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             ACE(demo) - a realtime MIDI synthesizer for Falcon 030.
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I remember the  very first day's of the Falcon. Coders got mad due to the of the
internal  Falcon DSP. I've  read a  lot about  people who  announced things like
software modems, voicemail systems, hi-speed data  links, neuronal networks and,
and, and,... ...and multichannel realtime synthesizers for MIDI use.

Nearly nothing  of that was  releasd during  the last ten years. But now... "New
Beat" released "ACE". ACE is a  realtime software synthesizer, designed  for use
as a MIDI device! And we've tested the actual demo version, of course!

The ACE-Demo archive is very small in size (about 320KBytes). Quickly depacked &
started... ACE comes  with it's own - non GEM - userInterface. There is a screen
with a lot of knobs, small buttons, something like a "bargraph" at the center of
the screen and a huge (temporary) empty area at the bottom of the screen. On the
top-right is a small message window.

Ok, let's load the  Demosong... but hmmm... where  is it? There  is nothing like
that (of course). ACE is NOT a sequencer  or something  like that! There  are NO
functions  for recording  or playing  songs! It's a synth... not (much) more and
not less. It's a bit like having a 19" MIDI device.

So you need a  MIDI keyboard or another  computer (or both) to make  some music.
OK, you  can also  use your  Falcon keyboard to "trigger" sounds, but  this only
usefull for testing your sounds and not for playing them.

Ok, so I've switched  on my little  MIDI-keyboard... Load a first bank (that's a
collection of 16 sounds) and pressed the "middle C"...
Uhhhh... a very nice  arppegio sound to hear... most of the others sounds great,
too. I was really  impressed by the output  quality and I spend houres listening
to the prepared soundbanks.

Now it's  time for some  first experiments, so I  took a closer  look to all the
knobs.

At the left is a planel for the oscillators. You can choose between "SAMPLE" and
"WAVE" there.

In "Wave"-mode 2  oscillators are  aviable. There  are 4 waveforms to select for
every  of  your oscillators. There's  a (fine)tune- and a  levelknob  for  every
oscillator. Both  osci's can  be independantly  transposed for +/-48 octaves(!),
too.
On the planel's bottom are 3 more buttons: "NORMAL", "MERGE" and "RINGMOD". This
are the mixmodes.
Now click on the  lower left  planel "EDIT" on the "PATCH"-button. So you got an
"OVERVIEW" window at the screens bottom. This is a very usefull feature, because
you can see  the waveform you  create with the oscillators (with realtimeupdate,
of course).
It's easy to  create "swinging/vibrating" sounds (by "detuning" the oscillators)
with this "optic feedback".
In "SAMPLE"-mode you  can load a sample (AVR or WAV). Samples can be finetuned &
transposed, too. There  is also a  level-knob  and some  buttons  to set  up the
samplestart, -loop and -end points. At the
"Overview"-window you can see, scroll & zoom your sample.

Now we have a "basic" waveform... created  by the oscillators or a loaded sample
... and now the real fun begin!

On the  right  side is  a "VCF"-planel (= Voltage  Controlled  Filter). Here are
several  knobs  for  adjusting  your  "attack", "decay", "sustain" and "release"
time. These are parameters which define a so called "ADSR-Envenlope".
The  envenlope  here is  not the  tone-envenlope, its an  OWN envenlope  for the
filters!! And there are the "Resonance" and "Cutoff" knobs, too...
...and these are real-cool knobs, maybe they are the most important for a "real-
synth-sound".

-=>YOU NEED TO PLAY AROUND WITH THEM!!<=-

The knobs/filters  react in realtime and works with oscillator and with samples,
too!! It's quite  funny to get a small speechsample or something and use it with
the cutoff and resonance filters, too.

To the right  of the VCF-planel  is a VCA-planel (Voltage Controlled Amplifier).
There are 4 knobs to control the ADSR-envenlope (here it's the tone-envenlope).

