Waldorf Kyra 128 Voice FPGA Virtual Analogue Synthesizer

General

There are synthesizers and then there are synthesizers that have literally dropped out of a sound-designer's wet dream. While it may look like most desktop synths, the Waldorf Kyra is born to battle with the virtual world. Beneath the porcelain and wood housing, this analogue champion has breathtaking polyphony and multi-timbre sound via 128 voices with multiple oscillators per voice, 8 parts and 9 simultaneous effects per part.

The Features of the Waldorf Kyra

Besides classics like sawtooth and pulse waveforms, the Kyra also offers wavetables. Ok, this is not particularly unique but the difference here is the volume: 4096 short, cyclical waveforms for producing not just a sea, but oceans of sound. Add this to the hardsync and FM and the number of potential sounds multiplies to make an unimaginable number even before you add the filters, three envelopes and three LFOs. And, while most synths would generously offer maybe one bank of 128 slots to save user presets, the Kyra sardonically laughs in their faces by giving you 26 preset banks, each with 128 slots to save user presets, giving you a total of 3328 directly accessible and bespoke sounds. You might want to read that again.

Audio interface

Naturally, the Kyra is also a USB audio interface so it can be directly connected and recorded to a DAW via 24-bit, 96kHz of signal quality and, in turn, the signal from your DAW can be sent to the Kyra. The build and face of the Kyra is incredibly clean, populated by a host of buttons and rotary knobs and finished with a detailed display. Not ones to shy away from displays of self-confidence, the German manufacturers, Waldorf themselves have been heard saying that this really is the best presetting synth currently available in its class. Whether this is true or not, it's undeniable that this politely designed, synthesizing monster would add much, much, more than mere charm to any stage or studio setup.