Effects
Alchemy’s Effects module provides a powerful multi-effects processor, offering up to five high-quality effects simultaneously. The available effects include all of the choices found in Camel Audio’s popular CamelPhat and CamelSpace multi-effects plug-ins as well as its Cameleon 5000 synthesizer. Several new effects, including a highly realistic Acoustic Reverb, round out the choices.
The Effects module receives its input from the two Main filter modules, in varying amounts, according to their respective FX-Mix settings.
It sends its output directly to Alchemy’s main output.
Note: the Effects module’s output is mixed together with the ‘dry’ output from the Main filter modules before arriving at Alchemy’s main output.
Global page controls
When the EFFECTS button is illuminated, the Effects sub-page is displayed in the Perform / Arp / Effects section.
The left-hand side of the Effects sub-page contains the effects rack, with five slots into which effects can be loaded. The signal flows through these loaded effects from the top to the bottom of the rack, so you can get different results by loading the same effects in different orders.
Clicking the FILE button above the effects rack gives you access to a pop-up menu with several useful commands.
- The Load, Save, Copy, and Paste commands act on the entire contents of the effects rack and on the settings of each loaded effect.
- The Clear command removes all the loaded effect effects, giving you an empty effects rack.
- The Randomize command randomizes the settings of all the currently loaded effects.
Each slot of the effects rack consists of an on/off button and a selection field.
- To bypass an individual effect, click its on/off button (lit = on, unlit = off).
- To remove an effect from the rack, click its selection field and choose ‘None’ from the pop-up menu.
- To load an effect in the rack, replacing any previously loaded effect in the same slot, click the selection field and choose from the pop-up menu.
Each effect can be used in only one slot, but a second instance of several effects is provided. (For instance, if you’ve already used the Delay1 effect, it will be greyed out in the pop-up list of effects available in the other effects rack slots; but you can still choose Delay2 further down in the list.)
- To change the order of the loaded effects, right-click (control-click) a selection field and use the ‘Move Up’ and ‘Move Down’ commands.
Controlling individual effects
For each effect loaded in the effects rack, there is a corresponding control panel in the scrolling window on the right-hand side of the Effects sub-page. (The top-to-bottom order of the rack is matched by the left-to-right order of the window.)
Many of the effects control panels include FILE buttons. Clicking one of these buttons gives you access to a pop-up menu with Load, Save, Copy, Paste, and Clear commands, which apply to the settings of the individual effect. (Note that the ‘Clear’ command restores an effect’s default settings; it doesn’t bypass the effect or remove it from the effects rack.)
Acoustic Reverb. High quality, full-featured reverb effect.
- Time — controls the length of the reverb tail; values up to 20 sec are possible.
- PreDelay — sets amount of initial delay before diffuse reflections begin.
- Size — determines the dimensions of the simulated space.
- Width — determines how much reflections are spread across the stereo field.
- Diffusion — determines the density of the early reflections.
- Gate — sets a threshold below which the reverb tail will be gated. Attack shapes the beginning of the gated tail, while Decay shapes its end.
- A built-in EQ lets you modify the frequency content of the wet signal. LoFreq sets the frequency of a low shelf that you can boost or cut with LoGain. HiFreq and HiGain, similarly, work like a high shelving EQ.
- There are four controls for damping (frequency-specific losses). DampLoF sets the frequency of a low shelf that you can damp by increasing DampLoAmt. DampHiF and DampHiAmt, similarly, provide high-shelf damping.
- Variation — provides subtly different ‘colors’ of reverberation.
- Quality — at lower settings of Quality, the Acoustic Reverb uses less CPU. At higher settings, it uses more CPU in order to provide a denser, smoother tail. When you need to conserve CPU, don’t be afraid to try lower settings of Quality; for many types of material these settings still sound excellent.
- Mix — determines the wet/dry balance (0% = dry only; 50% = equal mix; 100% = wet only).
Camel Reverb. Reverb effect featuring the CPU-efficient algorithm used in Camel Audio’s popular CamelSpace effect and Cameleon 5000 synthesizer.
- PreDelay — sets amount of initial delay before diffuse reflections begin.
- Damping — higher values mean more high-frequency loss in the reflections.
- HighCut and LowCut — set the frequencies above and below which the wet signal is cut.
Take care not to inadvertently cut the entire wet signal by setting LowCut above HighCut.
- Size — determines the dimensions of the simulated space; larger values mean longer reverb times.
- Mix — determines the wet/dry balance (0% = dry only; 50% = equal mix; 100% = wet only).
Delay1 / 2. Stereo delay with dual-filtered feedback.
- L/R Rate — sets the delay time, in msec when the SYNC button is off or in beats when the SYNC button is on.
