Reviews / Dvina

Sergey Evlash

I want to thank you for Dvina. I like it so much. Thank you that you made it. I can’t say how much interest it brought to my music and self-expression. Thank you so much!

JAKUB HUSSAR

I am totally in love with her! SO GREAT! Sound is incredible. I am testing it with Summit Audio preamp + Klark KT-2A compressor + Strymon BigSky reverb + Eventide Pitchfactor. You did such great work! Big respect.  

Charles Tyler aka “bmot”

I’ve had the DVINA for a few months now, to add to my Lyra 8. Due to the quality of the Lyra-8, I was confident enough to pre-order the DVINA after watching a few of Vlad’s demo videos. It’s a simple instrument in every way, basically 2 planks of wood and 2 strings! But as expected, it’s well designed in every way too, and most importantly it is fun to play and sounds just as good as Vlad’s demos. I love that it plugs directly into everything I’ve tried with enough amplification but no feedback or noise. Try with FX pedals and synths with external audio inputs for interesting experiments. Maybe you haven’t played bowed or string instruments before, and you wonder whether you will be able to learn it. I can tell you it’s not hard to learn, you’ll be making great tones pretty quickly. This is helped by the well thought out ergonomics, so it’s pretty light, easy to hold, and easy to move your fingers around the fretboard. Clever design, good looks, quality materials, sounds lovely. Thanks, SOMA for another winner.

Tamás Fodor

I love it how it sounds it makes me feel like I’ve played on string instruments for a long time 🙂 I love this instrument!!!

J. J. Abrams

IT ARRIVED!!! It’s AWESOME. It sounds GORGEOUS. Huge thanks.

Thomas Lundberg (techno/ambient artist, Amsterdam)

Dvina sounds really really good. And with just two strings to tune, it is quite fun and appealing to try out different tunings. I have to say the variable design is genius. Being able to shift the bottom part into a different position in mere seconds really makes this a user-friendly and comfortable instrument to play. The Dvina is inviting to play and to experiment with, plucking on the strings for meditative pieces, and for creating etherial sounds with a bow and effects pedals. A handheld string exciter like the Paul Vo Wond also creates interesting results.

Casey Neiditch

My DVINA arrived today!
I am not sure if you made a special one for me, or if you changed the appearance a little, but I really like the two-tone look! The colours are beautiful! Everything is designed so well, even the cases it comes in! I appreciate all of the work you put into it. Tomorrow I start plugging it into pedals. You have made me very happy! It is a great honour to be associated with SOMA instruments!
Since playing DVINA I can also say: I am very impressed with how clean DVINA sounds plugged in – no noise! I ran DVINA through delays, choruses, reverbs. It all sounded amazing! I look forward to making a song with just SOMA instruments. SOMA makes the coolest instruments on the planet!
Thank you Victor! Thank you Maxim! Thank you Vlad!!! Thank you Team SOMA! Stay healthy! and please keep creating amazing new things!

Casey Dorsey

I just got my Dvina today.  It is such an amazing electro-acoustic instrument. I have been trying to get a strong
signal on my upright bass, probably a matter of picking up a better pick up. Anyways the Dvina sounds the way I knew my granular processors could with a good signal. The clarity is incredible, the detail in articulation is incredibly exciting. Can’t give enough thanks for this instrument.

Francis Bourre

I just got it today. I plugged it this evening and it’s amazing. Can’t wait for using it again tomorrow. I love it. And thanks for making this amazing instrument. Love from Germany.

Yila/Alastair McNeill Brown

It’s so great! I’m enjoying so much.. The Dvina is a bridge from my guitar to a more expressive world and a bridge from the resonance of an instrument to effects, synth control and electric experimentation. It feels alive and is beautifully made, a real inspiration to play. Thanks to you all for dreaming new things!

Coloboma/Tamas Fodor

It sounds beautiful clean and sharp full of beautiful harmonics I love it!

Erez Webman

I just received the Dvina, in perfect condition. I actually had a bow from an earlier indian instrument that I used to have, so I was already able to play it a bit. Sounds fantastic! The “naked” sound sounds fantastic quality (I have a recording studio) and it also works very nicely with all sort of effects – pedals, rackmount, and computer DSP.

Thanks so much!
Erez Webman
Israel

Barthelemy Vaucelle

HI Viktor, I received my Dvina yesterday. It arrived in perfect condition, hasn’t been opened in custom. « Ancient vibes vs. High technologies »… My God, what a blast when I connected it to a few effects (distorsion, delay, reverb). I played it all day and last night, and I’m now able to produce some indianish flavoured mélodies to incorporate in my electronic tracks. But more! It surpassed my expectations, really, being such an inspirational instrument in itself, and I’m happy to be a novice on it, thinking I will learn it, and work my sound with it for the rest of my life…

I know you suffered during its making, because of the horror of war, and I guess this contributes to giving the Dvina a sort of soul, a compression of willingness for peace. I confess there have been a few tears of mine when I suddenly realized, while I was beginning to play in tune, that this piece of wood might be, for me, a symbol of the cardinal principle of my humble philosophical research. I remembered Gurdjieff, who travelled long time ago from Russian to France, to avoid the war, carrying with his disciples the quintessence of ancient arts, musics, danses, spiritual exercises, with the objective of safeguarding them from barbarism, and to transmit some tools of wisdom to the future générations. I remembered when an old master asked me « Why are we searching Truth ? » I tried a few answers, false. The answer was « because of war, because when we starting to awake, the only reason to continue to live on earth become to prevent wars and to stop barbarism ». I still meditate on these words, meditate on what will be my first goal and responsibility if, one day, I’m awake. And I’m sure my Dvina will help to achieve that. I have the feeling that we realized, you realized, a part of this endless work. A tool of wisdom, of peace, like every musical instrument is in fact, but with a special flavour in this one, for me. We are idealists. Never give up.

Thank you Vlad, Thank you Soma, long life to you.
Cheers, Barthelemy Vaucelle.
France

Kevin Nayling

My DVINA arrived safe and sound last week. It’s a wonderful instrument, in fact, I’ve not been able to stop playing. Had to stop for a while now though, I’ve played so much that all my right hand fingers have blisters 🙂
I’ve played, and performed, with a lot of instruments over the years. The DVINA ranks in my top 5 instruments of all time.

Thank you for making this remarkable instrument for me. I consider it a privilege to own and play.
Thanks for everything. It means everything to me.

Kevin Nayling
UK

Thorsten Soltau — DVINA-essay

Jered Sorkin

DVINA is an immediately inspiring and evocative instrument to play with. As a cellist, it sometimes can be a struggle to get a good amplified sound, but the sound of the DVINA is just amazingly organic as soon as you plug it in! In the clip I am going directly into a tiny Vox go practice amp with a bit of on-board reverb and using my IPhone’s mic to record the room sound.