Modulate This! - News, Tips and Links for Electronic Musicians and Producers

Camel Audio Alchemy Tips: Link to Manual, Keyswitching, and Manager Presets for Controls

 

The more I use Camel Audio’s Alchemy, the more I like it. I’m using it right now to create some original content for some of my music, and for some upcoming libraries for Modulate This!

As I use it, I’ll be sure to pass along tips. Here a few.

Manual
The manual is quite good. In case you somehow missed it, it’s available in two forms:

• Online Searchable Alchemy Manual
• PDF Alchemy Manual

Keyswitching

You can use keys on a MIDI controller to switch between performance snapshots (Keyswitching). Click the Octave pop-up menu next to the Remix Pad select the bottom MIDI note you want to user for control. Eight notes starting from the one you selected (including white and black keys) now map to the Remix Pad and will no longer trigger notes.

File Pop-Up’s

 

Alchemy has  “FILE” buttons in various locations on the interface. These button open a context-sensitive menu and can be used manage presets for a particular control. Menus typically include load, save, copy, paste, clear, and randomize. In the above image, I clicked the file button in the MSEG section to load Pulse 16 Multi-Segment Envelope Generator. You can also build your own presets. The same idea applies for managing presets for LFOs, Envelopes, Effects and more. This is simply a fantastic feature you use over and over.

See other Modulate This! articles on Alchemy.

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com
www.twitter.com/markmosher

FAW Circle Synthesizer Tip: 1.0.2 Update and How To Reduce CPU Load

Future Audio Workshop has released the 1.0.2 update to their fantastic Circle Software Synthesizer. You can download it here. According to FAW:

In this update we have included a CPU economy mode in the setting pane. This allows Circle to use less CPU for a minimal reduction in audio quality.

Behind the scenes, there have been some updates to the OSC messaging and a bug related to the mouth filter clicking during modulation has also be fixed.

The CPU economy mode is off by default. To enable it, click the "Settings" tab at the bottom, then click the "CPU econ. mode" switch to set it ton "on" as shown in the image above. Note, don't set the mode till after you've selected the patch you want to use as changing to another patch seems to turn the setting off.

Another way to reduce CPU load is to freeze tracks in your DAW host software so that the clip in question is rendered to the hard disc prior to playback. Note not all DAW's support this but off the top of my head Ableton Live, Sonar, Cubase, and Logic do.

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com

Ableton Live 6 Tip: How to quickly select a device in a chain or rack

Prior to Ableton Live 6, to select a device in a chain you had to use your mouse to scroll through the list of devices. This made finding and selecting devices rather tedious when a large number of devices were involved. This problem was compounded with the introduction of Racks.

There is a new feature in Live 6 that allows you to pop-up a hierarchical list of all devices in the chain and/or rack then select the device you are interested in.

To use this list:

• Pop-up the list. In Windows, right-click in the Track View Selector. For Mac Users, hold down your Ctrl key then click on Track View Selector.
• Select a device in the list. Click on a name in this list. This will bring this device into focus.
  

This feature is especially handy when dealing with Racks or Sampler patches containing a large number of devices. The image above (click to see larger view) illustrates this pop-up with a Rack Preset called "Depth of Field". As you can see, this Rack contains multiple chains with multiple instruments and effects.  

Project5 - Fast way to select instrument patches from the Track Inspector

In addition to to selecting patches from within the instrument interface, you can also select patches from the Track Inspector. Find the "Property Page" for the instrument in question, then click "Select Bank/Patch".

You'll then be presented with a menu containing patches. The advantage of this approach is that all the patches are laid out before you making it easier to see all the patches at once in a paticular category.

Dust in the Machine

My PC is VERY quiet - as it should be for a sytem used to make music. The CPU cooling fan runs at variable speeds depending on the heat the system is generating. Over the last few months, the fan has started coming on more often and has been running faster and faster. At first I thought I has some sort of run away process that was causing my CPU to work harder. Just for the heck of it, I took the cover off the side of mys system and was shocked to see that 40% of my CPU heat sync had a film of dust (and perhaps some cat hair).

I shut the system down, disconnected power, then used a can of "air duster" to blow the dust out. Guess what? The system is like new again and is back to running almost silently.

This was a first for me. I've owned many, many systems and never had an issue like this. I think the issue was mostly caused by the design and how the fan connects to the heat sync. However, I decided to blog about this because I'm sure most people just stick systems under their desks and forget about them and perhaps this article might bring a little peace and quite to your work space. Probably not a bad idea to get the old can of air duster out a couple times a year.

Tips: Finding Podcasts

Looking for the equivalent of the TV Guide for Podcasts? Check out www.podcastalley.com

Easy to Use E-Mail Newsletter Management System

After much research, I've found a powerful, easy to use, and cost-effective way to manage the newecho productions contact list from a company called Constant Contact. I'm passing this info on as I still see lots of people managing their e-mail lists using outlook.

Constant Contact charges by the number of people on your list and not by the number of mails you send making it quite cost effective. They completely automate the registration, opt-in, opt-out process. They also offer profiles so you users can sign up for different interest categories. There are many templates that can be customized via a web interface. You can track the results of your email campaigns with reporting. They also have handy tools that allow you to cut-and-paste code right into your web site that will tie into their system. Best of all, you get all this at prices starting at $15.00 a month. They have a free 60 day trial as long as you stay under 100 people on your list. Use this link to give it a try.