Waldorf Kyra

I had the very good fortune to be able to borrow a Kyra for a short time and this video review is the result. It ended up being a long review, I cut quite a few bits out but it still ended up being almost an hour long. There’s a lot of talking and not very much playing but I think there’s a lot to say about this synth.

For me the Kyra is a bit of a dichotomy. It is a mixture of some brilliant design features and a beautiful, rich sound but combined with a frustrating user interface, some obviously missed feature opportunities and a high price tag. And what I chose not to mention in the video review is that I encountered a couple of quite basic bugs which made me wonder how ready the Kyra is yet for mainstream use.

I think the Kyra has huge potential, there is so much in firmware that can be added and improved upon, and let’s not forget that it is capable of the most warm, rich, huge, stereo sounds. But where does it fit in the market today and who is likely to buy one? Well of that I am a little less certain at this present time.

All digital synths are very naturally compared to plug-ins, and the plug-in synth market is huge, mature and full of amazing products. In an ever-growing market like that, what does a digital synth need to offer to stay competitive?

Firstly, I think it needs to offer innovative features and at a very competitive price. Software-only synths will always be at the leading edge of innovation, and will always be most competitive price-wise, this makes for a very tough market for digital hardware synths to compete in.

Lastly, I think a digital hardware synth needs to provide you with a sufficiently enjoyable experience using it. There needs to be a good enough reason to tempt people away from their mouse and computer keyboard. This is especially true of a desktop synth with no keys. A digital hardware desktop synth needs to be tactile, logical, and simple enough to encourage creativity. I really do think that user interface design on hardware synths is so critically important and that synth manufacturers need to place much more emphasis on getting it right. The only way to do that is to collaborate with professionals and experienced enthusiasts at the very beginning of the product design phase.