We present to your attention the revived version of Soma Lyra-4, organismic synthesizer, the younger sister of the famous LYRA-8.

“Organismic” means that Soma Lyra-4 uses some principles that lie in the base of living organisms. The way how Soma Lyra-4 (black) ’s modules interacting between each other and the behaviour of the instrument resembles a live conversation.

It’s smaller and weighs less but is equally rugged in design, and still packs a lot of punch. This makes it easy to fit in a backpack and perfect for taking the Soma Lyra-4 (black) sound on the road.

And playing two Soma Lyra-4 can actually sound very different than just one LYRA-8.

Soma Lyra-4 is based on four generators, which will be referred to as voices. Their design is not like a traditional subtractive synthesis VCO. Instead of having a linear or logarithmic dependency on control voltage, they resemble the tone generators in old electric organs. Hence the use of the term “voices” instead of “VCOs”. Lyra uses non-linearity a lot, and the voices are constructed in such a way that allows for non-linearity to express itself.

The voices are divided into two pairs (12, 34), creating tree-like structure.

The voices can function either in an electric organ mode or in an FM synthesis mode with each of the voices and its envelope acting as a separate FM operator. The voice’s impact on FM synthesis will decrease along with the decay of its envelope.

Soma Lyra-4 also has the next blocks:
– the HYPER LFO is a complex low-frequency generator, whose waveform is synthesized from two simple LFOs by summation or multiplication of their frequencies. It also has a sync mode. The LFO can modulate the selected pairs of voices and the MOD DELAY.
– the MOD DELAY consists of delay with feedback. The delay has a unique possibility of self-modulation where the output signal modulates the delay sample rate, creating cool effects.
– the DISTORTION is last in the chain, after the delay. It enables the delay to also influence the distortion.

For all its experimental character, Soma Lyra-4 is a professional instrument. Its output dynamics and frequency response are balanced and ready for a live performance or studio recording without any additional processing.

Specifications:
– Max output voltage 2 v 0-to-peak
– Output connector mono 6.3 mm TS jack
– Output resistance 10 KOhm
– CV DELAY unipolar, range of 0 to +5 volt
– CV DELAY 6.3 mm TS jack
– CV VOICES unipolar, range of 0 to +5 volt
– CV VOICES connector 6.3 mm TS jack
– Power supply stabilised, +12 V, 0.2 A, centre positive
– Power Consumption 1.2 watt
– Headphones resistance 6-64 Ohm
– Power supply stabilised, +12 V, 0.2 A, centre positive
– Dimensions 241 х 203 х 62 mm
– Weight (without power supply and packaging) 1.2 kg