"Do you want to install the older firmware?"

Question

I Just received my new Paca last night, and combined with a little focusrite saffire pro 14 interface, things are up and running smoothly! I have many, many questions that can probably be answered by the documentation, but this one issue is a bit specific. Every time I open Kyma, I get a small dialog window with the following prompt:

"Your Paca(rana) has newer firmware (9 December 2016) than this version of Kyma normally uses (7 December 2016).

Do you want to install the older firmware?"

I downloaded Kyma two days ago, and got the Paca yesterday, so I'm pretty sure i've got the latest version of Kyma. The firmware in my Paca is only two days newer—so I've just been clicking "cancel" every time and every sound i've played with has worked out fine (other than a few small hiccups with regards to optimization). From what i've gathered, a firmware update is a pretty serious thing in Kyma land, so I thought I'd run this by the community before just "updating" my firmware to two-day-old firmware that Kyma feels would be better suited for it's current build.

Do I update my Dec. 9th firmware to the Dec. 7th, or should I keep hitting cancel when Kyma starts?

 

I want to also just throw in that I am absolutely blown away by the Kyma environment, the documentation, and... all of it really! I've been a DJ, producer, composer, and sound designer for over 10 years in some context, and feel at home in reaktor, max (mostly), and CDP, as well as most of the major DAWs, Renoise, a variety of hardware, etc.—and the Kyma environment is so damn refreshing, powerful, and intuitive! I already see that it's not just about a badass little outboard DSP box, but all of the nuances that create such an inspiring experience to work in. I feel like i'm playing in a universe built by scientists that speak like artists, so thanks to Carla and Kurt for this incredibly powerful tool! Also: how in the hell does this thing sound so analog? It's warm, almost like a modular... just blown away. I just keep staring at my Paca and can't believe it's even on my desk.

enough gushing from me, suppose that's why I left it at the end :)

Thanks in advance for any info regarding installing older firmware as well.

-Aaron

Answer 1

Thank you for the enthusiastic words about Kyma!

Regarding the firmware, when you receive a Paca or Pacarana from Symbolic Sound it may have the firmware for the next (upcoming) update to Kyma already installed.

The best thing to do for now is to continue to decline to update the firmware.  That message will go away as soon as the new version of Kyma is available for download from the Help menu.

Welcome to Kyma!

Comments

alright, will do! Thanks for the response!

Answer 2

Hi Aaron!

I may be the least qualified to answer your question but thought you might be eager for a reply... and I was still awake.

 

Updating the firmware for the paca is a "big deal" in that if you pulled the power out in the middle of the process it is possible to end up with knackered firmware which probably means sending it back to SymbolicSound to get it sorted.

But I've updated the firmware a bunch of times recently as there's been a number of updates and it works fine. When you set off the update just leave everything alone and let it do its business. Make sure your computer is on mains power (if it's a laptop). It takes 3 or 4 minutes then the paca will power down. Leave it for 10 seconds and once you power back up again it should be all done.

If there isn't a more recent version of kyma, and the pop-up window is annoying you, then I'd be tempted to downgrade the firmware. It'll be fine.

 

Cheers,

 

Alan