Gliss is an elegant and intuitive synthesizer module for touch control. This Eurorack module lets you draw waveforms directly into your system so you can add a human touch to your control signals. It also can act as a signal visualizer, slider, or expressive capacitive keyboard. Gliss is small (4 HP), and powerful, allowing you to control your signals through high-precision touch sensing. See how waves behave with descriptive and immediate visual output via LEDs mounted behind the touchplate.

Intuitive Modular Synth Touch Control

Modular synth systems are complex musical instruments, and parameter control is usually through buttons, knobs and sliders. These beloved interfaces are great for precise and accurate control but are not the most performative, and can feel one step removed from the actual control signals. Gliss introduces a kind of touch control which is intuitively and immediately connected to the output signals: you can literally draw the shape of your signals directly into your system.

Powered by the technology behind the Trill capacitive touch sensors from Bela, Gliss has high-resolution position and pressure sensing which is used in combination with a Cortex-M4F microcontroller to create complex behaviors like drawing in waveforms and looping them, with captivating visual feedback from the embedded LEDs. Gliss gives you control over the signals in your modular synthesizer in a way that’s inherently musical.

Features

• Control your modules directly, with touch position and pressure sent out as control voltages
• Record in gestures, up to 1 minute
• Loop the recorded gestures to create LFOs with custom waveforms
• Trigger the recorded gesture for custom envelopes, use the button or an external trigger
• Play on a 5 button expressive keyboard
• Scale and offset all CV outputs to get the perfect range for your other modules
• Visualize and process CV and audio signals in your system

Specifications

• Capacitive touch sensor with sub-millimeter accuracy (Cypress Capsense technology)
• STM32 Cortex-M4F microcontroller
• 24 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!
• Current needs: +12 V:150 mA, -12 V:20 mA
• Width: 4 HP
• Depth: 26mm with power cable

Design

With Gliss we’ve managed to squeeze a lot of useful features into a slender 4HP module. We’re really proud of the design which consists of 3 stacked PCBs: the Faceplate PCB which acts as the main input surface for the module with the capacitive sensing pads; the Main board with microcontroller, capacitive sensing IC, Op-amps and socket and button for I/Os; and the LED PCB which is sandwiched between and has 24 addressable RGB LEDs and the Micro USB programming port.

Reversible faceplates

All modules will ship with two faceplates, one with the jacks at the bottom and another with the jacks at the top. Switching the faceplates over is simple so you can find the orientation which best fits your system. The firmware also contains an option to invert all the output voltages so everything works as expected when flipped around.

Gliss in action

Below are four developer diaries videos which we have released as updates during the campaign. Each showcases a specific mode of the module in action and explains how it works. These videos show the current state of the Gliss firmware. Please note that we are actively working on the firmware for Gliss with a group of beta testers and everything is subject to change.

Mode Selection and Direct Control Mode

Record and Waveshape Mode

Scale and Meter mode

Expressive Keyboard Mode

Support & Documentation

Gliss will be released with an online instruction manual including a getting-started video guide and demonstration videos of each mode. For support and sharing experiences of working with the module we will use our forum.

Project Files

All Gliss hardware design files will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0 license (or CC-BY-SA), meaning they can be freely reused and remixed with attribution, provided modifications remain open source. This is a license we use with many of our other products. Gliss firmware is the code that’s flashed on each Gliss module. Gliss firmware will be licensed under the GNU Public License, or GPL. We will publish the repositories here before shipping out the modules.

Manufacturing Plan

We are working with a trusted manufacturing partner in Shenzhen on the PCBA for Gliss. We have worked with them for 6 years on many project of different sizes and fully trust their ability and the quality of their work. They have produced and assembled 50 prototype units of the module so far, across 4 different revisions. We are in the process of verifying the final revision and sending it to beta testers before making our final adjustments to the firmware. We have also already secured the key components for an initial production run.

For the campaign production run, once manufactured, the modules will be shipped to London where they will be assembled, flashed with firmware, tested and then packaged ready for delivery to Crowd Supply.

From Trill to Gliss

Gliss builds upon the technology used in Trill, our family of capacitive touch sensors, and in this campaign we will also be offering new and updated versions of our Trill sensors for purchase. Trill is a family of touch sensors that was inspired by the way we use our hands to interact with the world. Trill uses capacitive touch sensing to precisely track finger movements, making high-resolution touch sensing accessible to engineers and designers who want to incorporate touch into their interactive projects.

This updated revision switches out the Grove connecter for the significantly smaller QWIIC connector and also features design improvements like castellated pads on Trill Craft. Trill sensors are the perfect toolkit for building custom interfaces, bespoke controllers, and touch panels. Use them to sketch interface ideas and create new interactions in your hardware projects.

Fulfillment & Logistics

All orders will be fulfilled by Crowd Supply’s fulfillment services (run by Mouser Electronics) so backers can rest assured that they will receive the modules in a timely fashion and well-packed. Once manufacturing is complete and the modules have been assembled, flashed and tested in London, we’ll make a bulk shipment to Mouser Electronics, who will handle distribution to backers worldwide. You can learn more about Crowd Supply’s fulfillment service under Ordering, Paying, and Shipping in their guide.

Please note that Mouser prepay VAT and pre-clear customs for packages shipped to all EU countries, the UK, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand. This means that you will not have to pay anything more to receive your parcel on your doorstep. Read more in Crowd Supply’s guide to VAT and customs. Backers who prefer to use their VAT ID and not pay VAT at the time of purchase should be able to do so by contacting Crowd Supply to associate their VAT ID with their Crowd Supply account.

Risks & Challenges

Hardware design is a tricky process and there are many potential pitfalls which could lead to a delay in production. As a company we have extensive experience in designing hardware and software and delivering products to customers all over the world. Gliss’s hardware is in its final revision and we have already built 50 units, we also have a very good relationship with our contract manufacturer which will help make the delivery of this module as smooth as possible.

The semiconductor crisis has made hardware manufacturing a lot more complex with certain ICs becoming impossible to get hold of for the foreseeable future. One missing chip can be enough to stall the entire production. As an anti-semiconductor-crisis move, we have secured all the key components necessary for our initial production run. This includes the STM32 Cortex-M4F IC we are using as a microcontroller, and the Cypress Capsense IC we use for the capacitive sensing on the faceplate. Thankfully with a bit of patience we have been able to acquire a decent quantity of these components meaning we will be ready to press go on the final production run before the end of the campaign.

As a company we love launching products via crowd funding campaigns and we have previously ran two successful campaigns: Bela and Trill, both launched on Kickstarter. With this experience we are confident that we can deliver on time and be responsive to our backers’ needs.

For Gliss we have decided to launch on Crowd Supply, a platform which specializes in new and exciting open source hardware (Gliss is 100% open source, hardware and software). Crowd Supply are all about supporting small to medium scale electronics producers and helping the open source ecosystem grow. They have launched some of our favorite products in the last few years and we are proud to launch Gliss with them. A huge benefit is that the distribution side of things at Crowd Supply is taken care of by Mouser Electronics, making it much easier to get your hands on our products, regardless of where you are in the world.