video upload by Richard Devine
"@sigilinstruments diceFriend is absolute madness 👹 watch your volume knob! 🔥"
Note, this appears to be the first post to feature diceFriend.
Pics and details via Perfect Circuit
"Experimental by design, diceFriend by Sigil Instruments is a compact standalone synthesizer with manifold personalities that will be particularly appreciated by those who enjoy adventurous instruments. Stripped of screens and menus, diceFriend centers intuitive gesture and listening as the core of the music-making experience. The sound and behavior of diceFriend are entirely determined by the installed OS, and there are already more than a dozen varieties, ranging from pulsar and modal synthesis to engines inspired by Rob Hordijk's Blippoo Box and Peter Blasser's chaotic instruments.
Each enclosure is a hand-crafted wood piece, so every unit has its own unique look. Control-wise, it features three brass touchpads and six unlabeled knobs that, together with a SHIFT layer, provide direct access to twelve parameters. The namesake DICE button is a randomizer driven by a PRNG combined with thermal noise. Pressing it randomizes all twelve parameters as well as internal synth variables, setting the instrument into an entirely new state—and with 281 trillion possible states, you can be sure never to exhaust the options. Cleverly, after a roll, the knobs pick up from their randomized values only once moved, so nothing jumps abruptly.
A long press of the DICE button switches between two OS-contingent modes. AS (Autonomous State) typically treats diceFriend as a generative playground, with chaotic attractors and Rungler-style shift registers driving the algorithm. TS (Touch Synthesis) mode activates the three brass pads for tactile interaction, where pressure and hold time shape dynamics and timbre.
Lastly, a 3.5mm stereo line output sits alongside two CV inputs on banana jacks that act as clock, trigger, or modulation sources depending on the OS. Over USB-C, diceFriend appears as a class-compliant MIDI device with clock send and receive, and it can double as a CV-to-MIDI interface for other gear. Boasting plentiful stochastic adventures for sonic explorers of all stripes, diceFriend from Sigil Instruments is a musical companion you want to roll with again and again.
