I recently got a Lyra 8 and it’s been the most fun I’ve had with a synth in a very long time. The dirty raw sound mixed with the unpredictable nature has taken me on some serious space adventures in my short time with it. Love it so much that I also have ordered a pulsar 23 as well.
So this got me thinking, what else is in this category of synths? Before you say “any synth can be dirty”, I understand that and I also understand I can just put a distortion pedal on most things and call it a day. But I’m also talking about the unique experience of the whole thing. Are there any other unique, creative/organic sounding synths like these? Synths that just have that amazing sense to take you for a ride and not the other way around?
The Norand Mono is a tour de force. It is some kind of next level amazing. If feels like there is a sentient music collaborator hiding inside the machine, effortlessly churning out wildly original, amazing sounding synth lines. I find myself completely awestruck at the incredible sounds coming out of it, wondering how it happened. It can get dirty, but it can sound sweet too. It seriously feels like it has a mind of its own.
All great recommendations so far - but the Strega seems to definitely hit a lot of the sweet spots I’m looking for and bonus for small size. The solar 50 looks amazing, but doesn’t seem easy to actually find and buy.
I reach for the resonance slider, my finger barely touching the tip, slowly but deliberately I push so that the precise amount of harmonics can be achieved, too much and the self oscillation would ruin the take, but not enough and the sing song harmonics won’t reach their full potential. Satisfied after a great take, I light a cigarette and bask in the blissful release.
Take your least favorite mixer and route a send back into a channel. Play with the gain structure until you get feedback, then start to play with the EQ and whatever else is onboard. Be mindful of the expected input levels and possible output levels so that you don’t blow up a nice mixer.
