Alchemy Alchemy, the ultimate
sample-manipulation synthesizer, is the
most powerful instrument in Logic Pro X.
It comes with an enormous library of
over 3000 sounds and a keyword browser
to quickly zero in on what you’re
looking for. Powerful Performance
Controls invite you to explore and play
with the sounds you choose. Alchemy is a
monster of a synth with multiple
sound-generating engines, including
additive, spectral, formant, granular,
and virtual analog. It’s also a robust
sampler that can import EXS24
instruments. Groundbreaking morphing and
resynthesis features let you manipulate
and combine samples in extraordinary new
ways. And the vast number of filters,
modulation routes, arpeggiation options,
and effects makes for limitless
possibilities.
Step 1: Find Your Sound
First, take the time to find a single
sample of audio—like a bass note, lead
synth note, a clip from a song, anything
really. Try playing in a bass note from
your favorite synth, then covert it to
audio. Don’t worry if the sample is too
long, you can easily adjust the start or
end points within Alchemy.
Step 2: Open Alchemy and Clear the Patch
Open the Alchemy interface, and from its
local file menu, click and choose
“Clear”. This will not erase the default
sound. Simply opening a new instance of
Alchemy will return you to it.
Step 3: Importing Samples, Stabs, Loops,
etc.
Click onto the “Advanced” tab at the top
left of Alchemy’s interface. This shows
the global menu. Under Sources
(Alchemy's oscillators) you’ll see that
by default “A” is already enabled of the
four total oscillators/sources. Click
where it currently reads “saw” and a
menu appears allowing you to choose
“Import Audio.”
At the top of this window you can see
the current file path in white. The
Places menu here gives you fast access
to your Desktop or Documents folder, or
you can easily access any connected
drives. Navigate to the location of the
sample you’ll be using and click it. Now
click the import button on the bottom
right. You can also drag and drop apple
loops, and samples from Logic’s All
Files window onto the “Dropzone” area on
the right side.
Step 4: Tune
Alchemy attempts to match the detected
pitch to a specific key. If it can’t, it
places the original source at C3. If it
doesn’t guess correctly, and you don’t
know what note was originally played,
enable the B oscillator by clicking it,
and it will light up bright blue. Play a
single key on your MIDI controller and
adjust the tune knob by ear on the
imported sample till it matches. Do this
by adjusting the Source A’s tune knob
until it plays the same note you’re
hearing from Source B that you enabled.
Once you’re done adjusting, disable
Source B.
Step 5: Edit Start, End and Loop Points
Even though Alchemy has re-generated
your chosen sound, you still have the
ability to adjust the start, end and
loop on it with traditional sample
editing tools. Click the A Source by
pressing its button (below the word
Global). This brings forward the
advanced settings for each of the four
sound sources. Click the Edit button
located to the top left side of the
real-time spectrogram window. Then onto
the subsequent “Spectral” tab. On the
left side parameter window that appears,
select “Forward/Back" from the Loop Mode
menu. Now carefully place the two
flagged beams somewhere in the area you
want to loop. When you’re finished,
click the X in the top right corner to
come out of the edit window.
Step 6: Adjust and Try Different Filters
Click back onto the “Global” button on
the left top corner of Alchemy. By
default the Global page’s Filter is set
and on giving you a very nice and clean
sounding lowpass filter. Try out some of
the other filters here like the various
bandpass, highpass, and specialized
filters. The drive knob pumps up the
volume into the filter driving it in a
very precise and excellent sounding way.
Step 7: Add the B Source and Import an
Image
Re-enable Source B again like you did in
step 4, then click the B Source button
(Below the Global button). Click the
edit button again in here now, then
again onto the Spectral tab like in step
5. Click the “Image” button to load up
an image as a source for the Spectral
synthesizer. This can be crazy amounts
of fun. Brightness equals amplitude and
height equals pitch. I searched the
internet for Op-Art images as sources
and came up with a lot of crazy results.
The resolution of this process is not
high so this results are somewhat jagged
sounding. The experimentation here is
nearly endless.
Step 8: Add Some Effects
Last but not least, let’s add some
effects to either individual Sources, or
as a blanket across all sources. Click
the effects tab at the bottom left
corner. Click the Main button here, then
onto the On button of one of the effect
slots below it. Click the downward arrow
and you can choose from various effects
including delays, distortions, and a
Convolution Reverb with some very
familiar IR (Impulse Response) names. A
mini Space Designer built-in!
Tips:
Although the conversion process from
sample to spectral oscillator in Alchemy
is amazing sounding, it does seem to
diminish a source sample’s attack. Try
adding another Source and filling it
with short sounds with high attack like
hats to add punch to your sounds.