How to install batteries:
To access the battery chamber, remove the electronic sassembly from the wooden shell by lifting the front panel either at the point where the USB connector is, or by gently pulling the "tail" up. Please ensure that the batteries are correctly orientated and fully inserted - otherwise the metal contacts of two adjacent batteries will touch, which may create short circuit. The blue strip should be left under batteries, it helps to remove them easily. You can wrap its end around the last battery, so it does not get under the magnet, which would prevent the front panel and the shell from aligning evenly.
Something does not work as expected?
Just hold POWER and (+) buttons for 5 seconds, this will restart the whale and reset all settings to their factory defaults. Please note there is an error in the printed manual, mentioning CHANNEL instead of POWER button, sorry about that!
Light sensor
The whale's "eye" responds to the amount of light in the environment. To make it work well in different lighting conditions, such as artificial light or natural sunlight, you need to calibrate it first. To do this, cover the sensor completely and then uncover it fully. This will adjust the instrument's sensitivity to the ambient light levels. The calibration is lost when switching the sensor (or whale) off and on again.
Once calibrated, you can change the sound of the instrument by moving your hand closer or farther from the sensor. In most soundscape channels, this will affect the octave of the chord played by the "plucked string" at the start of each bar (the same instrument usually plays melody as well). It creates sounds similar to a guitar or a harp using Karplus-Strong synthesis. You can also strum the invisible strings by moving your fingers quickly in front of the sensor (a string is plucked when the sensor detects a short dip in the light level). Try this with one, two or three fingers to hear multiple strings plucked at once.
You can also activate a texture scanning mode by flipping the whale upside down. This mode will calibrate the sensor automatically when you move the whale over a surface with contrasting light and dark areas. It does not recognize colors, only brightness levels. The variations in the pattern will affect the sound in different ways, such as adding reverb or changing other parameters. The exact effects depend on the patch you are using.
List of all patches and their controls
Channel #1: Earth element
- Air On The G String via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Air On The G String via high-pass filter and Karplus-Strong
- Air On The G String via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Notjustmoreidlechatter via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Freedom of Creation via low-pass filter with high resonance
- The Original via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
Channel #2: Wind element
- Freedom of Creation via low-pass filter
- Main Demo Song via low-pass filter
- New Song via low-pass filter
- Notjustmoreidlechatter via low-pass filter
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter and Karplus-Strong
- Song of Wind and Ice via randomly evolving low-pass filters, with isochronic tones
Channel #3: Water element
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Rachel's Song via high-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Bad Apple via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Bad Apple via high-pass filter
- Ghost in the Shell via high-pass filter and Karplus-Strong
- Ghost in the Shell via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Ghost in the Shell via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Ghost in the Shell via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Ghost in the Shell via high-pass filter
- Notjustmoreidlechatter via high-pass filter
- Intro ad via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
Channel #4: Fire element
- Ghost in the Shell via high-pass filter
- Ghost in the Shell via high-pass filter and Karplus-Strong
- Bad Apple via low-pass filter with high resonance
- Bad Apple via high-pass filter with high resonance
- Rachel's Song via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Rachel's Song via high-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Intro ad via low-pass filter with high resonance and Karplus-Strong
- Song of Wind and Ice via randomly evolving low-pass filters, with isochronic tones
Channel #5: Reverbs and filters
- Decaying Reverb
- Polyphonic Decaying Reverb
- Space Channel with Reverb
- Space Channel
Channel #6: Granular Sampler and Drone
- Granular Sampler
- Droning Oscillators
Channel #7: Mutable Instruments Clouds adaptation
Parameters are either fixed or controllable via accelerometer & light sensor. If controllable, the format is:
- X/Y/Z/L for type of sensor, with accelerometer axes there can be "-" suffix to indicate flip
- range (from:to), the value will be adjusted between these two values over the 180 degrees of rotation
- with L, there can be an optional 3rd value as default (when light sensor disabled), otherwise the default is calculated at mid range
