Sarth Calhoun

Devices / Kyma

Device · Machine

Symbolic Sound Kyma

A graphical sound-design environment and the Paca, the orange box that computes it. Under Metal Machine Trio, the Reed tours, Lulu, Lucibel Crater and The Book of Sarth.

Kyma is a graphical sound-design environment. The Paca is dedicated DSP hardware, a small orange box, rack-mountable, not a plugin inside a laptop; the Pacarana is its larger sibling. Maker: Symbolic Sound Corporation, Carla Scaletti and Kurt Hebel, Champaign, Illinois. kyma.symbolicsound.com

I beta-tested Kyma and am credited on the Kyma X startup screen. Lucibel Crater ran its processing through it. Metal Machine Trio: live Kyma processing of the band. The 2011 Lou Reed European tour: multiple rack-mounted Pacas. Lulu at the Berliner Ensemble: Kyma processing and Continuum/Kyma playing. The Book of Sarth score is Kyma-drenched. I built SeqOSC in it, a new kind of synthesis, a relative of AM synthesis derived from exploring the analogies between rhythm and timbre. Junior Dad: Rob Wasserman’s electric upright through Kyma, first session at Lou’s apartment.

Symbolic Sound’s postsLou Reed’s Euro tour, July 2011: the rack of Pacas. Walking the road that only you can see, October 2012: one take, Continuum and Kyma. The Book of Sarth, November 2012.

The creditSarth Calhoun and Kyma: beta tester, credited on the Kyma X startup screen; live Kyma processing in Metal Machine Trio, on Lou Reed’s 2008 to 2012 tours with rack-mounted Pacas, on Lulu at the Berliner Ensemble and across The Book of Sarth; SeqOSC, his synthesis, built in Kyma; Rob Wasserman’s bass through Kyma on “Junior Dad.”

Conspiracies

Kyma is under Lucibel Crater, Metal Machine Trio, Lou Reed’s song band, Yellow Pony, Lulu, Junior Dad, The Book of Sarth and Introspections. The Continuum usually drove it. The people who make it are Carla Scaletti and Kurt Hebel.

My thoughts

The entry is the one that stood on the Devices page, with Symbolic Sound’s posts linked. The Lucibel Crater looping was in Ableton Live, as I said on September 26, 2026; Kyma did the processing.