Symbolic Sound Kyma.5

Dont get me wrong , Kyma is easy to use , and the manual is one of the best ones and most fun I have read.
The manual it self refers to learning Kyma as learning a new instrument/language.
The basics are easy. But if you want to go deep under the hood (where the fun really begins) , it will take numerous hours .

There is nothing you can not do !! It's up to you and your imagination !!

Fantastic

Kyma as never crashed. (I have used for 2 years now extensivly)

Super friendly , extra Pro , best customer service ever !!!

Some people might find it expensive at first , but trust me there is nothing that comes close to Kyma . Once you get hold of it you will realize that Kyma is probably one of the finest purchases you have ever made.

there is nothing to compare with it. the hardware isn't cheap at an above entry level, but I can't believe that a serious composer would use anything else. using kyma 5. easy to use and very open ended for more advanced composers.

no traditional comparisons work, here. it is what you make of it.

top quality output, but what you get is what you put into it.

extremely so.

no comparison

its expensive but well worth the money.

I really have a different opinion on this issue. If you are a programmer and have Smalltalk in your veins then this should get a 9 or 10 for ease of use but if you are a synth user/programmer along the Roland/Korg/Yamaha lines, this can be a very difficult beast to master. It is like everything in the world, in general, more features harder to use, less features easier to use. This thing has a million really great features but for the most part it is like working in DOS or UNIX or other dot prompt operating systems. Some like it and some don't. I'll give it a middle of the road 5 because of the conditions that I've stated. I have some programming background and work with computers on a daily basis. Most average synth users would give this a 1 or 2 for ease of use I would think.

This system is, most likely, the most powerful audio workstation in the world. It seems like it can do it all. Flexible hardware, crash resistant operating system, the best of it kind.

Can be very expressive, filters may not be suited to standard subtractive synthesis. Can do just about any kind of synthesis known to man. May be best for movie soundtracks, electro-acoustic and electronic music in general.

Very well designed and built from a very professional company.

The best support that I have ever seen from any company. Phone, email and private forum support. Can't get any better. They really care about their users.

Great value for anyone who is willing to spend time learning the operating system. Super powerful, unique sounds, great support.

Kyma 5.2
The presets are extremely variable...but as it's not like anything else out there, the presets sound like nothing else out there! Although given the time, you could emulate the synth of your choice in kyma's software...but why? Thats not Kyma's 'raison d'etre'!
Editing patches is to Kyma like a brush is to a painter! It is impossible *not* to edit! Sometimes time just rolls by and you've taken a sound from point A to Z, and saved a whole batch of wildly different versions along the way! It's a tweaker's playground!
The manual is....*large* (!), well indexed and humorous in places!

*Polyphony is variable, according to the task addressed.
*Built in effects! Um, yes...and infinitely variable and configurable
*Expansion? Yes, yes and yes
*The system doesn't have its own keyboard but the system can function like a keyboardless rack synth, or it can output MIDI (from internal sequencer module, smalltalk scripts etc)
*the system has 'analog style' sequencers, but it is designed to be a midi recorder. There are hundreds of units on the market which do that task very well. Kyma is more designed for timbral manipulation and creation.

*Kyma was never intended to be a sample playback synth. It *can* do any of those tasks but there are other units specifically designed to do such.
*Types of music: It rocks for any type of music human beings have dreamed up! And possibly aliens too!
*The onboard effects are infinitely configurable. All the tools are there to make the effects, so it's down to the user! The way it should be!
*Re. reaction to playing, it depends purely on the task being addressed! Similarly with data from a MIDI keyboard
The sonic quality of the AD/DA converters is excellent, and with 24 bit resolution and up to 100kHz sampling frequency.

I've been using the software and hardware for 6 years, and it's virtually crashproof. If any music hardware/software combo is military grade, then the Kyma/Capybara system qualifies as such. I've been using synthesizers and electronic music devices since the early 1970s, and the Kyma system is more solid and reliable than any other software I've used.
I am very aware of Murphy's Law (what can go wrong, will go wrong), which means that re. computers musical devices where the software runs on a consumer operating system, I would never go onstage without a backup. However...having Kyma onstage without backup would make me less nervous than any other product out there I could name!

In my experience, Symbolic Sound goes out of their way to help their customers. After sales service is second to none and technical support is superb.

