Hi,

We've just released version 1.3 of Cameleon 5000, which has lots of new featues and over 130 new presets.

Introduction

Cameleon 5000 is an additive synthesizer with morphing and resynthesis abilities. Cameleon has received great reviews and numerous awards including a Future Music Platinum Award, Keyboard Key Buy Award and Computer Music Innovation Award. Cameleon is used in studios around the world from Grammy award winning producers to use on major Hollywood film soundtracks.

New Features

Version 1.3 adds a host of new features including the ability to convert bitmaps to noise. Sounds may also be exported as bitmaps, so that they may be edited in a graphics program and then reimported.
Cameleon also adds support for microtuning, and has had significant CPU optimization allowing it to be run at lower latencies. It now responds to MIDI bank and program changes. The update also offers a number of sound quality improvements including improved reverb and chorus effects. Other improvements include voice mute buttons, longer LFO cycles, multi-sampling of bitmaps and support for Mac OS 9.

New Presets

The new version also adds 130 new instrument presets covering everything from filmic effects and ambiences, pads and dancefloor basses to vocal sounds, courtesy of the new vocal formant filter presets. There are also new harmonic presets including saws and squares inspired by Juno and Virus synthesizers. The update includes many new morph timeline presets - one of Cameleons many unique features - which makes creating rythmic loops and evolving pads a matter of a couple of mouse
clicks.

New Demo Details

Cameleon 5000 is supplied with an extensive library of more than 600 presets, and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X / OS 9, in VST and Audio Units plugin formats. It can be purchased online from the Camel Audio website for $199 or 159 euro.

Camel Audios website has been updated - you can now download several hundred Cameleon presets, read tutorials and interviews with famous users, or even buy a Camel Audio T-shirt. The free demo version of Cameleon has also been updated so head over to www.camelaudio.com and try it out for yourself. You can download the demo here:
http://www.camelaudio.com/products.php?pID=28

New features in v1.3

- bitmaps can be analysed to create noise settings
- sounds may be exported as bitmap images
- micro tuning support added via the .tun format
- CPU optimization - note ons optimized allowing Cameleon to be run at lower latencies
- over 130 new instrument presets
- new vocal formant (oh, ah, eh) presets, harmonic presets modelled on Juno and Virus
- responds to MIDI bank/program changes
- mute option for each voice on morph page
- support for Mac OS 9
- other improvements include improved reverb and chorus, longer LFO cycles, mutli-sampling of bitmaps, new morph timeline presets, decibel display, all-vol option on additive editing window, CPU optimized for instrument loading, logarithmic control on volume, increased zoom range, randomization now applies to formant filter too, instrument bank and program are midi learnable, windows version now has an installer, bug fixes

Quote:

"Cameleon 5000 is a hugely playable instrument with an unusually supple, fluid sound." Sound on Sound "Cameleon 5000 is clearly a fantastic synth!", Future Music - 9/10, Platinum Award. "The variety of sounds it can produce is amazing!", Computer Music - 8/10, CM Innovation Award. "This synth is not just multi-colored, it's a Key Buy-winning little monster. ", Keyboard - Key Buy Award "A powerful virtual instrument capable of delivering great and original sounds for just about any musical situation", Mac Format - 4.5/5

Comments and questions are very welcome - please go ahead and post.

Thanks
Ben

Ben [Camel Audio] wrote:

Hi, We've just released version 1.3 of Cameleon 5000, which has lots of new featues and over 130 new presets.

It was my email asking about this, wasn't it?!!!

Quite a generous update, Ben.

The bitmaps to noise filters are excellent. Sometimes it's a small thing or two that can add tremendously to how a synth works.

I've got much more time to work with everything new but so far I'm quite impressed.

This is a Great update to the Cameleon. MICROTUNING SUPPORT! YESSSSS my Precioussssss Theres a huge library of TUN format provided by Toby Bear I believe. It will keep you going for years and years! I hope Wendy Carlos can get hold of this one now!

Guess I also have to say ( maybe it goes without saying) that I did quite a few new presets for this update, as Ben wanted to show off the filter format and evolving stuff, so I put my space hat on ( guess it's ALWAYS ON ) and created some nice pads and atmospherics. The further you dive into the camel, the more spacier she gets. Hope you like 'em. Jim did a great job in the re-org of the patches as well.

TC

Quote:

Quite a generous update, Ben.

Quote:

The bitmaps to noise filters are excellent. Sometimes it's a small thing or two that can add tremendously to how a synth works.

That feature is pretty cool for creating some unsual sounds. Another cool thing is the BMP export feature - if you like you can export the noise from a sound as a BMP, play around with it a graphics program and then reimport it.

Quote:

This is a Great update to the Cameleon. MICROTUNING SUPPORT! YESSSSS my Precioussssss Theres a huge library of TUN format provided by Toby Bear I believe. It will keep you going for years and years! I hope Wendy Carlos can get hold of this one now!

I will uploaded the TUN library to the Community section of the website shortly. It is quite fun playing in all kinds of different scales, I must say.

Quote:

Guess I also have to say ( maybe it goes without saying) that I did quite a few new presets for this update, as Ben wanted to show off the filter format and evolving stuff, so I put my space hat on ( guess it's ALWAYS ON ) and created some nice pads and atmospherics. The further you dive into the camel, the more spacier she gets. Hope you like 'em. Jim did a great job in the re-org of the patches as well.

Yes - you did a great job on the new presets. Lots of funky formant filter sweeping, and lots of cool morph timeline stuff. McLilith has also done some excellent patches in this update - including amongst other things, some tremendous organs, and some great morph timelines. If you see morphtimelines that look like an Escher drawing, its probably thanks to McLilith. CamelHerder (aka Jim) has also done some cool presets - such as April Showers and all kinds of bitmap based antics. Thanks very much to everyone whos presets are in this update - I think you all excelled yourselves

Ben

Hi,

I thought you'd be interested to know that I've added a couple of tunes to the Cameleon demo page - one by Vurt and one by X Bruce. They showcase the ambient/soundtrack side of Cameleon very well. Cameleon seems to be popular with film composers - which is really cool. Check the demos out, by scrolling to the bottom of the product page at:
http://www.camelaudio.com/products.php?pID=28

I've also added a library of .tun files which you can feed your Cameleon, as well as the 125 files removed from the 1.2 sound set to make way for the extras in 1.3. You can find these on the community page at:
http://www.camelaudio.com/community.php

Ben

Hi,

In case you hadn't already noticed, there's now a chance to win a free copy of Cameleon 5000 right here at KVR. All you have to do is download the latest demo, and name your favourite three presets.

More info here:
http://www.kvr-vst.com/comp_camel.php

Thanks
Ben