- L/R Offset — adds a small additional amount of delay, so you can adjust the ‘feel’ of tempo-synced delays.
- L/R Feedback — determines how much of the delayed signal is fed back to the input of the delay.
- Filter A, Filter B — filters the delayed signal without affecting the dry signal. Toggle one or both filters with the A and B buttons (button illuminates when filter is on). Select a type for each filter via the selection fields. Each filter has Cutoff and Resonance controls.
Note that Filters A and B are configured in series, and the left and right channels pass through both filters. Also please be aware that some filter types and settings — such as medium-to-high Resonance — boost the delayed signal, so you should reduce the amount of Feedback in order to compensate for the boost.
- SYNC button — synchronizes delay rates with the host tempo (See L/R Rate, above).
- MONO button — mixes the left and right input channels down to mono and feeds the result to both the left and the right channels of the delay. The ‘dry’ portion of the signal remains in stereo.
- Crossover — determines stereo placement of the feedback signal. (At 0%, left feeds left and right feeds right; at 50%, each channel is fed to both inputs; at 100%, left feeds right and right feeds left.)
- Initial Pan — determines the stereo placement of the initial delayed signal (prior to Feedback). Typically, you would set Initial Pan to 0% or 100% when Crossover = 100%, and leave Initial Pan centered 50% otherwise.
- Mix — determines the Wet/Dry balance (0% = dry only; 50% = equal mix; 100% = wet only).
See the example at the bottom of this page for an explanation of how to use Crossover and Initial Pan for a classic ‘ping-pong’ delay effect.
Mod FX1 / 2. Short delay with built-in LFO modulation, useful for chorus, flanging, and related effects.
- Delay — sets the base delay time. The shortest values are useful for flanging, values in the range of 10 to 40 msec are useful for chorus, and longer delay times can produce a variety of metallic and buzzing effects.
- A built in LFO drives modulation of the base delay time, and controls are provided for the LFO Rate and the Depth of modulation. Faster Rates and smaller Depths are characteristic of chorus effects, while slower Rates and greater Depths are typical for flanging.
- Feedback — mixes the delayed signal back into the input. Medium to medium-high settings are common for flanging effects, while chorus tends to use little or no feedback.
- Stereo — spreads the delayed signal across the stereo field.
- Mix — determines the wet/dry balance (0% = dry only; 50% = equal mix; 100% = wet only).
Distortion1 / 2. Distortion effect with multiple algorithms that can be used simultaneously.
- Tube — simulates the warm distortion effect of an overdriven tube amp.
- Mech — produces a ‘nastier’, more intense flavor of distortion
- Bit Crush — a lo-fi digital flavor of distortion.
- Xcite — refreshes the high-frequency range.
- Post Gain — some distortion types, especially Tube and Mech, can boost the signal significantly; this control allows you to trim the output level to compensate.
Three Band EQ1 / 2. Offers three bands of parametric EQ. Each band has an identical set of controls.
- LoGain (MidGain, HiGain) — sets the amount of boost or cut to the Lo (Mid, Hi) band.
- LoFreq (MidFreq, HiFreq) — sets the center frequency of the Lo (Mid, Hi) band.
Note that LoFreq, MidFreq, and HiFreq can each be set to values from 16 Hz through 16744 Hz, so it isn’t necessary (although it may be useful) to tune Mid above Lo, or Hi above Mid…
- LoBW (MidBW, HiBW) — sets the bandwidth of the Lo (Mid, Hi) band.
Bandpass Filter1 / 2. Adjustable-width bandpass filter; the rejected portion of the signal can be recovered at a later point in the signal path using the Band Reject (or Band Reject 2) module.
- Low, High — set the lower and upper edges of the passband, respectively.
- LowRes, HighRes — add resonant emphasis to the passband edges.
Band Reject1 / 2. Only available when the Bandpass Filter1 / 2 is inserted upstream in the signal path. Allows you to mix in the portion of the signal that was rejected by the bandpass filter. A classic application is multiband distortion; see the example at the bottom of this page.
- Mix — determines the how much of the band-rejected signal is mixed back into the signal path, bypassing any effects that sit in between the Bandpass Filter and the Band Reject mix point.
MM Filter1 / 2. Multi-mode filter, offering all the same filter types as Alchemy’s Main Filters. Note that each voice in Alchemy is processed by its own Main Filters, while all the voices are mixed together before passing through the MM Filter and other effects.
- The filter types and the Cutoff, Resonance, and Drive controls are the same as for Alchemy’s Main Filters.
- Mix — determines the wet/dry balance (0% = dry only; 50% = equal mix; 100% = wet only). Typically this is left at 100%.
Bass Enhancer. Easy-to-use, bass-boosting EQ, recommended for use with bass and low-frequency percussion sounds.
