...with room between the knobs so you can just grab 'em and use 'em for live tweaking. That's something old analogue beasts still have as a UI advantage over modern stuff, which is built to be compact in detriment to usability.
It looks fine, actually much better layout than some. I care about sound quality, and functionality . . . couldn't care less about some sort of "fashion statement" with my synth instruments.
They could have at least hired ONE designer to avoid having a synth looking like a crossover between an excel sheet and a heart rate monitor .... sounds good though !
@* AnimalHeadSpirit * Agreed, I've not heard anything special so far. And it is a shame to have those high frequency oscillator but no crossmod/hardsync sounds in your face so far.
This sounds gorgeous, just had a kind thumbs up for my comment which spurred me to listen again one month later and yes I think it as a truly gorgeous sounding machine, I'd absolutely love to own one. Also a giant thank you for uploading such an excellent demo of the kyra
Waldorf seems to be the only company that still produces fully fledged VA style synths, which is great. I'm bewildered when I see synths being slimmed down while processing power today is far greater than in the 90's yet 90's VAs and wavetable synths far surpass any of the modern digital synths in features and many times also in sound.
I couldn't agree more. I can only guess that it's the tough competition of soft synths which makes the manufacturers so hesitant towards VA synths these days.
Jesus, Waldorf’s marketing is hilarious. Send Apollo 11 to the trade show, with a cropduster pilot to run it. It seems to sound pretty great, but man do they fail at everything other than the actual synths, whenever they’re actually going to be available. Behringer and Waldorf are the two endpoints of the marketing and product availability spectrum. I suppose Behringer teases pretty early, but man do they produce.
To me this is a nice introduction to the potential of this instrument. I can never judge a synth via a demo. I need to get my hands on it and spend time with it playing the parts I believe will sound best. I do love the filter. Do to downsizing over the last six or so years, I’ve purchased a Waldorf Pulse 2 and a Blofeld. I control and often mix the Blofeld with my Kawai K 5000W. I have the out board K 5000 Macro Control unit which gives me a K 5000S while maintaining the PCM samples of the K5000W. The Blofeld and Kawai blend exceptionally well together. The Pulse 2 has such a unique character to its sound and is one hell of a powerful synth. I love the damn thing. While both the Blofeld and especially the Pulse 2 can stand out in a mix, the P2 can literally “scream”, they also can blend very well in a mix. Not all synthesizers can do both. I hear the same unique character in the KYRA demo only on a more sophisticated level. The KYRA filter sounds just incredible to me! I’ve had most of the vintage synths since the mid ‘70’s, loved them all, but the Waldorf synths won me over due to the uniqueness of their sound and design. Just my opinion.
I agree with you that the P2 sounds good but I hated it's control matrix just not instinctive , will definitely be looking at the Kyra , the Blofeld had the same problem as the P2 so no go there.
@@6581punk You're right. I would say the same thing about the UB-xa Behringer is working on. Which I am excited about. But It'll be the same deal--negligible but valid synth architectural distinctions but, the sounds that come out--not so much--even if the method is uniquie. But this is why we love synths, right?
It sounds like a Waldorf for sure. I love the waldorfs. I own a pulse 2. I used to own 2 blofelds. Table top and keyboard. Love the sound but the BUGS forced me to sell both after a few gig issues. The pulse 2 is rock solid. So here’s kyra. I am gonna wait to read user reviews before I buy. If the Kyra is stable I will Definately own one!
It was a real pity they didn't have Manuel Caballero there to explain a bit more about the Waldorf relationship. And to explain if anything has changed since he explained the original Valkyrie design other than the external design. Would be nice to line him up for an interview/demo at Sonicstate's Soniclab perhaps Nick.
I liked the previous design way more (it looked like a Virus Ti), but that layout looks better for designing sounds. Can't wait to hear Ultimate X Sounds sound sets for that synth...
the blofeld desktop is a gorgeous design, this kyra not so much :( ...edit: I take it back, i'm very much in love with the design after bingeing on demos
Same for me. Pre-ordered a Summit in June, but since Novation apparently cannot deliver, I‘m thinking about getting the Kyra instead - and waiting until mid-2020 ... :-/
Everything is processed. Sounds great, but then again everything sounds great with more reverb. Probably just my ears, but all the sounds just blend together... I feel like I am scrolling down the synth sound list in Logic. 'HD' in search of..... Will look for a future version with more tweaking.
I agree. To my ears, it sounds just like the stock GarageBand synths from iLife '11, which I liked, but I was expecting this thing to sound amazing. It sounds cold and depressing, every patch samey-samey in tonality. Like you said, the sounds blend together, like they're all blurred out with no definition of layers. I liked what was going on with it when it was still Valkyrie. Waldorf will probably taint it with Waldorfness and also neuter it. There is no point in it being FPGA or a new alien technology if it's going to sound like a free VST synth. I am rooting for it, but so far, it sounds unremarkable to my ears; just a noise maker. God bless! EDIT: At least the screen so far seems to be the same as the Valkyrie's and has quick response, smooth animation and decent refresh rate.