*If lost or stolen..I would order a replacement as soon as I knew my old one was gone for good. The things I do musically with Kyma, only Kyma can do. It's worth its weight in sonic gold!
*I have been playing piano since I was 4 years old...I am now 49, and have been playing electronic musical instruments for 32 years. I have owned, and still own a huge variety of synthesizers and recording kit, hardware and software. Yes I am a gear junkie...as many of us are!
What do I love about it: Easy and hard question. The thing I love about it most is that every time I get the Kyma software up during a project, its like a breath of fresh air for the muse! Kyma and creativity are synonymous.
Comparison to other products is tough: Kyma occupies a unique place in musical technology....and it is in the same price bracket as a high end sampler or synth.
Does it help me make music? Yes, a million times yes..thats it's strongest point for me.
If I was faced with the situation of owning just one piece of musical equipment...then either kyma or a 9ft concert grand piano would be my choice.
Now if only it had a replicator.....

version 5.2
The manual is LARGE...detailed and is the only manual I have evet actually enjoyed enough to read twice.
It's as easy as using one of the 1000+ presets, or as difficult as building algorithms from scratch. The clever thing is it is limitless so obviously there is an ENORMOUS learning curve but all the way along that curve you are doing incrredible things.

polyphony depends on the sounds used..it adapts. Very expandable.
Does it have built in effects? it has built in everything and I love the fact that now when I read of a new wonderful product or feature I can just think...oh, good idea, I'll do that with Kyma.

I find it brings out the LACK of expressiveness in midi controllers. I definitely want to try it with my ztar AND someone else on a ztar controlling 6 extra axes of expression.
The possibility of doing live surround sound is stunning....maybe that alone will get me a tour that will pay for this rather expensive item tenfold.

I hate having to have it always connected to a PC because I want to gig with it. That said, it is extremely reliable. I will buy a latop for nothing else but controlling my Capybara via KYMA.

It's too expensive to carry a spare one around.

That said I can see no need for a backup.no moving parts. I would take spare cables.....but there wouldn't be many as Kyma replaces a jungle of reverbs, pitch to midi, loopers, delays, flangers, compressors, limiters etc.

You talk with the inventors....and they have time to explain stuff that two weeks later you realise was trivial...but they are patient and friendly. You get the sort of treatment you feel that a famous rich important custoomer would get.

Definitely a keeper. Worth more than I paid for it.

I have been playing for 30 years and have a godin classic, roland gr33 vg88.ztar, buchla lightning, emu proteus 2500, multieffects, 2 repeaters, echoplex....many of these items are being replaced and superseded by my creations in KYMA.

I would not recommend it to everyone....but to people who are buying more and more equipment to acheive their perfect system might look at Kyma as a possibility, even a short cut and money saver

v.5.2 As with any system which is open-ended, there is a learning curve. However, what you invest at the start you reap shortly afterwards! The presets are great and editing them is a breeze. The manual is THE manual of all manuals! It is comprehensive, with PDF versions for quick searching. It also has excellent tutorials, which serve as good introductions to the system.

Too many! This is a very open system, in which you can combine and recombine all the sounds & sound objects. Best to start with the packaged examples, and develop from there. It is expandable, with comprehensive i/o options (but no optical).

Incredible sounds, useful in any context. With a little effort, you can create your own amazing sound worlds, for any type of music.

Robust, rock solid!

Great company, very helpful, open to suggestions, and responsive. Nice people to boot, who do this because they love music!

Worth the cost! Using the system a couple of years, amongst some other high-end kit (and low end, of course!). I love its versatility, power, sonic quality, and reliability. If you want a powerful audio/music environment which will last you years, with great company backup, you need this!

* Kyma5.20
* The presets are great. Given that there are 1k+ of them makes it fairly easy to please a wide range of users and applications. More on the unusual side though; don't expect a Bosendorfer grand (not that's it is not possible:)
* The manual is an amazing reference guide with an Ok tutorial (could use some improvement there). Terminology is not always for the layman.

* Polyphony depends on system config and patch complexity. No kbd
* You just build what you need: This device will fulfill any needed audio task.
* Plenty of space for RAM, I/O & DSP expansion, to compliment an already amazing & complete featureset
* Does have sequencers (as many as system resources will permit). Super flexible...Easy to use?...It is relative

* Sounds REALLY GOOD with a distinctive digital sound.
* Applicable to all types of music, perhaps with a penchant for the experimental
* Very very dynamic instrument: truly interactive

* Very reliable; crashed maybe 3 times in 4 YEARS!!! and was most likely user error
* Never giged w/it

* Carla & Kurt (product designers) are top notch. They deal with the tech issues in a very timely manner, have fixed all bugs I reported in a very short amount of time and are simply great people; down to earth and always ready to listen.

