The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

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Peeling Back the Layers of Kyma Kyma is a deep program that you can access in layers: at the highest level, immediately producing complex and interesting sounds using the examples found in the Examples folder, and by using the Tools; at the next level, by designing new sounds using the graphical Sound editor, wave editor, spectrum editor, and file organizer. ‡ Whether and when you decide to proceed from one level to the next is entirely up to you. You can make a large variety of interesting and effective sounds simply by familiarizing yourself with the “factory presets” of Kyma — the processing and synthesis examples found in the Examples folder, and the Sounds at the FTP site contributed by your colleagues. You may find that you need never even use the Sound editor except to substitute your own source material. Everyone who uses Kyma will use the top layer. For many, the top layer is all they will ever need. For others, the top layer is the introduction to the programming layer. There is no better way to learn about sound design than by studying the designs of others and tweaking them in small ways until you understand the effect of each parameter. Once you start designing new sounds, you can add them to the examples at the top layer, building and expanding your own personal sound library. You may even want to take a few of your less-proprietary examples and put them up at the Symbolic Sound FTP site for your Kyma colleagues to use (while saving the best sounds for yourself of course!) Inevitably, though, you will find yourself tweaking a parameter here and there, even on the preset examples. This is the first step down the path to programming your own Sounds, a delightful addiction from which you may never recover (if you’re not already hopelessly addicted due to earlier experiences with modular synthesizers and software synthesis). This is the layer at which the real power of Kyma becomes apparent. Kyma is extremely open-ended and modular. In this respect it is both liberating and at times even slightly intimidating. Kyma is definitely a program for consenting adults. Once you start getting into sound programming, there are so many possibilities, so many decisions, so many choices to make, that it requires you to set your own guidelines and your own constraints. In that respect it is like facing the empty page just before starting to compose music, write a paper, or work on any creative project. Before You Get Started As you read through the introduction and tutorials, there are suggestions that you try out certain examples. Many of these examples assume that you have a microphone connected to the left audio input channel of your Capybara and that you have some kind of MIDI input device or controller hooked up to the MIDI input on the back of the Capybara. Some examples require a MIDI synthesizer to be connected to the MIDI output. ‡ There is an even lower level to Kyma, and that is the third-party development level. By creating sound libraries and placing them at the FTP site, you are already acting as a third party developer in the community of Kyma users. It is also possible to program new Tools and to write new assembly language modules for Kyma. To do this, you will need the developers’ kit. In order to get the developers’ kit you must apply to become a third party developer at either the Tool level (Smalltalk programming) or the DSP assembly language level. Of necessity, we have to limit the number of people in the developers program, because Smalltalk and DSP programming require intensive support and training. One of the requirements for being accepted is experience programming in Smalltalk (for Tools) or in 56002 assembly language (for new modules). If you have this kind of experience and are interested in developing for Kyma and the Capybara, send us electronic mail at info-kyma@SymbolicSound.com describing your experience and plans. 6
Go ahead and set this up now, so that you will be ready to try the examples as they come up. Keyboard MIDI Faders Synthesizer MIDI Computer Capybara 7 audio Pre-amp Amplifier Your studio may have audio and MIDI patchbays to make it more easily reconfigured. If you connect the Capybara up to the patchbays, you can make this configuration by moving patch cords at the patchbay, rather than moving cables at the back of your equipment. If your patchbay is computer controlled, use the software for the patchbay to make sure it is configured correctly.
