jdg wrote:
i've never seen kyma b4, although it looks kinda kool. you can do some really cool realtime stuff with reaktor also.. too bad its not that stable on mac.
I owned a Kyma, and I use Max/MSP, as do a few
others here at Ableton. The Kyma is capable of
making some very interesting sounds more or
less out of the box. The model is more like Reaktor
than Max/MSP, in the sense that each module (it is a
modular processing and synthesis environment)
does quite a lot, whereas a typical Max/MSP object
might be an oscillator, multiplier, or what have you,
hence performs a job which is small in scope.
Kyma is very deep, in that there is a programming
language which underlies it, based on smalltalk,
but (as you might expect) a rather steep learning
curve is involved in implementing your own
objects. It was my impression with Kyma 5.0 that
the set of preset objects was not, unlike Max/MSP,
sufficient to put together an arbitrary process from
your head out of, although one can certainly
assemble interesting and unusual sounds with
it, as evidenced by its use in special FX for film
(recent episodes of Star Wars..) The net effect
is that one has the impression of a great deal
of depth in its design, while in practice, unless one
is willing to invest a great deal of work in learning
the system, one ends up using the collection
of preset modules. Courses in using the Kyma
are offered by symbolicsound, however.
A big advantage of Kyma is that the processing
is hardware based, and scaleable (one can buy
additional processors). However this is rather
expensive. Also, because of the size, you
might find the Capybara is cumbersome for
live use.
Supercollider is software for the macintosh which
is similar in some respects (smalltalk like programming
interface). It is quite sophisticated, and it is very much
a programming language. Supercollider is free, and
was written by James McCartney, who now works for Apple.
Recent versions of Kyma incorporate a sequencing
model, and I think one configuration is oriented
toward sample playback. However it did not seem
to be to be comparable to Live when I last looked
at it.
One should also mention Pd, the free, open source
version of Max/MSP, by Miller Puckett.
You can find more information at these websites:
Kyma --
http://www.symbolicsound.com
Supercollider --
http://www.audiosynth.com
Max/MSP --
http://www.cycling74.com
Reaktor --
http://www.nativeinstruments.de
Pd --
http://www.pure-data.org
and of course us ;)
Live --
http://www.ableton.com
Cheers,
Yon
[email protected]