Alchemy

[sporkles]

If you knew a zen punk hippy ... you'd know.

[timothyallan]

Ahh yeah, I'm not that one, I know of him too though

[crystalmsc]

Just got some cool information from the comparison thread between Alchemy and Omnisphere at KVR.

Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:37 pm, Ben said:
"With all this talk of sounds and browsing I think it's worth pointing out that for me, the most important aspect of Alchemy is the synthesis engine itself. In Alchemy v2 (which is a considerable way off) we are focusing a huge amount of effort on radically improving the re synthesis quality and expanding the ways in which sounds may be manipulated, especially with a view to making those changes relatively easy to do. Alongside that we're also investing heavily in great deeply multi-sampled sounds."

also,
"We're also going to be releasing a bunch of additional free sounds to Alchemy owners over the coming months - watch this space"

[crystalmsc]

What we have done is add polyphonic aftertouch and also polyphonic note bends when using the Alchemy Mobile keyboard with Alchemy or Player on the desktop. The poly-bends require a network MIDI connection which you can easily set up on Mac using Audio MIDI Setup or by installing and configuring rtpMIDI on Windows. Setting this up has the added advantage of allowing the MIDI notes to be recorded in the host.

The poly pitch bends is pretty obvious: each note has a +/- 1 octave range and there are 128 automation parameters to control this if you want to draw it in yourself. The range is +/- 1 octave because of the limited resolution available, but this still allows for very expressive playing.

Poly aftertouch is sent from the keyboard up/down motion, and basically controls the Poly AT mod source as assigned to any parameter in Alchemy. This will be most useful for users of the full version because you can assign mod sources however you like (which is not possible in Alchemy Player). What we hope is that sound designers will make use of this functionality when creating new presets.

Poly AT isn't available with many hardware keyboards because it's very expensive to implement, so this is quite a unique feature for Alchemy Mobile + Alchemy.

It's all sounds very interesting, the pro upgrade is definitely on the list.

If you knew a zen punk hippy ... you'd know.

mind for a bit more detail

[JAMM]

i see that the camel audio people are reading this topic.

First off all i love alchemy but there are some things with the update on which i like to comment...
(Correct me if i.m wrong because i tried the update only for one hour)

I.m missing some samples after downloading which is annoying because i now have to download again. (1 or 2 hours)
also had problems with that in the past. I never have problems with dowmnloading other software or files so maybe it,s the setup off the alchemy soundbanks which generates this problem.

Also i don,t need to see all the soundbanks which i didn,t bought.
This is a sort off "in app" type advertisement and makes the browser chaotic.
Also you have to highlight the banks you bought everytime when you throw in an alchemy in a new miditrack.
If camel audio chooses to keep all the soundbanks visible they better can make it a sort preview mode in which you can listen to the sounds on the website. Thats the only thing which make sense.

Also no scrollwheel support.

[ZenPunkHippy]

I.m missing some samples after downloading which is annoying because i now have to download again. (1 or 2 hours)

If you had an existing / working Alchemy installation you did not need to download "everything" again, just a few files as detailed on this page of our FAQ section:

http://bit.ly/PKv6WU

Also i don,t need to see all the soundbanks which i didn,t bought.

This is a bug as explained here:

http://bit.ly/Qv3rv1

It will be fixed in the next point update which we are working on now and aim to release with 2 weeks.

Also you have to highlight the banks you bought everytime when you throw in an alchemy in a new miditrack.

Use track templates ... that's what I do, works great.

*edit - what I mean is set up track templates with specific settings in the browser columns e.g. Bass category selected. Save track template named "Alchemy Bass". Loading track template gives you a bass only Alchemy. Obviously this can be expanded to encompass other browser attributes (or user tags *hint*).

If camel audio chooses to keep all the soundbanks visible they better can make it a sort preview mode in which you can listen to the sounds on the website. Thats the only thing which make sense.

That is a very distinct possibility, but in the future (v2.0 or v3.0). Lots of work to do right.

Also no scrollwheel support.

For some people ... it works here and our developers cannot reproduce the problem but we're trying.

See my post further up the page or previous page, plus Chris (ugo) posted a link to a utility that works for XP users.

Peace,
Andy.

[sporkles]

Also i don,t need to see all the soundbanks which i didn,t bought.

This is a bug as explained here:

http://bit.ly/Qv3rv1

It will be fixed in the next point update which we are working on now and aim to release with 2 weeks.

Does this only apply to the presets, or to their libraries as well? Or is it "A Taste of Alchemy" that causes all the libraries to be visible? If so, is "Taste" just meant to be previewed and then uninstalled?

OK, so the Alchemy Mobile control works over Wi-Fi? What happens if you have more than one Alchemy instance in your set?

Alchemy Mobile switches to whichever instance is in focus in your host at the time.

Does this mean that an Alchemy instance must be on-screen in Live in order to be remote controlled, or does Alchemy Mobile retain control of the instance that was in focus last?

Thanks for taking the time to reach out to users on other forums! It's awesome that a company's support dept. is on par with its products - that's not always the case. <3

(edit: grammar OCD)

[ian_halsall]

What things can you automate in Alchemy in Live?

