Glossary
138
Kyra Manual
Cent
A very fine pitch interval representing 100th of a semitone.
A cent is the finest interval Kyra can tune its oscillators to
and is generally regarded as being finer than a human can
discern.
Channel Pressure
Also referred to as Aftertouch. Channel pressure is a MIDI
feature to allow MIDI keyboards to respond to pressure.
Unlike Polyphonic Pressure, the pressure is per channel
rather than per note. Most MIDI keyboards can generate
channel pressure information. Kyra can receive channel
pressure information and routes it into the Mod Matrix
where it can be used to modulate any destination. Channel
pressure can also be added in most DAWs.
Chorus
A modulated delay-based effect that gives the impression
multiple instruments are playing at once. When used in
moderation, it can give an otherwise flat sound a wonder-
ful, airy feel. The Chorus/Flanger module on each Part can
be configured to provide this.
Clipping
A type of distortion that occurs when a signal reaches its
maximum excursion and is hard limited (clipped). The
result is an unpleasant clicking, buzzing or cracking sound.
Clipping is rare but possible on Kyra. Typically, it can only
occur if excessively loud Parts are mixed together onto the
same analogue output.
Coarse Tune
The ability to tune an oscillator over a wide range, typical-
ly at least one octave. Kyra offers coarse tuning in semito-
ne steps (in addition to detuning in sub-cent steps) up to
two octaves above and below the root note.
Contention
Contention is the situation that occurs when there are
shared resources in a system and a request is made that
exceeds the availability of those resources. Different sys-
tems handle this in different ways but in many synthesi-
zers, it manifests itself as loss of polyphony or gaps in
sounds. Kyra was designed to be completely contention
free as all sound generation is done by dedicated hardware
rather than best-effort software running on a generic pro-
cessor. As a result, Kyra has no contention and the system
will operate 100% accurately right up until it reaches its
maximum capacity of 128 notes (or 32 notes in each Part).
At that point, further notes will either displace older notes
(Part) or not play at all (128 notes reached).
Summary of Contents for KYRA
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