MusicRadar

Alchemy's interface can be viewed in either Simple or Advanced mode.

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• Review

At first glance, you might mistake Alchemy for a common or garden ROMpler, as it comes with a ton of sample-based patches that can be tweaked with the built-in synthesis engine and effects – sounds that would take an age to create from scratch.

Unlike most ROMplers, though, this instrument also enables you to load your own samples.

Overview

Alchemy's architecture centres around its four sound generating modules, which are known as Sources. These are a little more complex than your average oscillator and have three types of synthesis under the hood – Additive, Spectral and Granular.

Aside from tinkering with the presets, the simplest way to get sound out of the instrument is to use the Additive element in virtual analogue mode. This gives you a variety of simple wave shapes, a symmetry control for width-modulation effects, and a voice count knob, which goes all the way up to a staggering 600.

This last control is particularly useful in the virtual analogue unison and harmonic detune modes, creating huge sounds and so-called 'super-saw' tones.

Alchemy has a built-in library of instruments, effects and loops in audio format, and you can import your own WAV or AIFF files. However, it's not possible to create your own keyzones within a Source module.

Alchemy will load SFZ files (SoundFonts), though, so the truly dedicated could create their own multisampled patches with the help of an external editor.

Sample import

When importing a sample, you're presented with a choice of modes that correspond to Alchemy's elements: Additive, Spectral, Additive and Spectral, or Granular. These determine how the audio is analysed and which of the modules are most appropriate.

For example, Additive mode works well with single-note samples, where the frequencies present in the audio are analysed over time and resynthesised. Not only does this process sound great, but the volume, pitch, pan and phase of the individual harmonics (aka partials) can be edited in a separate panel.

This area includes an envelope that can be used to view the volume, pitch variation, pan and phase characteristics of individual partials over time, along with a typical additive synthesis harmonics editor for altering these values.

The Spectral element works well on complex samples, using a combination of noise and sine waves to resynthesise the audio. It's possible to set this element to use just sine resynthesis (or only noise) to create unusual effects, and audio can be edited with a spectral display showing frequency over time.

Editing is done graphically, using a variety of brushes, just like a paint program. While this isn't the most precise way of doing things – you can't realistically draw in chords or melodies – it's possible to enhance transients with a specialised brush, and you can copy and paste by selecting an area of the spectral display as a brush.

If Granular analysis is selected, the audio is sliced into thousands of tiny chunks, enabling tempo and pitch to be adjusted independently of one another. Many soft samplers feature granular processing capabilities, but Alchemy is particularly adept, offering eight different window types (which affect each grain's amplitude envelope), a Density control (with low values creating unnatural stuttering effects) and a grain Size parameter.

Each Source has Stretch and Position knobs that can be modulated to create outlandish effects, such as slowing the audio down until it becomes a single, repeating waveform. Straightforward, non-granular sample playback is also available.