The story
I made this Lyre from an inexpensive kit over the early part of the Christmas holiday in 2020. Given that these kits cost less than 20 quid, the results are quite pleasing. Quite a different sound from an acoustic guitar, especially when flicked or bowed with a pencil!
Reviews for Kit lyre
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- Character
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- Inspiration
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Interesting folk sounds inside!
There are 6 different instruments inside this pack, and every one of them is unique.
First, the Bowed Lyre is basically one stroke that gets resampled based on the pitch. The sample has a little noise, and it gets time-stretched across the small range that is offered. At the same time, I really like how it sounds in the lows. It can create some really nice, kind of folk-horror sfx.
Then there's the Elastic Mute which sounds like it has double strings, and it plays in single hits. It's nice but I very much prefer the next one, Firelyre, which sounds something between a harp and a dulcimer. This is by far my favorite one.
Next there's the flicked lyre which mostly sounds like a dulcimer, and then there are two paper patches that I am not a fan of, but you might still find interesting.
All of the instruments sound dynamic enough, but the more you strike, the more white noise you are going to get. The patches are very barebones though, so it's up to you to find ways to tweak them if that's what you want to do.
Interesting Scratchy Folk Tones
Although i agree with the issues mentioned by others. Inconsistency in sampling, dynamic range etc. But overall i think this is a really useful pack, i love the more kind of scratchy bowed tones. Although they are thin on their own i think they would sound great layered with other instruments. The firelyre patch has a nice tone and plays really nicely with fast passages. Theres nothing i dislike in this library. I think in general if it was more deeply sampled it could be a 5/5 library. The sounds are really organic and inspiring.
One of two of the sounds are good, the rest I would struggle to find a use for
My favorite sound of the bunch here is the one labeled firelyre. It sounds the best and I use it the most. The other ones I don't see myself using even if they have their charm.
Consistency is key...
As another reviewer noted, there appears to be different numbers of velocity layers and round robins between the notes, which makes some sound great while others are obviously sampled. Having a little more depth in the sampling process would be great, because I really love the light and clean sound that I hear from the library.
My go-to plucked lyre / dulcimer sound
I must have about a dozen libraries by now of dulcimers, cimbalom, harps, lyres, kanteles, zithers, etc. - I've spent hours trialing them for different projects, normally hunting for something that doesn't sound like it's swimming in an ocean of reverb. This lyre, namely the firelyre patch, is what I most often settle on. It has a bit more bite than a true harp, which is great for getting more of a folksy, gritty sound. The highest register is a bit too bright, and there is an annoying pitch-bending artifact in one of the low register samples, but it doesn't make the instrument unusable. There are also a number of other patches with various mutes/bowing/etc. which broadens the scope of the instrument a bit. Overall I think it's a nice instrument for folk melodies when you want something a bit less elegant than a harp.