Page 1 and 2: Acknowledgments Acknowledgments to
Page 3 and 4: knowing that he would understand an
Page 5: These sections tend to be graphical
Page 9 and 10: First, Kyma asks you to invest some
Page 11 and 12: Grammar Kyma “sentences” are co
Page 13 and 14: A Sound, no matter how complex, can
Page 15 and 16: Whether you are composing or design
Page 17 and 18: Data-driven Sound Patterns in exper
Page 19 and 20: Preproduction The items in the Tool
Page 21 and 22: ♦ The spectrum editor is a two-di
Page 24 and 25: Sound, Sound File, and Sound Editor
Page 26 and 27: Help and Information For on-line he
Page 28 and 29: tem. However, you can drag a Sound
Page 30 and 31: Delete To remove Sound A from the s
Page 32 and 33: Whenever you want to make sure that
Page 34 and 35: Parameters Suppose you wanted to dr
Page 36 and 37: to replace the old value. § Then u
Page 38 and 39: Event Values Even though the Generi
Page 40 and 41: Status Whenever you play a Sound th
Page 42 and 43: Kyma will make an association betwe
Page 44 and 45: Scale and Offset 90% of all arithme
Page 46 and 47: So if you see a parameter field tha
Page 48 and 49: Automation To prevent a controller
Page 50 and 51: To read several channels, create se
Page 52 and 53: Smoothing Things Over To filter or
Page 54 and 55: Now select and play the FormantBank
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For example, to set controller numb
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MIDI Controllers The output of any
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Cross-mapping Parameters There is n
Page 63 and 64:
Sample Editor Getting Information o
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trum editor. The analysis can be do
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Text Preferences There is not that
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Select the folders in the top list
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Algorithmic Splicing and Mixing Scr
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Who’s on top? the value of a vari
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TimeController is a little less ext
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To play a compiled Sound, tab into
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Compile, load You may notice that s
Page 82 and 83:
Strategies for Non-real-time In som
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Remove Redundancy The most common s
Page 86 and 87:
Learning Kyma When people tell us t
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You will get the most out of this
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You can read these settings, but yo
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lowing the tutorials step-by-step,
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Audio Demonstrations These examples
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Now examine the value of Frequencie
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Backgrounds, Textures Sounds in thi
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Edit cloud1, setting the parameters
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In pick out unvoiced the EX version
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Go back and double-click on synthet
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FFT cross synth RE Analysis Tool Tr
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Delays, Chorusing, Reverb Delays Ch
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So you could model a sound source i
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Disk Recording, Playback Playback R
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Multi-tracking this could be used t
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Distortion Waveshaping Clipping By
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down. At all other times, the ampli
Page 120 and 121:
Envelopes In general usage, the wor
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Formants Picture a sine wave added
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Frequency Scaling One of the most c
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It looks very much like a series of
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RE Synthesis Surrealism Double-clic
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F13 frequencies, we have to multipl
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Parameter Setting Select unchecked
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Looping, Feedback Several Kyma Soun
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MIDIVoice Scripts The MIDIVoice and
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Random Events The next example gene
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The first line is just a declaratio
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EventMix Play the example called ou
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Markov Chain In Kyma, the MarkovCha
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Recursion First we create a TimedEv
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Morphing Imagine a scene from your
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Single Musical Tones You can also m
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Adjust the fader upwards until you
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III. Synchronizing the Analyses At
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Output MIDI Getting Wired MIDI Note
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Generating MIDI If you want to turn
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Note that if you decide to switch t
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Playing Back Samples from the Capyb
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Scripts OK, now for a verbal explan
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every 256 samples, it outputs the s
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Stereo Placement If a sound source
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Tap Tempo This file contains exampl
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Time Scaling This section is the du
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Timing Clock, MTC When you use Kyma
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faster rate than once per second! D
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Timbre Like an amplitude envelope,
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will output 256 tracks on each fram
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Tuning In Kyma, the smallest change
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Click the Create Example button; Ky
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Group-additive Synthesis In additiv
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Whooshes, Hits, Bys These are some
