News: Glo Polyphonic Whale Portable Ambient Soundscape Synthesizer!

Glo Polyphonic Whale is a portable Synthesizer that invites everyone to create ambient soundscapes using sounds of your own world!

There’s a lot going on at Kickstarter shortly before the end of the year. In addition to more classic synth products you will also find something that is not only for the deep Synthesizer Freak. From the developer of the Gecho Loopsynth comes Glo, a new pock-sized Synthesizer instrument that transforms without knowledge of synthesis, sounds of your world into an ambient soundtrack. The devices features four different soundscapes/channels that are inspired by one of the elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire.

The interesting part here is that it doesn’t respond only to sounds like singing, humming but also by touching the devices. With the ability to captures resonances from surfaces, you can also clap, tapp or scratch the surface for creating new sounds. All these interactions are captured by Glo and transformed in these soundscapes. Additionally to the 4 channels, there is also an experimental sound engine that includes different algorithms: delay line, reverb, granular sampler, vocoder, chorus, drum kit (WIP). A very interesting mini soundscape creator/Synthesizer in my opinion that offers a new way to discover sounds.

Overview

Glo is a fun, interactive and meditative sound experience. A pocket-sized device that transforms the sounds of your world into a melodic ambient soundtrack. Enclosed in a handmade wooden case. Glo uses interactive technology to transform the sounds of your world into a melodic ambient soundtrack. Relaxing, meditative and fun, it matches your mood with the push of a button.

Mood Channels

There are four basic soundscapes or “channels”. Each one has a different rhythm and background texture, inspired by one of the elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire. You can enjoy forests with birds, howling winds, waves of the sea and fantastic space frequencies.

You create your own musical theatre, designed to invoke positive emotions. Your polyphonic whale composes these soundscapes by integrating surrounding sound – your singing, humming, tapping on a surface, leaves rustling in the trees or under your feet, a barking dog or laughing child.

Motion Algorithm

The Whale is aware of its orientation in 3D space. To make your track even more interesting, variations are introduced depending on roll and pitch. For example, when you are in the “Water” channel and you dive the Whale’s head down, the sound of sea waves increases. When it emerges back from the deep, the waves will slowly fade away, giving more space for the environmental ambience.

The Whale does not have a built-in speaker although it might look like it might, thanks to the “gills” (or grills?) these are there so the sound can reach microphones.

Intuitive Usage

It is very easy to grasp the controls and understand how different movements translate to sound effects and variations. You don’t need to be a musician to play it; you will be in a full control of the soundscape in no time. However, the mighty whale may have a surprise for you here and there.

There is no screen to guide you through channels and options. We designed it this way to minimize distractions. Simply press ‘ON’ button and channel 1 will start. To switch between channels press ON button repeatedly. Be creative and explore sound possibilities. If you want to give your brain a special treat, enable the binaural beats mode by holding the ‘ON’ button for 4 seconds.

Pocket Size: The device fits into your pocket comfortably, however you will be tempted to fish it out very often! 🙂 It runs on two AA batteries.

Experimental Feature

This is optional and experimental feature. You do not have use it and it is not something that can get activated accidentally. At the moment it is not integrated into the main firmware, only exists in a separate code branch.

It works by alternating one of the polyphonic voices by a frequency difference. We want to work with people who are interested in this subject to gather feedback and fine tune the functionality. The goal is to make it work well, while soundscapes keep their pleasant sound.