[Click above for larger image.]
PROS
Huge factory sound set. Incredibly deep programming. Massive realtime modulation possibilities.
CONS
Once you start programming sounds, you’ll forget to eat, sleep, or bathe.
INFO
$249, www.camelaudio.com
NEED TO KNOW
What types of synthesis does it do? Virtual analog, sample playback, granular, additive, spectral, and resynthesis of samples.
What does it run on? Mac or PC, as an AU or VST plug-in. There’s no standalone mode.
Will it time-stretch loops? Yes, using either granular or additive processes. You can also morph between loops.
Can I download it? Yes, if you have a fast Internet connection. The sound library is over 2GB in size. There’s also a downloadable demo.
Who is it for? It’s easy enough that you’re fine if all you want is to play cool synth sounds, but deep enough for the maddest of mad sound design scientists.
If you love programming amazing sounds — or even just playing them — don’t miss Alchemy. It immediately jumped to the top of my short list of stunning, next-generation software instruments. Other than Native Instruments Reaktor, Alchemy has the deepest feature set I’ve ever seen. Yet it’s easier to use than Reaktor, and less expensive.
Just listing Alchemy’s features would fill pages. Fortunately, we don’t need to go there. The Camel Audio website has a long list, tucked away below the informative videos on the main Alchemy page. Instead, this review will highlight some of My Favorite Things.
In a nutshell, Alchemy starts with an additive synthesis engine similar to the one in Camel’s Cameleon 5000, to which are added sample playback with granular synthesis, virtual analog oscillators, all of the effects from CamelPhat and CamelSpace, multiple step sequencers, a versatile arpeggiator, up to 14 resonant multimode filters per patch, and a modulation panel that makes complex sound morphing as easy as dragging your mouse. The factory sound library, which was created by top-name designers, is based on 2GB of samples. You can also load your own samples, time-stretch the loops, and resynthesize them. There’s even a window in which you can paint or import images that are then interpreted as sound.
FACTORY SOUNDS
The factory sound set has close to 300 patches, but the true number of included sounds is far larger, because all of them are set up so that the Remix Pad — that’s the block of eight squares in the lower right corner — introduces subtle or radical sonic changes. Too many factory sound sets skimp on the realtime modulation inputs to their patches, so this factor alone puts Alchemy way ahead of the pack. Richard Devine’s “Fuzzy Logic Piano,” for instance, starts with a dark, ambient piano tone, but when you drag the Remix Pad’s indicator down, the tone dissolves into flutey, atonal echoes. Michael Kastrup’s “Pulsing Toto,” in the Arpeggiated category, brings the arpeggiator in and out around an analog pad and changes its envelope and filter characteristics.
The basses are solid and cutting. John Lehmkuhl’s “RazorBak Bass” has Remix Pad areas with and without filter resonance, delay echoes, fuzz buzz, and low end. The pads are ethereal and the guitar presets rich and usable. I was less enchanted by the drum kits. I like heavily electronic drums, but these seemed quirky and overproduced to me. Some of the most far-reaching sound design, such as Paul Nauert’s “Mallet Particles,” is found in the loops category.
The Atmospheric and Electronic sound sets ($59 add-ons) are well worth having. Paul Nauert’s “Be Nimble,” in the loops category of the Electronic set, uses four LFOs to strum a couple of additive sound sources in a pulsing rhythm, and some positions of the Remix Pad retune one oscillator up a major third or a perfect fifth while changing the chimelike tone.
SYNTH ENGINE
Calling Alchemy’s four sound sources “oscillators” really oversimplifies what they do. Each of them has three filters of its own, for instance, before you even get into Alchemy’s filter section proper. Three filters would be overkill for most sounds, but each one can turn into a ring modulator or bit-crusher if desired, or you can route all three in parallel and use them as formant filters to impart vowel- and speech-like shapes on the sound.
Importing a sample into the granular synthesis engine and then turning the stretch knob pulls the sample out like elastic. The stretch knob also works when a sample is imported in additive mode, but the result will be different because additive mode performs an analysis and resynthesis of the sample. In additive mode, you can use the PVar knob to squash or magnify the pitch variations in the harmonic partials, or spread the partials across the stereo field.
Clicking the Edit button for a source opens up a new panel in which you can edit the spectrum of an additive sound or adjust the loop start and end for a sample. The back-and-forth sample loop setting wasn’t working in version 1.08, but Camel Audio says this will be fixed in version 1.09. Alchemy can import multisample files in .SFZ format, and after doing so you can adjust the key and velocity zones for the samples within the file. Currently in development is a feature that will let you import multiple samples at once and assign them to zones.
The virtual analog engine borrows some concepts from the additive side: In addition to the standard unison mode with detuning, you can assign the unison voices to overtones in the harmonic spectrum, then crossfade between various groups of overtones, such as the odd- and even-numbered ones, using a knob. The symmetry knob does pulse width modulation on square waves and also shapes the other single-cycle waves. However, Alchemy lacks hard sync and FM.