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You have defined a general stereo l
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Click in a light area to draw a dar
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First, in the Class Description fie
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Now your script should look like th
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Now use a continuous control on the
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Now let’s make a transformation t
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Part III: Exercises Time/frequency
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Creating a Wavetable using the Samp
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Kyma Quick Reference System Prototy
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Working with the Parameter Fields o
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Specifying Units in Parameter Field
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Virtual Control Surface The axes of
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Spectrum Editor Overview Navigating
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Sample File Editor This box indicat
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Prototypes Reference
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ADSR Envelopes & Control Signals Ca
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AnalogSequencer Sequencers Category
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#(!Morph 0 0.25 1) #(!Pan 0 0.5 1)
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Annotation Variables & Annotation C
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ArcTan Math Category The output of
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AudioInput Sampling Category An Aud
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CellularAutomaton Scripts Category
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CenteringMixer Mixing & Panning Cat
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ChannelJoin Mixing & Panning Catego
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Chopper Envelopes & Control Signals
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ContextFreeGrammar Scripts Category
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Crossfade Level, Compression, Expan
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Interpolation When Linear is select
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DiskCache Sampling Category Stores
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DiskRecorder Sampling Category Reco
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DynamicRangeController Level, Compr
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EndTogetherMixer Mixing & Panning C
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FeedbackLoopInput Xtra Category A F
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FFT Spectral Analysis FFT Category
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Feedback The higher the Feedback, t
Page 260 and 261:
FormantBankOscillator Xtra Sources
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FrequencyTracker Tracking Live Inpu
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FunctionGenerator Envelopes & Contr
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GAOscillators Xtra Sources Category
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GenericSource Xtra Sources Category
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To specify a constant duration, no
Page 272 and 273:
GraphicEQ Filters Category This giv
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HighShelvingFilter Filters Category
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IteratedWaveshaper Distortion & Wav
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the samples to be mapped. LoFreq Lo
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LiveSpectralAnalysis Tracking Live
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LowShelvingFilter Filters Category
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Matrix8 Spatializing Category This
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MemoryWriter Sampling Category When
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MIDIFileEcho MIDI Out Category This
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MIDI file). Set Channel to 0 to use
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MIDIOutputController MIDI Out Categ
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MIDIOutputEventInBytes MIDI Out Cat
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Polyphony Number of simultaneous MI
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Mixer Mixing & Panning Category Add
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MultifileDiskPlayer Sampling Catego
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Multisample Sampling Category This
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MultisegmentEnvelope Envelopes & Co
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Noise Xtra Sources Category This ge
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actualFreq := Frequency + (Frequenc
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OscilloscopeDisplay Tracking Live I
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Output8 Spatializing Category This
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Pan Mixing & Panning Category Place
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PeakDetector Tracking Live Input Ca
Page 318 and 319:
PresenceFilter Filters Category Act
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Product Math Category Outputs the p
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When reset is nonzero, it resets th
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QuadOscillator Xtra Sources Categor
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0 (maximum attenuation) !Fader1 (co
Page 328 and 329:
ReverbSection Reverb, Delay, Feedba
Page 330 and 331:
RhythmicCellularAutomaton Scripts C
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RunningMax Math Category Output is
Page 334 and 335:
Sample Sampling Category Plays the
Page 336 and 337:
SampleAndHold Sampling Category A S
Page 338 and 339:
Pan This is the stereo position of
Page 340 and 341:
ScaleAndOffset Math Category The ou
Page 342 and 343:
Controls the level of the SideChain
Page 344 and 345:
0 (maximum attenuation) !Fader1 (co
Page 346 and 347:
SetRange Math Category This maps th
Page 348 and 349:
SingleSideBandRM Frequency & Time S
Page 350 and 351:
SoundCollectionVariable Variables C
Page 352 and 353:
SpectralShape Spectral Sources Cate
Page 354 and 355:
SpectrumFrequencyScale Spectral Mod
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SpectrumLogToLinear Spectral Modifi
Page 358 and 359:
FreqHysteresis Enter a frequency or
Page 360 and 361:
SpectrumOnDisk Spectral Sources Cat
