Gibber: Kaotic Voice Synth

US Vocaloid madness with eurorack compatibility      01/05/24

Gibber is the first instrument from biyiblip - described as a Kaotic Voice Synth. From what I can decipher it outputs synthesized vocal gibberish which has numerous controls for things like pitch & phonemes, with a host of inputs and outputs for your modular systems. It's described as a generative box and is certainly unique in sound. Read more in the manual.

Here's what they have to say: 

I'm Gibber V3 is the first instrument from Biyi Amez's newly founded company, biyiblip. This is the ultimate version of the Gibber instrument, with several new features, including full Eurorack compatibility. New to this version are several new inputs and outputs plus a Eurorack power header and mounting holes which means in addition to continuing to function as a stand-alone desktop instrument, i'm gibber v3 can be mounted and integrated within a Eurorack modular system. 

The original Gibber device was created by Rob Hordijk and Biyi Amez in 2020 when the usual activities in the workshop at Hordijk Mansions in Den Hague had to be curtailed due to the pandemic lockdown. Biyi, Rob's friend, assistant and protege came across a rare and obsolete computer voice chip and had the idea to make a synthesiser with it. Rob's curiosity was piqued and over the next weeks, The Gibber was born. It is a generative / self-playing, yet also somewhat user-operable, device based on the prin- ciples of Rob's "Rungler" a digital shift register feeding back on itself, which stimulates the voice chip to continuously produces a stream of phonemes, vowels, plosive and syllables, based upon the English language, but bound together into a stream that never coheres into recognisable language or semantic meaning. And this original Gibber circuit truly did nothing but gibber; it didn't even pause for breath. Rob and Biyi made 5 prototypes of this lunatic instrument as gifts for friends to try out, including one going to myself. 

Three years later, Biyi has created this new version, i'm gibber, in tribute to our great friend and teacher. It is essentially still a quite mad sound toy, but this version 3 takes several more steps towards being more of a playable and modulate-able musical instrument too. i'm gibber v3 improves on the original in several ways and has various modifications that make it more playable, more unpredictable and a more melodic and texturally interesting. 

The Rungler now modulates pitch as well as phoneme; the Mantra mode freezes the phonemes, and whereas the original was absolutely remorse- less in its gibbering, the new device can now be made to randomly make pauses of various lengths, introducing something more like sentences and phrases: and these can now be controlled from CV too, as can pitch. While i'm gibber v3 is inevitably limited to the output of the vintage 1980s General Instruments' SP0256A-AL2 voice chip, which is the heart of its audio engine, the possibilities as a unique source, for examples, for sound processing, sampling and for triggering other devices, are endless. In this version the addition modulation inputs and outputs hugely expand these sonic potentials. 

Specifications 

• Eurorack size: 39HP 
• Signals: 0 to 5V. 
• USB power: 5v 
• Eurorack power connector: 10 pin. 

 

 

More from biyiblip

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.

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