Magic Wand : Alchemy Soundbank : The Oculus 1rst expansion set Released

[Lotuzia]

Just to inform you that MAGIC WAND For Alchemy is finally released

Magic Wand is comprised of 101 Meta Instruments for Alchemy.

Due to Alchemy 8 Variations per patch these 101 original Meta Instruments will offer you far more than 300 hundreds totally different presets.

Some of these variations were conveniently re-stored as "ghost copies" in the appropriate folders of Alchelmy, so that you'll never find the Lead variation of an initially Bass preset when you browse for Leads intruments. These are called Z presets.

Magic Wand is part of our Fair Play program :

Magic Wand contains 101 Meta Instruments and is released at the introcutory price of 17€.

In one month the first update of 25 instruments will be released. And the Msrp price will jump to 25€. The update is free for all owners of the bank prior this date.

Then the second update will be released on March 15 and the price of the bank will raise to 30€. ie its definitive msrp price. The update will again be free to all earlier adopters of the bank.

Well this is the Fair Play program : Never pay for more than what you get, faithfull and earliers adopters get a lot of free additional content, ie 50% additional patches.

Then I just made yesterday a small audio demo with some of the instruments wich will be included in the step 2 update

Step2 Preview

More details on our site, and all comments and questions welcomed, as usual.

Note : The soundset is fully ready, and I have just proofed the install, so bank is ready to ship, but I still have to finish the manual. If you're really in a hurry, just mention it on your order in the free text area and I'll send the bank today and the mnual tomorrow or the next day. (Note that the manual includes the detailed install procedure too)

Thanks for reading and have a super Nice day

LtZ

[Ingonator]

I just ordered the soundset. Based on the demos I think it will be great.



On the other hand Himalaya's pads will be hard to beat. Let's see.

[Lotuzia]

I just ordered the soundset. Based on the demos I think it will be great.



On the other hand Himalaya's pads will be hard to beat. Let's see.

Hi Ingo,

Yeah many thanks for your kind words on the audio demos. Well audio demos are just the instruments played with only moving the mod wheel. No further automation, just pushing keys. So I'm sure there are a lot more possibilities with all the morphing features aso. But yeah only naked truth demos on our site.

I just sent you Magic Wand Soundset. Yes Raphael's awsome pads are a reference point for Alchemy's Pads. Hopefully the pads included into Magic Wand will compliment them in a nice way

But there are also many other instruments categories in Magic Wand. But hey I'll let you discover all this by yourself and we'll see Dont forget to try the remix pads variations of an instrument if you like it.

Thanks again,

LtZ

[Ingonator]

I just received the soundset. Thanks for the very fast delivery, Laurent.

I'll keep playing those patches and post my impressions later...

[Lotuzia]

I just received the soundset. Thanks for the very fast delivery, Laurent.

I'll keep playing those patches and post my impressions later...

Hi Ingo, Yeah glad you got it.

SOOooo the installer seems to work if you can play the instruments Phewwww good thing I had to test this one 3 or 4 times to be sure it was allright and that all the needed data, like the .aaz files and the samples were present.

Btw all our instruments will load extremely FAST in Alchemy, and they are all usable with a basic PIV 3 Ghz PC (or Mac equivalent)

LtZ

[Ingonator]

Im just started a new thread at the Camel Audio Forum:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 42#3906042

I'll post my review there. I already started a bit...

[Lotuzia]

Im just started a new thread at the Camel Audio Forum:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 42#3906042

I'll post my review there. I already started a bit...

Wow Many thanks for all the nrg, time and efforts put into your review Ingo. hug:

I'll let you finish your review in the CA forum, then, if needed, I'll try to add details and explanations about the Z and XV Presets for example, wich populate the folders together with the original 101 Meta Instruments presets, and are only there to help musicians not to miss a usefull and clearly identified variation of a preset.

Else the manual is well advanced and should indeed be finished tomorrow.

