This is a very deep and capable synthesizer. i had to stop auditioning the presets because there are just too many of them! Cameleon is a synth to spend hours with whether auditioning presets or building sounds of your own. If you want to create unnatural sounds, it's very easy to do so. The presets include some very good emulations of natural sounds, but the real power here is in making evolving pads and atmospheric textures.
If i had to complain, it would be that the UI is flakey (buttons behave un-traditional or sometimes refuse to acknowledge clicks if you move around too fast, virtual keyboard sticks notes, and screen redraw is temperamental; annoying sometimes but still totally workable). Biggest problem is the standalone version; crash prone (apparently using some VST player wrapper and therein lies the problem - so says the crash report). So stick with a VST host (this is why i am voting high on the stability portion in the ratings list).
My only complaints about the presets: there are too many of the same kinds of sounds (come on, we can press Randomize buttons ourselves to seek variations on the same sound", there is a great lack of dynamic variation and too many presets lack many standard controller setups (like sustain pedal and aftertouch). You can change that and save the updated presets if you care to.
Overal, so far my playing experience (while in a VST Host) has been fun and i hope to learn more about additive synthesis by reading the manual and expirimenting. My experience with additive synthesis so far has been Cameleon, Cube (just ordered Cube 2) and the Roland MT-32 ("Linear Arithmatic Synthesis, which is a shadow of the D50 it is based on and barely comparable to the likes of Cube and Cameleon). The MT-32 is impossible to program; the one guy who has managed to make neat sounds out of it wont explain his techniques though he offers a modified SoundDiver mod, which i can't get to work. Soon i hope to play with the D50 (via V-Synth XT), which was the original LA Synth. Do i have too many of the same things here? No. Each one has its own personality, methodology and character. i am begining to get an idea of what additive synthesis is capable of and Cameleon is, so far, a very interesting education on the process. While i prefer "clean and technologically advanced rack-like" UIs for VSTs, Cameleon's is stylish and well laid out if a bit bumpy ;-)
Wishes? i really would like to see some more dynamics and better setups for controllers in the presets, but again, this is a sound designer's tool. Not a rompler. If you want as many tools as possible to make your own sounds, this fits nicely into the tool kit. Worth the cost? i don't know. i've been spending wildly lately (partially to get 100% legit on all the tools i use (100% there, now, yay!).Read Review