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SqrtMagnitude Math Category This is
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StereoInOutput8 Spatializing Catego
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StereoMix4 Mixing & Panning Categor
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SumOfSines Xtra Sources Category Re
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exact time within the sample where
Page 372 and 373:
smallest array will be used, and an
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every other value of this Sound wil
Page 376 and 377:
Threshold Tracking Live Input Categ
Page 378 and 379:
TimeFrequencyScale Frequency & Time
Page 380 and 381:
TimeOffset Time & Duration Category
Page 382 and 383:
TriggeredSampleAndHold Sampling Cat
Page 384 and 385:
TunableVocoder Filters Category Tun
Page 386 and 387:
TwoFormantElement Filters Category
Page 388 and 389:
full amplitude use +1.0 or -1.0; an
Page 390 and 391:
VCA Envelopes & Control Signals Cat
Page 392 and 393:
LowCF This is the center frequency
Page 394 and 395:
TimeConstant Controls the reaction
Page 396 and 397:
WarpedTimeIndex Time & Duration Cat
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398
Page 400 and 401:
Compression/Expansion Gain 265 Cros
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Math Difference 245 Math Equality 2
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Spatializing Output8 312 Spatializi
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406
Page 408 and 409:
DiskCache Disk 246 DiskPlayer Sampl
Page 410 and 411:
Mixer Distortion & Waveshaping 298
Page 412 and 413:
SpectrumInRAM Spectral Sources 355
Page 414 and 415:
414
Page 416 and 417:
416
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Menu Operations The menus available
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About the table: ♦ File Descripti
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File menu: Close File menu: Save…
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For more information, see Virtual C
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Edit menu: Undo Edit menu: Cut Edit
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Edit menu: Trim The Trim operation
Page 430 and 431:
♦ Icon Size in Sound Editor Field
Page 432 and 433:
♦ If the file name has a complete
Page 434 and 435:
Time and Time Code Displays The tim
Page 436 and 437:
speeds that may be compatible with
Page 438 and 439:
Even if the selected Sound cannot p
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Info menu: Describe sound Describe
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Tools Menu FFT and the window funct
Page 444 and 445:
Using the Tool Choose Spectral Anal
Page 446 and 447:
If you are unsure which type of fil
Page 448 and 449:
If you hear clipping in the resynth
Page 450 and 451:
The Tool performs an analysis that
Page 452 and 453:
The main page of the Tool contains
Page 454 and 455:
Clicking on Cents Scale brings up t
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This part of the tool reads lines f
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System Prototypes and the Sound Fil
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Creating and Editing Sounds In Kyma
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Clicking the arrow tab on Vocoder1,
Page 464 and 465:
You can adjust the layout of the si
Page 466 and 467:
Double-click a Sound in the signal
Page 468 and 469:
An envelope breakpoint field is use
Page 470 and 471:
Specifying Numbers You specify numb
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Event Values, Virtual Control Surfa
Page 474 and 475:
Event Sources are specified by prec
Page 476 and 477:
By default, Sounds in hot parameter
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Booleans The real-time evaluator ca
Page 480 and 481:
Symbolic Times and Frequencies Use
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Event Value via the MIDI input of t
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Defining a controller type in the g
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Because the compiled Sounds do not
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Display Amplitude Envelopes F10 Joi
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Markers F5 F6 F7 F8 You can use mar
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492
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Exporting, Importing and Post-Proce
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The icon buttons perform actions th
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enter the length of time you want t
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Feedback Typically, you use the Fee
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expands the display in the time dir
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that can be used as waveshapers by
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Internal oo These are used internal
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Windows Pythag These are symmetric
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Variables By introducing variables,
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Playing a Lifted Sound Environments
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Comments Variables Binary messages
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Arithmetic Operations Besides the u
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Booleans Alternatively, you can pla
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Conditionals i := 0. [i 1 s) varIf
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Scripting MIDI Scripts There are tw
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Sequences and Mixes An EventSequenc
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MIDIFileInterpreter Events With a M
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Variables could be rewritten as a l
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As a final illustration, let’s ta
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If you click OK, the program will p
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The next example is called Serial E
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The Class Editor In the course of d
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its range of legal values, its defa
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Organizing the New Classes To keep
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midiFileName any legal MIDI file na
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snd duration: (1.0 / snd frequency
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Suppose you had a ParameterTransfor
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Background Materials Reference Book
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Conferences Journals Magazines IEEE
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