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Gliss

A touch controller for your modular synth

Gliss is designed for human touch. Built using the same high-precision capacitive touch sensing technology that we developed for the Trill touch sensors, Gliss offers superb touch control that brings physical interaction into your synthesiser setup. Gliss is a powerfully practical tool that lets you generate and record voltages in real time, scale and offset incoming CV and audio signals, and much more.

Table of contents

  1. 4 modes of touch control
  2. Gliss form factors
  3. Tech Specs
  4. Learn about Gliss
  5. Firmware v2 is here!
  6. Hardware
  7. Buy Gliss

4 modes of touch control

Gliss offers unparalleled touch control through 4 modes:

  1. Control: generate CV and gate signals based on your precise finger position and touch size (how hard you press on the Touch Strip).

  2. Record: draw waveforms directly into your system and record gestures of up to 60 seconds, then play it back in a variety of ways (like looping to make a custom LFO, triggering it as an envelope, and much more).

  3. Signal: along with visualising any signal, you can scale, offset and smooth CVs performatively, outputting the processed signal, an envelope of the input, or both.

  4. Notes: five notes at fixed, user-configured voltages that can be used as an expressive keyboard with five touch-sensitive buttons, or as a step sequencer that’s played using an input clock signal.

Gliss form factors

Gliss is available in the original 4HP version, as well as in the new 1U form factor. Buy them on the Bela Shop, or from our worldwide network of distributors.

If you already own a Gliss, you can also buy a 1U faceplate from the Bela Shop to convert it to a 1U module.

Tech Specs

  • Width: 4 HP 3U, or 20HP 1U
  • Depth: 27mm
  • +12V: 150mA
  • -12V: 30mA
  • Voltage rating: Input and outputs are ±10V safe. Usable range for both input and outputs is -5V to +10V

Learn about Gliss

We’ve made in-depth learning materials for you to get up and running with Gliss as fast as possible:

  • The Gliss User Manual. This fully illustrated and in-depth guide takes you through all modes and features, and details all Gliss’s available customisation. It also includes a printable cheat sheet for quick reference.

  • The Gliss Video Manual. We also made a video manual for YouTube, that goes through all modes and features.

  • Patch Notes. Patch Notes is a new series of instructional videos designed to help you get the most out of Gliss and provide a source of ideas for fueling your own experiments and discoveries.

  • Artist Meets Gliss. In this series of videos we get Gliss in the hands of artists we deeply respect to see what they can create with the module.

Firmware v2 is here!

In October 2024 we released the second version of the Gliss firmware. This firmware introduces functionality for using Gliss in the 1U orientation, as well as a range of new features that make Gliss more useful than ever. Read all about the new features on the Bela Blog.

This firmware ships on all new modules and is available for free for all Gliss owners. To upgrade your Gliss, you just need a Chrome browser and a micro USB cable. Go to the Gliss Upgrade tool to upgrade your module in seconds.

Hardware

All Gliss hardware design files are 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 is licensed under the GNU Public License, or GPL. All project files relating to Gliss can be found here: https://github.com/BelaPlatform/Gliss

Buy Gliss

Gliss and Gliss 1U are available on the Bela Shop and ship worldwide. Gliss and Gliss 1U are also available through our worldwide network of distributors.

If you’re interested in being a Gliss distributor, please get in touch!