To the next  cool thing... the  LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator). A  cool section,
but this needs a bit more experimenting to recognize how it works.
It's an  oscillator  with a  low (adjustable)  frequency  (about 0.5-10Hz) which
controls your oscillators, osc.levels and/or your filters. There are 6 waveforms
to select. A great  unit to modify  your sound, esp. if used  with the VCA. It's
also possible to use this with your keyboard's "Modulation"-button/wheel!
This feature can  be activated at  the "CTRL"-section, on the very right side of
the screen. Here it's  possible to adjust the pitchbending (controlled with your
MIDI-keyboard's pichtbend-wheel!).

Now let's go  to the "STEP MODULATOR". This  is really a  great Idea. I've never
heard about something  similar before (but I'm not a musican...). This is like a
small sequencer for single sound's!
This look's a bit  like a bargraph with 32 vertical bars. Every bar represents a
"controler-value".
There are 5 "curves" to modify. The first  curve is controlling the VCF-filters,
one for  every oscillator and  one to control each oscillator's level-curve! You
can easy define  your own curves by moving the bars up and down with your mouse.
There  are 15  preset  curves, too. These curves  can also be  controlled with a
speed knob. Here you can easy create complex sound's and small phrases.

But some things  could be done better here. I missed something like a display or
something, which  shows you the  actual value, you're  modify. Same goes for the
"speed" knob. It would  be great to have  a display which shows the "speedvalue"
(preferably in "BPM"...).

Left from  the "Step modulator" is a  small "OUTPUT"-planel. Here you can adjust
your sound's panorama-position, reverbration and delay.

Under this  is the "EDIT" section. I already  described the "Edit-Patch" window.
Now we'll  explore the "MASTER"-Unit: Here  you can find  the global parameters.
There are the  master-settings for  delay and  reverb, master  volume and even a
tune-knob(!) for  adjusting  the  ACE-sound  output  to the  rest of  your audio
equipement.
A BPM-display (or a  "delay-in-seconds"  display) for the delay-setting would be
great here, too.

There are  also buttons to toggle between the internal Falcon DAC and a external
DAC. There are  4 DAC-clock's (33/44/48/50kHz) aviable, too. But  we're  using a
demoversion only, so all functions in this section are locked. Same goes for the
voices-setting below. For the ACE-demo there are only 2 voices (16 voices in the
full version) aviable.

Now to the  last section: The "MULTI"-editor. You  can splitt your MIDI-keyboard
(for playing  several  sounds  with  1 keyboard) here, set  up midi-channels and
other  important  stuff... but  this  can't  be  tested  here  because  it is  a
demoversion only.

Conclusion:

The ACE-demoversion  shows that  ACE is a very powerfull software for Falcon. It
features all tools to create cool synth-sounds and also a very special tool (the
step modulator) for  creating complex  sounds. The  user-interface is simple and
fast - no needless graphical  effects, no  faked "design knobs/buttons/led's" or
something - it's designed for a good "workflow".
But some "small things" are missing. A BPM  display for  the step-modulator  and
the master-delay. Maybe a simple peakmeter at the "Master"-section.
Very important: The MIDI-functios  work fine  and fast, too - I didn't heard any
delay's - But I missed the interpretation  of PROGRAM_CHANGE (select a new sound
via MIDI) events.

The most  worse  thing  is the  high price  of 79 Euro. I  accept  that ACE is a
really fine software and cost a lot of work - but who should buy it for 79 Euro?
I showed ACE to a professional audio engineer and to a prof. studio musican.
Both were impressed & surprised  by the soundquality  and the fine workflow, but
both mentioned it's too expensive. Nearly all studios/musicans use PC's or MAC's
today, and softsynths  for them are aviable for the same price - and are useable
as plugin and/or  offering good  sound librarys  of all classic synths and, and,
and..
For "normal" Falconiers the price is to high... something about 25 Euro would be
great, 40 Euro would be a "fair" price I think.

Scene musicans should wait for the tracker version of ACE, which is announced in
ACE's readme.

                                                                   remo williams
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