Camel's Alchemy: Wanna be convinced?

deva · Post by **deva** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:43 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:
Newecho wrote:http://www.camelaudio.com/alchemymanual/mod/mseg/

Reminds me of Absynth.
Very much so. They've taken many of the best features from other products like absynth and kore and put them in with their cameleon and camel space vibes and improved on everything.

One of the few areas though where I like the absynth approach better still is
the multi-envelopes. In absynth it's cool that you can see them all together as well as seeing a position marker run through the timeline. I could be wrong but I don't think alchemy's mseg's have a position marker showing the sound over time. And you only see one mseg at a time.

no position marker... unfortunately

I like how Zebra does it fine... you can see other mseg fainter in the background... and that would work with the alchemy gui

deva · Post by **deva** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:55 am

Alchemy is impressive... have about 6 hours use so far.

I like a lot of the presets... wish there were more. The included presets don't even cover all the basics of what the synth can do. I'd like to see more instrument emulations available.

It is easy (considering the vast depth of the synth) to start making your own presets. I spent a couple hours on the VA section and it was surprisingly good. Lots of filter options with some pleasing character. Good effects.

The modulation is amazingly deep and quick to set up.

I've only begun to play with importing audio, but from playing around, it is clear that Alchemy is a sample mangling monster. Record some vocal sounds, import them, and you can make a wide range of useful results.

Overall, I like the GUI... There are a few minor issues. It is too easy to wipe out a preset you been working on by clicking on the preset menu. Modulation depth knobs are slow to respond to mouse input. Saving a preset does not remember remix pad position which is a bother.

Haven't had any crash or instability other than a couple minor gui bugs. Considering it is a new synth 1.0 I'd say it feel real stable. (Mac version here)

RawTheory · Post by **RawTheory** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:08 am

dbolt wrote:
Here is something I put together very quickly showing off Alchemy.. I hope this link works for everyone I hardly use my Mobile Me website so I figured I would give it a try.... Everything is Alchemy except the drums...

Edit: The track I mention above is called Sunset Groove... I just posted another track called Afrovibes which is a more Electro Funky House track which features Alchemy...
http://web.me.com/dustinseabolt/Site/Music.html

Great tracks! I especially like the second afro track. Really evocative and groovy. Makes me want Alchemy even more!

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:59 am

dbolt wrote:Has anyone purchased the additional presets?

I've got them- they're pretty good. The Atmospheres set is more to my liking, but the Electronic set has some cool loop patches.

ew

dbolt · Post by **dbolt** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:00 am

RawTheory wrote:
dbolt wrote:
Here is something I put together very quickly showing off Alchemy.. I hope this link works for everyone I hardly use my Mobile Me website so I figured I would give it a try.... Everything is Alchemy except the drums...

Edit: The track I mention above is called Sunset Groove... I just posted another track called Afrovibes which is a more Electro Funky House track which features Alchemy...
http://web.me.com/dustinseabolt/Site/Music.html
Great tracks! I especially like the second afro track. Really evocative and groovy. Makes me want Alchemy even more!

Thanks RawTheory... That particular track your talking about Afrovibes took all night and the next morning to complete I was really feeling it... It all started with that intro and then I built around it... figured a good 4x4 kick and then sidechained the kick with the intro and had to finish it.. The bass loop came from Sample Magic Funky House Grooves 2 sample pack.. I don't think I could pull off a real funky bass line like that myself... All the synth and SFX came from Alchemy... The guitar parts were me with my Fender Strat and Guitar Rig 3 nothing special... just a couple looped parts....

The intro along with the middle part that played out longer was 2 instances of Alchemy played together to get that big fat layered sound...

The other track was quickly put together but features about 7 instances of Alchemy throughout the song and I never had to freeze or bounce any of the tracks... Alchemy has been very CPU friendly I mean the patches are not to in depth but have the FX section going along with some MODs and mostly VA and Additive sources....

I'm really thinking about picking up the extra presets but man that's going to be pricey but I'm sure they're worth it.... I guess they had to find a way to pay the patch designers so made these available for purchase...

Thanks for the feedback....

edit: In case you were wondering my cpu setup

mid to late 08 Macbook Pro 15" 2.5g/4g Ram/OS 10.5.6 Live 7.14 I think or it may have been 7.12 I just installed the latest version...

last man on earth · Post by **last man on earth** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:54 am

Anybody have both Alchemy and Kontakt 3 that want to make a comparison? Komplete 3 is cheaper than Alchemy, but I'm looking for a vp-9000/vsynth replacement (owned both, sold both, regrettably).

