The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

tem. However, you can drag a Sound module from anywhere in the user interface (the Sound file window,
another open Sound editor, a MIDI grid, etc.) and place it into the signal flow path.
Probing, Prisms, and History
You can listen to the sound at any point along the signal flow path by selecting an icon and using
Ctrl+Space Bar. For example, if you select and play the GenericSource in the example we’re constructing,
you will hear the unprocessed A/D input. If you select the HarmonicResonator, you will hear the
GenericSource as processed through the resonator. In a sense, when you select and play an icon, you hear
that Sound and everything to the left of that Sound. You are listening to the chain of processing up to the
point that you have selected.
In other words, the modifiers in Kyma are nondestructive. You can always go back and listen to the unmodified
sound just prior to where the signal enters a modifier. A modifier is like a sonic analogy to a
prism or a lens: when you look at an object through a lens, you observe a systematic distortion of the object
that tells you something about the structure of the lens, but the lens does not change the object itself
— just the way you see the object when looking through the lens.
One side-effect of nondestructive modification is that each signal flow diagram becomes a history of the
steps you took in order to create it. As you work on a sound, you are leaving a trace of all the operations
you applied in order to reach the end result. This means you can apply the same process to another
sound source later, simply by substituting the new sound source for the old in the signal flow diagram.
Replace
To replace Sound A with Sound B, drag B into the Sound editor, and drop it on top of Sound A. Alternatively,
you can select and copy Sound B, select Sound A, and then paste.
Before After
For example, say we wanted to replace the GenericSource with a recording read from the disk. Find the
DiskPlayer module in the Disk category of the prototypes, drag it from the prototypes into the Sound
editor, and drop it on top of the GenericSource icon. (If you are in front of your computer, try this out.)
Advisory Dialogs
If you are replacing one Sound source with another, a dialog asks you to confirm that you want to complete
the action:
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