FILTERS
Each sound source has its own filters, as mentioned above. The sources are then summed to stereo before going to the master filters. The latter (a pair) have a series/parallel knob for blending the outputs, and each of them has a knob for sending the output to the effects, a dry mix, or a blend of the two. Each source also has a Filter Mix knob, which balances how much of that source is sent to Filter 1 versus Filter 2.
The filter modes include comb, peaking, ring modulation, and distortion. Distortion added by the master filters will be separate for each voice, without intermodulation. If you want the latter, you can add a filter as an effect module. High-quality versions of the low-, band-, and highpass modes are provided. Modes called “state-variable” are also included, but these didn’t operate the way an analog state-variable filter does. “LP2-SV” always seems to be a lowpass filter.
MODULATION
Alchemy can modulate the sound in many different ways. Each knob on the panel has five modulation inputs, which can be fed from an LFO, envelope, step sequencer, performance control, or an item in the Note Property menu, which includes velocity, key follow, channel and poly aftertouch, and so on. Each modulation routing can be processed by a completely definable modulation map, which is useful for creating velocity response curves, keyboard tapering, and more esoteric effects.
Each of the 16 step sequencers can have up to 128 steps, and each note you play will have its own sequencer(s). Any knob in the synth can be modulated from a step sequencer, so you can sequence complex interlocking patterns involving filter cutoff, panning, pitch, and all sorts of other things. There’s currently no way to trigger an envelope generator from a step sequencer step, however. This is a significant limitation.
The arpeggiator includes its own set of up to 16 step sequencers. These do trigger the envelope generators, but all of the patterns have to be the same length, so on this side you can’t do interlocking patterns in differing time signatures. The arpeggiator’s modulation outputs are more limited than the step sequencer’s, but it has a couple of cool features, such as the ability to import grooves from MIDI files. The sequencer/arpeggiator feels like a 1.0 release to me; there’s some room for refinements.
The 16 multisegment envelopes offer a more powerful way to create complex patterns. When editing breakpoints, you can snap them to a master sync grid, and each segment can have its own curvature. The AHDSR envelopes (see Figure 1 below), which are easier to edit, have switches for selecting the curvature of the segments. I would have liked to see a separate delay stage at the start of the AHDSR envelopes, since there’s plenty of room on the panel for another knob.
Fig. 1. Another view of Alchemy, showing the sound source overview and morph knobs at upper left, a five-segment AHDSR envelope (H is the hold time between the peak of the attack and when the decay phase begins) with selectable curves at center right, and the arpeggiator panel on the bottom. Click image for larger version.
PERFORMANCE CONTROLS
The knobs in Alchemy have a MIDI learn feature, so you can map them to hardware knobs or sliders and control them in live performance. But the Performance panel provides a much slicker way to use realtime control. The 12 knobs and two X/Y control surfaces here can each modulate any combination of parameters. You can then create up to eight presets for the Performance controls. Then there’s the Remix Pad, which is used for switching among the performance presets (by double-clicking) or blending them smoothly (by dragging). Even better, the Remix Pad’s X and Y directions themselves can be MIDI-learned—say, to a joystick or X/Y touchpad on your MIDI controller. As to sound quality, I heard no glitching during realtime modulation: It was very smooth.
Names are automatically added to the knobs when they’re first assigned, and you can edit the names as needed. The manual suggests standard assignments for sound designers (where to put filter cutoff, for instance) but acknowledges that some patches will need other layouts.
EFFECTS
Alchemy’s effects rack includes a good reverb, plus the other types of modules you’d expect. You get up to five effects, and the routing is in series. One cool trick: Insert a bandpass filter as an effect, then add a band-reject “tap” later in the chain. With this setup, you can do tricks like adding a delay only to the extreme highs in the tone. By controlling the band-reject’s mix knob from an envelope, you can crossfade between effects. Alchemy’s sound source “oscillators” can’t be tapped individually, though, as they’re summed to stereo before being sent to the effects.
ISSUES
Two or three of the patches in the loops category had missing sample files. I’m told that this has been corrected, so you may not encounter this problem. When I tested Alchemy in Steinberg Cubase 4.5.2 on my PC, its knobs responded in rotary fashion, even though the default is supposed to be a linear up/down response. Also in Cubase, clicking on an Alchemy knob (to select it for modulation) caused its value to jump wildly. This didn’t happen when I hosted Alchemy in Ableton Live or in Image-Line FL Studio, nor with other synth plug-ins I tried in Cubase. Again, we’re told this will be fixed in version 1.09, which should be out by the time you read this.
CONCLUSIONS
Alchemy is one of the deepest software synths I’ve ever played, and though you could use it for standard-issue sounds like leads and squirty brass, that’d be like using the Hadron Collider to microwave a burrito. This is a mad scientist’s lab full of sound design goodies. The virtual analog engine could be beefed up by adding oscillator sync, FM, and audio-rate modulation of the filters — but remember, this is only the 1.0 release. And even at 1.0, its power-for-price makes it a Key Buy winner. This synth rocks!