CAMEL AUDIO ALCHEMY - HELP NEEDED

[Thought Experiment]

Now I know this is a highly irregular request, but desperate times etc etc...

I've recently bought a new PC and I'm in the process of re-installing my VSTs. As one or two people who know me here will know, I've owned and used Alchemy since day one (i.e. since the crossgrade deal from Chameleon). When Camel Audio went over to the dark side, I downloaded the installers just in case I ever needed to restore Alchemy. All good so far. HOWEVER, when I came to run the installer on my new PC, it didn't work because - and this is really stupid, don't know where my head was - I'd downloaded the 32-bit version :cantlook:

I've scoured my old hard-drive but of course that's the only installer I can find - I still have the original installers for all the soundbanks I've bought over the years, but no Alchemy (64 bit) installer :(

I've even tried copying all the files over from my old hard-drive and pasting them into the new drive, which I didn't think would work but I'll try anything once - of course it didn't...

Like I said, this is highly irregular, but...can anybody help me out? Is there any way I could make the copied .dll work?

[Ambient Mechanics]

jBridge should do it. You should be able to use a 32 bit installer on a 64 bit system..then just bridge the program to run on your system with jBridge. Other than that, I don't know, and I don't think getting a loan of a 64 bit installer from somebody else is going to work either, as I think the installers were coded to the registered user..though I could be wrong about that.

In short, jBridge is your best bet..and it's not that costly either.

[aoVI]

I believe AM is correct, the license is embedded in the installer--IIRC.

[Thought Experiment]

jBridge should do it. You should be able to use a 32 bit installer on a 64 bit system..then just bridge the program to run on your system with jBridge. Other than that, I don't know, and I don't think getting a loan of a 64 bit installer from somebody else is going to work either, as I think the installers were coded to the registered user..though I could be wrong about that.

In short, jBridge is your best bet..and it's not that costly either.

Thanks for the assist - I'd be happy to run Alchemy in 32 bit, Reaper is capable of running a mixture of 32- and 64- bit instruments and effects seamlessly. The problem is the 32-bit installer crashes so I can't even install it :(

On my old PC (which was also 64-bit), running 32 bit installers was never a problem if that was all I had, so I'm wondering if there's some tweak I need to make to my new system.

By the way, Camel Phat and Camel Space are running quite happily without being installed, I just copied all the files across from the old hard disk to the new...

[Thought Experiment]

I believe AM is correct, the license is embedded in the installer--IIRC.

Yes now you mention it, I think that is the case. I hoped it would be within the alchemy.dll file which I copied from the old hard drive, but Reaper crashes when it detects it, so there's obviously something amiss there :(

I may have to settle for Computer Music's Alchemy Player, if i can get that to work.

[Ambient Mechanics]

If I understood what you just said, then I don't think you can simply copy the Alchemy .dll file over..you'll need to run the full install in order to get it to work, as it puts a certain files onto your system and registers them with your system.

As for a 32 bit installer running on a 64 bit system..there shouldn't be any problem at all..it should install as normal, installing to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Camel Audio" directory on your system. It's just a matter of bridging the .dll file using jBridge..or if Reaper has a bridging thing built in, then you may not need to get jBridge..don't know about that, but I think some DAWs do that by design.

If you are running the full installer you downloaded and it won't work, then my guess is the installer is corrupted. For the record..and I know this might be a little too late in this case, but you should always run such installers when you download them, just to make sure your backup is actually valid and working. Sadly, by the sounds of it, that's not the case here.


Short of tracking down the guys behind Camel Audio and begging them to help you sort it out..which I seriously doubt they would or could do, there really isn't anything you can do about a corrupted installer. :frown:

[Thought Experiment]

If I understood what you just said, then I don't think you can simply copy the Alchemy .dll file over..you'll need to run the full install in order to get it to work, as it puts a certain files onto your system and registers them with your system.

As for a 32 bit installer running on a 64 bit system..there shouldn't be any problem at all..it should install as normal, installing to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Camel Audio" directory on your system. It's just a matter of bridging the .dll file using jBridge..or if Reaper has a bridging thing built in, then you may not need to get jBridge..don't know about that, but I think some DAWs do that by design.

If you are running the full installer you downloaded and it won't work, then my guess is the installer is corrupted. For the record..and I know this might be a little too late in this case, but you should always run such installers when you download them, just to make sure your backup is actually valid and working. Sadly, by the sounds of it, that's not the case here.


Short of tracking down the guys behind Camel Audio and begging them to help you sort it out..which I seriously doubt they would or could do, there really isn't anything you can do about a corrupted installer. :frown:

Yes, I'm beginning to think the fault lies with the installer too. :( It's not looking good...

