Symbolic Sound Kyma
@symbolicsound.com
Symbolic Sound makes Kyma — a hardware & software environment for creative sound design, live performance, and scientific exploration.
kyma.symbolicsound.com
kyma.symbolicsound.com
And this vocoder! mixwiththemasters.com/videos/rich-...
October 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
And this vocoder! mixwiththemasters.com/videos/rich-...
Otophysans, known for their enhanced hearing comprise 2/3 of freshwater fish. Recent discovery of a fossil places their origin ~154 million years ago. Their distinctive hearing abilities evolved in conjunction with fusion of hearing ossicles & freshwater adaptations. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Marine origins and freshwater radiations of the otophysan fishes
Otophysans, known for their enhanced hearing enabled by the complex Weberian apparatus, comprise two-thirds of extant freshwater fish species. Previously, they were thought to have originated in fresh...
www.science.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Otophysans, known for their enhanced hearing comprise 2/3 of freshwater fish. Recent discovery of a fossil places their origin ~154 million years ago. Their distinctive hearing abilities evolved in conjunction with fusion of hearing ossicles & freshwater adaptations. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The Science is Sound! From acoustic analogs of electron entanglement, to positioning heart cells, to hydrogen bond sonification & more, check out the July Shaastra cover story by Pallab Roygupta on some unexpected ways sound is being used to probe nature.
shaastramag.iitm.ac.in/lead-story/s...
shaastramag.iitm.ac.in/lead-story/s...
The science is sound | Indian Institute of Technology Madras - IITM Shaastra
Sound waves are being increasingly channelled to probe nature, with significant potential applications.
shaastramag.iitm.ac.in
July 19, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The Science is Sound! From acoustic analogs of electron entanglement, to positioning heart cells, to hydrogen bond sonification & more, check out the July Shaastra cover story by Pallab Roygupta on some unexpected ways sound is being used to probe nature.
shaastramag.iitm.ac.in/lead-story/s...
shaastramag.iitm.ac.in/lead-story/s...
SonicBoom, an autonomous robot that uses sound to sense objects in visually cluttered environments. Small differences in signal intensity & phase across an array of contact mics can localize the sound source & thus the point of contact with accuracy of ~0.4 to 2 cm spectrum.ieee.org/farm-robots-...
This Robotic Arm Senses Branches With Sound
SonicBoom lets robots "feel" their way through farms using sound. Could this be the key to affordable and efficient harvesting?
spectrum.ieee.org
June 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
SonicBoom, an autonomous robot that uses sound to sense objects in visually cluttered environments. Small differences in signal intensity & phase across an array of contact mics can localize the sound source & thus the point of contact with accuracy of ~0.4 to 2 cm spectrum.ieee.org/farm-robots-...
Can the sound of laughter encourage optimistic behavior? Study shows that bonobos approach ambiguous stimuli to search for rewards more often after hearing laughter. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bonobos tend to behave optimistically after hearing laughter - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Bonobos tend to behave optimistically after hearing laughter
www.nature.com
June 26, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Can the sound of laughter encourage optimistic behavior? Study shows that bonobos approach ambiguous stimuli to search for rewards more often after hearing laughter. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Concert for pipe organ & live Kyma electronics: 5 June 6:30 pm St Paul's Cathedral London. While performing the pipe organ, Franz controls Kyma processing with an EEG scanner & a MIDI glove!
www.stpauls.co.uk/whats-on/cel...
www.stpauls.co.uk/whats-on/cel...
Celebrity Organ Recital by Franz Danksagmüller | St Paul's Cathedral
www.stpauls.co.uk
June 3, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Concert for pipe organ & live Kyma electronics: 5 June 6:30 pm St Paul's Cathedral London. While performing the pipe organ, Franz controls Kyma processing with an EEG scanner & a MIDI glove!
www.stpauls.co.uk/whats-on/cel...
www.stpauls.co.uk/whats-on/cel...
