Gotharman Little deFormer Quick Manual
Gotharman’s
Little deFormer
Quick Manual
Contents Of This Manual
Introduction 3
Very Special Thanks To 4
Audio Path 5
Getting Started 6
Well, Now It’s Time For Some Action 10
Editing Parameters 11
List Of Parameters 13
Common 13
Sampler 13
Record A Sampling 18
Compressor 28
Distortion 29
Filter 30
Time & Pitch Effect 32
Sequencer 46
Modulation 48
Knob CC’s 50
Save Preset 51
FLASH 53
Updating The Little deFormer Firmware 55
List Of Included Samplings 60
Introduction
Thank you very much for purchasing/consider to purchase a Little deFormer.
The Little deFormer are the result of a lot of ideas I have been writing down, since I made the first
deFormer in 2009, coming true. It has more effects (plus more to come), more filter types, an added
sampler, a much improved sequencer, it’s expanable and MIDI updatable, and has much more
power.
The idea behind
Being a budget musician, you usually don’t have the cash to bring out and set up all of your gear,
when you go out and play live.
The alternative is to sample phrases from your gear, and just trigger those samplings live, or to prerecord everything on a dat recorder or one of all those fancy new recorders.
Personally I have used both methods, but found both of them really boring. That was why I made
the first deFormer. After I made that, I brought a Roland MC-909 or a SP-606 and connected their
output to the deFormers audio input. Because of the deFormers great granular effects, it was now
possible to really tweak the samplings, and do something while standing on the stage, and it was no
longer boring.
In the Little deFormer, I have added a sampler with a stunning audio quality, ready to be boosted up
on a big PA. So now it is only nescessary to bring one piece of gear…
Because of the deFormers unique and high quality Gotharman made effects, it is also usable as an
add-on for the studio, who needs something that they can’t get anywhere else (at least not at this
moment).
I hope you will deForm some great tracks with it.
Very special thanks to:
Kris Kunz
Georg Osswald
Kirk Marrison
Rafael Marfil
Gene Schwartz
Halvard Djupvik Smedsrud
David Kronemyer
Egan Budd
Steve Korn
Pedro Figueredo
Goeran Stangeland
James Neville
Robert Korizek
For supporting this project. I really appreciate your trust. Without you, the Little deFormer
might not have been…
Gotharman May 2012
Gotharman May 2012Gotharman May 2012
Gotharman May 2012
Getting Started
Well, now you got your Little deFormer, you probably can’t wait to get it up and going, so let’s
jump right to it.
Connecting:
Connect the audio out 1 or 2 or both to a mixer or an amplifier, or anything else that ends out in a
set of speakers, a single speaker, or even a pair of headphones, if you are in a neighbour friendly
mood. Since it doesn’t have build in speakers, it just needs to be connected to something, that can
transfer its amazing sound to you.
If you plan to control it from a MIDI device, connect that to its MIDI input.
If you would like to effect some other gear through the Little deFormers effects, connect this to
Audio Input 1 and/or 2. NOTE: When nothing is connected to Audio Input 2, Audio Output 2 are
internally connected to this. The audio in 2 level parameter then acts as a feedback control.
Connect the supplied power adaptor to the Power DC input, and to a 100V to 240V power source.
It’s a 9V, 660 mA type with a 2.1 mm DC plug, with positive middle.
Turn it on
Toggle the power switch on the back, so its pin is pointing down. Your Little deFormer should now
turn on.
The User Interface
Volume knob
Turns the output level of the Litte deFormer up or down, depending on what direction you are
turning it. Clockwise movement will turn the volume up, counterclockwise movement will turn the
volume down.
Edit button
Pushing this will access the edit menu’s. It is also nescessary to push it, to confirm a preset change.
Exit button
This will exit from any menu to the preset select screen.
Dec and Inc buttons
These will select preset. In the edit menu’s they will select among the different edit pages. In the
Assign menu they will select samplings. Holding one of these buttons down, will cause it to scroll
through presets/samplings/pages.
Assign button
Push this one time, so the Assign LED is lit, to select a sampling for the last pushed step button.
