Author tag in Alchemy v1

[CrystalWizard]

This is almost embarrasing to ask but here goes. Way back when i purchased Alchemy* i used someone else’s credit card, i was so underground that i had no license, no cc, no paper trail ( the cc i used was my mom’s ) She is now long gone and it doesn’t help my mood to see her name and the address of my childhood home every time i open Alchemy, nor to see her listed on my growing list of presets i’ve done. I know there’s a way to change this but an hour of searching the internet [ not with google] has turned up oodles of commercial or irrelevant info.) Any help greatly appreciated. Using it in windoze 7.

Yes, i use it more than most other synths, i really like patching it on the fly or doing patches for future use.

[AJYoung]

So the main problem is that we're not allowed to talk about that here on KVR. Stripping user data from presets exists, but the people who do that mainly do it for nefarious purposes.

Sorry

[CrystalWizard]

No i don’t wanna strip the user data of the factory (or 3rd party) just mostly don’t want to see my mom’s name and adress every time i open it. There was a solution given by Ben Camel waaaay back (probably in camel forum?)
I buy software (and occasionally patches/samplesets.) It’s my own synth and my own patches. But if it’s a kvr issue, i’ll figure it out somehow. How many people here want to see their moms name come up every time the open a synth?

[AJYoung]

Haha I true, I understand the sentiment. Hmm... I'm not sure. If there's a simple solution, especially one Ben provided, it might be able to be dug up. You might have to do some Wayback Machine digging though, considering the state of Camel's site.

[CrystalWizard]

Yes, that’s good idea, thanks. Wish i had done it at the time but some serious health stuff intervened.

[Ben H]

I know there is a way to edit the author name out of the presets, but I don't think that you can actually edit out the registration info from the main screen. I think it's tied in to the license itself

Maybe you could try searching the binary with a hex editor, but even if you do find the string that has the info, there's no guarantee that modifying it will not break the program by making the license appear invalid.

[yellowmix]

To change author of your presets if in it's a CamelSound file, it's actually a renamed zip file. Unzip it with your favorite utility, you get a folder structure. Look for the acp file and open it in a text editor. Change the Author name and save it. Zip the folder structure back up and rename it back. Some zip utilities will let you look at the files directly inside and let you open the file for editing and recompress it back in for you.

If it's an acp file (no custom samples used) open it in a text editor. You can do a mass replace with Notepad++.

You cannot change the name or address in the registration as that is part of the copy protection. You can, however, change the displayed name outside of that (i.e., on the GUI under the Alchemy logo). If you're on Windows go to C:\Program Data\Camel Audio\Alchemy. Open AlchemyConfig.txt in a text editor. Set NameOverride to whatever you want and save it. Next time you open Alchemy that will be displayed instead. Note this is somewhat buggy. If you hit Random, it displays the registered name. But in most instances it displays the override. And obviously do not open File > About, as that has the original registration information.

Do not bother trying to change the registration information. There is some really complicated copy protection on it, a hex editor on it is like trying to knock down a building with your head.

[CrystalWizard]

Wow, thanks a bunch. I don’t mind the registration being under her name (esp considering i will likely not be updating )
But not seeing my mom getting credit for my patches would be good!

[CrystalWizard]

To change author of your presets if in it's a CamelSound file, it's actually a renamed zip file. Unzip it with your favorite utility, you get a folder structure. Look for the acp file and open it in a text editor...

Thanks again, yellowmix, problem solved