Kyma 7.44 is HERE! New synthesis/processing Sound objects, !SongPosition from MIDI, new Smalltalk messages, roll the dice on a single component of VCS, selectable MPE mode, Community Library access & tons of UI/workflow improvements. Free update from the Help menu in #Kyma #SoundDesign #MusicTech
May 10, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Kyma 7.44 is HERE! New synthesis/processing Sound objects, !SongPosition from MIDI, new Smalltalk messages, roll the dice on a single component of VCS, selectable MPE mode, Community Library access & tons of UI/workflow improvements. Free update from the Help menu in #Kyma #SoundDesign #MusicTech
Prosody — pitch contour, stress, rhythm & loudness of speech — found to have its own vocabulary, semantics & simple syntax. Study finds Intonation Units (IUs) which when stripped of text consist of a pitch contour — as an element of a prosodic vocabulary doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Structure in conversation: Evidence for the vocabulary, semantics, and syntax of prosody | PNAS
Prosody, the musical facet of speech, is pivotal in human communication, and its structure
and meaning remain subjects of ongoing research. In this...
doi.org
April 24, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Prosody — pitch contour, stress, rhythm & loudness of speech — found to have its own vocabulary, semantics & simple syntax. Study finds Intonation Units (IUs) which when stripped of text consist of a pitch contour — as an element of a prosodic vocabulary doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
What’s Behind the ‘Pop and Slosh’ When Opening a Beer? Using high-speed video, audio recordings, & computational fluid dynamics simulations, researchers say the sound is explained by a sudden expansion of CO2 + a drop in temp to -50C which slows the speed of sound
publishing.aip.org/publications...
publishing.aip.org/publications...
What’s Behind the ‘Pop and Slosh’ When Opening a Swing-Top Bottle of Beer? - AIP Publishing LLC
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2025 — In a fun experiment, Max Koch, a researcher at the University of Göttingen in Germany — who also happens to be passionate […]
publishing.aip.org
March 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
What’s Behind the ‘Pop and Slosh’ When Opening a Beer? Using high-speed video, audio recordings, & computational fluid dynamics simulations, researchers say the sound is explained by a sudden expansion of CO2 + a drop in temp to -50C which slows the speed of sound
publishing.aip.org/publications...
publishing.aip.org/publications...
Audible enclaves: Delivering audio to a targeted listener located at the intersection of 2 nonlinear ultrasonic beams without disturbing others nearby www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
March 17, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Audible enclaves: Delivering audio to a targeted listener located at the intersection of 2 nonlinear ultrasonic beams without disturbing others nearby www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
In memory of Kaija Saariaho, the Sons of Chipotle (Anssi Karttunen + John Paul Jones) are performing w/ piano, cello, various controllers & live Kyma processing this Saturday 15 March 2025 @ the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam — part of the first Saariaho Festival news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/sons...
Sons of Chipotle at Saariaho Festival – the eighth nerve
news.symbolicsound.com
March 13, 2025 at 8:06 PM
In memory of Kaija Saariaho, the Sons of Chipotle (Anssi Karttunen + John Paul Jones) are performing w/ piano, cello, various controllers & live Kyma processing this Saturday 15 March 2025 @ the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam — part of the first Saariaho Festival news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/sons...
Study of human hand claps finds Helmholtz resonators to be a good model for the dominant sound generation mechanism & for physically separating factors contributing to different aspects of the sound. doi.org/10.1103/Phys...
March 12, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Study of human hand claps finds Helmholtz resonators to be a good model for the dominant sound generation mechanism & for physically separating factors contributing to different aspects of the sound. doi.org/10.1103/Phys...