Push any step button, to view what sampling is assigned to it, and use the inc/dec buttons to select
another sampling
Push it one more time, so its LED is flashing, to mute/unmute any of the 32 sequencer tracks, by
pushing the step buttons.
9 – 16 button
When on the preset select screen, this button swithes between sample 1-8 and sample 9-16
triggering, via the step knobs.
On sequencer step programming screens, it toggles between step 1-8, 9-16, 17-24 and 25-32. When
reaching step 17-24 its LED flashes slow, when reaching step 25-32, it flashes fast.
On the sequencer track mute/unmute screen, it is also possible to access track 17-32 in a likewise
manner.
Freeze – Start/stop button
Pushing this button freezes the audio content of the time and pitch effect. If a preset is stored, with
this button active, the frozen audio content will be stored together with the preset as a sampling, and
re-loaded the next time you select that preset. The Freeze LED is Flashing to visualize the delay
time of the selected time & pitch effect.
When the Assign LED is lit or flashing, or when a sequencer edit page is selected, this button
functions as sequencer start/stop.
The 8 Edit Knobs
Edits up to 8 parameters at a time on the various edit pages. When on the Preset select page, or the
edit group select page (explained later), these knobs sends out a selected MIDI CC number, both to
the MIDI OUT and internally. Parameters assigned to be controlled by ”Kn1-8” will be affected,
when turning these.
The 8 Step Buttons
On most pages, these triggers the sampling assigned to them. On the sequencer track on/off page,
they toggles each sequencer track between on and off stage, and on the sequencer pages they step
grid program the sequencer tracks.
Well, now it’s time for some action
If you have followed the previous steps, your Little deFormer should now be turned on and
connected. When it is turned on, it starts up on the preset select screen:
Listening to the pre-programmed preset sequences
Push the ”Assign” button one time, so it is lit.
Push the ”Freeze Start/Stop” button one time.
The sequencer will now start.
To stop it, hit the ”Freeze Start/Stop” button again.
Listen to some other preset sequences
Push the ”Assign” button 2 times, so it is unlit, and you are back on the preset select screen.
Use the ”Inc” and ”Dec” buttons to select another preset.
The ”Edit” LED will start to flash.
Push the ”Edit” button to confirm the change to another preset.
If the sequencer is still running, the ”Edit” LED will now start to flash faster, until it reaches the
sequencer start step. Then the ”Edit” LED will go out, and playback of the newly selected preset
will start.
If the sequencer is stopped, it will change to the new preset, immediately when the ”Edit” button is
pushed.
Listen to some samplings
While still on the preset select screen, push some of the step buttons. You should now hear some
samplings play back. The step LED will light up, as long as the sample is playing.
Push the ”9-16” button to switch between sampling 1 to 8 and 9 to 16.
Selecting other samplings for the step buttons
Push the ”Assign” button one time, so its LED is lit.
Push a step button.
The assigned samplings name and number are now displayed.
Push the ”Inc” and ”Dec” buttons to assign another sampling to the step button.
[AnaBeat ] A01 (0- 0)
Kn1 Kn2 Kn3 Kn4 Kn5 Kn6 Kn7 Kn8
[dmTom1 ]
203
Editing parameters
From the preset select screen
Push the ”edit” button one time, to enter this screen:
This is referred to as an ”Edit Group screen”.
By pushing the ”Inc” and ”Dec” buttons, you can select between various edit group screens:
[AnaBeat ] A01 (0- 0)
Kn1 Kn2 Kn3 Kn4 Kn5 Kn6 Kn7 Kn8
COMMON
SAMPLER
COMPRESSOR
DISTORTION
FILTER
TIME & PITCH
SEQUENCER
MODULATION
KNOB CC’s
SAVE PRESET
FLASH
To go back to the preset select screen, from the edit group screens, just hit the ”Exit” button.
To enter the parameters for the selected group, hit the ”Edit” button.
The first parameter screen of the ”SAMPLER” group of parameters looks like this on the Limited
edition model:
Push a step button to select the sampling you want to edit.
Use the 8 edit knobs to edit the parameter values.
Push the ”Inc” and ”Dec” buttons to select various parameters.