| Granular mode, patches #1-11 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patch No. | Position | Size | Pitch | Density | Texture | Dry/Wet | Spread | Feedback | Reverb | Pre-gain | Post-gain | Comment |
| 1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | X(-12:12) | 0.89 | 1.0 | 1.0 | Z(0.9:4) | 0.4 | Y(1:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | pitch shifter |
| 2 | 0.1 | Y(0.3:0.9) | X(1:12) | 0.89 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 0.48 | 1.65 | 1.0 | 0.6 | pitch shift w echo |
| 3 | 0.1 | Y(0.3:0.9) | L(1:12:2) | 0.89 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 0.48 | 1.65 | 1.0 | 0.6 | fairyland |
| 4 | 0.0 | X(0:0.5) | -4.0 | 0.89 | 1.5 | 0.75 | 8.9 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.5 | darth wader |
| 5 | 0.0 | X(0:0.5) | 12.0 | 0.89 | 1.5 | 0.75 | 11.9 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.5 | helium voice |
| 6 | 0.1 | L(0.9:0:0.5) | X(-17:-11) | 0.109134 | 12 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.0 | Y(0:1) | 0.5 | 0.25 | robot voice |
| 7 | 0.0 | X(0:0.5) | 0.0 | 0.89 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 8.9 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.25 | reverb chamber |
| 8 | 0.1 | 0.0 | L(-1:1:0) | X(0.2:0.4) | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.9 | Z(0.2:0.33) | Y(1.5:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | reverb w chopper |
| 9 | 0.204724 | 0.236220 | L(0:6:0) | X(0.35:0.4) | 3.968504 | 1.0 | 7.086615 | 0.031181 | Y(0.3:1.2) | 1.0 | 0.25 | chopper |
| 10 | 0.118110 | X(0.2:1.0) | L(0:6:0) | 0.335197 | 11.622047 | 1.0 | 6.236220 | 0.038976 | Y(0.3:1.2) | 0.2 | 0.25 | variable chopper |
| 11 | 0.204724 | X(0.2:1.0) | L(0:6:0) | 0.732756 | 3.968504 | 1.0 | 7.086615 | 0.031181 | Y(0.3:1.2) | 0.3 | 0.25 | random chopper |
| Pitch-shifter/time-stretcher, patches #12-22 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patch No. | Position | Size | Pitch | Diffusion | Filter | Dry/Wet | Spread | Feedback | Reverb | Pre-gain | Post-gain | |
| 12 | 0.0 | 0.1 | L(-1:1) | -1.449999 | 0.555906 | Y(1:0) | 5.173229 | 0.381968 | X-(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 13 | 0.0 | 0.1 | L(-6:6) | -1.449999 | Z(0:1) | Y(1:0) | 5.173229 | 0.381968 | X(0:2) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 14 | 0.0 | 0.1 | L(-12:12) | -1.449999 | X(0:1) | 1.0 | 5.173229 | 0.381968 | Y(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 15 | 0.0 | 0.1 | L(-12:12) | -1.449999 | Y(0:1) | 1.0 | X(0:6) | 0.381968 | Z-(-2:2) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 16 | 0.072441 | 0.351181 | Y(-6:6) | -1.5 | L(0.15:0.9) | 1.0 | 5.173229 | Z(0.1:0.24) | X(0:2) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 17 | 0.464567 | 0.919685 | X(-6:6) | Z(-1.5:1.5) | L(0.15:0.9) | 1.0 | 2.346457 | 0.452126 | Y(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 18 | L(0:0.5:0.472441) | 0.551181 | 0.377953 | -1.5 | X(0:1) | 1.0 | 2.173228 | 0.381968 | Y(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 19 | 0 | L(0:1:0.551181) | 0.377953 | -1.5 | X(0.1:1) | 1.0 | 2.173228 | 0.381968 | Y(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 20 | 0 | Y(0.1:0.9) | 0.377953 | -1.5 | X(0.1:1) | 1.0 | 2.173228 | 0.381968 | L(2:0:0.75) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 21 | 0.598425 | 0.262205 | Z(-0.779528:1) | -1.5 | Y(0:1) | 1.0 | 7.007874 | L(0.5:0.1:0.414488) | X-(2:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 22 | X(0:0.7) | 0.262205 | Z(-2:2) | -1.5 | Z(0.3:0.9) | 1.0 | 7.007874 | 0.381968 | Y(1:0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| Looping delay, patches #23-33 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patch No. | Position | Size | Pitch | Diffusion | Filter | Dry/Wet | Spread | Feedback | Reverb | Pre-gain | Post-gain | |
| 23 | 0.0 | 0.5 | X(-1:1) | 0.9 | L(0.2:0.8:0.4) | 1.0 | 2.5 | 0.45 | Z(1.5:0) | 1.0 | 1.9 | |
| 24 | 0.0 | 0.3 | Z-(0:12) | 1.25 | L(0.2:0.8:0.4) | 0.9 | 2.5 | 0.55 | Y(1.5:0) | 1.0 | 1.9 | |
| 25 | L(0:1:0.246457) | 0.283465 | X(-1:1) | 1.417323 | Y(0.1:0.8) | 0.75 | 7.275591 | 0.125 | 6.173228 | 1.0 | 1.9 | |
| 26 | X(0:1) | 0.283465 | L(-9:9:4.53543) | 1.507323 | Y(0.1:0.8) | 0.75 | 20.0 | 0.425 | 6.973227 | 1.0 | 1.7 | |
| 27 | 0.018425 | 0.198425 | X(-11:-13) | L(11:0:2.457) | Z(0.3:0.6) | 0.4 | 5.952756 | 0.148 | Y(1.133858:0) | 1.0 | 1.5 | |
| 28 | 0.598425 | 0.598425 | X(21:15) | L(11:0:2.457) | Z(0.3:0.6) | 0.4 | 5.952756 | 0.148 | Y(1.133858:0) | 1.0 | 1.5 | |
| 29 | X(0:0.291339) | 0.299213 | Z(1:-1) | L(6:0:2.835) | Y(0.1:0.8) | 0.4 | 5.858268 | 0.314 | 1.763780 | 1.0 | 1.5 | |
| 30 | Y(0:0.1) | 0.196850 | Z(12:-12) | 11.905512 | X(0.5:0.9843) | 1.0 | 0.188976 | 0.117 | L(2:0:0.512) | 1.0 | 0.5 | |
| 31 | Z(0:1) | 0.196850 | Y(12:-12) | 11.905512 | X(0.5:0.9843) | 0.8 | 0.188976 | 0.117 | L(2:0:0.512) | 1.0 | 0.6 | |
| 32 | 0.012598 | Y(0:1) | X(2:-2) | 9.805510 | Z(0.8:0.01) | 0.25 | 0.188976 | 0.217 | L(2:0:0.819) | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| 33 | L(0:1:0.1496) | Z(0:4) | X(3:-3) | 6.519685 | Y(0.1:0.8) | 1.0 | 2.834646 | 0.187 | 0.440945 | 1.0 | 0.6 | |
Channel #8: Infinite Looper with octave up/down pitch shifter
Below is the printed manual that you will receive with your Glo.