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:48 pm

last man on earth wrote:Anybody have both Alchemy and Kontakt 3 that want to make a comparison? Komplete 3 is cheaper than Alchemy, but I'm looking for a vp-9000/vsynth replacement (owned both, sold both, regrettably).

Apples and oranges.

Alchemy's a resynth engine for the most part; it's designed more as a sample mangling synth than as a straight playback engine. Think of it as a modern day K5000. If you want to use multisamples, you have to go the .sfz route. Your CPU load per voice is much higher in general than with Kontakt.

Kontakt on the other hand is more aimed at straight sample playback- it's more along the lines of a traditional hardware sampler. And, while it can do a lot of the tricks that Alchemy can, it's geared more towards high voice count and multitimbrality than pure sample mangling. There's no spectral import or partial management- but, then again, that's not what it's designed to do.

If you want to lean towards the synth side, Alchemy's the better choice. However, if you're looking for something to use like a hardware workstation, Kontakt would probably fit the bill better.

ew

musiker01 · Post by **musiker01** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:08 pm

Jekblad wrote:i click on the link.....

i watched the vid...

and i jizzed in my pants

I click on the link......

Kernel Panic!!!

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:15 pm

musiker01 wrote:
Jekblad wrote:i click on the link.....

i watched the vid...

and i jizzed in my pants
I click on the link......

Kernel Panic!!!

are up on youtube now too. Jut do a search.

mholloway · Post by **mholloway** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:29 pm

dbolt wrote:
Geezus wrote:
since I got the educational discount which was nice since I just shelled out $500 or Omni... and I just bought Sylenth/Circle here recently .. So the $120 I spent on Alchemy was a no brainer....

http://web.me.com/dustinseabolt/Site/Music.html

I can't find anything on the camel website about an educational discount -- where did you find this? any idea if you have to be full time student (I'm part-time)...thanks

dbolt · Post by **dbolt** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:50 pm

mholloway wrote:
dbolt wrote:
Geezus wrote:
since I got the educational discount which was nice since I just shelled out $500 or Omni... and I just bought Sylenth/Circle here recently .. So the $120 I spent on Alchemy was a no brainer....

http://web.me.com/dustinseabolt/Site/Music.html
I can't find anything on the camel website about an educational discount -- where did you find this? any idea if you have to be full time student (I'm part-time)...thanks

I think it was in my email they sent when Alchemy was released for purchase... They are super cool when it comes to the Edu. Discount.. My wife works at a local college and has a Staff ID I just emailed they're team and they sent me discount codes for Alchemy/Camelphat/Camelspace...

I'm really thinking about the latter two but man there old .. they came out in 2005 I think .. I think I have enough FX to be content right now but I can get both for around $85 with the EDU discount....

I emailed a scanned copy of my wife's Staff ID to this email [email protected]

I hope that helps...

Peace

mholloway · Post by **mholloway** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:00 pm

dbolt wrote:
I'm really thinking about the latter two but man there old .. they came out in 2005 I think .. I think I have enough FX to be content right now but I can get both for around $85 with the EDU discount....

I emailed a scanned copy of my wife's Staff ID to this email [email protected]

I hope that helps...

Peace

thanks for the info! as for camelphat/space, I thought they were integrated into Alchemy's FX ??

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:04 pm

mholloway wrote:
dbolt wrote:
I'm really thinking about the latter two but man there old .. they came out in 2005 I think .. I think I have enough FX to be content right now but I can get both for around $85 with the EDU discount....

I emailed a scanned copy of my wife's Staff ID to this email [email protected]

I hope that helps...

Peace
thanks for the info! as for camelphat/space, I thought they were integrated into Alchemy's FX ??

They are. However, Alchemy doesn't have audio ins, so if you want to use the FX somewhere else, you'll need to have the separate plugins.

ew

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:43 am

I just noticed someone selling it on kvr for 145 dollars. Good buy for those who don't have cameleon, especially this early.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3392467

Sibanger · Post by **Sibanger** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:42 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:I just noticed someone selling it on kvr for 145 dollars. Good buy for those who don't have cameleon, especially this early.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3392467

parma

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=103876

Camel's Alchemy: Wanna be convinced?

Re: Multi Segment Audio Generator & Sequencer