- Amount — controls the intensity of the bass enhancement.
- Tune — adjusts the frequency band to which the boost is applied.
- P (phat mode) button — adds a saturation effect, for a different ‘flavor’ bass enhancement. For more neutral/transparent results, leave phat mode off.
Compressor. Easy-to-use dynamics processor based on a soft-limiting compression algorithm.
- Amount — controls the amount of compression. Because make-up gain is built in, larger amounts of compression result in greater apparent ‘loudness’.
- Release — controls how quickly the compression effect subsides once the input signal falls below the threshold for compression.
- P (phat mode) button — adds a saturation effect, for a different ‘flavor’ of compression. For more neutral/transparent compression, leave phat mode off.
Gain. Allows for a variety of auto-gate effects when modulated by an LFO or sequencer.
- Gain — a setting of 100% preserves the input signal level, while lower values reduce this level, all the way to silence at 0%.
Pan. Allows for a variety of auto-pan effects when modulated by an LFO or sequencer.
- Pan — a setting of 50% preserves the balance between the left and right input channels. Lower values boost the left while cutting the right; higher values boost the right while cutting the left.
Example: Ping Pong Delay and Flanger
- Initialize Alchemy by choosing the ‘Clear’ command in the Title bar’s FILE menu.
- Click the EFFECTS button to bring the Effects sub-page into view. Play a view notes at this point, just to get familiar with the ‘dry’ sound of the default preset before any effects are applied.
- Click in the first (top) slot of the effects rack and choose ‘Delay’. Then play a few more notes and notice that the Delay module echos what you play at a time interval of one beat (as determined by the host tempo). Now bypass the Delay by clicking the button at the left of the first slot in the effects rack.
- Next, click in the second slot of the effects rack and choose ‘ModFX’. Then play a few more notes and notice that the default settings of the ModFX unit produce a pleasant chorus sound. Let’s adjust the ModFX settings to achieve a flanger effect. Try the following adjustments:
- Reduce the ModFX Delay time to approximately 0.0006 sec.
- Set the modulation Rate to around 0.2 Hz, and set the modulation Depth to 0.003 sec.
- Increase Feedback to 60% (or more, to taste).
- Now that the flanger effect is working for us, use the buttons at the far left of the effects rack to bypass the ModFX module and re-activate the Delay so we can work on setting up a ping-pong delay effect. Try the following adjustments to settings in the Delay module in order to pan delays alternately left and right:
- Increase the left and right Rate settings from 1 beat to 1/2 beat.
- Increase Crossover to 100%.
- Reduce InitialPan to 0%.
- Now use the button at the far left of the effects rack to re-activate the ModFX module, so you can hear the flanger effect combined with the ping-pong delay. Notice that, on one hand, the ping-pong delay is most noticeable when you play short notes, but on the other hand, the sweep of the flanger is not very dramatic on these short notes. Let’s reverse the order of the two effects to see if the situation improves. To swap the order of the two effects-rack slots, right-click (control-click) the first slot and choose ‘Move Down’ from the contextual menu — or right-click (control-click) the second slot and choose ‘Move Up’. In this new configuration, the sweep of the flanger can be heard across all the delayed copies of the sound, producing a more dramatic sweeping effect.
Example: Multiband Distortion using Bandpass Filter and Band Reject
- Initialize Alchemy by choosing the ‘Clear’ command in the Title bar’s FILE menu. Then click in the Source A content field and choose ‘Load Audio’ > ‘Factory’ > ‘Loops’ > ‘DrumLoops’ > ‘Silkloop’. Switch the Source A Granular element from Granular mode to Sampler mode for straightforward sample playback. (See ‘Using Sampler mode’ on the Granular page for details.)
- The ‘Silkloop’ drum pattern should loop smoothly when you play and hold middle C. Now our goal is to ‘beef up’ the kick drum with Tube distortion, while keeping the higher-frequency elements ‘clean’.
- First, insert the Bandpass Filter into the first slot of the effects rack. While the drum pattern loops, reduce the High control until the kick drum is more-or-less isolated. (A value around 160 Hz works well.)
- Next, insert the Distortion module into the second slot of the effects rack. Turn the Tube control all the way up to 100%. (You can add an extra ‘edge’ to the resulting distorted kick sound by increasing the Bandpass Filter’s HighRes knob — try a value around 20%.)
- Finally, it’s time to bring the mid- and high-frequency portions of the drum back in via the Band Reject module. Simply insert this module in the third effects-rack slot, and turn the Mix control all the way up to 100%. As the drum loop continues to play, you can bypass and re-activate the Distortion module (using the button at the far left of its effects-rack slot) in order to confirm that this module is processing only the kick drum.