Précisions sur le caractère lofi du lyra

Hi, everyone and thank you for your attention to the Lyra project! I would like to make detailed explanations about noises, clicks, oscillators' bleeding and crosstalk in LYRA.

1. All LYRAs have a quite noisy output and it's necessary part of the design. I try to explane why. I applyed some unusual for the current synths aproaches in the circuit that created distinctive Lyra sound. For example, there is no VCA in the end of the chain that closing every time when notes off and create a pure silence. Part of the circuit is alltime open and produce some noises. In fact Lyra's envelope generators are part of the oscillators and do impact on the pitch and waveform of it, also it is a kind a waveshaper in the same time. It allows to get complex and interesting behaviour if some FM applied. But in the same time it creates additional noises and bleedings. If I would make it in a "normal" way we will get quite boring machine with two simple waveforms and just several different sounds and we will loose 80% of it's character, or I will be need to make the circuitry much more complex and make the price higher as well. And in this way we also can loose a part of Lyra's distinctive sound.
Lyra designed a bit in a way like old organs that always had a cloud of noises from oscillators and other parts of circuit.

2. Between all parts in Lyra we have significant crosstalk. It creates many interesting subtle effects as everything can modify everything and make the sound breathe. But as a drawback we can hear silent oscillators in sound of triggered oscillators. Especially on a high tune. This bleeding is a normal part of the behaviour and we once again lose significant part of Lyra's nature if I will try to make a perfect isolation.

3. A bit of harsh noise on a some voices. It was a side effect of some modifications which we decided preserve. The reason was that this type of circuitry makes possible firstly to have a huge range of tune on every oscillator from a sub to ultra sound, secondly makes more deep and unusual modulations. The harsh noises appears on some oscillators randomly. If you would like to make a pure triangle (that is actully not pure anyway ) set the pitch knobs from 50 to 70 percents and you will find a range of it where the harsh noise will absent on all the oscillators. Also, with the delay even distorted oscillators will sound sweet and pleasant. As an idea was to make the oscillators slightly different for you have not only eight notes but several different sounds.

4. The Lyra has a noisy delay, especillay on a big time. The delay is Lo Fi and the noise is normal part of it’s work.

5. Clicks from the LFO. Honestly this is the only noise that I don’t like in LYRA and will be glad to eliminate. I did several modifications and decrease it significantly but can’t make it totaly off for the moment. For do it I need to make the circuitry and construction significanly more complex and due to it more expensive. But the clicks can be audible only with a big amplification in a pure silence (when you don’t play at all) and can’t affect a real performance.

As a bottom line. All the noises and bleeds are either a part of sound design or has a low volume and completely masks by a normal LYRA sound. That is why you can’t hear it on the demo videos from the net. You can try it yourself - when you play normally you don’t hear the artifacts, exeption of you set the distortion to a big gain (in this case any equipment will be noisy). If you hear LFO clicks for example during a normal performance please record it WITH a normal LYRA sound (not in a pure silence!) and send to us with a photo or video of controls setup. If we will find the behaviour abnormal we will do necessary repair or replacement.

In whole, we have huge amount of digital and virtual instruments (part of them for free) with absolutelly pure silence and stable and pure waveforms. So I see no sense to make the same in such kind of analog synths. My aim vise verse was destroy this purity and stability that for me sound dead, and create instead a kind of wild magic nature that a bit dangerous and unpredictable.

BTW in the very first lines of our sale letter we warn you that the LYRA has noisy circuitry and works in Lo Fi, noise aesthetics. So you have a choice