ok im demoing alchemy again and i found 1 tutorial of creating a drone but if you have any other tutorials, tips etc. please share, i want to see if i might get alchemy for this matter!

The best thing to do is watch the tutorial videos on our site:

http://www.camelaudio.com/tutorials.php?tID=14

Most of the topics to get the best out of Alchemy are covered. Drones should be relatively straight forward after watching the granular tutorial, for example.

A little tip that might help: it is possible to turn off the master amp envelope so that notes play "forever" i.e. never enter the envelope release phase. Also note that the depth of the AHDSR cannot be modified when assigned to Master Amp, but this can be changed to an MSEG, LFO or turned off entirely.

Peace,
Andy.

Here is something I just did to some audio

An Alchemy granular experiment! Audio generated in Endless Series and the run through HourGlass and then granulized in Alchemy.
I did this by working various Alchemy controls. If I record some video I'd do that but I've had some issues getting video recording to run on my W7x64 system and don't have the time to learn about it, sorry. But If you know how to perform on software what I've done here is not very hard at all.
http://soundcloud.com/abstractcats/alchemy-grain-endless-aud io

There's no doubt here really, Alchemy = Drones.

You sent me a private message asking me 'how to' months ago I remember, and I gave you some tips on drones in Alchemy, remember? You still have the message? There were some good tips and solid starting points in there.

What type of drone are you after? There are many approaches to making a drone, from a simple sustained low note - which could be just a simple bass sound, to a repetition of several notes, like on Tambura (which I absolutely love the sound of).

Exactly. But anyway, Alchemy DOES an amazing job in pretty much all type of drones. If it's in your budget, you have nothing to worry about and you'll be able to create any drones your mind can come up with.

those kind of drones im looking for the more organic endless played hypnotic stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvQiZivyeWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOctJmC0u1M

and this, dark ambient stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFB3SS9-qa0&feature=related

@neon breath:

sorry mate, yes i will recheck but when i tried i wasnt so succesful
have to learn more about alchemy and reactivate the demo mode.

These videos have complete ambient tracks made out of many layered, 'interwoven' sounds.

Normally, I'd start the creation of a drone(s) by editing the synth itself, assigning LFOs to various parameters, use some multi-stage envelopes or step sequencers to create movement, but there is an easier method for those who aren't interested in synthesis:

step1.

load several instances of Alchemy, and load a soundscape preset into each (Alchemy has loads of them). Then record a sustained note or a chord (the longer the better). Do that for each Alchemy instance. Once you have several of these long clips, move them about the arrange page in your host. Overlaying some is good. You will need to get a feel of which arrangement of these clips works best.

step2.

Is about applying envelopes to fade in/out between all clips and create rhythmic interest. This can be done 'sound on sound' where you could apply some interesting but subtle rhythm with an automated volume envelope which uses a pre-set shape (most hosts have these nowdays), then render the result, and then ride the volume fader as the song plays to bring this clip in and out of the mix. So you will be performing multiple volume recording on the same clip.

You could set up a mix on your midi controller so that you can control each track's volume with a physical fader, which will make it a more intuitive process.

step3.

If you are still after deeper ambiances, use some effect plugins in series on each clip (pitch shifter+delay+reverb+phaser, for example).

With just the above you can end up with very deep and interesting drones/tracks without having to touch any synthesis at all.

The great thing about Alchemy is, that a single preset can do all of the above with ease, provided the perform knobs have been set up in the right way. An Alchemy preset can have as deep an ambiance as can be, aided by some very high quality effects. So you really could be on your way making deep drones and ambiances in no time at all, and even when using presets, you have plenty of hands on performance parameters which will allow you to mangle the original timbre beyond recognition.

Hope this helps somewhat. If you need similar sounds as heard in those videos, Alchemy is really one of the best instruments to realise them.

Great tips here himalya. Thanks!

MANY thanks mate ! i first have to see if i can follow the steps and understand , sounds not clear to me first but i guess i need to load up alchemy and see if i can follow your instructions!

I don't hear anything 'special' technically speaking in these examples that could not be done in Alchemy. With some time and some work of course, you should be able to create this kind of sustained drones, really.

Perhaps this will illustrate it better...see the image and listen to the audio demo. What you hear is what you see in the image, and it's basically the steps I've outlined in my previous post. You can see several tracks, each loaded with Alchemy and each has a preset from the default library. These are 4 sound scape presets and two bass presets (used for the deep drone) all picked at random without any planning. And of course, those volume envelopes, which I drew manually as the each track played back. I moved a few clips around, and on further playback passes I have made more volume adjustments to better fit each clip with another. It's by no means a superb effort, far from it. It only took me 30 minutes to do, but it's a start. The track needs to be mixed properly with better effect levels, EQ here and there, some compression, etc. What you hear is Alchemy and one single instance of Warmwerb on one of the bass sounds, which adds a Vocoder like effect via a deep reverb.

So, anyway, it's only an alternative, easy way to get some deep sounds very quickly.

Alchemy Ambinet Drone



It would be interesting to load this track into Alchemy for further mangling! Then mix it in with the original. Re-sampling...might give interesting results.

(BTW, I was going to post a video of this but can't get CamStudio to work here.)

Alchemy is probably the best synth (well in my opinion) in creating drones and ambient based music.

All alchemy librarys have some great presets for drone style creation, but if you are trying for the darker style the following are fantastic :

biolabs dark space
dubstep

also I would have a look at the westgatesounds Anomaly samples/sfz as when these are imported into alchemy you can create some quite disturbing sounds.

That's a very fine example himalaya!

Indeed,a great example