Patches collection. Lyra-8

First article… gotta start somewhere. But feel free to submit yours.

La Lyra-8 presents itself as an "organismic" synthesizer, and the word is spot on. No keyboard, no sequencer (unless you add an Ornament): you place your fingers on sensors, and the sound responds to pressure, skin, moisture, sometimes stress, mood, fatigue, or the energy of the moment. In the evening, I’ve noticed you don’t have the same reactivity as during the day, for example. The voices modulate each other, the delay modulates itself, distortion glues it all together. I love this machine.

In the evening, you don’t have the same reactivity as during the day.

To talk about our little experience: in our duo, we use two Lyras, and we run them through a Cosmos, also from SOMA. Not all the time, but often, because it adds an element of play: repetition makes things interesting.

Besides, let me open a parenthesis. It’s a little trick I had heard, I don’t remember quite where, from some guy making techno on YouTube, I think (this guy). When playing live, even when you mess up (because there are quite a few flubbed notes), stuff that we hear, but not necessarily everyone does. Sometimes, even, people hear them, and it’s not a big deal since it’s repeated. It becomes a bit like in jazz, where wrong notes are "intentional". Besides, what is a wrong note anyway? Anyway, that’s all part of the game, and the Cosmos adds that to the game.

The Lyras are very instinctive: you play them by feel.

We also use the Lyra’s drive and delay to process other machines. On my end, for example, I plug a Minitaur into the drive, and it works pretty well. That’s also how you can use it.

We read press reviews and the opinions of those who own one. Everyone describes pretty much the same machine: made for drone, ambient and noise, unpredictable, never quite the same from one day to the next. This is the compliment that comes up most often, and it’s also the criticism. Me, I think that’s reductive: it’s a vaster, freer machine, beyond labels.

The manual says it itself: the sensors react to skin moisture, and therefore to the player’s state. What you feel under your fingers is not an impression.

The criticisms are always the same. No memory: a lost setting was lost, and some play live with their patches printed on cards. More with Pulsers: you pick up the patch, the settings are back, and the rest is played under your fingers. Tuning is done by ear, voice by voice, and it drifts. There is no reverb, almost everyone adds one afterwards. The delay is dark, the output is mono, and there is hiss.

Those who wanted an all-purpose synth find it limited to a single register. That perhaps comes from those who don’t understand that it’s an instrument: a violin doesn’t trigger eurodance samples.

Many also use it as an effect: the external input goes through the delay and distortion, and a drum machine or sampler comes out transformed. Us too. But we play it just as much: for us, it’s both. To sequence it, SOMA offers the Ornament-8; opinions are divided, some find that sequencing a Lyra misses the point.

No memory on the Lyra, so no preset to export: everything starts from an image. A clear capture makes all the difference: on a blurry or angled image, certain switches remain ambiguous.

In short, it’s an instrument in its own right and which is, contrary to what I’ve read here and there (perhaps from people who miss what synthesis actually is, really :) I don’t know, and who cares), very complete, I find, and which does exactly what is asked of it, what it was made for. It does it with brilliance, with incredible virtuosity. It is unique, and that’s what I love.

Besides, it reminds me of something. I had read, I think it was on Audiofanzine, but maybe I’m wrong, a guy saying: "It’s unplayable, you can’t play live with it."

I find that super lame. Sorry to the person who wrote that, but it’s the comment of someone who didn’t understand the instrument. Obviously it’s not a very traditional instrument, and that’s what’s great. Obviously, we’re not going to play C D E F G A B C, not necessarily. We could, actually, but is that really what we want to do? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, maybe, in a eurodance version? I’m sure it was Michel Sardou who wrote that comment under a pseudonym.

Well, but OK… I need to stop with the eurodance. I don’t know why I’m thinking about that. People are going to think I give a crap, whereas eurodance, honestly, I couldn’t care less. Anyway…

At the same time, within the fine adjustments, you constantly discover new sounds. I’ve probably had it for two years and it still surprises me. In the beginning, I didn’t hesitate to unpatch it. One piece of advice we could give is to test plenty of patches: now that Pulsers exists to save everything, there’s no need to have any scruples.

Personally, I think it’s a great machine, and I’d gladly buy a carton of twelve if I could. Plus, there are plenty of colors if you want. Anyway, SOMA instruments are the bomb: the Pulsar-23, among others, I’m totally crazy about it too.