luch is based on a soviet-era children’s metallophone, recorded through two vintage oktava microphones and hardware from the same era. the result is uneven, simple, slightly fragile, and unpolished. it feels less like a reconstruction and more like something carried forward through time.
play it as a quiet metallophone, let it take on the dreamy aged tone of a wire recorder, or blend it into slow, unstable textures from two distinctive synthesizers. a sound that does not just play a note, but carries a story.
made with luch
hover over the interface for tooltipstap the interface for tooltips. swipe to switch color themes
from source
to texture
the interface is built around two main blends. mute and ring set the acoustic character; each can stay clean, take on wire-recorder tone, or switch to recorded free-rhythm takes.
the central ray-shaped slider blends the acoustic layer with its paired synth texture. two tempo-synced lfos can move both blends over time.
the other controls shape the details: attack, filtering, saturation, space, and subtle pitch drift. the mic section switches between mid-side width and centered mono, while touch and noise add extra physical detail.
package
- free au / vst3 plugin
- 2.5 gb unpacked
- sampler not required
sound engine
- 15 notes / 5rr / 6 velocity layers
- mute + ring
- clean / wire / chaos
features
- 4815 samples
- 2 tempo-synced lfos
- preset browser + color themes
how it was made
oktava ml-16 and mk-13m
recorded with two vintage oktava microphones: a 1972 ml-16 ribbon for the side signal, and a 1975 mk-13m condenser for the center. the ml-16 gives a softer tone, while the mk-13m brings a clearer, brighter center. either microphone can be used alone, or opened into a wider mid-side image.
ritm-2 and elektronika em-04
ritm-2 provides steadier mono tones, while elektronika em-04 was recorded as moving string textures with pitch, filter, and level changes played by hand.
mn-61 wire recorder
the main mute and ring samples were passed through the mn-61 wire recorder to capture its aged tone. in wire mode, the metallophone takes on that rougher, time-worn tone.
recording notes
luch was born from a rare soviet children’s metallophone found at a flea market. every note was recorded carefully, not only for pitch and dynamics, but for the feeling of time inside the sound.
15 notes were captured in several articulations: ring for sustained open notes, mute for notes damped with masking tape, and ring chaos / mute chaos for free-rhythm takes recorded on each note.
the clean recordings were shaped through vintage channel strips: preamp, eq, and compression stages.
tick, hiss, crack, and touch were recorded as physical details around the instrument: an old soviet savan clock, the mn-61 wire recorder, and soft mallet hits on a taped plate.
- composers looking for an authentic vintage tone
- sound designers working with ambient and atmospheric textures
- musicians drawn to history, memory and imperfection in sound
- anyone who wants a real trace of the soviet era in their music
- soviet children's metallophone
- oktava mk-13m condenser microphone
- oktava ml-16 ribbon microphone
- ritm-2 synthesizer
- elektronika em-04 synthesizer
- mn-61 wire recorder
- tesla & eag console modules
- rft oktavfilter
- download and unzip the archive.
- place the sample folder anywhere you want.
- move the vst3 file to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/.
- move the au file to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/.
- open luch in your daw and point it to the sample folder.
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