@@Bfredproduction Definitely. I really hope this thing succeeds, because the idea behind it is good. Hopefully those six to twelve months pass by quickly, right? God bless!
It sounds like it needs to go through an Analog Heat or some other post-processor to make the sound warmer... like, it could maybe be improved a lot by the addition of an EQ function to increase bass. Even the bass patches sound weak in this demo.
I personally love the way it looks. It’s thoughtful design. Now the Quantum has a little brother with a cohesive look. The Valkyrie looked too much like a 2004 Acces virus. IMHO.
Very nicely done. A bit of a learning curve on using this? That's OK, great sound quality, and functionality. The price for one of these . . . well, not exactly its best feature, but the device itself is awesome.
I own a Waldorf pulse 2. Never parting with it. Sold my JDxA and Prologue 16 to buy the quantum. I can’t help feel I’ve got a Waldorf Thang. They have finally hit their long overdue stride! I am getting this synth. I was thinking about the ASM HydraSynth but I’ve got a quantum now so....might as well rename my studio Waldorfia
When Kyra still called herself Exodus Digital Valkyrie she claimed that due to FPGA she could easily transform to different synth engines. That was the most interesting part as far as I am concerned. Wonder what will happen with that? But no talking...
Been looking forward to this since the original Valykyrie pitch, and it's still very much on my radar, but I can't help but think that format is going to be awkward. Imagine it sat on a desk, how deep it is front to back, the screen would be in a really awkward position unless you were standing leaning over it... I reckon they've deliberately mounted it vertically like that at the show precisely for that reason
I'm interested, look forward to seeing more of this and what the price will finally be. Hopefully with better integration than my Virus TI, which can be a little temperamental at the best of times.
Sounds like its recorded with a 5 dollar mic on a 10 dollar speaker using a one dollar reverb. Please tell me this is not a direct out recording? The sound would cut through anything though.
Nice one Jim! First new demo that did this justice. Did anyone there know if they've thought about users that may want to put this in a rack? It looks like there's sort of a monitor VESA mount system going on there.. and the rear ports aren't recessed for some reason...
Hi. Waldorf kyra vs hydrasynth question: which is more versatile (putting effects aside)? Which sound more realistic? Which would you buy if you could have only one synth and nothing else? Thanks!
Yeah... I spent the whole video wondering where the bass is. Most of the patches sounded kinda the same, like synth strings with different envelope shapes... which is nice, but for something this fancy, I kind of expect it to be a little more versatile. I wonder if the person playing simply happened to pick a bunch of patches from a single section or something, grouped by similarity.
@@ToyKeeper I suspect this synth is not the one you are looking for. If you want rich sounds The FPGA based Novation Peak is what you want, I think they stretched the FPGA with so many voices making them sound thin. not only that but no analog filters like Peak.
I really, really like the Novation Peak. I'm hopeful that the Kyra could be used as sort of a multi-timbral Peak. But based on demos so far, I'm concerned that it might not have the ability to reach a lot of the more appealing regions of the Peak's sonic palette. It has the processing power to do so, but I'm not sure if the firmware has the relevant features to paint in those colors. So I'm very interested, but have not been able to form any solid conclusions yet because there isn't enough information available.
why? Krya is a 100% development of Exodus Digital that have nothing to do with Waldorf. Waldorf put the money in the final development (interface, distribution...) and rebrand it. The engine is a complete different one ;)
@@synthanatomy I didn't know that. I literally just heard about this thing for the first time, here. Did Waldorf outsource the Blofeld engine, as well?
@@swinehorde9118 Waldorf picked it up after 1 dude came out of the woodwork, he had been designing this in his free time over years, it was originally announced as "Valkyrie" last year at musikmesse. The blofeld engine is all Waldorf.
Totally like the look. The sound OTOH, i dunno at the moment it's lacking high freq spectra, and there's no bass. Count me not interested at this stage, since i have that bandlimited sound already in VSTi. But kudos to developer anyway. I am sure it will be a great synth once it gets polished!
This is not band-limited, though. Kyra runs on a FPGA chip and uses 128x oversampling on oscillators and filters. That's calculated in megahertz, not kiloherts. Suppose 44.1k is the sample rate it outputs, that's oversampling rate of 5.644 MHz...
Im inclined to agree, a lot of the patches are also super hissy sounding, some patches i heard on bonedo showcased some more va sounds which i thought were very good though.
It's likely the angle of the shot, but at first I thought it looked like a notebook with a hardware synth cover. The sides almost look like pages. For a moment I was thinking: well this is different.
