The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

Status
Whenever you play a Sound that requires some kind of real time input (such as hitting a MIDI key,
moving a virtual fader, or singing into the microphone) the Status window will display a list of the expected
sources of input. This is especially helpful information when you play a Sound and don’t hear
anything because the Sound is waiting for input from the A/D or waiting for a !KeyDown trigger.
The Status also displays the current global map (the mapping from memorable names in Kyma to actual
MIDI controller numbers), the MIDI channel or channels on which it is expecting MIDI input events, the
word Keyboard (if it expects MIDI key events), and a list of all continuous controller names.
Across the top is a horizontal thermometer display giving an indication of how much memory is available
on your host computer (not to be confused with the memory on the Capybara). As memory is
dynamically used up and then recycled, § you will notice the thermometer growing redder or bluer and
also growing further towards the right and shrinking towards the left. Smalltalk does periodic recycling,
but you can force it to recycle memory immediately by clicking the Recycle button. You should leave this
Status window open at all times, because it monitors the available memory and does automatic recycling
for you.
Polyphony
Controlling parameters from a MIDI keyboard immediately suggests the idea of polyphony. To make a
Kyma Sound polyphonic, make it the input to a MIDIVoice module; this defines the Sound as a MIDI
voice, assigns it a channel, gives it a polyphony value, and specifies a range of MIDI pitches that it should
pay attention to.
For example, to increase the polyphony on the MIDI-controlled GenericSource from the previous section,
drag a MIDIVoice from the MIDI In category of the prototypes, and drop it on the line between the GenericSource
and the HarmonicResonator. Double-click on the MIDIVoice to take a look at its default
parameter settings.
§ Kyma is written in Smalltalk, a programming language that dynamically allocates memory; whenever an object in
Kyma is no longer in use, Smalltalk can recycle the memory previously needed by that object.
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