I Emailed the banks to all people who already ordered it, and I'll send the manuals hoepfully tomorrow to all people who only had the bank emailed today

A bit more work but as many of you wanted the Soundbank NOW, wich I can perfectly understand btw , I thought it was better to do it this way

LtZ

[Ingonator]

Im just started a new thread at the Camel Audio Forum:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 42#3906042

I'll post my review there. I already started a bit...

Wow Many thanks for all the nrg, time and efforts put into your review Ingo. hug:

I'll let you finish your review in the CA forum, then, if needed, I'll try to add details and explanations about the Z and XV Presets for example, wich populate the folders together with the original 101 Meta Instruments presets, and are only there to help musicians not to miss a usefull and clearly identified variation of a preset.

Else the manual is well advanced and should indeed be finished tomorrow.

I Emailed the banks to all people who already ordered it, and I'll send the manuals hoepfully tomorrow to all people who only had the bank emailed today

A bit more work but as many of you wanted the Soundbank NOW, wich I can perfectly understand btw , I thought it was better to do it this way

LtZ

Maybe you could tell about the Z and XV presets now since this was the subject of my first review.
Browsing through the meta instruments takes some time so i don't know when i will be finished with all patches. On the other hand some patches (e.g. Arp's) were so nice that i had problems browsing forward...

[Lotuzia]

Yes Ingo you're right, its definitely time to give some info on that.

here's a -not so- short guide for the Z and XV presets. It might save you time than trying to figure out by yourself what they are. I made a C/P from the Pdf manual I'm currently finalizing, and wich -hopefully- will be ready today.

Short Guide to Z and XV presets

Alchemy can store in its Remix Pads 8 variations of a "primary" instrument. This ability was primary marketed as an uberpowerfull feature for Morphing between the Remix Pads or Long evolving textures. And indeed it can do all that.

The Remix Pads however, can be used in a totally different way. A variation can be more or less drastic, ie the new variation can be close of the original instrument, or .... it can also be COMPLETELY different.

So, for example, A Bass can have one (or more) lead Variation, and a Pad can have one (or more) Keys variation. And you can also find 8 totally different Basses as variations, though they will share a certain common basis. At this point, no apparent problem can be found. Until you think of the implications.

How to find the right bird to sing your song ?

Alchemy browser, with its categories, is very handy. So handy that you could miss the essential : The right instrument for the right track.

Say you need a Bass for your track. You will obviously look in the ..... Bass folders.
In case the needed and right variation of a lead could actually be the BEST bass for your track, you'll just ........ never find it. It's that simple

The Z birds

And thats precisely why we invented the Z presets. If the Remix Pad 7 of a Lead patch is indeed a great possible Bass intrument, we just took care to save this Remix Pad in the Bass folder too, with a special name. If the lead was called : The Bird, then in the Bass folder you'll find a preset named ...... Z the Bird, ready to play as a bass, and you wont miss it for preview next time you need a bass.

So a Z preset is just a "real-ghost copy" of one MetaInstrument ( ie the best name for a "preset" in Alchemy imho) saved with the right default Remix Pad, AND in the right folder, so thats it will be the more easy and convienent place to find it for you.

The Z presets concept was invented to make your life easier. As they're prefixed with a Z, they will always be located at the end of a folder in Alchemy' browser, so that they will never be mistaken with any of the original MetaInstruments, and can be instantaneously identified as "Z Variations" of original instruments.

Should you find this little idea a usefull concept, we strongly encourage you to make your own Z presets in Alchemy, each time you see an instrument wich could be used in another category/folder.

The XV birds
Are a bit more sophisticated than the Z presets, and a natural evolution of the concept.
The XV patches are also variations of the initial Meta Instruments, but here, we actually changed a few parameters ( Like enveloppes, filters, or Oscillators) to transform these presets into another new intrument belonging to another instrument category.
A simple example : A pad can become an interesting Key instruments by modifiying a few parameters in a preset. The bonus with XV presets is that usually all of the 8 remix pads were modified, so they look very close of distinct original Meta Instruments.
We could have as well included them in the initial number of presets of the bank to increase it in an artificial way, but we think it was more honnest, and more interesting for those who have interest in sound design and how its done, to release them as XV presets.
XV presets are of course prefixed with XV followed by the name of the original instrument.

