Gliss Video Manual

The Gliss Video Manual covers everything you need to know about your module. Gliss is a 4HP Eurorack module which uses a recordable touch sensor to introduce gestural control into modular systems.
Gliss is available on the Bela shop ( shop.bela.io/products/gliss ), as well as a network of worldwide distributors ( bela.io/products/gliss/#avail... ).
Download the PDF version of the Gliss manual here: bit.ly/gliss-user-manual
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:01 Hardware
03:19 The Menu
03:45 Mode selection
04:14 Settings selectors
05:03 Voltage ranges
06:57 Global settings
09:20 Control Mode
10:15 Control type
11:09 Latching
13:49 Record Mode
15:07 Loop
16:45 Trigger
18:20 Clock
20:55 Wavetable
23:01 Waveshaper
24:49 Signal Mode
25:14 Scale and offset
26:17 Envelope follower
27:45 Clipping
29:08 Notes Mode
29:29 Keyboard
29:59 Sequencer
31:05 Manual tuning
33:10 Tuning via CV
35:08 Sequencer step settings

[@alextkalenko]

I do not understand why Gliss is not on the "Best modules of 2023" lists. IMHO it is the best!

[@oromoiluig]

it is on some 🙂

[@alextkalenko]

@@oromoiluig it wasn't at that time.!😜

[@rawpawss]

Yesssss I’ve been waiting for this video yo reference. I really do love this thing. Went back for a second one!

[@Fsng837]

this module wont be leaving my rack. i think bela have done something quite special with this. expressive, playable interface stuff is really nice and gliss is really easy to use.

[@sawtoothwave]

Beautiful module! This one's on my shortlist.

Amazing! I need two of these for my live set up!!

[@kosmikmusa]

This is good. Well done.

[@darrellsmith5710]

Cheers, I may go beyond bespoke lfo shapes now

[@cardboardmusic]

Very clever, and looks very musical. One small question, why only 5 steps? I imagine there must be some technical limits when setting up the touch area or something? Otherwise surely 8 notes/divisions (to at least get a complete scale) could have been very useful.

[@oromoiluig]

It's an arbitrary limit, which we set for the menu: it's hard to reliably touch a discrete positions when there are more than 5 in the limited space of the faceplate. It's possible that for keyboard/sequencer use it wouldn't be too bad to have a few more, but 8 seems like a lot.

[@DrRichardScott]

Adding a fifth mode to emulate the behaviour of the SoundMachines LS1 would be a very good idea in my opinion? And locking the multitouch modes so you don't accidentally change or accidentally start reprogramming modes on the fly at a gig?

[@josephmattingly4512]

I grabbed four as soon as I discovered them a couple months ago. They are great however I would have gladly sacrificed a tiny bit of the capacitive surface to put the button on the bottom of the module. Four of them next to each other fully patched up means I have to use a pen or similar to push the button. Still cool but would love to see that hardware update on a v2

[@kitkatandy929]

Since it´s open-source, it could be realized via i2c and a separate push button module.

[@josephmattingly4512]

@kitkatandy929 while that is possible I see no reason why I would want to sacrifice hp just for a push button. Just slap it on the opposite side of the jacks and away you go.

[@JonModular]

What about the fifth preset on voltage range? this one appears as multicolor full band? I can't find info on manual neither here about that.... Thanks!

[@oromoiluig]

the order of the ranges as you cycle through them is: • 0V:10V • -5V:5V • 0V:5V • -5V:10V • custom range The custom range by default is -2V to 7V (currently), but it can be adjusted by hold-pressing the selector and move the two pointers that appear then. See page 15 of the Gliss manual.

[@JonModular]

Thanks @@oromoiluig, better explained than manual : )

[@VS3d0v]

Interesting! Although I guess a gate output is missing. What’s the software that you are using to preview the waveform on your tablet?

[@oromoiluig]

The "size" output can be used as a gate by setting touch sensitivity to the maximum. This is shown at 7:47 . The tablet is connected via wifi to the our Pepper module. Relevant signals are routed to Pepper via patch cables, where they are sent to the Bela scope, which is what's shown on the tablet.

