Master

• Master voice controls
• Other Master controls
• The PRESERVE button

Once the signal path of an individual voice in Alchemy has left the Source section and passed through the Main filters, it reaches the Master section, where controls are provided for the Amplitude, Pan, and Coarse and Fine tuning of the whole voice before it mixes with other voices at the input of the Effects stage.

The Master section also provides high-level control over various attributes of a preset such as polyphony and micro-tuning. The available controls are described below.

Master voice controls

  • Amp — Adjusts the level of the voice. By default, AHDSR 1 modulates this parameter, thereby acting as the master amplitude envelope.

Note: Whenever an AHDSR is assigned to modulate Master Amp, the modulation depth is ‘locked’ and can’t be adjusted. This is because setting the depth below its default of 100% would cause notes to remain above zero amplitude indefinitely — so it protects against ‘stuck’ notes. (If you replace the AHDSR with another type of modulator, such as an MSEG, you’ll want to preserve a mod depth setting of 100% unless you really intend for notes to sustain indefinitely.)

  • Pan — Adjusts the stereo position of the voice. (Acts as a ‘pan’ control for mono sounds and as a ‘balance’ control for stereo sounds.)
  • Coarse and Fine Tune — Adjusts the pitch of the voice in semitones (Coarse) and cents (Fine).

Other Master controls

  • Trigger Mode field — determines the conditions under which (1) a trigger signal is generated and (2) a portamento glide occurs. (Interacts with the Voice and Porto settings, described below.)
    • Always. If Voices = 1, then a trigger is generated at the start of each legato group, and portamento occurs at the start of every note. If Voices > 1, then a trigger is generated at the start of every note, and portamento occurs at the start of every note.
    • Retrigger. Regardless of the Voices setting, a trigger is generated at the start of every note, and portamento occurs at the start of every note.
    • Legato. If Voices = 1, then a trigger is generated at the start of each legato group, and portamento occurs at the start of each legato group. If Voices > 1, then the behavior is like the one-voice case when you play single notes in succession; but when you play a chord, each note of the chord gets its own trigger. (To count as a chord, each note needs to be within 200 msec of its predecessor.)

NOTE. A ‘trigger’ is a signal that causes certain processes to execute from the beginning. These processes include the playback of audio data (such as a sample or additive/spectral data) and various modulator types, including LFO, AHDSR, MSEG, and Sequencer. In addition to the master Trigger mode described above, individual modulators have their own TRIGGER buttons. Turning a TRIGGER button off causes the individual modulator to trigger in ‘Legato’ mode (or not at all, if it is an LFO), regardless of the Master Trigger mode.

  • Voice count field — Determines the maximum polyphony of a preset (up to 32 voices). Setting Voice = 1 makes a preset monophonic.
  • Portamento controls. The portamento mode can be set to Rate or Time. ‘Rate’ means that Alchemy glides from note to note at a fixed rate set by the Porto knob (so gliding a greater distance requires more time). ‘Time’ means that Alchemy glides from note to note during a fixed amount of time set by the Porto knob (so gliding a greater distance occurs at a faster rate).
  • Pitchbend Up and Down —Determines the response to upwards and downwards pitchbend messages. Normally, you should set a positive ‘Up’ value (the default is +2) and a negative ‘Down’ value (the default is –2).

Note that individual Sources can be set to respond to pitchbend or ignore it via the Keytrack field on each Source sub-page. Pitchbend is also available as a modulator (in the ‘Note Property’ category), giving you more individualized control over the pitchbend response of each Source (as well as the ability to route pitchbend messages to mod targets other than pitch).

  • Tuning field — Offers a vast selection of alternative tunings. Each tuning is defined by a .tun file stored in \Libraries\Tuning (PC) or /Libraries/Tuning (Mac), within the Alchemy data folder. You can create your own .tun files with the help of Manuel Op de Coul’s free Scala software (http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/).

The PRESERVE button

You can ‘lock in’ various Master parameter settings with the PRESERVE button, so that their current values are preserved when new presets are loaded. For instance, if you are playing live with other musicians and everyone is tuned to a lower or higher reference pitch, you can adjust the fine tuning of Alchemy to match the rest of the group and then click ‘PRESERVE’. This will ensure that the proper fine tuning remains in effect as you load new presets.

Parameters affected by PRESERVE are: Pitchbend Up/Down, Tuning, Coarse/Fine Tune.