Well there are atm 101 Meta Instruments in Magic Wand, more than 50 Z presets, and 3/4 XV presets. But the entire soundbank probably offers more than 300 different/"distinct" instruments.

I'm glad you enjoyed and ARP and Groove/Sequences presets, and the time needed to browse them hopefully shows a part of the "depth" of the Library.

I strongly encourage people to adapt the ARP and Groove presets to their tracks and likes, and thus get truly unique instruments. Once you deconstruct a preset and find the "mechanics" behind it, its very easy to do. You can also try the 8 macro/performance knobs and see what they do. I tried to provide what I thought was the most usefull to customise and add Musical automations for the instruments.

Cheers Ingo, and thanks again for taking the time of browsing the entire library, and the main thing, I hope you'll get inspired by the instruments

L.

[Lotuzia]

Just to let you know that :

Manual is finally ready. I'll send it to all Magic Wand users ina few hours (ie after dinner)

LtZ

[Ingonator]

Just to let you know that :

Manual is finally ready. I'll send it to all Magic Wand users ina few hours (ie after dinner)

LtZ

I just received the manual via email. It's very well written and explains the installation and how the Z + XV prests work (also see the post above).

At the end all 101 "Primary" Instruments (without the Z and XV presets) are listed with name, category, play mode, genre, commentary (short description) and wheel use (e.g. vibrato).


I am still not finished with all the patches but my impression so far is that those patches are just excellent. For example the Pads and Arps are beautiful and evolving (even more with the remix pads) but for sure not the usual "bread & butter" stuff. The reasons why it takes so long for me to browse through the patches are first the meta presets / remix pads and second that most of the patches are REALLY usable and inspiring so i instantly have to play a bit longer with those patches.

First conclusion: Purchase this soundset, maybe together with Himalayas Pads Vol. 1 and the Bigtone soundset and you'll be in synth heaven. Alchemy is becoming more and more a "pad machine" (in a good sense !!) like the legendary KORG Wavestation, NI Absynth 5 or the Waldorf synths were for me (and still are...). Also in the other categories Alchemy is getting stronger and stronger, for example the Arps and the Keys and even the Lead sounds.

[Lotuzia]

I am still not finished with all the patches but my impression so far is that those patches are just excellent. For example the Pads and Arps are beautiful and evolving (even more with the remix pads) but for sure not the usual "bread & butter" stuff. The reasons why it takes so long for me to browse through the patches are first the meta presets / remix pads and second that most of the patches are REALLY usable and inspiring so i instantly have to play a bit longer with those patches.

Hi Ingo,

Indeed our best reward

Else Im' very happy to say that, based on the experience of a few dozens users atm, the installer .............. seems to work 100% perfect

This means that you can begin to play 5 minutes after you received the archive file

And, much more important :

HappYyy Xmas to all


LtZ

[Lotuzia]

Little BuMmmP for all those who were on hollydays and could have missed it

[Lotuzia]

Not So Important but Magic Wand made a shy appearance in our TOP 10 soundbanks today to begin 2010 in Fanfare

Thanks to all Kvrians who showed their interest for Magic Wand. I just crafted a nice " Rhodish Keys Factory " meta preset for the first update of the banks today.

Ok back to work

LtZ

[Lotuzia]

Rekkerd.org made a review of our Magic Wand soundset

First time we have a neutral and professional review on a major Audio News site. For those who still dont know Rekkerd, if a plug-in is not in the news, then it probably doesn't exist Then Rekkerd has a way to present products wich has no equivalent -imho- More detailed than some other major News sites ( Of course you'll see less news on one single page, but if you follow it on a day per day basis this shouldnt be a problem at all)

Anyway you can read the review Here

Ronnie made some excellent remarks I wasn't myself really aware of, like the utility of XV presets for those who are interested into sounddesign : "They can be seen as tutorials on how to create these sounds from the initial presets so you can learn some sound design as well."


Many Thanks to Ronnie for all the time involved in this review.

LtZ[/b]