Camel Audio Releases Alchemy Mobile v2 for iOS

[BMoore]

Am I the only one to think that the pitch bend sliding implementation is a bit strange? IMO it should only bind when you slide from one note to the other with some center threshold. Here it bends even when you touch a key resulting into some random pitch bend fx, animoog does a better job.

The background rendering is a nice idea, but not very convencing so far, crackles on loop start/end, wierdness when switching back to midi, also it can be a very long wait, an optional manual fast rendering would be nice.
edit: oops, just realized I could make a quick render by clicking the slot tabs, my bad.

Also it wouldn't hurt that the sliders, especially the vertical ones, have some more precision, why not use the whole screen for adjustments ?

I'm also a bit disapointed by the turn Alchemy mobile is taking, I would have preferred something closer to the real thing with much more tweaking options. I never did a lot of tweaking on most off my vst(i) plugs, but I find the tablets really good for this when the ui is well done.

Sorry to be a bit on the negative side, it's still a really cool rompler, but as I'm going away from my plugs and hardware I would love to see them on this platform. I have more fun with my six ipads than I ever had with all my other gear, soft or hw, not perfect but getting closer almost every day

"You're using it wrong" - Camel Audio

[sacer]

I have still the problem after half download, that there is an unsuported rar Zip format on my 4s, which brings the download to stop.
I deleted and reinstalled alchemy, without any success. I can't install any of my additional packs, please help

[ZenPunkHippy]

I have still the problem after half download, that there is an unsuported rar Zip format on my 4s, which brings the download to stop.
I deleted and reinstalled alchemy, without any success. I can't install any of my additional packs, please help

Hi,

Do you mean the download has failed to complete, which results in the error message? That would explain the problem, because an incomplete file will not uncompress without errors.

Also, there should be a trash icon displayed on the incomplete download which removes the file and allows it to be downloaded again. Is that not working?

Peace,
Andy.

[dswo]

I've done the update, including the Pro upgrade and four sound packs, on three devices now. The downloads took a little time, but they all went smoothly.

I especially like the new timing display for recordings! I didn't expect to use the four-track recorder, but it's intuitive and fun.

I also bought the new Himalaya: Vintage pack. At first I was a little disappointed. The sound demos are for the $59 desktop version, not the $5 mobile version, so it's hard to know exactly what you'll be getting. (No "CS in the Nemo Studio" or "Oxygene 2 strings," for example.) I auditioned all of the sounds a couple of times, and wondered whether I would really use them. Then I tried the recorder and noticed the aforementioned timing display. Four-track recording is seamlessly integrated, so then I layered my first track with a second track of bass. Another track of lead ("Classic" = Moog, if anyone's curious) and then another track of strings followed. By this time, my opinion had changed. In isolation, "Strings of Yesteryear" sounded a bit dull. But in the four-track mix, they added drama.

All told, I'm very pleased with the upgrade and with the new sound pack.

[iPlogger]

The sound demos are for the $59 desktop version, not the $5 mobile version, so it's hard to know exactly what you'll be getting.

Agreed. I have thought about making mobile sound demos because I can very much relate to what you are saying. I hear a really great sound on the demo and find out it's not on the mobile version. I just recently made a Soundcloud account so I started thinking about how I would do this sort of thing, realizing it takes quite some time to string a bunch of audio snippets together. And then do I go through every sound? Use the remix pad for each sound? What exactly is it I want to demonstrate or get across?

I will note, the more I scroll through the sounds and make adjustments, the more I am wowed by the sounds and find some new sounds within the libraries. I highly recommend using the MorphX/Y pad (found on many sounds) to find some hidden gems. This will morph between very different sounding parts of the sound as you go to each corner of the pad. For example, "A Forest Gnome Dancing" from the factory set is a great example where moving the Morph pad to the upper right will turn this wonderfully arpeggiated sound into a pad-like sound. Bottom left will bring in some bright filter wash. And upper left is the arp. It's really fun starting the pad to the right with the cutoff around half-way and then slowly move the morph pad towards the left (bringing in the arp) and opening the filter.

Another recommendation is to find videos or audio demos of users going through the sounds. I often hear something they have done to a sound, then try it for myself and realize, "Wow!!! This sounds fantastic." That happened to me when watching Torley's BigTone video. He was on the sound "BTs Paradise" and simply closed the filter and I absolutely loved what I heard. Also move the SA/SB/SC/SD pad around for some beautiful variations. It has now become one of my favorite sounds.

[sonicflux]

Is anyone else experiencing background static and crackling on any of the sounds? I'm not sure what is causing it, but it definitely isn't due to overloading the processor. I have tried both rebooting my device and reloading Alchemy. Nothing clears it up.

It's very prominent on the B3 patch, and it occurs on both my iPhone 5 and my iPad 2. It's there on some sounds while others are pristine. The static makes many of the sounds unusable to me.

[mojofunk]

Yes, a bit of crackle trouble here also. Adjusting latency helped some, but not entirely.

Also, the looper would be even more useful if midi start/stop was implemented.

Thanks for a great app though, devs! Lovely noises . . .

[sonicflux]

I increased the latency, and there was no change in the crackling. It sounds like it is part of the sample itself. Very frustrating.

[BMoore]

I increased the latency, and there was no change in the crackling. It sounds like it is part of the sample itself. Very frustrating.

You're probably not using it as intended.

[martygras]

I don't use anything as intended.

[des]

Did you try dropping the master volume a bit? Might be getting distortion in the output stages. With the factory B3 you can get a pretty large output signal.... Takes a bit getting used to it since the early versions were considerably quieter compared to this release.

[ZenPunkHippy]

It's very prominent on the B3 patch, and it occurs on both my iPhone 5 and my iPad 2. It's there on some sounds while others are pristine. The static makes many of the sounds unusable to me.

Hi,

Thanks for the info. There are 2 possible problems that may be related:

1) Adjusting the current track fader or master volume while a note is playing is causing distorted output

2) Clipping of the preset due to high volume (which shouldn't be happening)

Both of these bugs have been reported to our audio developer, and I hope will be fixed for the first update we're working on now, along with a few other bugs that made it through beta testing.

I'll make a note to test the B33 organ preset specifically.

Peace,
Andy.

[sonicflux]

Thanks for the response, Andy. It does sound like clipping, but it doesn't go away when I turn either the master or the channel faders down.

I hear it prominently on the Bell Studio preset, too. Sometimes it will fade out some when you move to different areas on the remix pad. I'm not sure if that's because it's fading out the problem sample or what.