I have got myself a new Alchemist and I’m finding some issues with it. First of all there’s lack of documentation about Alchemist. I have no idea how to check firmware version or even how to update it. Is there anyone on here who can help and direct me on how to update the firmware? Thanks
Hi there,
did you receive a Getting Started document with your device? It explains some of the basics.
In order to check the firmware version, and to do many other things like loading and storing new patches, use Chrome to go to our online patch library:
That’s the device page: click Connect to Device and it should tell you what firmware version you are on.
When we have a new firmware version ready we will update this page to include an upgrade method.
If you have any other questions about using the Alchemist, trying out new patches, or making your own, just let us know!
Hi,
Thanks for the info. Sorry as I didn’t realize that you can check version from the device page. I already figured out how to load patches.
My issue is with effect patches either they dont work or they are very distorted. I can find very few patches that are working. For example I cant find one delay patch that works for me. Is this normal maybe they are not meant for Alchemist? I thought I should try by updating firmware first.
Thanks
Most patches should work. Can you point to one or two in particular that sound very distorted, or doesn’t work at all?
Perhaps it’s an input level problem - what signal are you putting into the Alchemist?
It might be worth trying the basic Gain patch to see if you get a clean signal with that.
One in particular was this one https://www.rebeltech.org/patch-library/patch/Owlgazer_Shimmer_Reverb. When I turn knob D it becomes noisy/glitchy until it disappears. I was sending signal from a new module (Cre8audio Chips) maybe it’s something to do with the input level as you said cause now I have changed the input to TE Op-z and most effects are working. Is there a way to control input signal?
Alchemist has line level inputs and outputs, so sending in modular level signals directly is not ideal. Have you got a line level output from your modular that you can use? Otherwise just attenuating the signal should do the trick.
I’ve tested that patch too.
First of all, I normally don’t use web UI, but now I’ve noticed that it suggests using patch number 0-40 and entering 0 gives the dreaded 0x60 error that people get here from time to time. As expected, the same happens when I specify SLOT=40 using CLI.
Next, the patch runs (on Magus) fine, but it can clip due to excessive buildup of reverb. This happens on output stage, so can be fixed with by attenuating outgoing data. Obviously it won’t help on a device with line level inputs.
And the interesting part - rebuilding it using latest Faust with fast math enabled reduces CPU usage from 89% to 76%