Push the ”Exit” button to go back to the edit group select screens.
In the ”SAMPLER” and ”FLASH” sections, there are some special parameter pages, that might
look like this:
On these parameter pages, you will have to push the ”Edit” button, either to enter a set of subparameters, or to make the little deFormer perform a certain function.
Tune . Fine . Gain . Env . Dec . Mode . Chop . #chp
+ 0 + 0 + 0 Off 128 poly Off 1
SAMPLE REC >
PUSH <edit>
List Of Parameters
This list of parameters is only valid to the common firmware version, and there might be some
changes to this in future updates.
COMMON
Inp1 – -128 to +127. Adjusts the level of audio input 1. Negative values will damp the signal,
positive values will gain the signal. While monitoring the input signal, on this page, the 8 step
LED’s will act as a VU-meter. Adjust the input level, so stepLED 8 (the rightmost one) is not
lighting up.
Bus – 1 to 4. Selects which one of 4 busses Audio input 1 should be routed to.
Inp2 – -128 to +127. Adjusts the level of audio input 2. Negative values will damp the signal,
positive values will gain the signal. If nothing is connected to Audio input 2, Audio output 2 will be
internally connected to this, and the level parameter will act as ”FeedBack”. While monitoring the
input signal, on this page, the 8 step LED’s will act as a VU-meter. Adjust the input level, so
stepLED 8 (the rightmost one) is not lighting up.
Bus – 1 to 4. Selects which one of 4 busses Audio input 2 should be routed to.
Chan – 1 to 16. Common MIDI channel select. The Little deFormer will receive and transmit note
on’s and off’s, and controllers on the channel selected here.
Clck – Int, Ext. Clock select. Selects whether Little deFormer’s sequencer should sync to its own
internal clock source or to an external MIDI clock source. If ”ext” is selected here, a MIDI clock
transmitting device must be connected to Little deFormers MIDI IN.
Xmit – Off, On. Selects whether or not Little deFormer should transmit MIDI clock pulses on
MIDI OUT. Unlike most other MIDI gear, Little deFormer is able to re-transmit external MIDI
clocks, that is present on its MIDI IN.
SAMPLER
Tune - -128 to +127. Adjusts the pitch of the selected sampling. Negative values will pitch the
sampling down, positive values will pitch the sampling up.
Fine - -64 to +63. Fine tunes the pitch of the selected sampling. Negative values will pitch the
sampling down, positive values will pitch the sampling up.
Gain – -128 to +127. Adjusts the level of the selected sampling. Negative values will damp the
sampling, positive values will gain it.
Env – Off, On. Selects if the selected samplings level should be controlled by a decay envelope, or
not.
Dec – 0 to 255. Sample envelope decay. The decay will be relative to the length of the sampling.
Mode – poly, mono. In poly mode, 4 samplings can play back at the same time, in mono mode only
one sampling can play back at a time, and samplings will cut each other off. The mono mode is very
useful in conjunction with the sample trigger system mentioned later, for creating a kind of
wavesequencing.
Chop – Off, 1-63. Selects what chop frame should play back. This can only be adjusted, if a
sampling is chopped, using the ”auto chop” or manual chop functions mentioned later. If the
sampling is not chopped, this parameter will have no function.
#chp – 1 to 64. Adjusts how many chop frames should be played back in a row. Like the Chop
parameter, this will have no function, if the selected sampling is not chopped.
Strt – 0 to 255. The selected samplings start point. When triggering the sampling, playback will
start from the adjusted point. This parameter is relative to the selected samplings length.
Fine – 0 to 255. Fine adjustment of the selected samplings start point. . This parameter is relative to
the selected samplings length.
Lngt – 0 to 255. The selected samplings playback length. When triggering the sampling, it will play
back for the adjusted amount of time. This parameter is relative to the selected samplings length.
Fine – 0 to 255. Fine adjustment of the selected samplings playback length. . This parameter is
relative to the selected samplings length.
Loop – Off, On, Togl.
Off – When the sampling is triggered, it will play back one time from the adjusted start point.
On – When the sampling has played back one time, after triggering, it will loop back to the start
point, and start playing back again, for as long as the step button is held.
