#71

I have noticed that people seem to value the Russian-made models over the Polish. Is there a reason for this, beyond Vlad may have touched it?

#72

I’ve been wondering the same thing. While I don’t know for sure, I think that the idea of “Soviet” synthesizers holds a special appeal for some people. Polish synth just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

#73

How do you know which country it’s from if you get one second-hand?

#74

Be ready to pay hefty extra for shipping and customs tax/VAT when ordering from Russian division. Learned that the hard way while ordering the Ether.

1 Like
#75

Ha! This sums up how I feel about it. I’ve only had it for a few months, but it’s been sitting in a case since my last gig in mid-October. It’s such a beautiful, weird, unpredictable instrument, and sounds lovely when played together with my piano, but it really feels like a luxury item among the rest of my setup.

1 Like
#77

I’m wondering how people are using the rear jacks for CV Voices, CV Delay, Hold Gate, and Ext In. What kinds of stuff is being connected?

#78

CV voices: a bit limited in usefulness IMHO. Audio rate modulation doesn’t contribute a lot and it’s not any particular volt-pitch scheme, but a more freeform sequencer like the SQ-1 can work.

CV delay: simple LFOs or smooth random are good, since the Hyper LFO is a bit odd.

Hold: any gates work well. It interacts with the hold knobs, “fast” switches and touchplates. Nice for injecting some synchronized rhythm.

Ext in: lots of stuff works well here with the Lyra’s distortion and delay. I haven’t had as much success with feedback patching the Lyra itself, but I admit I didn’t spend long on it (maybe hard limiting would help). Drums sound pretty great through it, and I’ve mixed drones from my modular with playing the Lyra itself.

2 Likes
#79

This may be a dumb question, but can you process both external audio and the internal synth voice through the effects at the same time?

#80

…Yes…indeed.

1 Like
#81

I never really liked the feel of the stock tuning knobs so I replaced them with nice fat MXR style knobs. Most likely all in my mind, but seems easier/quicker to get tuned in with them.

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8 Likes
#82

I reknobbed mine as well:

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The tuning knobs are the style that was on the mod/sharp/pitch/hold pots – very similar to Mutable/Make Noise Rogan PT knobs. I didn’t care for the chicken head style knobs in the upper section either, so I replaced those all with Re’an P670 (Bugbrand style, I think) from Modular Addict.

(I was just out of town for a week, and despite having a cloth over it and a nearby air purifier with HEPA filter, I see it’s collected some dust. That isn’t too pleasing.)

4 Likes
#83

there is plastic cover and nylon dust bag available if dust becomes too much of an issue

#84

I have the nylon bag. It’s designed as a slip case rather than a handy studio cover. I’ve just been lying it across the top, but I might “hack” it into the sort of cover I wanted.

1 Like
#85

Any demos on this yet? looks amazing!

#86

Just got my Lyra a week ago and am really digging it. Such a deep and elusive instrument.

Question about the voice modulation: When I have the mod switch in the “LFO FB CV” position and have the MOD knob turned all the way down, I hear the LFO modulating the voice. When I turn up the MOD knob, I hear more, but I would expect to hear no modulation until I turn the knob up from zero. It’s the same with the Total FB on - the voice changes pitch even when MOD is at zero.

Is that normal or is mine an oddball?

1 Like
#87

That’s normal. There’s so much feedback built in that the Lyra is rarely stable. If you want more subtle modulation, dial it into the delay, not the voices.

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#88

Playing the Lyra-8, I’m usually alternating between thoughts of—this is transcendent!, and—is this broken?

11 Likes
#89

Yep I can also confirm this is how mine works (and confused me at first).

I’ve found it makes a nice performance feature though (switch in the modulation set at minimum every now and then and throw a little chaos into the mix).

The Lyra is as beguiling to me as it is bewildering. And I love it all the more because of it :smile:

1 Like
#90

Yeah, that is normal. The attenuators purposefully don’t close completely.

#91

Hello friends, I have a few questions for people who have a hardware Lyra-8. I have made in implementation in Reaktor and am working on the final tuning. It will never be identical to a real Lyra, but it was a fun exercise over the past several days and is a blast to play.

  • When fully clockwise, does the Sharp knob ever reach a true square wave? In one of the demo videos I saw, it seems to reach more of a shark tooth wave. Right now I am mixing between a triangle wave and a filtered sawtooth.
  • Does the Total Feedback send the final audio-rate output signal as the modulation signal, or does it first get passed through an envelope follower? I have tried both, and suspect it is the former.
  • The Vibrato has different rates for each voice pair, any guesses as to the approximate frequencies? Right now I have them set to 2, 2.5, 3, and 3.5 Hz.
2 Likes