The story
Sampled Soma Lyra-8 in stereo
Extended version of my previous library.
Clean sound, many layers.
This is my instrument FOR NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KONTAKT AND KONTAKT PLAYER 6.5.1 and up.
Welcome to the world of LYRA-8, a unique organic analog synthesizer created by Vlad Kreimer. “Organismic” means that LIRA uses some of the principles underlying living organisms. LIRA-8 is based on eight generators, which we call “voices”. Their design is not like traditional VCO synthesis. LYRA modules interact with each other in such a way that the overall behavior of the instrument is similar to communication with a living being.
Their design is not like traditional VCO synthesis. Instead of linear or logarithmic dependence on control voltage, LYRA’s voices work like tone generators in old organs. Therefore, we use the term “voice” instead of VCO. Non-linearity is very common in LIRA, which is deliberately emphasized by means of special circuit solutions.
Contributors
Sergey Ivanov
Soma Long
Interface
Reviews for Soma Lyra-8 Long
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Warm synthy sounds
The Lyra-8 has a warm yet slightly distorted sound that's reminiscent of big synths of the 80s. I'm not much of synth afficionado so the organismic module interactions used to generate the voices don't sound, to me, hugely different to sounds from more traditional VCO synths, but that's firstly just to my ignorant ears and secondly it doesn't at all detract from what is a straightforwardly good sampled instrument.
Thanks SergeyWarm synth tones, with a bit of grit and growl
By default, the Soma Lyra-8 samples are very pleasant-sounding. Ranging from organ-like sounds near the high end, down to buzzing, growling lower notes.
I eventually realized that using the modwheel in this instrument will morph into samples utilizing more and more of Lyra's eight voices. With the modwheel all the way down, it uses a one-voice sample; moving the modwheel up will blend the sound through 1, 2, 4, and 8-voiced samples (assuming I understand the naming of the files in the Sample folder, and the changes I hear in timbre). There also appear to be samples covering 4 velocity layers.
The instrument is subsequently large, at nearly 2.5 Gb. This size is evident by the relative slowness when downloading, unpacking the ZIP, as well as when loading the instrument into Kontakt.
The interface is highly-minimal. In addition to the modwheel usage (not visibly mapped to anything in the UI), there's a little over 3 octaves of notes, and a control for adding reverb, but nothing more. Having filter and/or ADSR controls would add a great deal of character and control to these very nice-sounding samples.
In truth, while I like the sound of these samples very much, the sheer size of the instrument relative to its utility will make me second-guess reaching for it in a recording.
