Inventors of the Kyma Sound Design System

US The Holy Grail of sound design?      11/04/24

The Kyma Sound Design System is an exceptionally high fidelity platform for incredible sonic exploration - this video hears from Carla Scaletti and Kurt Hebel, the inventors of the Kyma sound design language and hardware. They detail the origins of Kyma, its evolution over the past thirty years, how it is used today, and their future plans for this amazing system. 

The most powerful sound design workstation on the planet -- that's what Electronic Musician magazine called the Kyma sound design environment. Future Music called it the Holy Grail of sound design. Kyma's effectiveness arises from its unique set of algorithms, the ease with which you can create endless combinations of those algorithms, and the unprecedented degree of real-time responsive control over the sound parameters.

...the sound industry's secret weapon...

--Audio Media

Kyma allowed me to modulate and morph my own voice into other sounds... It was in the ambience of the film itself, almost as if only the idea of Nemo was out there, tormenting his father.

--Gary Rydstrom, Sound Designer

You've already heard the sounds of Kyma in films like WALL•E, The Dark Knight, Master and Commander, Finding Nemo and in games like World of Warcraft, Quake II, Mirror's Edge, Dark Messiah, and Mage Knight. And you've heard the interactive musical sounds of Kyma both on albums and in live sets by legendary musicians and producers like John Paul Jones, A.R. Rahman, Amon Tobin, Stanley Cowell, Rich Costey, Cristian Vogel, and many more.

There is not a wealth of sound examples of the Kyma, but there are many talented sound designers using the system. 

You'll find a list of Kyma tutorials by Spectral Evolver here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXclgZ0LUAA&list=PLF_py3Xyge9MKTnaU-RVORe4EIqSMyot0

 

There are also some videos by Simon Hutchinson on the Kyma. Here's how to get a custom wavetable form a vocal sample:

 

 

More info here: https://kyma.symbolicsound.com/

 

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.

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