Adding a Renaissance Era flair to the 125th AES Convention in San Francisco, Flux is proud to show off Alchemist. It's a brand new program designed for mastering or re-mastering applications. It also doubles as a regular dynamics processor.

Alchemist is based on Flux's dynamic processing algorithms, and it features an IIR crossover with adjustable slopes from 18 to 54 dB per octave with variable corner frequencies. Bands own their own complete dynamic processing section, and each section is made up of a compressor, de-compressor, expander and de-expander that work in parallel with independent Angel's Share, which controls the mix of an auto-ratio based on the signal dynamic, and Hysteresis, which does the same for an auto-threshold. They are the central components in all Flux processors. Each band also gets its own transient processor and MS controller.

Sound can be processed by single broadband or up to five bands. Processing is finalized by an adjustable soft knee brick-wall clipper. Another goodie is the Auto Delay function, which allows you to produce no attack by adding a delay line on the processed signal.

Flux also lends their Bitter Sweet tool to manage the transients. You can toggle this pre- or post-processing using middle, side or stereo modes. Every dynamic session includes parameter control for both Angel's Share and Hysteresis with a hold parameter and a maximum mode can be engaged for the latter.

An exclusive A/B morphing system also comes in handy by offering a comprehensive and efficient processing control. You can use the preset manager to save global presets made out of both sides of the A/B morphing slider position, too. Flux has factory presets to get you started out right.

Alchemist also manages digital audio up to a whopping 384 kHz and up to eight channels.