Gotharman's Tiny LD

[Exiannyc]

I‘ve been traveling some more recently, which was one of the main reasons for getting a Tiny LD. My regular LD3 mkI is not super big either, but the Tiny is still more compact and backpack-friendly, yet it offers basically the full Little deFormer 3 experience. ...

It’s powered by a Harley Benton PowerPlant 9V/USB Power Bank, so I didn‘t even bring a regular power supply, just my USB mobile phone charger. Very convenient! I‘ve already created several presets, which I plan to record and edit into a TinyLD-only travel music release

@Flx thx for the info about the Power Bank and I'm glad to hear you like both the TLD and the LD3. I have the little one but not the big one.

I sometimes wish I had more buttons and knobs, but I still love the TLD, and I think it's amazing that Gotharman's offers so much power in such a tiny, portable box, at a price point that's so reasonable.

[flx]

I sometimes wish I had more buttons and knobs, but I still love the TLD, and I think it's amazing that Gotharman's offers so much power in such a tiny, portable box, at a price point that's so reasonable.

Yes, I‘ve been explaining the LD3 to someone recently on another forum and realized again how crazy deep and flexible it is. Having the same functionality in the Tiny LD as well is amazing! I think the menu navigation and programming works well on the Tiny LD, but I also wish it had more potentiometers for performing. I like to map all the eight knobs on the LD3 to certain parameters and play with them and the morph knobs at the same time. I‘ve already been thinking of opening up my Tiny LD to see if there was space for some more small potentiometers and a little Arduino MIDI controller board But this might be a bit too much of a hack. Either way, it‘s an incredible travel synth and I‘m really happy that I ordered one.

[flx]

Actually ... it might not be such a crazy hack after all. I just opened up my Tiny LD mkII and there is indeed quite some space underneath the product label, between the touch screen and the back side connections. I think one could easily install at least four, maybe even six potentiometers there, plus an Arduino Pro Micro, which runs on 9V, acting as a MIDI controller. The Arduino could be directly connected to the MIDI IN port of the Tiny LD internally and one could even add an off switch for the internal connection, in case one wants to use an external MIDI signal

Looking into the Tiny LD from the right side:

3172A5B1-7863-474C-AA89-187415E61E4F.jpeg

Possible potentiometer locations:

9523EB2F-EA22-4555-8E9F-34F32B36A31B.png

Edit: The only problem I‘d see is drilling the potentiometer holes into the top panel, with the touch screen still glued in place. Not sure if the vibrations from the drill might damage it.

[Exiannyc]

Wow! @flx You are thinking "outside the box" and seeing some amazing possibilities!

[gotharman]

A performance on the TLD based on a 5 second melody from the Ellitone E[64] generative music device.

Really nice video! Thanks so much for making and sharing!

[gotharman]

I‘ve been traveling some more recently, which was one of the main reasons for getting a Tiny LD. My regular LD3 mkI is not super big either, but the Tiny is still more compact and backpack-friendly, yet it offers basically the full Little deFormer 3 experience. Here it is on one of several train journeys:
87A3311B-D5ED-4786-BBB0-536713C724DB.jpeg

It’s powered by a Harley Benton PowerPlant 9V/USB Power Bank, so I didn‘t even bring a regular power supply, just my USB mobile phone charger. Very convenient! I‘ve already created several presets, which I plan to record and edit into a TinyLD-only travel music release

Great to see, that you are enjoying your Tiny LD on your travels!

[gotharman]

Actually ... it might not be such a crazy hack after all. I just opened up my Tiny LD mkII and there is indeed quite some space underneath the product label, between the touch screen and the back side connections. I think one could easily install at least four, maybe even six potentiometers there, plus an Arduino Pro Micro, which runs on 9V, acting as a MIDI controller. The Arduino could be directly connected to the MIDI IN port of the Tiny LD internally and one could even add an off switch for the internal connection, in case one wants to use an external MIDI signal

Looking into the Tiny LD from the right side:
3172A5B1-7863-474C-AA89-187415E61E4F.jpeg

Possible potentiometer locations:
9523EB2F-EA22-4555-8E9F-34F32B36A31B.png


Edit: The only problem I‘d see is drilling the potentiometer holes into the top panel, with the touch screen still glued in place. Not sure if the vibrations from the drill might damage it.

This certainly looks like a serious hack

If the box is assembled, to keep things steady, and you start by drilling the holes with a smaller drill (2-3 mm), and then drill them up to the desired size little by little, it might work. The box is made of steel, which is a hard material, so you might need some drills, that is meant for this.

Looking forward to follow this

[flx]

Thanks for the tip! I’ve got several metal drill bits and I will try it out. Probably won’t have time until the end of the month, but we’ll see

[flx]

Alrighty! Here‘s my Gotharman Tiny LD travel album finally


LINK

Over 40 minutes of digital granular synth sounds, made entirely inside the Tiny LD without analog filters and without external samples, while I was sitting on trains and in hotel rooms. There is a tiny bit of Cubasis 2 mastering EQ and compression in there, but it’s very transparent, so the original Little Deformer 3 sound is well preserved.