However, I haven't totally given up on the 'copying all alchemy-related files' option. I remembered today I should have registered the .dll with the registry, so I'm going to do that for starters then check out the registry on the old drive to see what else I need to replicate. Hell of a faff, I know, but I'm very reluctant to chuck about 300 quid in the bin until I can tell myself I've tried everything

Good tip about trial-running the installer, thanks - I really need to get a bit more disciplined on that whole 'back-ups' thang :D

[Ambient Mechanics]

If I understood what you just said, then I don't think you can simply copy the Alchemy .dll file over..you'll need to run the full install in order to get it to work, as it puts a certain files onto your system and registers them with your system.

As for a 32 bit installer running on a 64 bit system..there shouldn't be any problem at all..it should install as normal, installing to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Camel Audio" directory on your system. It's just a matter of bridging the .dll file using jBridge..or if Reaper has a bridging thing built in, then you may not need to get jBridge..don't know about that, but I think some DAWs do that by design.

If you are running the full installer you downloaded and it won't work, then my guess is the installer is corrupted. For the record..and I know this might be a little too late in this case, but you should always run such installers when you download them, just to make sure your backup is actually valid and working. Sadly, by the sounds of it, that's not the case here.


Short of tracking down the guys behind Camel Audio and begging them to help you sort it out..which I seriously doubt they would or could do, there really isn't anything you can do about a corrupted installer. :frown:

Yes, I'm beginning to think the fault lies with the installer too. :( It's not looking good...

However, I haven't totally given up on the 'copying all alchemy-related files' option. I remembered today I should have registered the .dll with the registry, so I'm going to do that for starters then check out the registry on the old drive to see what else I need to replicate. Hell of a faff, I know, but I'm very reluctant to chuck about 300 quid in the bin until I can tell myself I've tried everything

Good tip about trial-running the installer, thanks - I really need to get a bit more disciplined on that whole 'back-ups' thang :D

Glad I could be of help..even if it is only words. Hope you manage to get it sorted..and please keep us up-to-date with how you get on with this. It would be interesting to know if you can transfer all the stuff over, copy & paste style. Who knows, somebody else on here might run into the same issue down the line and this thread could just be the lifeline they'll be looking for. ;)

[Thought Experiment]

IT'S ALIVE, ALIVE I TELL YOU!! MWAHAHAHAHAAA
ahem...Pardon my excitement, but I have my Alchemy up and running nicely on my new PC :thumbsup:

Last night I copied all the files back in again, taking care to paste them into the same relative positions, ran a command prompt to register the Alchemy.dll file (I got an error message here, but I pressed on), then manually created the registry entries for Alchemy (after checking out the registry on the old PC's hard drive). There were surprisingly few - I found only eight or so which looked relevant. I don't make a habit of fiddling with the registry, but I knew I could restore the machine back to its factory settings if need be...Anyway, cutting a long story short, Reaper detected and added Alchemy to the list of available VSTs, I checked out a few presets, and everything appears to be working fine - even to my name scrolling across the patch name window on start-up :D

You could say I'm pretty pleased...

[GaryG]

Cool.

Or you could have simply bought a Mac.

(I kid, I kid... )

[Thought Experiment]

Cool.

Or you could have simply bought a Mac.

(I kid, I kid... )

Now why didn't I think of that....

[Ambient Mechanics]

IT'S ALIVE, ALIVE I TELL YOU!! MWAHAHAHAHAAA
ahem...Pardon my excitement, but I have my Alchemy up and running nicely on my new PC :thumbsup:

Last night I copied all the files back in again, taking care to paste them into the same relative positions, ran a command prompt to register the Alchemy.dll file (I got an error message here, but I pressed on), then manually created the registry entries for Alchemy (after checking out the registry on the old PC's hard drive). There were surprisingly few - I found only eight or so which looked relevant. I don't make a habit of fiddling with the registry, but I knew I could restore the machine back to its factory settings if need be...Anyway, cutting a long story short, Reaper detected and added Alchemy to the list of available VSTs, I checked out a few presets, and everything appears to be working fine - even to my name scrolling across the patch name window on start-up :D

You could say I'm pretty pleased...

That's great to hear..glad you got it sorted out.

One thing..when you get the chance..you might think about posting up a "step-by-step" guide to how you did it, with a walk-through on how you edited the registry, as not everyone feels able to do this..and some think they do, but don't..which can lead to serious issues for both them and they PC.

Anyway, congrats of getting it sorted..nice one. :thumbsup:

[aoVI]

nice!

[Thought Experiment]

Let's all celebrate now 😁

[seismic1]

Hey Mike, is that running on Win10?