[@ModLifeCrisis]

How do you turn the module the other way up? I’d like the jacks and button at the top. Thanks 🙏

[@BelaPlatform]

Gliss actually ships with the jacks and button at the top, so you don't need to do anything. We currently ship with a second faceplate with the jack and button at the bottom. See 08:42 in the video for an explanation of how to switch this around.

[@ModLifeCrisis]

Thanks. I just bought one. The module packs a lot of fun into 4hp. I love the light show too!

[@procactus9109]

I'm exactly half way into this video, it's starting to be a MacTiny... Interesting though... Now the 2nd half to watch

[@procactus9109]

I would have thought it would have a serial interface too.. With all those features it would be nice to be able to send and receive commands and values from another MCU... Nice unit

[@oromoiluig]

@@procactus9109 there is a spare I2C port at the back and a USB micro port, both can be used for future expansion, but there is nothing in the firmware right now except for the USB being used for firmware updates.

[@DrRichardScott]

How does one get to spontaneously loop a gesture when using it as a controller on the fly?

[@BelaPlatform]

Looping a gesture is the default behaviour of Record mode. Check out: 13:49

[@DrRichardScott]

I don't want it to default. I want to decide whether or not it loops on the fly, without changing modes. Check out the loop function of Soundmachines LS1. Your module is far superior technically but their implementation is better. I think a basic function is missing.

[@oromoiluig]

​@@DrRichardScott According to the LS-1 manual, you can hold-press the rec button while recording, after which the playback starts automatically, then press the play button to stop playback. On Gliss you can achieve something very close to that in Record mode, playback type "Clock" and no clock going into the input. This way you can use the button to control start and stop of the recording. This is shown briefly at 19:59 . The detailed procedures is as follows: - press the button once to start recording (equivalent to press and hold rec on the LS-1) - press the button once to stop recording (equivalent to release rec on the LS-1) - press the button three times fast to stop playback (equivalent to press the play button on the LS-1)

[@DrRichardScott]

Thanks, good to know it is kind of possible, but this also highlights the problem: "press the button three times fast to stop playback". Ask any musician: this function surely needs to be a toggle - on to loop, off to stop? Pressing something 3 times to stop something happening (on a module designed for touch and gesture) may be tolerable for programming a patch in a studio but it is not something anyone wants to do in the context of performance - it is programmer logic, not musician-friendly - counterintuitive, too slow and not gestural. Nevertheless, it is true that I had not figured this workaround out (indeed, a clock setting without a clock is also counterintuitive) and I will of course try the patch you've shared here when I get back to my pair of Glisses in the studio. I want to love them but have so far found them frustrating and more or less unusable except as a nice wonky LFO. I really hope user-feedback will create a significant software revision towards greater playability in future.

[@DrRichardScott]

I realise I am breaking your balls in a public forum here, for which I apologise, but I hope you can also tell I am trying to help

[@kosmikmusa]

There is only one problem. I need more than one.

[@thismeanswarbasse]

wait wait wait

[@DrRichardScott]

Huge potential but one of the worst UIs ever conceived, especially for the many of us with colour recognition problems. Plenty of clever stuff here but I feel not enough attention paid to the basics.

[@BelaPlatform]

Thanks for the feedback and sorry you feel so strongly about the UI. The minimal design comes at the price of the menu system. Alongside colour to guide you through the menus there are also animations which can be turned on which might help you. This means that every time you touch a selector you will see an animation played back on the sensor which shows the functionality of that selector. These were imagined as tool to help people with issues recognising colours. These are turned off by default. See the global settings section of the video for instructions on how to turn them on: 06:57

[@oromoiluig]

The color palette was limited by the properties of the PCB material used for the faceplate in the first production run: it blocks almost all of the blue light going through it, making blue and purple unusable and leaving us with red, orange, yellow, green and a flakey white, which admittedly is not the best palette to work with for someone with colour recognition problems. Luckily, for most of the elements of the menus the color of a selector is not meaningful and in order to browse most of the UI one can refer to the selector's position alone. The color only becomes meaningful for selectors 1 and 2 in the mode menu, where their color reflects the state they are currently in. One can enable "Menu animations" (8:17) so that changing a selector's state displays an animation of its new state. This can help both those users that struggle remembering the functionality associated with a color and those who have color recognition problems. I hope this helps.