A MIDI app for building and switching performances in seconds, on hardware and software instruments alike. Every channel gets its own sound and its own way of playing, and together they blend into one combined sound, with thirds harmony that follows the scale and transposes with you. It works with any keyboard or sound module that understands MIDI, and runs on the Android tablet or phone you already own.
The demo is the full app with a few limits: up to 3 performances, and no microtuning, pads or added channels. Everything else works. To unlock the full version, send the device code from Settings › License by email and you will get an activation code back.
The first time, Android asks you to allow installing apps from this source (Install unknown apps). Allow it just for this install.
Glisando sits between your keyboard and your sounds. Notes come in over MIDI and go out harmonized and transposed, and every channel gets its own sound, volume, key range and velocity range. Pads send notes, CC messages and program changes. It is a MIDI controller, so it drives whatever is listening: a workstation, an arranger or a sound module.
Save the current state as a performance: channels, sounds, volumes, key, scale, harmony, split, layers and tuning. Recalling it sends everything at once.
Each chord tone leaves on its own channel, so the third can be a clarinet while the melody stays on accordion. Diatonic types follow the key, and notes outside the scale are harmonized with intervals that still sound right.
Below the split point the left hand plays without harmony on its own channel. Turn on AUTOSCAN and the chord you hold there drives the right-hand harmony, like the chord memory of an arranger.
Choose a scale and Glisando bends each degree by the right number of cents before the note starts, on the melody and harmony channels. The left hand stays tempered. One tap on SCALE switches the tuning on or off during a song.
| Scale | Family | Degrees from the tonic |
|---|---|---|
| Rast | Arabic | 3rd −50 · 7th −50 |
| Bayati | Arabic | 2nd −50 |
| Sikah | Arabic | tonic −50 · 5th −50 |
| Uşşak | Turkish | 2nd −23 |
| Hicaz | Turkish | ♭2nd +10 · 3rd −10 |
Slide across one to three octaves of the current scale, or switch to Pitch mode and bend a held note. Moving up and down can send modulation.
Twenty-four pads, each with its own name, colour and channel. A pad sends a note, a CC message or a program change; while you hold it, it fills with its colour, and when you let go the colour fades out slowly.
How players use Glisando between the keyboard and the sound.
A four-hour set with the tablet on the music stand.
Turkish and Arabic songs on a keyboard without a maqam scale function.
No keyboard at hand: play the on-screen keys.
Glisando speaks standard MIDI, so it works with any keyboard or sound module that does.
The keyboard sends its keys to Glisando and gets the harmonized notes back. Switch MIDI Echo/Thru off on the instrument.
Seven themes, an accent and display colour of your choice, a hardware look with real LEDs, and a large-text mode for a tablet at arm's length.
Not at the moment. Glisando is an Android app, so use an Android phone or tablet.
Only what you set. Any bank, program or volume field can stay at –, which means nothing is sent for it.
PANIC stops every note on all 16 channels, and Glisando also releases stuck notes by itself when the app loses focus or the MIDI output changes. It detects MIDI loops between input and output and pauses the input.
Yes. UNDO steps back through the last 50 changes, and a performance can always be recalled from the set list.
No. Everything runs on the device, and all settings are stored there.
Want the full version, or have a question? Write to us by email.