USER MANUAL Table Of Contents Table Of Contents Foreword ........................................................................... 3 Parts and Multis ............................................................. 78 Control Features & Connections ..................................... 6 System Configuration .................................................... 85 Front Panel ............................................................................................... 6 Kyra Sound Programming ........................................... 95 Rear Panel Connections ...................................................................... 7 Troubleshooting ........................................................... 125 Specifications .................................................................... 8 Kyra USB Interface ...................................................... 130 Introduction ..................................................................... 10 Kyra Firmware Update ................................................ 130 Setup and Connections .................................................. 13 Technical Data .............................................................. 135 System Overview ............................................................ 18 Glossary ........................................................................ 136 Basic Controls ................................................................. 20 Product Support ........................................................... 154 The Control Panel Sections ........................................... 29 MIDI Implementation Chart ........................................ 155 Oscillator Groups ................................................................................. 33 Sub Oscillator 1 & 2 Controls ......................................................... 39 Filter Controls ....................................................................................... 45 Envelope Generator Controls ......................................................... 49 Amplifier Controls .............................................................................. 53 LFO Controls .......................................................................................... 54 Mod Matrix Controls .......................................................................... 57 Effects Controls .................................................................................... 61 Arpeggiator Controls ......................................................................... 61 2 Kyra Manual Foreword compose for all 8 Parts making Kyra a true composer’s Foreword workstation. Ultra-fast MIDI processing ensures timing remains tight even with dense multi-part compositions. Thank you for purchasing the Waldorf Kyra. You are the owner of one of the most powerful music synthesizers ever Kyra is a true hardware synthesizer. It is not a software built. We designed Kyra as a tool to craft with, it is highly application running on generic DSP (digital signal proces- capable instrument ready and waiting for you to experi- sor) devices but a complete custom-designed FPGA hard- ment and create new sounds. Kyra comes with over a ware engine built specifically for sound synthesis. thousand factory sounds that are ready to use in your productions and performances as well as to provide a What to read? great template for your own sound creations. The factory sounds are just the starting point that merely scratch the The biggest problem with any manual is to find a way to surface of what the instrument is capable of. Dive in and address the needs of absolute beginners and experts alike. experiment, your efforts will be rewarded with new and Some people read a manual cover to cover while others exciting sounds, many of which would be very difficult to don’t even touch it. Opting for the latter is a poor choice, create on other instruments. Kyra can cover a very wide especially when the manual describes a Waldorf instru- range of sounds from acoustic and electric pianos, lush ment! pads and strings as well as a wide range of synthetic sounds. Anyone reading the following manual is in for a lot of fun while learning about and working with the Waldorf Kyra. Kyra is perfect for both performance and studio work. For live performance, Kyra's superior capabilities, reliability, Your Waldorf Team. interactivity and fast response make it eminently preferab- le to software synthesizers. For studio musicians, Kyra offers 8 fully functional and independent multitimbral Parts with the horsepower to back it up relieving your DAW of fickle CPU-intensive plugins. With a generous and transparent voice allocation algorithm it is realistic to 3 Waldorf Kyra Foreword Notice Waldorf Music is not liable