Gliss

Intuitive Modular Synth Touch Control

Gliss is a 4 HP Eurorack module using a recordable touch sensor to introduce gestural control into modular systems.

Gliss simultaneously produces two high-resolution signals: one following your finger’s position, the other following touch size. These signals are available via two CV outputs, offering two distinct but related dimensions of control to route around your system.

Gestures can be recorded for up to 60 seconds and then can be looped, triggered or clocked, facilitating everything from touch-controlled, long-form modulation signals, to custom LFOs, envelopes and oscillators. This is an incredibly useful tool that allows users to create exactly the modulation they’ve imagined for a certain parameter in real time, rather than delicately fine-tuning a patch of different modulation sources.

Despite its compact size, Gliss is a powerful visualisation tool that diffuses LEDs through its faceplate to provide clear feedback of both internal and external signals. These both illuminate and track your gestures but also give clarity to external modulation sources. What’s more, those external signals can be clipped, offset, scaled and smoothed on the fly by touch, expanding CV utility work into an interactive, performative domain.

Gliss also packs in a variety of features through its concise menu system, providing a tuneable five-key keyboard with glissando and vibrato, five-step sequencer, waveshaper, wavetable and much more. Gliss is also open source, allowing users to hack, remix and extend the module.

Key Features

• Control your modules directly, with touch position and touch size available as control voltages
• Record in gestures up to 60 seconds
• Loop recorded gestures to create LFOs with custom waveforms
• Trigger recorded gestures for custom envelopes
• Play a tuneable five-key keyboard with glissando and vibrato
• Scale, clip, offset and visualise external CV and audio signals
• Open source

Tech Specs

• Capacitive touch sensor with sub-millimeter accuracy (Cypress Capsense technology)
• STM32 Cortex-M4F microcontroller
• 23 addressable RGB LEDs mounted below the faceplate for visual feedback
• Bicolor illuminated button input
• 1 mono jack input (-5 V to 10 V, over voltage protection)
• 2 mono jack outputs (-5 V to 10 V configurable)
• Works with Eurorack standard power supply (-12 V to 12 V)
• Comes with ribbon power cable
• USB micro socket for firmware updates, customization and hacking
• Comes with additional faceplate in opposite orientation
• Current draw: +12 V:150 mA, -12 V:20 mA
• Width: 4 HP
• Depth: 26mm with power cable
• Warranty -all assembled Gliss modules come with an extended warranty of three years from the date of purchase. The warranty covers return shipping to the customer (worldwide) but not the shipping of the device back to Bela.

Resources:

• Gliss User Manual
• Gliss Getting Started
• Gliss open-source files on Github