Check out Cork by Phil Maguire & Anne La Berge (flutes, Kyma System, laptops & synthesizer), mastered by Jim O'Rourke. On March 7, Bandcamp waives their revenue share & passes the funds directly to artists
maguirelaberge.bandcamp.com/album/cork
maguirelaberge.bandcamp.com/album/cork
Cork, by Maguire/La Berge
3 track album
maguirelaberge.bandcamp.com
March 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Check out Cork by Phil Maguire & Anne La Berge (flutes, Kyma System, laptops & synthesizer), mastered by Jim O'Rourke. On March 7, Bandcamp waives their revenue share & passes the funds directly to artists
maguirelaberge.bandcamp.com/album/cork
maguirelaberge.bandcamp.com/album/cork
Hearing triggered by molecular 'spring': Researchers at Göttingen’s Max Planck Institute identify an elastically suspended molecular spring that opens an ion channel in the human ear: "it is not the spiral but the flexible joint that bends under mechanical tension” www.mpinat.mpg.de/4945389/pr_2...
Hearing triggered by molecular “spring”
A Göttingen research team has discovered the molecular “spring” that opens ion channels in the auditory sensory cells in the ear.
www.mpinat.mpg.de
March 6, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Hearing triggered by molecular 'spring': Researchers at Göttingen’s Max Planck Institute identify an elastically suspended molecular spring that opens an ion channel in the human ear: "it is not the spiral but the flexible joint that bends under mechanical tension” www.mpinat.mpg.de/4945389/pr_2...
Franz Danksagmüller: live Ciné-concert: Kyma electronics & 1937 Wurlitzer organ to accompany Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Friday 7 March at 8 pm in Geneva at Collége Claparède. Masterclass on Thursday 6 March 2 pm. news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/metr...
Metropolis in Geneva – the eighth nerve
news.symbolicsound.com
March 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Franz Danksagmüller: live Ciné-concert: Kyma electronics & 1937 Wurlitzer organ to accompany Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Friday 7 March at 8 pm in Geneva at Collége Claparède. Masterclass on Thursday 6 March 2 pm. news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/metr...
A novel method uses sound (24 kHz/400W) to change glass to have either a hydrophobic or a charged surface. Sonochemical modification has applications in filtration systems & biofuel cells advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Sonochemical Functionalization of Glass
A new method for functionalizing glass using ultrasonication of aryl diazonium salts. Aryl radicals generated by ultrasounds react with glass, forming a stable, covalently bonded organic film. The fu....
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 1, 2025 at 12:38 AM
A novel method uses sound (24 kHz/400W) to change glass to have either a hydrophobic or a charged surface. Sonochemical modification has applications in filtration systems & biofuel cells advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
From an interview with Lowell Pickett, Senior Audio Engineer at Zoox: "A well-considered audio experience improves workplaces and recreational spaces alike." According to Lowell, "Every company should have an audio professional on staff!" news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/driv...
the eighth nerve – Official organ of the Symbolic Sound Corporation
news.symbolicsound.com
February 25, 2025 at 9:57 PM
From an interview with Lowell Pickett, Senior Audio Engineer at Zoox: "A well-considered audio experience improves workplaces and recreational spaces alike." According to Lowell, "Every company should have an audio professional on staff!" news.symbolicsound.com/2025/02/driv...
Aminoglycosides (AGs) antibiotics are ototoxic, causing irreversible hearing loss in millions annually. By inhibiting GABARAP expression in inner ear hair cells, researchers successfully prevented AG-induced hair cell death & subsequent hearing loss www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Inhibition of GABARAP or GABARAPL1 prevents aminoglycoside- induced hearing loss | PNAS
Aminoglycosides (AGs) are highly potent, broad-spectrum antibiotics frequently used
as first-line treatments for multiple life-threatening infectio...
www.pnas.org
February 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Aminoglycosides (AGs) antibiotics are ototoxic, causing irreversible hearing loss in millions annually. By inhibiting GABARAP expression in inner ear hair cells, researchers successfully prevented AG-induced hair cell death & subsequent hearing loss www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
U of Chicago researchers demonstrate multi-phonon entanglement between two physically separated acoustic wave resonators. [Reminds me of Huygens' "odd kind of sympathy"?] www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Deterministic multi-phonon entanglement between two mechanical resonators on separate substrates - Nature Communications
Recent advancements have enabled quantum control and measurement of mechanical resonators. Here the authors demonstrate quantum entanglement between two mechanical resonators on separate substrates by...