for any erroneous information contained in this manual. The contents of this manual may be updated at any time without prior notice and firmware updates may add, remove or change features. We made every effort to ensure the information herein is accurate and that the manual contains no contradictory informati- on. Waldorf Music extends no liabilities regarding this manual other than those required by local law. This manual or any portion of it may not be reproduced in any form without the manufacturer's written consent. Please note that all elements of Kyra, its software, user interface design, synthesis, filtering and effects algorithms are proprietary © 2019 Waldorf Music GmbH. Waldorf Music GmbH, Lilienthalstraße 7, 53424 Remagen, Germany. 4 Kyra Manual Foreword Kyra Development Team We would like to thank Software + FPGA: Manuel Caballero Thomas Brenner, Karsten Dubsch, Willie Eckl, Joachim Flor, Roger Keller, Jonathan Miller, Pierre Nozet, Miroslav Hardware/Housing: Manuel Caballero, Frank Pindus, Oliver Rockstedt, Vladimir Salnikov, Winfried Schneider Schuld, Lukas Schütte, Michael von Garnier, Kurt ‘Lu’ Design: Axel Hartmann Wangard, Rolf Wöhrmann, Haibin Wu and anyone we have forgotten. Manual: Manuel Caballero, Holger Steinbrink Kyra's wavetables comprise almost the entire set of wave- tables from the AKWF Waveforms set, kindly placed into Sounddesign: Manuel Caballero, Jürgen the public domain by Kristoffer Ekstrand / Adventure Kid. Driessen, Siggi Müller, Luke The entire AKWF sample set can be downloaded from Terry https://www.adventurekid.se Revision: 1.0, August 2019 5 Waldorf Kyra Control Features & Connections Control Features & Connections Front Panel 1) OLED Display 4) Oscillator Groups 7) LFO Section 10) Modulation Matrix 2) Patch/Multi Navigation 5) Filters Section 8) Arpeggiator Section 3) Transpose & Power 6) Envelopes Section 9) Effects Section 6 Kyra Manual Control Features & Connections Rear Panel Connections 1) Power Supply Jack 2) Headphones Output 3) Audio Line Outputs A-D 4) MIDI Thru, MIDI Out, MIDI In 5) USB 2.0 Connection 6) Kensington® Compatible Lock Recepticle 7 Waldorf Kyra Specifications • Microtuning: Full key microtuning capability Specifications with MIDI Tuning Standard (MTS) support. • Processing: 32x oversampled 32-bit hardware • Oscillators: Two primary virtually alias-free Os- sound generation. 96kHz floating point sound cillator Groups per voice each with sawtooth, processing. pulse, wavetable and noise available simultane- ously. Each Oscillator Group also has an indepen- • Line outputs: 4 balanced stereo pairs using 32- bit DAC running at 96kHz sample rate. dent detunable oscillator with four selectable shapes and two selectable pitches. Real Hard • USB audio: USB Audio Class 2.0 - 8 stereo 24-bit Sync, Ring Modulation and FM (frequency modu- streams at 96kHz with 48kHz downsample mode lation) is available between the Oscillator Groups. available. Soundcard mode supporting the return of a single 24-bit stereo audio stream from host • Hypersaw: Six real oscillator hypersaw with ad- DAW. justable geometric detuning and intensity algo- rithm. In Dual Mode, the hypersaw has twelve re- • MIDI: USB 2.0 and DIN (5-pin DIN connector) al oscillator sources with an additional adjustable • Display: High resolution 256x64 pixel graphic stereo spread. OLED • WavetaBles: 4096 18-bit linear PCM single-cycle • Polyphony: Guaranteed contention-free 128 32x oversampled wavetables covering a huge voice channels. A Dual Mode or Dual Filter Patch range of synthetic and emulated sound sources. uses two voice channels per note played. Up to 32 Two independent wavetable sources per voice. notes (single or dual) per multitimbral part. Hard sync, Ring Modulation and FM is possible on wavetables. Actual wave shape is shown in the • MultitimBrality: 8 independent Parts each with wavetable navigator. dedicated 9 module multi effects with dedicated audio stream via USB. Each Part can be mixed to • Filters: Accurate emulations of classic analogue one of the four analogue stereo line outputs. ladder filters with low pass, band pass and high pass configurations. 2-pole (12dB/octave) and 4- pole (24dB/octave) responses are available for 8 Kyra Manual Specifications all three filter types. 128 Filters configurable for • Patch storage: 3,328 in total all of which are u- single or dual parallel (true stereo) operation. ser programmable. Any Patch can be recalled via MIDI program changes and bank select com- • Envelope Generators: Three fast-response ADSR envelope generators with slope setting. mands. One is assigned to the VCA, another to the filter • Support software: Windows driver, Kyra Firm- and the third can be freely assigned. All are ware Manager for Windows and macOS available in the Mod Matrix.