Kyma Sound Design Playground

Kyma is an incredibly flexible and powerful sound design environment being used in music and post-production studios, research labs, art installations, game developers' studios, educational institutions, home studios, and live performances. A sound library with over 1000 pre-packaged examples means you can start creating amazing sounds straight out of the box. Extensive documentation, online knowledge bases and free email/phone support ensure that you'll be able to take Kyma anywhere your imagination inspires you to go! Read more...

Visit the new website kyma.symbolicsound.com

Kyma International Sound Symposium

The annual Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS) includes papers, workshops, demos, and live performances presented by Kyma practitioners along with master classes presented by the creators of Kyma, all tied together by a unifying theme.

Anyone who is obsessed with sound — whether a novice looking to kickstart his or her career, an expert seeking fresh inspiration, or someone who’s simply curious about sound design or Kyma — is invited to immerse themselves in sound and ideas for four intense and inspiring days and nights filled with sound, ideas, workshops, discussions, live performances, and several special events. Read more...

---

• Kyma featured in Post magazine's "Audio Innovations"

• Kyma Control for iPad

• Pacarana: A Supercomputer for Sound

• Sound Clips & Videos

• Morphing & Resynthesis Algorithms in Kyma X.82

---

The unique thing about Kyma, I find, is that it appeals to such a wide spectrum of people doing such an amazingly diverse set of things, but sharing a common language.

— Dustin Camilleri, Chicago-based sound designer and re-recording mixer

The wonderful thing about working with Kyma is that, like any good art form, the more you do it, the more ideas it generates.

—Hamilton Sterling, sound editor, Master and Commander

Kyma is my computer system... you can basically program it to do whatever you want.

—John Paul Jones, composer, performer, producer

Pour un compositeur, c’est comme être Dieu.

—Véronique Robert, "Des inventions qui vont changer nos vies", L'actualité, Montreal

This hardware-meets-software audio construction kit is, quite simply, the Holy Grail of sound design.

—Future Music

...the principle synthesizer I use is called the Kyma... I found ways of using it to specifically do WALL-E and EVE’S voices...

—Ben Burtt, sound designer, Wall-e

The secret of Minibus Pimps’ colossal sonic gas giants is their use of the Kyma computer system (created by Symbolic Sound). Instruments such as guitar, bass and violin are fed into the system and radically transformed by self-designed digital instruments and processors until their sources are barely recognisable.

— Luis Fernandez review of John Paul Jones & Helge Sten's album Cloud to Ground

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

—Audio Media

...some may call it a sound supercomputer or a sound designer’s dream come true…The hardware component, called the Pacarana, combined with the powerful software makes Kyma a truly innovative approach to sound.

—Ron DiCesare, Post Magazine

It's unbelievably deep... and it sounds incredible.

—Rich Costey, producer, engineer, mixer

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, Finding Nemo

Kyma X is a perfect example of how hardware-accelerated tools can still beat software by a wide margin. There is no software or bundle of soft tools that can come close to the power, expandability, and flexibility that Kyma offers.

—Electronic Musician

Latest News