* Never had to repair the unit in 4 years (knock on wood:) but even if I had to, I'm confident in saying that they would not let me down.

* I would buy the unit again without hesitation. This system is easily worth 3 times what it's going for new (in terms of the toolset that it provides)

* Sound design/music for ~16 years. Used to own a EMS/Serge modular system..now long gone; Now it's two PCs w/Creamware hardware, Kyma/Capybara320 and a Yamaha 03D digital mixer

* I like and appreciate everything about Kyma. Hate nothing, but find that the user interface could use some improvement (however, given the UI improvement from Kyma 4.5 to Kyma5, I am certain this change will come)

* There is not much you can compare Kyma to. Anything even resembling slightly to Kyma costs about double, but doesn't even come close (don't want to name names:). I chose Kyma for it's versatility, sound quality and price point

* Wish it had ADAT I/O (Toslink), but according to Kurt Hebel, it may be on it's way

* Kyma is somewhat of a double-edged sword; it helps and inspires, but at the same time it is easy to get carried away and sidetracked, given the versatility. It's up to the user to stay focused:)

Using version 5.2, been a user since 3.x. Takes a bit of time to get your head wrapped around the visual programming language, but the results are well worth it.

The effects algorithms are awesome. In conjunction with the TimeLine and the replaceable sound features, testing of effects is all but trivial. In conjunction with the Virtual Control Surface, control of effects, and sounds, is amazing. The only drawback is that you currently cannot record midi note events in the TimeLine. This is promised to be forthcoming.
Expandability is extreme; hard to imagine how one could use up a fully loaded system.

Without a doubt Symbolic Sound takes better care of their customers than any other company on planet Earth! Upgrades are frequent, and generally free. Major upgrades are always seriously discounted for current owners -- even hardware upgrades are handled with grace and senstivity for the existing customer base. Unmatched service in all regards -- a true '11'!

This is definitely my desert island piece of gear. I own a lot of synths, from a home-brew analog modular, to a modern commercial analog modular, to various digital samplers and S&S synths. They're all tasty, but Kyma is a feast.

Kyma 5.18 -- Very easy to use, once you get the hang of simple Smalltalk coding, and become accustomed to some of the peculiarities of wiring up visual programming block diagrams.

Polyphony -- limited only by the number of DSP's and the complexity of the Sound. Huge numbers of built-in effects, very easy to use, many with no comparison in other instruments. Accepts up to 12 additional 2x DSP cards each containing 48 MBytes. Has full MIDI capabilities but these are entirely programmable in meaning. Sequencers exist as components of many Sounds, and you can craft your own.

It supports sampling, like any sampler, as well as synthetic construction of sounds. So realism is a reflection of Sound complexity, recorded sources, etc. It works well for all kinds of audio shaping -- not so strong for acting like a simple synthesizer. All effects are incredibly good, it has low playing latency where that means anything, and it does react to aftertouch and velocity, if you program it to do so... It's all up to you!

Extremely reliable. Running almost continuously now for a year in my studio. Never have a problem with it. I can recommend its use as a live performance instrument, but your computer might need a backup. It cannot run without a computer hooked up to it.

I deal with Symbolic Sound Inc. all the time. They are very friendly, personable, and very responsive to questions, suggestions, software bug reports, etc. I have bought upgrades on 4 or 5 occaisions since I got the basic unit. Never needed any repair services yet.

I would definitely buy it again. There are no other instruments with these same capabilities. I have been playing for 2 decades now, and I have Kurzweil, Roland, Access/Virus, Yamaha, many softsynths, etc. None of these can do what the Kyma/Capybara does. I love its incredible potential to handle nearly any DSP algorithm you might like to run. No comparison to anything else out there. Kyma/Capybara is in a category all its own.

Wish list? Sure -- lots! Like getting the full source code for the Smalltalk and the Capybara. But what manufacturer ever gives out the source code for the insides?

There is a learning curve to the Kyma/Capy. But once you overcome that the use of Kyma for sound creation/modification becomes almost second nature. So, for neophytes, it might get seriously in the way. But for old hands, I wouldn't be without it.

