of library offerings, only to reignite our passion with the next release.

For this reason, I'll be upgrading MachFive at the appropriate times, but won't be adding 3rd-party stuff to my library if I can help it. I need to feel convinced the sampler is here to stay for the ultra-long term.

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billf
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Re: Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Post by billf »

Absolutely Nicky. That's why I'm only going with Kontakt libraries for now. Hopefully we see a new MachFive down the road.
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Michael Canavan
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Re: Just wondering about the MachFive/Falcon Situation

Post by Michael Canavan »

Everything points to a dissolving of the business relationship between UVI and MOTU.
Typically if two companies end their business relationship in the software world it seems there's a sort of NDA on why that might be and there is no public discussion about it.

Falcon 100% loads all M53 factory content and UVI libraries. there are significant improvements in the granular engine in Falcon. I'm a MOTU fan, but it really does make sense to have the software designers take control of the software, and everything points to UVI having had total rights to the code in MF3. The only downside to Falcon of M53 is that UVI for whatever reason did not include the sampler conversion capabilities, i.e. Falcon can't import EXS or older NKI libraries.

I owned Kontakt before MF3 so I've never thought of M53 as a replacement for the Kontakt sound library or the staggering amount of Kontakt third party libraries, rather as, in many ways a better sample mangler than Kontakt. So for me Falcon made sense to buy when there was an upgrade path from MachFive 3. I also like UVI libraries, they seem to have a better sense of what sounds good than most sample libraries...

I would add that it's always possible that UVI and MOTU have decided to stop producing VST/AU/AAX instruments and that Digital Performer X will include MachFive and the other Rompler UVI libraries MOTU sells like Ethno etc. as embedded instruments like MX4 recently was included, but it's probably not to be.
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