Enjoy

[gotharman]

Alrighty! Here‘s my Gotharman Tiny LD travel album finally


LINK

Over 40 minutes of digital granular synth sounds, made entirely inside the Tiny LD without analog filters and without external samples, while I was sitting on trains and in hotel rooms. There is a tiny bit of Cubasis 2 mastering EQ and compression in there, but it’s very transparent, so the original Little Deformer 3 sound is well preserved.

Enjoy

WOW! Thank you very much for making a Tiny LD album! It sounds great!

[Exiannyc]

Bought! Nice work. Thanks!

[flx]

Thank you very much!!! It was awesome to create this album! My next Tiny LD project will probably be a release using only external samples. I also need to play more with the SpazeDrum and LD3, but the Tiny LD is so couch-friendly

[gotharman]

Ahh yes, Tiny LD and battery bank on the couch! There's nothing better!

[flx]

My Dual Line SSI2140 Filter Board arrived today! Looking forward to mount it in my Tiny LD mkII on Saturday and play with some analog sounds

628020483.021451public.JPEG

[flx]

An update on my Tiny LD modification project. I soldered a little thing with three pots and an LDR and connected it to an Arduino Pro Micro, which outputs serial MIDI. Had the software ready from another "Modular CV to MIDI CC" project already, so that part was easy. Now I just need to wire some more switches to the thing, solder it to the Tiny LD's 9V input and MIDI IN and cram it into the housing ... reeeaally not much space in there. Problem is that if it doesn't work out as I've planned, then my Tiny LD will still have holes in it But I'm optimistic that it'll fit. Wish me luck!

gotharman_tiny_ld_modification.jpg

[gotharman]

That looks like a serious project :-() I wish you all the best of luck! I hope that it will work out!

[revtor]

Test it before you drill the holes!! (Duh!!!)

Hope it works for ya!

[flx]

That looks like a serious project :-() I wish you all the best of luck! I hope that it will work out!

Thanks! Hopefully I‘ll finish the project tomorrow

Test it before you drill the holes!! (Duh!!!)

Of course, but I can‘t test how well it will fit unless I drill the holes. I can only measure and hope for the best. But yeah, I‘m quite convinced that it‘ll work.

[flx]

Success!!!


Testing the Arduino MIDI controller, attached to the Tiny LD with crocodile clamps:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_02.jpg

Removing everything but the glued-on touch screen:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_00.jpg

Marking how much space I have, and later also where to drill, on some sticky paper:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_01.jpg

Pre-drilling the top panel with a 2.5mm metal drill bit worked super well:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_03.jpg

Opened up the holes with a 5.5mm and 6.5mm drill bit. The pots actually needed a 7mm hole, which I didn‘t have a bit for, but I could expand them with the 6.5mm one:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_04.jpg

It all fits:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_05.jpg

Testing the Arduino MIDI Controller again. Still all good

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_06.jpg

Cramming everything into the case. The Arduino sits in the lower left corner and is held in place with a piece of 3M Dual Lock (my favorite synthesizer adhesive):

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_07.jpg

Added some potentiometer caps:

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_08.jpg

ttnm_gotharman_tiny_ld_mod_09.jpg

So now I have two switches, each sending either a CC value of 0 or 127 (which I can scale and invert in the Tiny LD), three pots and a light-dependent resistor (LDR). Switching the first switch up will make the LDR hold its current value, which I always wanted to try. From testing it now, it‘s indeed a cool feature, because you can shine a light on the LDR or cover it with your hand and if you want to do something else, you can just hold a nice sounding LDR value, without it jumping back to zero or the maximum again.

I also added a random CC generator for each control in a different CC# range. So flicking switch 1, for example, will set CC#20 high or low, but also generate a random value on CC#40. Same for the pots and the LDR. So in total I have twelve CC# for funky, manual modulation.

So far so good though! I will post some video jams with that setup of course. I must also find a good way to disable my mod next, because right now it‘s soldered to the MIDI In port of the Tiny LD internally, so I can‘t connect an external MIDI source.



EDIT: Formatting, typos, all electronics working fine now, added random CC generator to the Arduino code.

[gotharman]

This looks really cool! Great work!

[flx]

Here's a little video blog about my Tiny LD modification:

[gotharman]

A new update are now available for LD3 and Tiny LD:

-4 new SVF digital filter types
-New insert effects OverShifter, EQ 2 and asymmetrical Distortion
-Filter board types are now selected by their actual VCF number, and correct parameter names are now shown
-Compatible with the forthcoming VCF10 filter board
-VCF8 cutoff limitation added
-Filter board “Peaks” switch is now set to “Separate” in an initialized preset
-LFO’s key trigged one time mode added
-Effect buffer clear when changing presets, can now be switched off
-Transpose sequencer note track from MIDI keyboard is now possible
-LD3 and Tiny LD are now running exactly 44.1 KHz
-Tiny LD only: Reload preset/Advance song step function has been added to Tiny LD

Get it here:
www.gotharman.dk

[Exiannyc]

Woo hoo!

[gotharman]

Woo hoo!

[flx]

So cool to have some of the SpazeDrum features in the deFormers too now! And also thanks for the little tweaks and fixes!!! I will install the update on the weekend.