Mesh

Also, check out the free User_Libraries, updates to Alchemy, as well as the excellent tutorials at Camel's site. You may need to login to access them.
     

Hey Mesh - Yes that's a very extensive set of presets/samples there. Really looking forward to trying this out. Are there particularly notable sounds in the User Library you would recommend?
Thanks for all the help.

tomixornot


I've got IRIS +2 pack at AudioDeluxe. Make a deal and you pay even less than the current offered price.

AudioDeluxe is a real find!  I sent them an offer for IRIS of $125.  Got a reply a short time later: not high enough, but click here to see what we'll sell it for.  Clicked.  Saw the price: $129.  Bought!  Could not have been more hassle-free.
 
Not that I need yet another synth that I'll have no time to learn properly.

Brando

Mesh

Also, check out the free User_Libraries, updates to Alchemy, as well as the excellent tutorials at Camel's site. You may need to login to access them.
   

Hey Mesh - Yes that's a very extensive set of presets/samples there. Really looking forward to trying this out. Are there particularly notable sounds in the User Library you would recommend?
Thanks for all the help.

I can't really recommend any sounds in particular, but I thought most of them were full bodied and have some useful sounds that were unique.......I think I may have downloaded most of them (although that list seems to be a bit bigger now). The problem (in a good way) with Alchemy is I get totally lost when playing/tweaking a sound and then forget my original plan. Since I didn't have any other Alchemy libraries  beides Planet Earth, I thought I'd get as many free ones available before looking  into Camel's libraries (which go on sale once or twice a year).
 
Try them out and see if the're worth keeping (which I'm pretty sure you'll end up keeping)......
 
Best of luck!!
 

I have got the Alchemy player but invested in a few of their libraries. I am very happy with it and love the sound of Alchemy. The good thing about the player is that is does not distract you too much from the job of searching for and using a preset which is good in some ways. There are enough controls on the player to mangle any sound into anything else anyway. (You may not be able to save presets on the player itself but Studio One lets you save them and recall them though) I do intend to upgrade at some point for sure for ultimate control over a patch.

I did get onto a forum somewhere that was comparing Alchemy to IRIS. The basic feeling was that Alchemy's spectral editor is not the same or as good as IRIS. It needs time to render and it does not seem to create the same sort of sounds that the spectral work in IRIS can do.

What I did get from that forum is that they compliment each other well and it is certainly worth owning both from a sound design point of view. I was thinking of holding off and getting the full version of Alchemy rather than IRIS but now I might just get IRIS and be done with it and upgrade Alchemy later.

Jeff Evans


I did get onto a forum somewhere that was comparing Alchemy to IRIS. The basic feeling was that Alchemy's spectral editor is not the same or as good as IRIS. It needs time to render and it does not seem to create the same sort of sounds that the spectral work in IRIS can do.
 

First, let me admit that although I've purchased IRIS, it's not even installed yet ... maybe this weekend.  But in looking at a number of IRIS videos, I have no expectations that IRIS will come anywhere close to what Alchemy can do.  What IRIS offers is immediate gratification because it's got integrated graphic editing.  So play around with IRIS and have lot's of fun.  But it looks like IRIS just lets you graphically control which partials get included when the partials are reassembled into the final sound, and it's an all or nothing proposition.  That doesn't make it bad ... there's much to be said for extreme ease of use.  But Alchemy ultimately has much more control.  I'm talking about things like controlling the phase of partials, for example.  Also, IRIS's modulation capabilities are pretty lame while Alchemy's are extensive.
 
I'm chomping at the bit to learn what will be in the next major upgrade to Alchemy.  Sadly, we probably won't be seeing that until sometime in 2013.  I'm thinking there's a good chance we'll see some vast improvements in graphic editing to support the additive mode.  Maybe we'll have Izotope to thank for proding CA to move in that direction.

Hey Mesh! I did download all of the freebies and there is a ton of material. Some good, some ...meh... as you would expect. The really great thing about Alchemy that no other synth does quite the same way is that every initial preset/sound/setting is like a playground to experiment in. If you don't like something there are an infinite number of ways to change it or shake it up. Import an audio file, superimpose that, change multiple settings and save those as snapshots to the remix pad. I love it - and agree completely with you that you can get lost (and maybe never find your way home!) just delving deeper and deeper into the beast. (I am reading Stephen King's "Lisey's Story" at the moment and keep making a comparison to the pool in Boo'ya Moon - if you happen to be a King fan.)

