SLM Audio have released Gleo, available as a FREE download.
Gleo was conceived as a physical model of a non-existent acoustic instrument, drawing inspiration from coastal post-famine-pre-industrial Ireland, the inevitability of nature, David Lynch, the music of Scottish smallpipe player Bríghde Chaimbeul and Lovecraftian fear of the unknown through the lens of apathy & despair. It aims to evoke a specific atmosphere, and has a distinctive sonic signature, rather than striving for versatility & more surgical sound design applications – in plainer terms, it “has a sound”. Gleo is fundamentally a resonator synth, where the initial excitation signal is a Lynchian black-noise (ordinary real-life sounds which undergo heavy processing & exaggeration to create a grotesque mirror of the familiar) source. The resonators then subtractively narrow this black-noise input into bands approaching pure tones, whose outputs undergo further obfuscated & arcane processing.
Gleo is deliberately subversive & designed to encourage experimentation & exploration on the user’s part. All of the sliders (aside from “fuaim”, the master volume control) control more than one internal parameter, and in certain cases multiple slider values contribute to a single internal parameter. One of SLM Audio’s focusses lay in making the user’s interaction with the plugin feel dynamic, and reminiscent of playing a physical instrument, with all the quirks & unpredictabilities that come with it. For example, MIDI note velocity is mapped to the gain of only the fundamental frequency of an active note – this allows the user to gently press a key to achieve an effect similar to that of playing harmonics on a guitar.
The instrument’s design consists of several spinning disks suspended on a central column, actuating banks of “strings” with each disk, loosely reminiscent of a hurdy-gurdy. These disks spin in response to midi messages according to the octave of the currently active midi note(s). This forms the centerpiece of the plugin’s gui – a 3d model of the instrument shrouded in a layer of shifting fog. The parameter values & characteristics of the audio output from the instrument affect the model & fog layer in various ways, with it ultimately acting as a highly stylised visualisation of the instrument’s sound.
The name “Gleo” (pronounced “glow”) is an Irish word for the sound of the sea when particularly mechanical or ominous, foretelling bad weather, from late Irish author, scholar & documentarian Machán Magan’s book “Sea Tamagotchi” – a collection of antiquated & unusual Irish words pertaining to the sea.
Watch the trailer HERE.
Gleo is available to PC and Mac users (VST3, AU and CLAP).
For more information on Gleo, click here:
NOTE: Some of the links you click on may be affiliated. Clicking and purchasing using these links helps support and fund The Beat Community. Thanks for your support.