Togl – When the step button is pushed, the sampling will play back like in loop mode, and keep
playing back, until the step button is pushed again.´
Trig – Off, 1 to 255. Selects a point in the selected samplings playback time, where it shall trigger
another sampling. At a setting of 1, it will trigger the other sampling immediately after it is
triggered, at a setting of 128 it will trigger the other sampling, when it has played back half of its
time and at a setting of 255, it will trigger the other sampling, when it has reached its end point.
This parameter is relative to the selected samplings length.
Smpl – 1 to 16. Selects which sampling it should trigger.
Bus – 1 to 4. Selects which one of 4 busses the selected samplings audio output should be routed to.
Phaz – 0 to 255. Phaze effect. Each sampling on the Little deFormer has its own phaze effect. This
parameter adjusts the phaze angle. If the next parameter (Levl) is set to zero, this parameter will
have no effect at all.
Levl – 0 to 255. Phaze effect level.
Cut – 0 to 255. Each sampling on the Little deFormer has its own filter. This parameter adjusts the
cutoff frequency of the selected samplings filter.
Reso – 0 to 255. Adjusts the resonance of the selected samplings filter.
Type – The response (type) for the selected samplings filter. Choices are:
Lpf – Lowpass.
Bpf – 4 pole bandpass.
Bp8 – 8 pole bandpass.
Hpf – Highpass.
Add – This is actually not a filter, since it doesn’t filter out harmonics from the sample, but adds
some.
Bef – Band reject filter.
Bass – Enhances the low frequencies of the sampling, and passes the high frequencies through in a
very poor way.
Lofi – A destructive lowpass filter.
fEnv - -128 to +127. Adjusts how much the sample envelope will affect the filter cutoff frequency.
Negative values will reverse the envelope.
fMix - -128 to +127. Filter mix. Adjusts the mix between the clean sample output, and the filter
output. At position zero, you will only hear the output from the filter. At positions +127 and -128,
you will only hear the clean sampling. When turning this parameter from zero to +127, the pure
sample will be added more and more to the filter output. When turning it from zero to –128, the
pure sample will be subbed more and more from the filter output.
mEnv - -128 to +127. Adjusts how much the sample envelope will affect filter mix. Negative
values will reverse the envelope.
Filter adjust 1, 2 and 3 – 0 to 255. A little deFormer speciality. With these 3 parameters you can
adjust the filter response, and create completely new filter types. It’s a bit hard to explain what
exactly they do, and it is also a bit unpredictable. Tweak and listen.
SAMPLER special parameter pages
Re-save sampling
When you have adjusted the startpoint and length of a sampling, you might want to save it that way
(Called ”Truncate” on many samplers). Or when you have auto-chopped a sampling, you might
want to save the chops as single samplings. Or maybe you just want to re-name a sampling. All
these functions are accomplished with the Re-Save function.
How to use it:
1. Adjust the sample start and length to your likings, or auto/manual chop it, and select the chop
you want to save.
2. Push the step button, and listen to the sampling. What you hear it play back, is what will be
saved as a new sampling.
3. Navigate to the re-save screen.
4. Push the ”Edit” button. That will take you to this page:
5. Use edit knob 1-8 to adjust the first eight characters in the new samplings name.
6. Push ”Inc”.
7. Use edit knob 1-4 to adjust the last 4 characters in the new samplings name.
8. Push ”Inc” again.
9. The display will read ”Saving…” for a short while, and then it will return to the Name 1-8 page.
10. Your new sampling has now been saved at the next available location on the internal FLASH
memory, and can be recalled, by assigning it to a step button.
RE-SAVE >
PUSH <edit>
Name 1 – 8 PUSH
dmTOM1 <inc>
Erase sampling
Since there might be cases, where you would like to delete a sampling, that function is added too.
T.ex. when you have re-saved a sampling with correct start and end points, you might not need to
keep the original. Then you go to this page.
Push the ”Edit” button to go to this page:
The last selected sampling will show in the display. If this is not the sampling you want to erase,
push the ”Inc” and ”Dec” buttons to select the right one.
