Camel Audio Releases Cameleon 5000 Additive Morphing Resynthesizer
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(Click for a close-up) |
December 2, 2003
UK-based software developers Camel Audio, announced the arrival
of their first full-blown software instrument.
Cameleon 5000 is the creature's name, and it's an unusual and exotic hybrid designed to produce some fresh and original sounds.
Described by its creator as an 'Additive Morphing Resynthesizer', it combines a
flexible sound generation engine with some audio analysis
algorithms, to produce an instrument that's not quite a synth and not quite a
sampler, yet invites comparisons with both.
Like a conventional sampler, Cameleon 5000 can load any WAV or AIFF format
sound. Unlike a conventional sampler, it then analyzes that sound, and passes a detailed description of its
essential characteristics to an additive synthesis engine, which
automatically constructs an imitation.
Sounds created in this fashion can be warped and manipulated in many
ways -- from outlandish stretching and shrinking effects, to precise
modifications of harmonic content, one partial at a timel
As many as four different sounds can be loaded simultaneously, and then
dynamically 'morphed' in real-time. A piano becomes a vibraphone becomes a Moog
becomes a human voice -- all in the course of a single note. The morphing
capability can also be used to create new hybrid instruments; imagine a patch
with the harmonics of a human voice, the percussive attack of an acoustic
piano, and the amplitude envelope of a plucked string.
Cameleon 5000 is supplied with a library of more than 500 presets,
and is available for both Windows and Mac OS, in VST and Audio Units plugin
formats.
It can be purchased online from www.camelaudio.com at a special introductory
price of $229 (199 euros), until the end of the year. A free demo version,
together with sound examples and further information are also available.
For more information, visit their web site at www.camelaudio.com. | 
