Skiff 1.3.2: a stereo HALL reverb, Skiff in your browser, an update mode that says what it is, and a finer vibrato.
Thank you, @positionhigh and @benjaminguerrer, for finding that HALL was mono (#19), @benjaminguerrer for asking for a browser emulator (#18), everyone who reported an FM-1 that stayed black after an install, and the comment that found the vibrato too strong at 1 %.
Install: in Chrome or Edge with the Skiff installer, or download skiff-1.3.2.fwsc below and run python tools/fm1_install.py skiff-1.3.2.fwsc. Custom firmware, at your own risk; the installer page also takes the FM-1 back to the official V15 firmware. Your projects, sounds and patterns from 1.3.1 stay as they are.
New
- HALL is stereo. Skiff's HALL was its own reverb: ROOM's network run at half the rate, with one output for both sides. It is now Felucca's HALL: eight delay lines that all feed each other, read through slow drifts so the tail doesn't ring, with their own left and right outputs. SIZE sets the tail from about 0.4 s to 4.6 s, and DAMP how fast its top dies away. Projects that use HALL sound a little different: smoother, denser and wide. ROOM and SPRING are as they were.
- Try Skiff in your browser. The page runs the firmware itself, compiled to WebAssembly, on a drawn FM-1: the screen, the lights and the sound. Play it with the mouse, a touch screen or the computer keyboard (Z to ' and Q to O are the keys, 1 to = the buttons, [ and ] OCT, the arrows SELECT and ALGORITHM). A MIDI keyboard on the computer plays it too, in browsers with Web MIDI. Its saves stay in your browser. Not there: USB (the editor, MIDI out, USB audio) and the TRS MIDI jack.
Fixed
- Update mode had a black screen. An install that is cut off (a cable pulled, a computer asleep) leaves the FM-1 in update mode, where it comes back at every power-on until an install finishes. It looked dead: the screen stayed black, and M-VAVE's updater can't see it. Now the update loader says UPDATE MODE, WAITING FOR THE SKIFF INSTALLER, KEEP USB CONNECTED (you'll see it for a moment during every install). On a unit whose install was cut off, run the Skiff installer again and it finishes the install. While it writes it shows WRITING, DO NOT SWITCH OFF and a bar, and UPDATE FAILED with the same way out if a write stops. The loader comes with the package being installed, so this is there from installs of 1.3.2 on. The README's "If the FM-1 does not start" now begins with this case.
- LFO DEST PITCH was too strong at its lowest settings. At +1 % it was already a ±19-cent vibrato, and it moved in 6-cent steps. Its depth is now squared: +100 % still reaches ±11.8 semitones, while the low end is fine (+1 % is under a cent, +6 % about ±5 cents, +12 % the ±19 cents that +1 % used to be), and the vibrato glides smoothly. The factory sounds with a vibrato are retuned to sound as before. Your own sounds and projects: a vibrato set before 1.3.2 is now gentler. For the old depth, set +1 % to +12 %, +3 % to +17 %, +6 % to +25 %, +15 % to +39 %, +31 % to +57 % and +50 % to +71 %. MOD's PITCH destination is as it was.
- MENU's STEP PREVIEW and SCREEN OFF show a new value as soon as you turn them; before, the row kept the old one until something else redrew the MENU.
- The README's table of sound types adds up to the 148 factory sounds again (BASS 19, LEAD 24, DRUM 34, as SAVE › PRESETS lists them).
Going back to 1.3.1
Everything saved with 1.3.2 opens on 1.3.1, where a project set to HALL plays 1.3.1's mono HALL, and an LFO PITCH depth plays deeper (1.3.1 reads it on its old, straight scale).
Credits
The HALL and the browser build are Felucca's, by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments); the browser build follows charlesvestal's X0X (GPL-3.0). Skiff is built on Felucca; 1.3's release notes have the rest of the credits.
Files
skiff-1.3.2.fwsc: the firmware package (identity FM-1_713, as 1.3 and 1.3.1)skiff-1.3.2.zip: the package, the app image,SHA256SUMSand every licence and attribution text they need
The package holds three unmodified files of the JieLi AC79 SDK (Apache-2.0); see LICENSING.md. SLICE's BREAK and FUNK were made with YuE2 by Multimodal Art Projection.