LIRA•8 Organismic Synthesizer Now Available As A Free Download

Developer Mike Moreno shared this video demo of LIRA•8, an open source software synthesizer, inspired by the SOMA Laboratories Lyra 8.

Moreno notes that, while the LIRA-8 clearly takes inspiration from the SOMA Laboratories’ synth, “The Lira•8 project is not affiliated and does not represent SOMA laboratories.”

The Lyra 8 is a Russian drone synthesizer with 8 tunable voices each, FM, dual delay, hyper LFO and distortion. It makes it optimal for drones, ambient landscapes, outer space sounds, etc.

LIRA-8 is available as VST3, VST2, LV2, AUi, and standalone for Linux64, Windows and MacOS. The source code is also available via Github.

27 thoughts on “LIRA•8 Organismic Synthesizer Now Available As A Free Download

  1. I am not here for that interface, but it sounds cool! I love my Lyra. This sounds, understandably, different from it, I could see myself a/b’ing or maybe “patch” saving with it?

  2. Copying the original user interface to the digital realm does not make any sense. I understand the sound part may be useful to have modelled, but many knobs and especially touch plates meant to be played by hand

      1. Loaded _Lira8.pd into PdParty on IOS, but there’s no Lira8 UI although it shows instructions and CPU usage … but it plays the past patch i set up

    1. Of any electronic instrument I’ve played, the Lyra-8 makes the LEAST sense as a virtual instrument. That’s not just because of the touch-activated nature, but because I often am turning two or more knobs at once (the layout allows this), and incredibly small increments of change make a huge difference. So, sure, people should have fun with this, but it’s a flawed premise for a virtual instrument.

  3. If I was the creator of the real Lyra-8, I would not be happy about this. This appears like the creator is releasing a VST version instead of an “inspired by” version. Not sure what the legality of this would be, but you can’t just go around creating “inspired versions”/free knockoffs that look the same with the same name and it be okay.

    1. From everything I’ve read Vlad Kreimer write, I don’t think this would be seen as a negative. Vlad’s work focuses heavily on the human-machine interface experience and this plugin does little to encroach on that territory. Additionally, it’s free and I can’t see any negative to letting people work Soma-inspired creations into their track. Anyone who has their eyes on a hardware Lyra-8 is not going to be dissuaded just because a free plugin version of the synth architecture exists; theres so much more to the instrument than that.

    2. The Lyra-8 itself is open source. One can buy just the PC cards, source the parts and build it at home.

      Also, it’s “If I were…” not was.

    3. I suggest you don’t look up a little company called Behringer then. Your mind will fully be blown. In this case, the name is different. The synth clearly looks nothing like the model it is inspired from. The sound isn’t really that close. I’m guessing that many folks who have never heard of a Lyra-8, just looked it up, which is never bad for the creator.

  4. A local rival spent his kids Christmas money on one of these. However, ’cause of the vid, I am not allowed to touch it. He sends me song after song tantalizing me with it. That a VST version came out a week later has me exquisitely excited. Don’t worry about the kids some local firemen his wife hangs out with brought them a whole sack of lightly fire damaged presents.

  5. Seems a bit naff to copy someone’s product so closely, even the name (changing one letter). Why not contact SOMA and say, let’s work on a licensed plugin version. And if they said no, just go work on something else?

    People have no shame these days and some of the open source droids can be quite militant in their insistence that everything should be free, free, free. Hardware development isn’t free though.

  6. I got the plugin into GarageBand and it plays… but it won’t record. It recorded one time, but then nothing. I can lineout to a tape deck or another computer, but I’d rather record in there. Thoughts on how to fix this?

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