The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

Tutorials
Learn Kyma in 24 Hours!
♦ One month, one hour per day, taking every 7th day off or
♦ Two hours a day for two 6-day weeks or
♦ Four hours a day for six days or
♦ In 24 hours straight! (not recommended)
Part I: A Tour through the Examples
Building your own Sound library
The Itinerary
One of the best ways of learning how to design your own Sounds in Kyma is to start by examining and
modifying the Sounds that other people have made. Whenever you make a modification that sounds interesting,
you can rename the Sound, add a short annotation to it (so that later you remember what it
does), and save it in a new Sound file. This is a great way to start gradually building up your own customized
Sound library that you will be able to draw upon in the heat of creative passion. Once you
become familiar with the examples that came with Kyma and have extended that set with your own examples,
it will be a rare situation in which you would not be able to recall a Sound that is close to what
you need and begin modifying that (rather than having to start from scratch each time).
This “tour” through the examples is a tutorial is intended to give you an overall sense for what kinds of
things are possible in Kyma and to help you get started building your own Sound library. We’ll do this
by looking at each of the example Sound files, getting an idea of what kinds of Sounds it contains, dissecting
some of the Sounds from that file in detail, and experimenting with modifying parameters of
some Sounds to get a feel for which parameters have what effects.
By the way, this tutorial is not intended as an introduction to sound synthesis, just an introduction to the
example Sound library in Kyma. If you find that you need an introduction to sound synthesis, we suggest
that you check the local library or bookstore for a copy of one of the books listed in the Background Materials
Appendix, call Symbolic Sound to find out about attending one of the intensive Kyma Immersion
weekends, and/or check to see whether an educational institution near you might offer an introductory
course on electronic or computer music (you may even be reading this book as part of a course right
now).
In general though, you should continue to plunge forward through this tutorial even if you happen to
encounter a few terms or concepts along the way that are not completely familiar. Most of the concepts
and terminology will become clear once you start listening and experimenting, and any remaining questions
can be easily cleared up by a text book or a course. And if you do take a course, the intuitive
understanding that you will have acquired by working with these concepts in Kyma will put you far
ahead of all of your classmates (so please be kind to them and don’t gloat too much when you discover
how much better you understand everything).
Keyboard
MIDI Faders
Synthesizer
MIDI
Computer
Capybara
audio
Pre-amp
Amplifier