Speak & Glitch GND-1T
Circuit Bent Speech Chip Synthesizer
Embrace the mayhem...
explore circuit bending and controllable chaos like never before
The GND-1T (Glitch&Drum 1 Touch) is based on a faithful emulation of the TMS speech synthesis chip found in the classic vintage Speak and Spell game. It was inspired by many years of circuit bending hardware Speak and Spells to produce musical sounds, but takes it far beyond anything that’s possible in hardware. It offers a whole new approach to chip sound synthesis, looping and rhythm generation.
The GND-1T contains all the amazing features of the original GND-1 SPEECH SYNTH plus a whole load of new ones. The 1T is a complete stand-alone chaos monster, producing things you never thought possible from a circuit bent speech-chip synth. You can use it in total stand-alone mode using its built-in drum kits or driving external MIDI drum devices, or hook it into your system as a synth module, MIDI drum generator / sequencer, effects processor, or a whole range of other uses. It adds to the GND-1 a resonant post filter, overdrive and echo effects, unique internal drum kits, USB digital audio I/O capabilities, analog AUX input, host USB port for external controllers, touch screen control and parameter editing, headphone output, assignable encoders for live parameter control, and many amazing new modes and parameters (the revised DRIFT and MORPH functions are a sound-sculptor’s dream tools).
Click on any of the icons above (or the main image) to hear some audio demos straight from the GND-1T. These are single patches without any morphing or drifting activated.
For more extensive demonstrations, check out some of these YouTube videos:
Official GND-1T introduction and quick-start
Official GND-1T YouTube channel short topical tutorials
Loopop’s extended GND-1T review
Joe Manton’s GND-1T demos who contributed to the development of the GND-1T with me
Hideaki Shirato stepping through some of the original GND-1T factory sounds
You may also want to download the USER MANUAL to see why you won’t find another synth on the planet like it! I can particularly recommend reading the two “Essentials” pages, and time permitting also the “Core Parameters” pages, which describe the key concepts in the GND-1T
Buy Now
The GND-1T is now available to order using the links below. Prices are in Australian Dollars and are inclusive of world wide shipping. The optional hard case (AUD $39) is a heavy duty hard plastic case (Pelican Style).
GND-1T + world wide shipping AUD $869 (~ US $540 as of January 2025)
GND-1T + hard case + world wide shipping AUD $908
Highlights
• Faithful emulation of the classic vintage Speak and Spell speech chip
• Digitally circuit bent and capable of so much more than in hardware
• Synthesis: formant / vowel / glottal / speech / rhythm / groove / circuit bent / glitch / complex oscillator
• Expansive / feature rich / sophisticated / deep architecture allows you to get inside the speech synthesis chip
and explore this highly unique synthesizer (This ain’t your dad’s spelling machine)
• Around 150 real time parameters, with full stand-alone control and editing using the touch screen and encoders,
or via MIDI over both USB and 5-pin DIN (with user defined thru connectivity)
• MIDI USB HOST port for external controllers / keyboards
• Five GROUPS of (3+3) assignable encoders for instant ‘live’ parameter control via 30 virtual encoders
• MIDI clock master or slave with direct clock sync of Drum triggers, Echo delay time, LFOs, Tempo, and Block Step Morphing
• Additional MIDI clocked scaling options with individual PPQN scalers for Drum Rate limiter, LFOs, Tempo, and Loop Length• Automation capabilities that enable parameters to randomly DRIFT and MORPH between patches (with lots of modes)
• Full bidirectional MANUAL MORPH control between any patches with save option at any morph setting
• Powerful Expression Matrix allows every parameter (including MIDI clock BPM) to respond independently to modwheel,
velocity, breath-control, after-touch, and a dedicated expression LFO (XPlfo) modulation block
• Unique modulation blocks that mix twin waveforms selected from ~40 different wave shapes and signal sources each
• Audio rate modulation of amplitude, pitch and speech filter using the “MFO” (Medium Frequency Oscillator)
• Touch Sensor, main rotary encoder, and MIDI note number assignable to expression matrix controllers and much more
• Extensive randomisation possibilities with undo• Ultra dynamic MIDI Rhythm Generator algorithm improvises drum grooves on-the-fly as it interacts with the synthesis engine
• Over a dozen Drum parameters, with the same extensive control as synth parameters and saved with each patch
• Drum note triggers can be sent to 40 unique built-in drum kits and external MIDI devices, and act as modulation sources
• Ability to also trigger the built-in drum sounds using external MIDI channel 10 note-on events• Full stereo 44kHz analog and digital USB Audio I/O , stereo overdrive, (fat) resonant Post-Filter, and echo / looper functions
• Store up to 1000 presets with seamless preset switching and morphing
• Store up to 128 instantly switchable Driftbuffers
• Store up to 1000 SCENES that can capture and recreate complete GND-1T (morphing) states
When viewing the manual, turn on any index/outline options toin your viewer to use the clickable index.
