3.5

146MainStage Instruments
2. Click the Filter type menu to experiment with different filters.
3. Enable filter 1, and try different settings.
4. Adjust the Par/Ser knob to hear how this affects the sound when the filters are used in
series or in parallel.
Drag the framing bracket in the performance controls to hear variations of your tweaked
sound.
Recycle sources and sound settings from other presets in Alchemy
This is less of a tweak and more of a shortcut for sound creation. Alchemy provides
thousands of presets that can be partially used for new sounds, sequences, modulation
settings, arpeggios, effects settings, and more.
1. In any loaded MainStage preset, click the source name field and choose Save Source
from the pop-up menu.
2. Give the source a name in the file dialog, and click Save.
This source is automatically saved in the Alchemy > Source subfolder.
3. In a new instance of Alchemy, click the Source select field and choose Load Source
from the pop-up menu, then choose the saved source.
The source (or sources) from up to four presets can be recycled in this way.
4. Steps 1-3 can be repeated for any Alchemy element that provides a File pop-up menu,
such as modulation settings, arpeggiator settings, effects settings, and so on.
Make use of existing presets as sources of raw material for your own sounds.
Create MainStage Alchemy sounds from scratch
Alchemy provides a number of different synthesizer engines that can be used to
resynthesize, or reconstruct, imported sampled sounds. It does this by analyzing sonic
characteristics of the source, such as level, frequency, phase, and other components. This
analysis is then mapped to values that are reconstructed by one or more of the synthesis
engines. Details on importing and analysis of source material are covered in MainStage
Alchemy Import browser and in individual source sections. See MainStage Alchemy source
elements overview.
Alchemy also allows you to use several of the built-in synthesizer engines to create sounds
without sample importing and analysis. This section explores these pure synthesis options
and other approaches to creating the basic building blocks of your sounds.
Once you have added the raw material to your sources, Alchemy’s filters, modulation, and
effects sections are available to further refine your sound. See the information and tasks
outlined in these sections: MainStage Alchemy main filter controls, MainStage Alchemy
modulation overview, and MainStage Alchemy effects overview. Also look at the MainStage
Alchemy performance controls and MainStage Alchemy arpeggiator overview sections.
Note: Images shown in tutorials are not specific to presets used in tasks. They are included
as a guide to help you find areas and parameters in the Alchemy interface.