This is definitely a mind machine for sound creation and modification. You can do just about whatever you can dream of with it. But it isn't a conventional synth. It is a mega-power DSP box with a very easy user interface.

Using Kyma.5. Presets are outragious, sublime, killer, you name it. Without question, the best presets of any synth I have used.
Patches (called Sounds in Kyma)can be easy to edit or difficult, depending on the sound, etc. The Sound Editor is very well thought-out.
Nevertheless, this is a complex and deep unit, so it can be as easy or as challenging as you
want to make it. After all, you can write your own algorythms: Whooo!
The manual is well written, and includes 24 hours of tutorials. It is easy to start-out on, but endless and deep in its possibilities.

This is not a synth, per se, but a recombinant sound engine. Things like polyphany
depend on the complexity of voices and the number of cards you have in the sound engine, called
the CAPYBARA. I have two extra cards in mine and can get about four complex voices at once.

It has a very full spectrum of effects, including a super vocoder. The effects are easy to employ
and edit. When you load an effect into a sound, its paramaters are made available for tweaking.

Symbolic Sound has been working on the Kyma/Capybara for fifteen years. It is regularly being upgraded.
The Capybara 320 can be expanded to include 28 DSPs and 672mb of sample RAM.

It has great MIDI capabilities, but you need a controller. I use a Buchla Thunder as a controller.
A Motor Mix or something like it, is also useful.

Kyma comes with Timeline, an onboard sequencer, which can control the Capybara or recordings on your
hard-drive. As with Acid, it will by default, sync times to the first track, but you have full range of BPM editing
as well as all other aspects of your processing algorithms. There are also many other sequencing possibilities to
build into your sounds. Drum machine possibilities are killer and can have very complex virtual control possibilities.
One of the only short-comings of the Timeline is no looping (you can explore endless looping in the sound editor), but
Symbolic Sound is working on this.

The Kyma is an exploratory sound sculptor. It works well for any genre of
music. It is best at producing sounds you have never heard before. it has very nice sampling possibilities
and what you can do to these samples is extraodinary. My 4XTUltra does not approach it for sample modulation.

One of the main reasons I purchased the Kyma is its real-thyme sound processing possibilities.
It turns any acoustic instrument into a synth. My trumpet can produce amazing sounds--it has virtually
put my Eventide H3000 to rest. You should hear a bass played through it! Remarkable!

The onboard effects are extensive and sound great. Very deep editing possibilities. Easy to employ.

Just using the mouse with a virtual control panel is dynamic, fun and the subtleties of sound
control really super. The Thunder feels like it will be a perfect match, but I have a lot of exploration
to do with MIDI control. Velocity, aftertouch, envelopes, filters, oscillators, LFOS, etc are
available to use in any sound you want to program, the only limit being the power of your Capybara.

The sounds are gorgeous, the sequencer possibilities are endless and you can use both wave and spectrum editors.
You also have at your disposal all manner of synthesis, including subtractive, FM, additive, GA, RE and granular.

It might seem like this is a tool for intellectual and theoretical pursuit--and it can be. BUT, it can get down
in a hurry with some killer, ass-kicking sounds. There really is nothing like it.

I am planning to gig with this. It will be a bear to move: rackmounted computer, controller
rackmounted Capybara and all. I have had some lock-ups occur, but primarily when recording or
building a sound. With good preparation, it should be just fine on-stage.

Wonderful. You can talk to the EE who helps design the gear. Rapid and knowledgable response.
I purchased mine used, and they have been remarkable in their support.
There is a forum, through which you can get much help. Symbolic Sound
responds where useful, within a day.

I would cry if it was stolen. It is worth more than what I paid. There is nothing
like it. I have been playing synths for about 12 years and processed trumpet for about as long.
I started playing my trumpet thru a digitech Vocalist and Studio Quad.
Then I graduated to an Eventide and onboard Roland VS effects. The Kyma far surpasses even this
fine gear and really does make the trumpet tantamount to a synth controller. Yet its sounds
are so captivating, they have caused me to put my horn down while I explore its immense potential as a sound-sculpting
tool. The only problem is that I am not real interest in my Q, my Metasynth, my E4xtultra, or
my other wonderful synths. I chose it over a K2600, an Andromeda, a Wiard and a Serge. I am glad I did.