LYRA-8 Organismic Synth (for soundscapes, FXs, pads, complex textures)

Well as a tone poem… :smiley:

I played one of these at Schneidersladen yesterday. It’s so amazing. I’m on a quest to find one in Denmark, Sweden or Netherlands (my three remaining holiday destinations for the next 1.5 weeks), otherwise I’m ordering one from gear4music and hoping it turns up to my friend’s house (in NL) before I leave. I need one!

You can order directly from their Polish factory. Together with decksaver and bag.

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Seems like that might take longer than I’m here for; I want to avoid postage back to Australia and instead pick it up from my friend’s place (or get it sent to my hotel?)… but I’ll email them and ask :smiley:

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There’s always a couple on sale on their FB page.

I have one, it’s a great musical instrument.

Huh, strangely there’s a distributor in Australia that sells them for pretty much the same price. Maybe I’ll order one to be delivered when I return from holiday :stuck_out_tongue:

Have you encountered a burning smell when you powered this synth for the first time?
Mine is now few months old, and it still smells a little bit burnt, is this normal? The synth works but i’m worried.

This is not a good sign. Do not leave the synth powered up. Contact the seller.

How long have you been using it?

been using it about 20 times now, recorded some tracks with it, used it mostly for 2 hours max, i don’t know if it works normal as it’s a weird experimental wonderful synth but the last MOD knob at about 70% my speakers began to fart, clacking, so I never set this knob any further when using it, is this normal too?

Contact Soma on this, they are a friendly bunch and no doubt will be more than happy to advise you…

try the headphones but I would say its fine. Burning smell is a different story and never normal.

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Hello,
The reason why I did continue to use the synth with burning smell was that a friend told me some eurorack modules could also have a little burnt smell when using for the first time. But after using it 20 times the smell is still there but less. I contacted Soma and going to try to make a video about how my synth works, my monitors are tannoy reveal. I would really like to open this beast, maybe I can see something, a cap melting? At least I think i should see a burnmark on the pcb if everyone says their Lyra doens’t smell like that? But hey than I’ll lose warranty i guess, so think i’m not gonna do that.

Going to try the headphones, I never used them, I will report later…

If @t3h you say the farting, clacking is normal I don’t mind about that, can work around this but when I saw some youtube where the maker of this synth was turning knobs wildly, let’s say abuse the machine, was he using a limiter after Lyra? I always played the synth straight to the mixer, do other users put limiter after Lyra?

Do not open the instrument unless you really know what you are doing. If possible, check the voltage of the power brick first.

I have tried lyra8 with the limiter and compressor and decided NOT to use them as they remove some of the lovely character of the instrument. My opinion may change in the future but as of now I like the pure sound coming directly out of the instrument. It can ‘sing’ melodically but it can also ‘crawl and howl’ and blow my speakers if I’m not careful. As with many analog instruments, you have to be careful with the signal level going out of the instrument and regulate it with the Volume knob (or Drive knob), if needed. I usually add 10dB pad to lyra8 in the mixer to constantly lower it’s volume in the final mix.

If this is a help for you, you can check one of my tracks using lyra8 in different modes: https://soundcloud.com/t3hh/lemmikloomade-varjupaik
In the first movement, lyra8 is used very gently. In the third movement (18 minutes in or so) however it’s going to the crazy territory you seem to describe in your previous posts. Doing this I have to by careful not to destroy the mix (clipping) and also still keep the overall tender mood of the composition. Lyra8 lends itself easily for different modes and can be as gentle or harsh as I want it to be but you have to be little careful with that and have one eye on the input level of the mixer.

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I don’t use a limiter directly on my Lyra. I’ve run it into mixer, then audio interface. Lately, I have been running it into my Boss Katana 100 guitar amp, because it has a built-in USB audio interface.

When I record into Ableton Live, I sometimes put a limiter on the Master channel. But that is more for when I overdub something on top of a mix that my bandmate has emailed me. I try to allow 3 to 6 dB of padding because I read that setting all channels to 0 dB increases the likelihood of unwanted clipping in a DAW - the limiter is just some insurance against clipping, because sometimes I get a mix where the vocals and guitars are already cranked to high dB levels.

I have not needed a limiter specifically for the Lyra.

@t3h If possible, check the voltage of the power brick first.’
How do you do that? I don’t know that much about electronics, only been circuitbending for 5years. I know Sonicstate opened the Lyra so it can’t be that difficult but going to contact Soma first and asking them what to do?

Thanks for the help, nice evolving atmospheres in those tracks!
What you describe of Lyra seems the way mine works, so I guess it works how it’s suppose to be, but the burn smell isn’t normal so there must be something wrong. I will contact Soma to let them know what I should do, I’m from Belgium, bought Lyra online @ Schneidersladen, Berlin. Damn I’m really going to miss this synth if it needs to go back.

I have noticed you can find lots of sweet spots if doing FM, feedback, delay, drive ‘carefully’ turning knobs and going on to a crazy out of this world trip. The beats, or kicks, let’s say drones are wonderful, One time I even did a weird hardcore track with it, and like the same screaming voice from Afx Analogue bubblebath IV. (think it was the elephant song)
I also need to watch the Volume, but I’m slowly getting the hang of this wonderful weird experimental synth.

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I forgot to mention that some switches I can hear clicking in my speakers when flipping them?

Do other users have that too?

Just got mine this morning and have to say I’m mindblown with the musicality of this instrument! All these weird modulations, pulses, organic screams and growls… I don’t understand how it all works, but I started improvising and decided immediately to record my first moments with it. This is what happened 15 minutes after I had turned on the power for the first time:

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Not really. I can hear if I activate the Delay or Mod as they change the nature of the sound but not the click from the witch.

Got reply from Soma to open it,(only 6screws in the back) let it warm up for 10 min, touch components and feel if something gets hot, it’s only 12v so no risk?

So I opened it up it’s really nicely done inside BUT…
-did not feel any hot components, but the smell is still there
-the headphones out is noisy but I can listen without the farting, clacking I have on my monitors?
-there seems to be omitted a few components or maybe that could be intentional? Next to some diodes of the touchkeys?
-on the board I saw 2 scratches, like it was almost meant to be cut 2 traces slightly?
-the flipping of a switch hearing it in the speaker seems to happen mostly a lot with the last modknob and switch above it?