I’ve owned and used Kyma. It’s OK, but hopelessly outdated. The software and documentation have scarcely been updated in twenty years. I didn’t sell my Capybara, which required ridiculous amounts of expansion cards to do anything remotely sophisticated in real time. I threw it away.

Since we’ve established that I could afford it, and have owned it, the next line of fanboy argument will be that I did not understand the system. In fact, I did, but Reaktor, CDP, and various granulation tools were so much quicker, easier and more intuitive tools to use that Kyma sat gathering dust. I predicted a long time ago that once CPUs reached a sufficient stage of native processing power, Kyma would be left behind. It has. The best thing about it is that it is an all-in-one box, and now, at least it doesn’t require several thousand dollars’ worth of additional expansion cards to do something in real time (I presume).

I have met Kurt and Carla. They are very nice and knowledgeable people. But at present they own the equivalent of an Edsel factory.

Now, let the crybaby ad hominems of all the fans who claim to be “out” begin!

Also works well on my win 10 – amd ryzen pc

Ugh. I’m really bored John. This is boring. I really am out now. Good luck to you.

Yes, and I admit that Komplete hasn’t been a great investment for me. It is software, however. Assuming that everything remains as it was in the past, I should be able to update to the Standard version of Komplete for about the same as, or less than, the purchase of Kontakt 7, alone. That doesn’t make me an NI fan, or even an advocate of their products. Now, if NI was charging me an additional $250 for a “hardware upgrade” every time I upgraded Komplete (that is in Kyma equivalent hardware update cycles figuring a 10 year cycle), I would have stopped doing it a long time ago, Kontakt or not. Also, since Kyma won’t run on anything other than the platform designed for it, how sure are you that all of that DSP you are paying for is even up to snuff in comparison to modern microprocessor-based systems?

As opposed to what, writing something that does not represent my views just to deceive you? Right! If you’ve run out of things to say it’s better to stop. 😉 Now excuse me while I go happily make some music with Kyma!

“ Since v10, I’ve updated to Ultimate each time, just to get everything on a disk. By the time I actually purchased v13, there were so many “updates” that I forced to download more than 50% of the package, anyway. I really don’t need any more crap expansion packages, and some of the stuff (e.g., Lores) that I would have purchased it to receive, I already have. So, I guess Kontakt 7 is really the only reason to do this, but I’ll buy the “upgrade to Standard” option when I do.” (John Rossi, in relation to Native Instruments Komplete 14).

Definitely not a hypocrite. Definitely a master of a ‘good deal’ and not being taken for a ride by software developers and forced to update.
Good luck selling your Komplete 36 license in years to come, great investment I’m sure.
Thanks John, you’ve made my day. Only getting the ‘standard’ upgrade will really stick it to the man. I hope NI survive.

The sad thing is that you probably really believe what you just wrote.

The Pacarana in 2010 was $4402 (5.9k in 2022 money). The new box is $3.8k.

SSC have reduced costs, increased DSP power and massively improved connectivity at a period where almost every manufacturer has massively increased costs.

Unlike software Kyma systems also retain a good value on second hand market.

I’d love bigger DSP but you know what…I think it’s pretty unlikely I’ll be over extending the Pacamara anytime soon (especially given it’s devoted solely to audio).

Maybe it’s still too expensive for you and that’s fine (you’re happy with limited VST plugins after all).

Seriously, get a life and let the serious people work with whatever professional tools they like, while you keep whining about how it’s all a ripoff and a scam just because you don’t like it, don’t understand it, and can’t demo it. I have used Kyma for over 20 years and love it, and will continue to use it. Additionally, Kurt and Carla (Symbolic Sound) are two of the most brilliant and kindest people that I know. I’m done wasting my time trying to explain all of this to people who just hate it because it doesn’t fit their needs or ideas. But Kyma will still be here and will continue to grow, as it has all these years while people kept betting against it. And I can only be happy that you are NOT part of the Kyma community! I’m out. Cheers!

Like I explained… it’s overpriced by their own standards.
I agree that it’s a great workflow improvement! I whish my Pacarana had this! But 4k for USB ports and a lift-up is a bit much.
All I’m saying is I see this as a missed opportunity to rejuvenate a fading community and open Kyma up to more users through a lower asking price since this time the hardware upgrade, again, is minimal compared to the capy/paca jump.
That’s what’s wrong with being overpriced.

I see. Now you make it sound like the ultimate masturbation tool. Yea, that’s the ticket!

So what if it is overpriced? And compared to what ? A box of dsp’s? There is nothing out there similar. I mentioned it earlier, the processing power boost is small, but from a workflow stand, this is close to what pretty much every user ever wanted. And ok, it is niche, and it targets previous users. What’s wrong with that?
They wont become the next Native instruments?

That is the case with most boutique hardware synths as well, and there is no way around that. It’s not like they can send it to you to just demo it, right? However, they probably do have some options to return it for people who order and are not happy with it. But other than that, there are always ways to try it out through events and the community, for people that are seriously interested. But hey, if you don’t like this product and think it’s useless and overpriced, etc., I’ve got a simple solution: DON’T USE IT! End of the story. No need to convince people that it’s such a bad thing. And for me, and many of my colleagues and students, it has been a very valuable tool that we love, and I’m very happy about the new hardware, even if I may wait a little bit to upgrade (by the way, the software will continue to work perfectly fine with the old hardware). And yes, every 13 years or so there are new versions of the hardware, go figure eh? But I’ve had several laptops in the meantime, so I really don’t mind getting more power, a smaller sized device, and more connectivity options for whenever I choose to upgrade, not to mention dozens of free significant software updates along the way.

Ok time to chime in.
I had a Pacarana so I guess this qualifies me to talk about this right…!? The Pacamara IS overpriced in my opinion.

I can comfortably say that coming out with a new version 13 years after the previous with 2.5 times the processing power does not justify the price tag which is basically comparable to the Pacarana 13 years ago.

I’d recommend checking out some graphs of CPU performance improvements over the years…
Seems to me some people here are just too emotionally wrapped around this product to see the facts.

Enjoying something and deeming it worth the cost while still being able to be objective about it at the same time IS possible.