Camel Audio is best-known for its Cameleon 5000 additive synth, but with Alchemy, it looks like the company might have produced an even better instrument.
The result of four years of hard work - MusicRadar was treated to previews but sworn to secrecy during development - Alchemy is billed as the ultimate sample manipulation synthesizer. However, it actually features, additive, spectral, granular synthesis and resynthesis, sampling and virtual analogue engines.
Despite its power, the 16 automatically-assigned performance controls and eight remix pads are said to make operation of Alchemy easy, and there are also two XY squares.
Other key specs include 31 different filter types, a rack of 16 effects (including all the ones from CamelPhat and CamelSpace), an arpeggiator and what's described as an "innovative" modulation system.
Alchemy ships with over 2GB of samples and 300 presets, so there's plenty for users to chew on out of the box. However, it's also possible to import your own samples - WAV, AIFF and SFZ formats are supported.
Shipping this Autumn, Alchemy will cost $249/€199/£159. Owners of Cameleon 5000 will be able to crossgrade for half-price - this synth is currently available at the discounted price of $125/€99/£79.
Check out the Camel Audio website for more information and an Alchemy demo video.
