Liquid Sky d-vices: V4CO & GLITHc BOARD make noises in space
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Liquid Sky V4CO and GLITHc BOARD · Source: Liquid Sky
Liquid Sky V4CO · Source: Liquid Sky
Liquid Sky GLITHc BOARD · Source: Liquid Sky
Liquid Sky V4CO and GLITHc BOARD · Source: Liquid Sky
Liquid Sky V4CO Blue and limited edition Purple · Source: Liquid Sky
Liquid Sky V4CO Display · Source: Liquid Sky
At last, we have the full details of the first Liquid Sky d-vices – the UFO-inspired V4CO weird synth voice and GLITHc BOARD expander module.
V4CO
When an artistic community with the creative invention of Liquid Sky comes up with something then it will be worth your time to check it out. We’ve had a look at the prototype front panel and there was talk of aliens and things from outer space. We now know that the V4CO is a dual 8-bit wavetable oscillator.
Each oscillator has its own 16 banks of wavetables containing 16 waveforms. Some of them are the same in both, but there’s lots of variation. Each oscillator also gets a square wave sub-oscillator with separate and mixed outputs. There’s a pair of analog VCAs, and CV controllable analogue overdrive which is really juicy.
Liquid Sky V4CO · Source: Liquid Sky
The sound revels in its 8-bit quality, has some nice detuning, can run over 8 octaves and has an internal chromatic quantizer. You can select waveforms via control voltage, and there’s also a bit of FM and Sync going on for good measure. If you want, you can drop them into a free-running LFO mode for modulation or cross modulation, making for a bit of a complex party of modulated waveforms.
I really like the long-throw faders for waveform selection and transposition and the dot-matrix style display is pretty good too. All-in-all an interesting wavetable module that goes for performance-style intuitive controls rather than fiddly complexity. It looks like a load of fun. Here’s a quick overview:
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GLITHc BOARD
This strangely named thing is an expander for the V4CO. It’s a complex glitch laboratory which lets you dig into the internal routing like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s like doing real circuit bending on the module by changing the path of the signals while offering a whole load of logic, MIDI and different outcomes.
It’s really difficult to see in the videos because it looks like a bunch of modules when in fact, it’s a single module about the size of the V4CO with about 84 patch sockets (I have acquired a better photo – see below). Within that field of sockets you’ll find four logic functions, a couple of sequencers for manipulating wavetables, some multiples and MIDI In plus three MIDI Thru. You can manipulate the individual wavetable bits – it really is quite extraordinary.
Liquid Sky GLITHc BOARD · Source: Liquid Sky
Here’s some explanation which may or may not give you some insight into the madness of the GLITHc BOARD:
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I’m not sure I understand any of that, but there’s definitely something going on. I get the feeling that mystery is part of the vibe, so nothing is likely to become much clearer at the moment. Or, at least, I don’t even know what questions to ask!
It’s probably best to check out the jam (at the bottom) to appreciate the noises coming out of this thing.
Availability and planting trees
Liquid Sky is saying that these will be out around Christmas and will be available in both blue and limited edition purple editions. Prices are yet to be determined.
For each V4CO module sold, Liquid Sky will buy 5 sqm of land for noncommercial reforestation
and plant two 5-year-old oaks. For each GLITHc BOARD eXPENDR sold, it will buy 5 sqm land and plant one 5-year-old oak.
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