Kyra Sound Programming
102
Kyra Manual
generator or LFO). When this is done, rather than hearing
a pitch change, you will hear a timbre change and when set
correctly, the sound can be very rich and animated. Check
out 'The Imperator Piano' preset. The rich, evolving timbre
variation during the decay period of the piano is achieved
using a dynamic hard sync of wavetables. It would not be
possible to achieve that effect using a filter as filters only
remove harmonics - Hard Sync is creating new and shifting
harmonics as the note evolves. It is most useful for creating
intense, evolving, tonally pure sounds but also great for
techno basses with that signature sync sound. Hard Sync
can add evolving tonal variation and grain index-like
effects to otherwise flat wavetable sounds with very little
programming effort. Also, check out the preset 'The Syn-
chrotron' where extreme Hard Sync is used with velocity
mapping to achieve a very distinctive techno effect.
In summary, be sure to make good use of Hard Sync. Note
that at least one sound source in Oscillator Group 2 must
be audible for hard sync to have any effect. You can use
hard sync on the basic virtual analogue sounds (pulse,
sawtooth) but it is by far most effective for use on wave-
table sources. Hard Sync is not available in Hypersaw
Mode and has no effect on the Aux and Sub Oscillators.
g
Avoid using Hard Sync with FM, they are contradic-
tory and the result is rarely musical.
Wave Mode Frequency Modulation
Frequency Modulation (referred to as 'FM') is a technique
to make one oscillator (the modulator) to modulate the
frequency of another (the carrier). Just as you can use an
LFO to modulate the pitch of an oscillator, FM is the same
as that just at audio frequencies.
FM traditionally has a characteristic metallic bell-like
sound but as with hard sync, think of it as having more
applications than that. Compared to Hard Sync, FM takes
more time to achieve useful sounds but like Hard Sync, it
can achieve sounds that are very difficult to achieve in
other ways.
g
You’ll need to experiment much more to get useful
sounds with FM. It’s worth the effort though.
On Kyra, FM operates by using the wavetable output of
Oscillator Group 2 to modulate the frequency of Oscillator
Group 1. As with hard sync, noise the sub oscillators are
not affected and can be used independently as before. As
Oscillator Group 1 is the destination of FM, at least one
sound source (saw, pulse or wavetable) in Oscillator Group
1 must be present for FM to be heard.
The idea behind FM is that the frequency ratio between the
two oscillators, as well as the shape and degree (intensity)
Summary of Contents for KYRA
Page 1: ...USER MANUAL ...
