[RWP] Fw: Support: Alchemy/Alchemy player accessibility

[Roy Shtupler]

hi friends
this is the response I received from CamelAudio support; I'll definitely 
make a skype session with them and do it.
best
Roy.
http://elephant-dolphin.bandcamp.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Camel Audio Support" <support at camelaudio.com>
To: <shtupler at 013.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: (Case 27150) CASupport: Alchemy/Alchemy player accessibility


Hi Roy,

Thank you for writing, and for your interest in Alchemy. You are correct 
that the text is bitmapped, thus preventing your screen reader from being 
able to pick up on the text.

We've had some discussions about switching from bitmapped text, but this 
would be a very large programming task and so it is not something we could 
do for Alchemy 1.x releases. Possible for v2 or beyond, but no decisions 
have been made yet on it, as it would require quite a large investment in 
time and money to accomplish anything near full screen reader compatibility 
for Alchemy - due to the very visual nature of how some of the current 
editing features were designed.

That said, a few months ago I was able to help a blind customer get setup 
with Alchemy Player. This is how we approached it...

Additional hardware/software required:

A MIDI controller with a large selection of knobs, sliders, and or 
touch-pads is needed. Optimally, with enough MIDI transmitting controls to 
cover 19 parameters in Alchemy Player.

A free program called Auto Hotkey is also needed. This program lets you 
record your mouse movements and keystrokes, then play them back by running 
the script file. http://www.autohotkey.com/

Another free program, called TeamViewer, is also required. This is used to 
let me remotely control the customer's computer, to help setup the HotKey 
script and assign the MIDI controls.

The last program we'd need is Skype, so we can talk during the setup 
process.

The process for getting everything working is relatively straight forward, 
so this is something that a sighted friend could assist you with if you 
would prefer that to having me remotely control your computer.

Step 1: Loading of presets / SFZ files.

For you to be able to load files into Alchemy Player, the movement of a 
mouse clicking on the File button would need to be recorded. From there, 
your screen reader could take over as it would recognize the text in the 
menu. Selecting the Load option would launch a standard system file loading 
browser, that your screen reader would also recognize.

Note: for this to work, the synth would need to always load into the exact 
same spot on your screen. Otherwise Auto HotKey would miss the file button.

Step 2: Controlling the parameters.

Alchemy Player's "Performance Controls" can be assigned to hardware controls 
via a MIDI Learn function. To assign them, someone would need to right click 
on a parameter, then select MIDI Learn from the menu. You would then move a 
knob/slider on your controller and Alchemy would assign that MIDI CC number 
to the performance control. Doing this for each of the performance controls 
would allow you to make an excellent range of adjustments to the presets.

The functions that are actually assigned to performance controls is up to 
the sound designer who created the preset. As a result, the effect moving a 
knob has on the sound can be different from preset to preset. However, in 
all cases, the we've made sure that only the most useful functions for that 
sound were assigned to controls.

Note: if you load an SFZ or WAV file instead of an Alchemy Preset, Alchemy 
Player automatically assigns the most commonly used functions to the 
controls.

Once you can trigger the script to click the file button, and the MIDI 
controls are assign to Alchemy Player's performance controls, you'll have 
nearly full access to all the features of the synth.

Of course this is only a small portion of the controls available in the full 
version of Alchemy, but it would at least let you load sounds and make 
adjustments to them.

I should also mention that Alchemy Player is limited to only loading presets 
created/sold by us. The settings for sounds you modified would be remembered 
in your song, but could not be saved as a new preset that could be recalled 
for future projects. For that functionality, the full version of Alchemy 
would be required. However, the same hotkey script and MIDI CC mapping for 
the performance controls would still be applicable to the full version of 
Alchemy.

If you would like me to help you get setup for using Alchemy or Alchemy 
Player in the way I've discussed above - or if you would like some advice 
while a friend helps set things up - then just let me know.

Chris
==========================================
 Camel Audio Support
 http://www.camelaudio.com
==========================================

You can check the status of your enquiry here:
https://camelaudio.fogbugz.com/default.asp?27150_11kov8bcd1fq8esl


-----Original Message-----
From: "shtupler at 013.net" <shtupler at 013.net>
Reply-To: shtupler at 013.net
Date: 1 Oct 2012 22:28:01 +0100
To: "support at camelaudio.com" <support at camelaudio.com>
Subject: CASupport: Alchemy/Alchemy player accessibility

>Product: Alchemy Player
>
>hi all
>
>my name is Roy , a musician and computer programmer.
>
>am now testing v1.25 of Alchemy player , and wish to also test v1.50 of the 
>full Alchemy demo.
>
>my hosts are Reaper v4 and Sonar 8.5.3.
>
>since being blind , am using a screen reader to help me interact with my 
>windows pc.
>
>first , I am glad to say a big thank you for the large list of automatable 
>parameters; this allows us to access and tweak parameters using our host's 
>generic ParameterName/value method and change the values this way.
>
>as for the native interface , unfortunately my screen reading progrmas 
>can't see anything on this window; it appears as totally blank , with just 
>the title visible.
>
>so I can't access the file menu or any other element that doesn't appear on 
>the automatable parameters list.
>
>tried changing the GuiMode parameter in the config file from 0 to 1 , 
>didn't make any difference.
>
>I suspect the text is bit-mapped , therefore would greatly appreciate the 
>possibility of switching from bit-mapped to normal ascii text , e.g via a 
>setting in the registry or the config file; maybe adding keyboard shortcuts 
>to elements such as the menus would be a wonderful solution to start with.
>
>please correct me if something's already there and I'm missing out on it.
>
>I know many blind musicians/sound designers who'd be really eager to use 
>this powerful synth/sample manipulation tool.
>
>imagine all the wonderful things I could do , using even my own samples 
>with its morphing and granular features.
>
>I truely hope we can work together to make Alchemy/Alchemy player more 
>accessible to us.
>
>keep up this wonderful instrument
>
>Roy.
>