1) learning curve?
steep to some degree.....i worked for years with most synthesis methods and this tested me .
2) programming interface?
questionable , it becomes novel after first becoming irritating - its ok but needs to be updated from 1984 to 2009 as it feels like its just past dos some days
3) sound quality
the old capabara was stunning due to i would imagine very expensive ad/da's.....the sound on the capybara is very rich - the new pacarana loses this and its now down to the interface you use i think ?mybe not....... kyma does have its own unique flavour and it is lovely and organic at times.
4) versatility
well first - forget doing nord modular style or generic modular synth work , that would be like painting your house with an airbrush , its a weird one - great sfx creator , sample processor , nice novel unique fx - its forte is granulation , spectral work , vocoding and realtime ( its trick ) convolution and cross synthesis......its pretty unbeatable for that stuff on a good day but from personal experience it takes ALOT of hard work to get amazing results and alot if study and its not immediate . . .in fact somedays its like reaktor can blows kyma away and you think why the hell did i pay that much ......kyma remains unique though and magic but you know its a what you give is what you get machine - its a famous system for people buying expecting miracles and stuff over night and that doesnt happen - people often then sell these later due to the learning curve and the reality which is that many cant master it ......
5) company updates and progress (seems kyma website hasn't been updated since 2006?)
good...........you can bet at some point kyma ae going to step fully into 2010 and set a new bench mark , they have been caught up a bit and alot of what kyma does can be done on a pc or mac now for much less to some degree with hard work but it remains unique
6) why is kyma so expensive and what do you get for that $$[/quote]
well personally i do think its a bit of an elite club..years back the stuff it did made it worth that but as people have got smart with native stuff its lost its edge i a little, i actually think its well overpriced right now for many but for pros its not......its a luxury item and the kyma people i feel never wanted the mass market and also their power is in this high end/price system and maintaining that aura which it does due to its feel an work flow - the slight arcane user interface does sometimes make you feel your splitting atoms in a lab as opposed to painting candy bars reaktor style .....my feeling is its worth every penny if your on the right wavelength but if your on budgets it is a questionable buy , from my experince and knowing other users i can say initial feelings a buyer often has are much less than their expectations......there is some hype around kyma but then with time and work it can do stunning stuff and live up to this ......if only kyma used a logical gui and was more accessible..
dont get me wrong i love it but tread carefully if considering one.....it isnt going to blow you away over night but remains unique and magical esoteric and on good day great fun......i just hope theu update the gui and create some easier user building blocks so you can quickly access it .It can be tedious but remains space age .The company and people at ssc are without a doubt some of the best people i dealt with and on the artists wavelength , creative and inventors so immediately its cool.....
best advice is try before you buy ....seriously ....unless your flush and then just go for it.