I was just fantasizing and wishing of a Octatrack with class-compliant USB audio/midi connectivity. But in a way that each of the 8 tracks have a individual digital I/O that you could route real time with the Pacamara so that we have Kyma in Elektron style and to have Kyma Neighbour Machine’s on the Octatrack. That will be freaking amazing!
1 Like
There’s definite dips or some kind stutter. It’s not YouTube cuz it happens in the same spots every time. I can’t listen to the track, those dips really get to me. but the good bits are nice.
Perhaps it’s part of the track? I dunno. I’ll try to illustrate what I’m talking about somehow
Ya it’s everywhere in the track
right at 1 sec in this snippet…all over the place it dips in a weird spots.
I can map out all the dips if you want
just trying to access if its because he/shes taxing the box, or just bad upload compression…or whatever that could be.
The Pacarana has build-in 3.5 mm audio Built-in 3.5 mm Audio – kyma
That’s a interesting aspect! Seems logical it will be for realtime audio. But on most Apple devices there is no 3.5 mm audio anymore. Let’s hope for Kyma on iOS 
Just daydreaming here 
1 Like
I’m not hearing that in the original. Are you routing your PC through a compressor that you left on per chance? Maybe try from a different device and see if it’s still there?
nope
comp to sound card nothing else. thought it might be YouTube issues, but that would happen intermittently, this in the exact same spots. even after restart.
Cristian Vogel is another great electronic music artist using Kyma regularly on his work, although mixed with modular, etc AFAIK. Check him out:
2 Likes
He also makes some of the best 3rd-party Kyma tools available. 
1 Like
heyhey! anyone got one of these newer units? how are they, happy with your purchase?
I’m really keen to buy one of these new Kymas, never had one before though, but I like what I’ve been hearing people make with it and that its an object based language that supposedly doesn’t have a huge entry barrier (i know some reaktor/max though)
is there any way to get one of these in EU? Im afraid the customs might be massive when ordering from the US
1 Like
I can’t answer the customs query (perhaps an email to Symbolic Sound might provide some idea). However, I have nothing but praise for the Pacamara Ristretto Pro (as I have for each entry in the Kyma hardware line). I prefer this one to the Pacarana, as I never felt the touch screen was necessary, despite being occasionally convenient. I like the smaller form factor and the fact that it’s quieter. There’s a significant performance boost over the previous model, but I almost never hit the wall with the Pacarana, so I’ve yet to really feel its benefits.
There’s not actually much to tell about it. It’s Kyma. It does what it’s supposed to do, just as each previous version has done. I’ve had no issues in the time I’ve had it, but it should be noted that I purchased the Pacamara right before buying a house and spent a full year getting the new studio together, so have only had a short amount of studio time with the Pacamara. Were I to have an issue, I’ve no doubt Symbolic Sound would straighten it out in a hurry. Their support has always been exemplary.
1 Like
thanks for that comprehensive reply, that does sound nice. Good to hear you’ve had a good experience. I also like, at least from pics, that it’s a smaller form factor, not sure which models i have seen before but I spotted some in studios over the last 10 years and they seemed a bit more chunky.
In general a question about Kyma, obviously you’re going to have to learn a bunch of things, but would you say the entry barrier is high/is the software somewhat intuitive?
1 Like
That depends entirely on your experience working with graphical programming languages (i.e. Max, Pure Data, etc) and what you want to get out of it. At its most basic level, you can open up pre-fab effects, sound generators, and audio manipulators and use them with very little fuss. A next step would involve learning how things are patched and arranged (easy stuff) and swapping out or adding your own elements (for instance, maybe you want to add a modulation source or effects process). This is achieved by adding a “prototype” (i.e. module), and patching it to its destination via virtual cables. Easy enough.
The next step might be to change existing parameter values within a prototype, or adding new ones. Maybe you want to control them with a virtual slider or knob - this is as easy as typing in the name of the slider preceded by an exclamation point (i.e. “!Pitch”). This will be reflected in the Sound’s “Virtual Control Surface”, which itself can be edited and arranged.
You could probably spend a lifetime making music without exhausting the possibilities in what I’ve already described, but you can take it deeper by learning to use expressions in the Prototypes or even coding your own Prototypes.
It’s as deep as you need it to be, but it’s super powerful at every level. It’s not exactly easy - there is an infinite learning curve (but one that inspires music along the way). I’ve only described the technique for basic patching above - there are lots of other things you can do without ever getting too deeply into patching. For example, you can select an audio file and tell Kyma to generate a bunch of tools based on user-specified criteria. This is great fun. There is a grid matrix within which multiple processes can be arranged and run in various combination (Kyma can fill that grid with generated processes as well). There is a sort of multitrack Timeline wherein you can schedule multiple processes to occur in a given order - kind of like the arranger page in a DAW - except that it’s for arranging DSP processes rather than audio or MIDI clips.
There’s a standalone audio file editor, batch conversion, various resynthesis functions, analyzers and more. All of these are, erm, “less than beautiful” to look at, but are flexible and easy to use. Some processes have instructional guides to help you through the process, and there is loads of information available within the Prototypes to explain how the parameters work.
As I’ve said earlier in the thread, I am by no means an expert on Kyma. I would, after 20+ years, consider myself a neophyte user (primarily hobbled by poor math skills and a lack of programming knowledge). Nevertheless, I never run out of ideas when using Kyma, and I can usually manage to execute those ideas without consulting the Kyma Q+A forum.
It’s not for everybody. I think, though, even a cursory perusal through some of the tutorial videos available will provide enough of an idea of whether you’ll be comfortable with the interface.
5 Likes
Slightly baked right now but those were exactly my thoughts as well.