Sample start, length, etc.?

The lack of sensible automation in Live Sampler is starting to rile me.

[33tetragammon]

What things can you automate in Alchemy in Live?

Sample start, length, etc.?

The lack of sensible automation in Live Sampler is starting to rile me.

AFAIK you can automate almost anything (except buttons). You only have to make them visible to live using the 'configure' button.
You can definitely modulate sample start in Alchemy, but not the sample length.

[ian_halsall]

In the end the best tool for this kind of crap is Simpler I think....

Sampler can't do it - sounds great when you do it manually like they show you in the video then when you come to do it in a 'song' it's tricky because you can only map via midi which isn't grainy enough to sweep through long samples.

Grrr

[Liam]

The following fix does not work with my Win 7 32 bit PC

Live just crashes.

Win:
1) Quit Live

2) Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Camel Audio > Alchemy > Alchemy Configuration

3) Delete Alchemy_Preset_Ratings_And_Tags and Alchemy_Preset_Ratings_And_Tags.bak.

4) Start Live and launch an instance of Alchemy. The scan should restart, and ought to complete successfully this time.

Is this perhaps because this solution process differs from another one on the Camelaudio web site? This version says to reboot both PCs and Macs. I've tried both solutions and they both failed.




Quit your host
Open the Alchemy configuration folder:

Mac
/Library/Application Support/Camel Audio/Alchemy

Windows
Start Menu -> All Programs -> Camel Audio -> Alchemy -> Alchemy Configuration

Delete the following files

Alchemy_Preset_Ratings_And_Tags
Alchemy_Preset_Ratings_And_Tags.bak

Reboot your computer
Open your host

[merges]

Since folks from Camel are reading (thanks)—Alchemy is awesome. But file handling for samples, etc. is so irritating. Why can't you guys (and other plug-in manufacturers) just stick to standard OS file dialogs and management. I'm not talking about presets, which are fine to have special browsers for. But why can't I drag a file to the VST as a source? Why not have "import audio" open a standard system file dialog, so that I can have my own bookmarks and drag and drop, etc.? Having to use custom, awkward to navigate file browsers is so … 1985.

[Ugo Audio]

Does this only apply to the presets, or to their libraries as well? Or is it "A Taste of Alchemy" that causes all the libraries to be visible? If so, is "Taste" just meant to be previewed and then uninstalled?

The extra libraries are showing up in the library list because of Taste of Camel. It includes 5 presets from each library, and you can keep them installed if you like the presets, otherwise feel free to remove them.

You can definitely modulate sample start in Alchemy, but not the sample length.

Actually, there is one way you can adjust the loop length.

1) Use a Ramp-Up LFO to modulate the start position, so that the loop playback speed is controlled by the LFO.

2) Bring the modulation amount knob back to center, so you don't hear any modulation of the start position.

3) Either right click on the modulation amount knob to assign a modulation/knob to it, or assign the modulation knob to one of Live's controls.

Now when you adjust the modulation amount, the end point for the loop will change accordingly.

The following fix does not work with my Win 7 32 bit PC

We're very sorry that my suggestions to your support email have thus far been unsuccessful. I've brought your support email to Andy's attention, as I'd like to get his opinion on the situation. He will be contacting you as soon as he has the opportunity.

But why can't I drag a file to the VST as a source?

While I can't promise anything just yet, drag and drop capability has been a subject of discussion here and we're definitely looking into it. However, if it is added it likely won't be until v2.

[Sibanger]

OK, so the Alchemy Mobile control works over Wi-Fi? What happens if you have more than one Alchemy instance in your set?

http://www.camelaudio.com/faqs/Alchemy_ ... of_Alchemy

Open the instance of Alchemy or Alchemy Player that you wish to remote control and click directly on the plugin GUI (not the host wrapper surrounding the plugin). The instance under control will be the instance that last received a mouse click if there are instances of Alchemy "on top of" the one being remote controlled, or even if the GUI is closed.

Works as it says in FAQs.

[33tetragammon]

Actually, there is one way you can adjust the loop length.

1) Use a Ramp-Up LFO to modulate the start position, so that the loop playback speed is controlled by the LFO.

2) Bring the modulation amount knob back to center, so you don't hear any modulation of the start position.

3) Either right click on the modulation amount knob to assign a modulation/knob to it, or assign the modulation knob to one of Live's controls.

Now when you adjust the modulation amount, the end point for the loop will change accordingly.

Thanks for the reply Ugo!
I know about that trick from one of the excellent Dan Worral video tutorials, but it only seems to work if you set the source to 'granular', and setting the 'stretch' knob to zero (or maybe i'm missing something obvious).

What i would love to see in a future version of Alchemy:

- realtime sampling, an integrated sample editor and adjustable crossfade looping with constant power fades.

- drag and drop audio files into Alchemy (the current way of getting samples into Alchemy is a bit cumbersome, especially when importing samples for additive/spectral resynthesis).

- individual outputs for all sources.