Jeff - good insight as well and thank you. I am going to take a look at the sound sets and pick up one or two and then see what comes around in a sale later on. I agree about the spectral synthesis aspect of Alchemy not being in the same league as Iris'. That was my original reason for being interested in Iris, then Alchemy  - but to be honest I still can't tweak anything really exciting out of Iris (demo) that I can't get in a far more interesting way out of Alchemy by other means.
I purchased Alchemy and Blade recently and AAS's Chromophore not too long ago, as well as several other non-synth things. So not regretting the decision to pass on Iris at least for now. Hope it serves you well if you take the plunge.

Best regards,

dmbaer

 
I'm chomping at the bit to learn what will be in the next major upgrade to Alchemy.  Sadly, we probably won't be seeing that until sometime in 2013.  I'm thinking there's a good chance we'll see some vast improvements in graphic editing to support the additive mode.  Maybe we'll have Izotope to thank for proding CA to move in that direction.

Likewise David - and I just got Alchemy. Wow it's an amazing synth for sure.

Hi David and Mike. Thanks for your insight too. I would not think that IRIS would be the total package as Alchemy is for sure. I think I see IRIS as being pretty cool with the way it handles the spectral side of things and probably only that side of things. Don't forget too that they might also bring out updates and give it new features as time goes on. I see it as a specialist device that is producing sound in a unique way through spectral manipulation. It has gone back to its original price now which sort of makes it a little less enticing. I should have jumped on it previously but maybe it might be on special again at some point.

Thanks David too for the link to Audio Deluxe. I think they might be good for the purchase. I do love the sound of Alchemy though and it is certainly capable of some pretty amazing textures itself. And when you start moving the remix pads around all sorts of intersting things happen.

Jeff Evans


I think I see IRIS as being pretty cool with the way it handles the spectral side of things and probably only that side of things.
 

Actually, in Alchemy-speak, you're talking about the additive side of things.  That's where I believe Alchemy and Iris can be compared and contrasted. 
 
By the way, you may not be aware of this having only the player, but Alchemy sets the gold standard in my book for quality synth documentation.  IRIS is a vastly simpler instrument which should have been easy to document properly, but I can't be very enthusiastic about what they've produced.  However, I understand Izotope has some on-line tutorials, so hopefully those will make up for the scanty written doc.

dmbaer

Jeff Evans


I did get onto a forum somewhere that was comparing Alchemy to IRIS. The basic feeling was that Alchemy's spectral editor is not the same or as good as IRIS. It needs time to render and it does not seem to create the same sort of sounds that the spectral work in IRIS can do.
 

First, let me admit that although I've purchased IRIS, it's not even installed yet ... maybe this weekend.  But in looking at a number of IRIS videos, I have no expectations that IRIS will come anywhere close to what Alchemy can do.  What IRIS offers is immediate gratification because it's got integrated graphic editing.  So play around with IRIS and have lot's of fun.  But it looks like IRIS just lets you graphically control which partials get included when the partials are reassembled into the final sound, and it's an all or nothing proposition.  That doesn't make it bad ... there's much to be said for extreme ease of use.  But Alchemy ultimately has much more control.  I'm talking about things like controlling the phase of partials, for example.  Also, IRIS's modulation capabilities are pretty lame while Alchemy's are extensive.
 
I'm chomping at the bit to learn what will be in the next major upgrade to Alchemy.  Sadly, we probably won't be seeing that until sometime in 2013.  I'm thinking there's a good chance we'll see some vast improvements in graphic editing to support the additive mode.  Maybe we'll have Izotope to thank for proding CA to move in that direction.

Thank you for this DM_,
 
I've never been too enthused with Izotope graphics (though they don't hurt things) ... and Alchemy will get my next-grab-hold-to-study.
 
BTW, doesn't Ominsphere do similar stuff with better samples?  (I don't have Ominisphere, just Trillion).  Omnisphere and Trillian have a wide variety of fx-manipulation, iirc.