Push the ”Freeze” button. This display will show:
Push the ”Dec” button, if you are sure that you would like to erase this sampling. If you are not
sure, hit the ”Exit” button.
If you decide to push the ”Dec” button, this display will show:
Since little deFormer records samplings to the FLASH memory in a linear fashion, the hole that this
sampling leaves, will need to be filled out, so it starts moving the above samplings:
If there are many samplings after the one you erased, this takes very long time, so this system will
most probably be changed in a future firmware.
When the erasing and moving is done, it will return to the ”Select sample to be erased” page. If you
need to erase more samplings, repeat this procedure, if not, push ”Exit”.
ERASE SAMPLING >
PUSH <edit>
[dmTOM1 ]
460 <frz>
Sure?
<dec> = yes
Erasing…
Sample 460
Moving…
Sample 461
Record a sampling
This lets you record your own samplings. If the device you want to sample does not have a volume
knob, you should go to the ”COMMON” edit group before you proceed with this, and adjust the
input level as decribed in that section.
HINT: When you enter the sample parameters, from the edit group menu, you will only need to
push ”Dec” one time, to enter this sample recording menu.
To proceed, push the ”Edit” button:
Use edit knob 1 to select what you want to record. Select ”Input” to record an audio source
connected to Little deFormers audio inputs, select ”Output” to re-sample anything that is going on
inside Little deFormer.
Activate the source. If the source is ”Output” play Little deFormers step buttons or start the
sequencer. The step LED’s now acts as a VU-meter. Take care, that step LED 8 (the rightmost one)
does not light up. If it does, adjust the level of the source, or push ”Exit” and go to the
”COMMON” section and adjust the input level.
Now push ”Dec” to activate recording. The display reads:
Activate the source to record it. When you are done recording, push ”Inc” to go to this screen:
If you would like to audition you sampling, push the ”Inc” button. If you would like to name it and
save it, push ”Dec”. If you would not like to keep this sampling, push ”Exit”.
If you choose to push ”Dec”, you will go to this screen:
Use edit knob 1-8 to select the first 8 characters of the new samplings name
Push ”Inc”.
SAMPLE REC >
PUSH <edit>
Source. PUSH
Input <dec>
Records….
Stop = <inc>
Audition = <inc>
Name = <dec>
Name 1 – 8 PUSH
dmTOM1 <inc>
Use edit knob 1-4 to adjust the last 4 characters in the new samplings name.
Push ”Inc” again.
The display will read ”Saving…” for a short while, and then it will return to the record source select
screen.
Your new sampling has now been saved at the next available location on the internal FLASH
memory, and can be recalled, by assigning it to a step button.
Auto-chop
If you have recorded a sampling, that contains more than one sound, t.ex. a beat or different
variations of the same sound, or just a lot of different sounds in one sampling, you might want to
trigger one sound at a time. You can, of course, adjust the start point and length of each sound
manually and re-save them, as described earlier in this manual, but that is rather time consuming.
Instead you might want to use this auto-chop function. It detects the start point of each single sound,
adds a chop mark, and lets you select each sound using the ”Chop” parameter.
It does not do anything to the sampling itself. It just creates a table of chop points, which the chop
parameter then uses to find the startpoints very fast.
To do this, make sure that the sampling you want to auto chop was the last sample that you
triggered using the step buttons. If you are not sure, please trigger it, using the step button.
Push the ”Edit” button.
The display will read:
After a short while, this screen will appear:
It is now possible to test the chop points. Push the step button, the chopped sampling is assigned to,
to audition. Push ”inc” and ”Dec” buttons to select the chop to audition.
If you are satisfied with the result, just push ”Exit”, and go to the ”Chop” parameter to play with the
newly created chops.
If you are not satisfied with the result, you might need to adjust the 2 parameters, and retry by
hitting ”Exit” and ”Edit” again.
The parameters:
Sens – 0 to 255. Adjust how loud the level of the sample audio should be, before it detects a start
point. If it creates too many chop points, turn this parameter up a bit. If it creates too little or no
chop points, lower this parameter.
AUTO CHOP >
PUSH <edit>
Analyzing…
Sens . Dec . Sample
39 2 1
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