www.nature.com
February 14, 2025 at 12:37 AM
U of Chicago researchers demonstrate multi-phonon entanglement between two physically separated acoustic wave resonators. [Reminds me of Huygens' "odd kind of sympathy"?] www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Study published in Science reveals that humpback whale vocalizations have a statistical structure similar to that of human language. Shane Gero suggests this structure might exist because whale songs are communication systems transmitted through social learning www.science.org/content/arti...
February 6, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Study published in Science reveals that humpback whale vocalizations have a statistical structure similar to that of human language. Shane Gero suggests this structure might exist because whale songs are communication systems transmitted through social learning www.science.org/content/arti...
A spherical 10-100 µm microrobot converts acoustic energy into thrust for velocities up to 300 body lengths per second. Resonance of a trapped bubble disrupts acoustic streaming symmetry for multiple frequency-dependent boundary-free 3D locomotion modes. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
doi.org
January 30, 2025 at 2:04 AM
A spherical 10-100 µm microrobot converts acoustic energy into thrust for velocities up to 300 body lengths per second. Resonance of a trapped bubble disrupts acoustic streaming symmetry for multiple frequency-dependent boundary-free 3D locomotion modes. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
The sound of a virus! Study tracks acoustic vibrations of a single virus using ultrafast spectroscopy. The acoustic spectrum reveals vibrational modes associated with virus morphology, viral envelope protein interactions & acoustic mode-coupling w/the local environment. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Nanoscopic acoustic vibrational dynamics of a single virus captured by ultrafast spectroscopy | PNAS
The natural vibrational frequencies of biological particles such as viruses and bacteria
encode critical information about their mechanical and bio...
doi.org
January 21, 2025 at 10:56 PM
The sound of a virus! Study tracks acoustic vibrations of a single virus using ultrafast spectroscopy. The acoustic spectrum reveals vibrational modes associated with virus morphology, viral envelope protein interactions & acoustic mode-coupling w/the local environment. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Auditory system's ability to follow cycle-by-cycle fluctuations or Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) is found to contribute to resilience to effects of reverberation & is associated with faster response times, indicating reduced listening effort.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
January 18, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Auditory system's ability to follow cycle-by-cycle fluctuations or Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) is found to contribute to resilience to effects of reverberation & is associated with faster response times, indicating reduced listening effort.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Study observes chimpanzees producing rhythmic displays—suggesting that mechanisms for rhythm production may be shared between humans & non-human primates. They recorded isochronous rhythms in vocal (pants, grunts & hoots) as well as in motoric (swaying & stomping) behaviors. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Context-dependent rhythmicity in chimpanzee displays | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Rhythm is an important component of human language and music production. Rhythms such
as isochrony (intervals spaced equally in time) are also present in vocalizations
of certain non-human species, in...
doi.org
January 18, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Study observes chimpanzees producing rhythmic displays—suggesting that mechanisms for rhythm production may be shared between humans & non-human primates. They recorded isochronous rhythms in vocal (pants, grunts & hoots) as well as in motoric (swaying & stomping) behaviors. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
First issue of ‘eighth nerve’ for 2025 finds the Kyma Community zeitgeist trending toward human mechanization, way-finding, questions of what is “life” and what is “live”, the fall of empire, and secrets…#Kyma #SoundDesign news.symbolicsound.com
the eighth nerve – Official organ of the Symbolic Sound Corporation
news.symbolicsound.com
January 16, 2025 at 9:49 PM
First issue of ‘eighth nerve’ for 2025 finds the Kyma Community zeitgeist trending toward human mechanization, way-finding, questions of what is “life” and what is “live”, the fall of empire, and secrets…#Kyma #SoundDesign news.symbolicsound.com