Having been playing with mine for a few hours, you’re right. You can get (and - just about - repeat) wheezing leaky harmoniums, cellos, what sound like a babble of human voices, pumping rhythms, flute like sounds as well as the noisy chaotic screeching.
The tone generator/oscillators have quite a lot of variation between them in terms of voicing and the sharpness control is way more powerful than you expect as a tone shaper.
The challenges the beast poses are exact replication of sounds - accidental knob knocking or slight drifts in settings over time make this an “of the moment” machine in lots of ways. And working with so few “keys”. If you are seeking music rather than chaos, building on and expanding the “organ” elements of it, once you’ve set yourself up a couple of drone chords to alternate between you end up having to create melodies out of four notes. That isn’t a bad thing. Most music has far too many notes. But it is a thing thing. Approaching Lyra with the mindset of it being a synth with patches and a keyboard would definitely lead to disappointment.
I’m not sure its giggable other than as solo improvisational thing. But as a way of whiling away endless time disappearing into clouds of meditative musical possibility its marvellous. When I compare it to my (not much cheaper) Grendel Drone Commander, which previously fulfilled a somewhat similar role, it is so much more capable and flexible, it feels like a step upwards and outwards with this sort of musical aesthetic, rather than something that is limiting in any way.
Is the Main Output a different signal to the Headphone Output?
The reason I ask is that I was running a TRS -> 2x TS into a stereo reverb and one side sounded louder than the other (fixed by adjusting the balance on my mixer).
When I ran the Headphone output into the pedal (TRS - 2x TS) the signal was fine and didn’t need any adjustment.
Is this the balanced/unbalanced factor I have never paid attention to until now?
The output is balanced but mono, so unless it’s a specific mono splitter cable, you’ll find the signal significantly quieter on one side, as it’s not a stereo output.
The output is TRS, but not stereo, like the headphone output is, if you get what I mean.
The headphone output is super noisy/crackly on mine whilst the main line out is clean. Soma say this isn’t a flaw, as they don’t consider the headphone output a main output, and once the instrument is making sounds, you can’t hear the crackles and hisses anyway. Did you have that issue with your headphone output? Not sure I would see it as useable for external amplification/recording.
Something I’ve really enjoyed is how this machine demands a level of interaction unlike anything I’ve played before. The fact that I can’t play it like a regular keyboard and that it isn’t a sequenced based instrument really pushes me into a super creative space. Strange to say, it has also prompted me to play my Elektron boxes with a different ear, especially the digitone.
In particular, I’ve enjoyed retuning the notes during the hold process. There’s this odd sense of responsiveness that comes up when I can hear something in amongst the sound and I retune to meet it. I’ve naturally avoided going hell for leather with external fx, because there just seems to be so much going on within the instrument itself. The Warped Vinyl + Polara Reverb did prove to be a beautiful addition though.
I’ve been so close to pulling the trigger on this thing so many times. I really think it would be the atmosphere/pad sounds I’m looking for… it’s just the tuning thing (or lack of) that puts me off!
Are you musically proficient and feel that you’d be annoyed by it not sitting in the scales you want it to or are you slightly less musical and worried about never getting it “in tune”?
I’m very much in the latter situation and I haven’t had the slightest problem with tuning it. You just move the knobs about til it sounds right. Or get a tuner pedal or something.
Honestly though, I was really worried about the tuning before I bought mine. Haven’t worried about the tuning since I bought it.
I’ve got Lyra on all my tracks lately and it sits nice with all my sequenced, in tune stuff that’s tied to whatever scale. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than about a minute tuning it, there’s some magic where it just sounds right.
I’ve been tempted by one of these for a while and was looking at Juno Records and was curious to see what they could offer by way of discount as they have a button dedicated to that purpose.
They came back immediately with a code for £53 off.
£53!!!
So if you’re in the UK and after one I recommend trying Juno.
@Fin25 / @ghostbuddy / @Microtribe – I’d strongly counter your CV experiences. Whilst it doesn’t track in a normal sense, you can get some really cool results.
Check out this one of my Lyra videos:
The video isn’t of the process itself, but in the audio you’ll hear a clear example of Lyra / CV stuff. I used a Zoia to sequence the Lyra. It produced both the pitch changes and also the pulsing rhythm.
It takes time to experiment and dial in, and often you need big changes in CV values to get a shift in tone as opposed to the pulsing. But it really didn’t take me that long (probably 40 mins of fiddling around) and it gives interesting movement.
Thanks. I’m really looking for something to make pads/atmospheres to go with my OT (drums and samples) and DB-01 (riffs and acid), hence why I keep getting drawn to the Lyra. To be fair, I never hear anything bad come from the Lyra…
It’s not the real thing but one thing to consider is having a go with the Lira-8 VST? Since I was using Lyra-8 for samples and fairly subtle background fodder, I ended up selling it. After a while I came across the VST and have been using it in a similar way. I must emphasise the performance aspect is very much missing with the VST but sonically it’s in the ballpark.
@Grate_expectations - I feel a strong sense of deja vu re. you and this conversation!
Anyhow, for you and others worried about tuning and flexibility, I’d say that it’s all in your hands with the Lyra. I use it in everything – perhaps useful to check this one out:
In this, you can hear it alongside strings, metal pans, synths, piano… It fades in at 26 secs with low mid chords, and has a sliding theme that comes in at 44 secs. From 1.07 you can hear it in the background holding chords and playing gentle sustained / sliding stuff which comes more to the fore at 1.45 and 1.53. It has a nice theme at the end which fades in from 3.50 and slides about til 4.35… most if not all of this is done tuning it in real time, whilst playing / recording. It also provided a ton of other more noise-based details and fx through the piece, too many to name, but one good example being the background distorted texture and squawking (not convinced that’s the best word to describe them, but hey ) sounds at the end which you can clearly hear at 4.50ish.
Hopefully that helps show that it can be used in all manner of situations. And the tuning / interface means that it’ll always be characterful and unique! The features you’re worried about are the exact things which are so important in this instrument. It’s not for everyone though, I get that.
) sounds at the end which you can clearly hear at 4.50ish.