MESSE04: Cameleon - A Synth of Many Colours

US Additive Morphing Resynthesizer 04/04/04

Cameleons morph page

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Camel Audio, are the people who brought us the Camel Phat, a sort of Tube/Filter/ EQ thing that makes just about everything sound Phat (incidentally now available for OS X). Their latest project, the Cameleon 5000 is a virtual synthesizer with a difference, in that it features full resynthesis capabilities that will work on single or multisampled waveforms. According to the blurb: " Cameleon 5000 blurs the boundaries between sampling and synthesis in unprecedented ways" From what I saw, that's not a bogus claim, and the glowing reviews that Cameleon 5000 has received bear that out. What Cameleon is capable of means that it is a unique synth, waveforms can be loaded from WAV or AIFF files with the root note either taken from embedded data or extrapolated from the harmonic content or even bit map images - this feature is interesting as the application analizes the image and creates a waveform with some interesting results. With some of the images one can download these days, expect some surprising sounds. Features

import and morph any WAV/AIFF file

128 band noise generator

64 detuneable partials

amplitude/frequency envelope for each harmonic

sophisticated graphic displays (time/amplitude, harmonic/amplitude, harmonic/pitch and more)

attack and release bar graphs for all partials

128 band formant filter

intuitive "morphing square", to warp between four sounds at a time

extensive real-time parameter modulation by velocity, LFO and envelope

high-quality portamento allows for realistic note bending

resonant filter and tube distortion (based on popular CamelPhat design)

built-in chorus, delay and reverb effects Another great feature is Cameleon's ability to resynthesize multisamples - load up a string or piano multisample and resynthesize it to get variations on stock library sounds you won't get anywhere else. Cameleon is available for VST and Mac OS X VST and AudioUnits. You can access some MP3s and download a demo at:

www.camelaudio.com Cameleon 5000 is priced at $199/ 159 Euros

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