The ‘printer friendly’ version is in grayscale, so may also be preferable to show highlighted search terms
NOTE THAT SENDING A SYSEX BANK FILE TO YOUR GND-1T WILL OVERWRITE ANY PATCHES YOU HAVE SAVED IN THOSE LOCATIONS, SO BE SURE TO RELOCATE THOSE FIRST IF YOU WANT TO PRESERVE THEM
These are the original factory patches 0-100 that ship with the GND-1T. The zip file includes 10 variations so you can choose where you want to save them: starting at 0, 100, 200… 900
These are a small number of firmware V2.0 replacement patches for any original factory bank patches that used LFO based drum triggers, and have been reprogrammed to use the new internal MIDI clock feature. Sending this SysEx file to your 1T will overwrite patches 25, 52, 66, 75, 81 and 98. As well as patch 22, which wasn’t LFO triggered but is a completely new patch. Any GND-1T purchases that ship with FW250325 or later already include these.
Relocatable Factory and tuned Keyboard banks (Jan 20, 2025)
The original factory sound bank #0-99 in the GND-1T contains primarily loop and drum examples. An additional bank of melodic “keyboard” patches is located at locations #500-599. Click the Keyboard or Factory Patches buttons to the left to download zip files containing 10 copies of each bank so you can choose alternative starting locations in the GND-1T to be 0, 100, 200 … 900.
Unzip the downloaded file, select the SysEx file for the patch range you want to send the bank to, and upload it to your GND-1T over MIDI. NOTE that the Keyboard patches are now also approximately tuned.
V2.0 Firmware features
V2.0 adds several new features including internal/external MIDI clock sync expansion, short built-in help messages for each parameter, ROM Pitch-contour-quantization, clocked Drum and Tempo swing controls, patch-specific Drum mutes, the ability to store complete manual morph configurations in Scenes, and various new encoder and note-on expression modes. See the MIDI reference V2.0 for full details.
Note that the expanded MIDI clock functionality includes three new clocked drum trigger modes, two of which replace the previous LFO drum trigger modes. This firmware may therefore require you to reprogram any patches that previously used LFO based drum triggers. These are expected to be relatively small in number as the ROM based triggers are generally more flexible. You can retain the ability to sync clocked LFOs and drums in the new FW by using the D snc options on the LFO page (see the User Manual V2.0).
V2.0 firmware release
Latest firmware revision V2.02 (FW250409A)
uploaded April 9, 2025
The V2.0 firmware is now included in any GND-1T purchase. It adds some great new features, including the ability to act as a MIDI clock master (or slave). The MIDI clock (BPM) is fully expression mappable, and can be sent out to external devices via DIN, USB, and Host USB ports. Full details of the new features can be found at the start of the V2.0 MIDI reference document, and throughout the V2.0 User Manaul.
The previous versions (1.6) of the manuals and firmware remain available using the buttons below