@@bastiaanw3519 Sure does, for starters it has light-years better FX than Blofeld does, and unison sounds more massive too (I have a Blofeld, and Largo, and Microwave 1 and 2... I love me some Waldorf, but this has nothing to do with Blofeld soundwise - it is obviously inspired by Virus in almost every aspect).
Any difference with some top notch vst like omnisphere ? not to my ears. Please make some modern sounds out of this thing, because on the paper, it's an absolute saler. Is the Kyra oriented for pads ? I'd love to ear some crazy, drummy stuff.
I am struggling to remember if it has an FPGA at its core. Which is what the military uses for guidance missiles and defense. But this power seems to be unharnessed and misdirected. Hopefully some real programmers will get in there and do it some justice. Be curious to know which Waldorf engine is the most robust. Quantum or Kyra?
@@josephfelice601 this synthesizer does have an FPGA at its core. This should be the standard of digital synthesizers to come into the future. The processing power and routing of an FPGA blows what multiple DSP can do out of the water. It was developed and programmed by one man, he called it the Valkyrie. Waldorf made a deal with him to produce it at a larger scale and competitive price as the Kyra. Obviously Waldorf play a big part of the production of this instrument, although I am not sure about their role in this FPGA architecture.
I'm interested in any decent desktop synth module with a lot of polyphony and multitimbrality. Basically, something which can be used to play all the parts in a song simultaneously. But in this demo, most of the patches sounded pretty much the same, only with different envelope shapes and different lowpass levels. Based on what I heard here, it would not be a thing I got much use out of. But maybe this demo didn't show much of the instrument's range. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. IIRC, early Peak demos were pretty unimpressive, but after more people got a chance to try it, it turned out to be an incredibly versatile instrument with great sound. So for the moment, I'm still more interested in the Peak and also the Analog Four mkII. But other Kyra demos could change my mind.
Dear anyone testing a brand new innovative synth. We all know what a filter does. Every synth has one. It literally subtracts from what makes the instrument interesting. Forget the filter. Turn it off/open it up and leave it. And sack off the reverb whilst you are at it.
There's something about it... but then there is not. I don't know. For that kinda money the definition is too vague for me. It should grab me instantly and here was nothing of that. I guess because it is digital.
I dont get the point, why to buy THIS, instead of some Access Music Virus TI Synth, dont need both of them. Ya, sounds clear, polished ... i go most of the time with nowadays VST synths like Ominisphere2.6 or even old REAKTOR with RAZOR. Who on earth needs more sound, than this? And you can control each parameter of Ominisphere with your old Synthhardware - amazing idea. And everythin is fully integrated in DAW, perfect workflow, safe everything in a song, and no soundmanagement needed for X outboard synths. Hard times for Hardware Synth Industrie, hard to invent something really new. Really new. I only see old stuff repeating again and again and again.
Virtual Analog so fancy name for digital synth. But is it more powerful then Serum? Cause digital synths are basically a VST in a box with knobs. I do love knobs though lol
3.5K Aussie for this! Not floating my boat. Admittedly its sad that they haven't demonstrated the multi timbral capabilities which is what attracted me to this review, but I have to say it sounds soulless to me :(
They haven't, but I have demonstrated the Multitimbrality in this vid here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pTBtfYE1yzE.html 6 parts from Kyra in realtime.
U keep mistaking Vangelis for Hans Zimmer's Bladerunner 2049 trying to emulate Vangelis's style/sound So unless u go for a spinoff, i only pointed out the synth responsible for that typical bladerunner sound since '82
sonicstate Report it. It’s still happening I can’t get the subscribe to stay locked on for you guys. This is is about the fourteenth time. I am also noticing a I have lost a lot of people I was subbed to.
I'm hoping so. I could really use a desktop synth module with several simultaneous timbres, and this one has amazing specs. It just doesn't sound very good, at least in this demo. There's no bass, no warmth, and everything seemed too clean. So I'm hoping other demos will prove my first impressions wrong.
The Blofeld, at least, is known for its cold metallic sound. But I still like it. However, I'm still waiting to find out more detail about the Kyra, because I want to know how it compares to a Virus. And how its palette compares to a Novation Peak. The Kyra looks promising, but more info is needed.
its cool but sound very digital. I'm honest, this sounds like a VST. And no use for this old Thechnorave Sounds. Some are cool but not these in this Box. Shiity 2000 Trancesound. In my Opinion.
Specs are out-of-this-world: 128 note polyphonic/8 part mutitimbrality/10 osc per voice. Sounds are not incredible, though. I'm sort of underwhelmed by the sounds. Novation PEAK sounds better, imo. At least in the demos I've heard so far. Maybe that's the problem. They should quit screwing around and send one to this guy: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZTlJbTOkuHg.html Anything this guy demos, you want to get one. If anyone can do a killer demo of the Kyra, he can.
Exactly, on paper you would expect it to sound out of this world, but most of this demo it sounded very ordinary. I think its a case of uninspired patch programing.
