illuminus5/skiff v2.0.2

Skiff 2.0.2

on GitHub

Skiff 2.0.2: fixes from your issues, notes up to 128 steps long, and the way back to the official firmware takes V16 too.

Thank you, @benjaminguerrer, for three precise bug reports (#57, #61, #56), @awchx for asking for longer notes (#58), and @rufous86 for the report of an FM-1 that came with V16 and couldn't go back (#64).

Install on the FM-1: in Chrome or Edge with the Skiff installer, or download skiff-2.0.2.fwsc below and run python tools/fm1_install.py skiff-2.0.2.fwsc. Custom firmware, at your own risk; the installer page also takes the FM-1 back to the official firmware, V15 or V16.

Install on the SMK-37 Pro: read SMK37.md first, then the same installer page, or python tools/fm1_install.py skiff-2.0.2-smk37.fwsc.

From 2.0 or 2.0.1: your projects, sounds and patterns stay as they are. From 1.x or Felucca: read 2.0's notes first: the installer page takes a backup and converts what needs it.

New

• Notes up to 128 steps (#58). LENGTH on NOTES, and PRESETS while entering steps, go on past 16 steps: up to 64 within a pattern, and past its end on through all of the next part of a chain (SONG, KNOB 3 below 1x).
• The way back takes V16 (#64). M-VAVE's download page has given V16 as FM-1.fwsc since October 21. An FM-1 that ran V16 goes back to V16; one that only ever ran V15 goes back to V15. Its start-up part decides (Skiff never writes a different one), and the installer now says which one a unit needs when you pick the other, or to update Skiff first when an older Skiff can't take V16. V15 is still in M-VAVE's fm1_open repository as sdk/firmware/FM-1_015.fwsc.

Fixed

• An FX key held as the layer locked stayed on, on every page (#57). Now it stays on, latched: its next press turns it off, and so does closing the layer.
• MOD's route 8 lit the grid's ENV › AMP cell too (#61). It lights its own row only.
• After SEQ › PATTERN, a held drum step offered GATE alone (#56). SEQ's own pages no longer decide which knobs a held step locks, so it keeps KIT, PITCH, TONE and DECAY (or the last sound page's). This retires the old way to a step's own GATE, KNOB 4 after PATTERN; NOTES' LENGTH sets it since 2.0.
• ARCADE stopped rising at middle F. NOISE's shift-register mode stepped its register at most once a sample, and ARCADE clocks it seven octaves over the key, which reaches the sample rate at F4. It now steps up to 32 times a sample, so it keeps rising; below F4 it sounds as before.
• New patterns' notes started at 50 % when the track came from a pattern made before 2.0 (50 % was the default then). A NEW pattern and an empty entry now start at 1 STEP. A pattern from before 2.0 keeps its 50 %, so it sounds as it did; PATTERN › GATE at 100 % changes it.

Known

• The way back to V16 is new and tried in the emulator only, not yet on a unit. In the emulator V16's first start rebuilds its settings and sequencer areas over what Skiff leaves there (and over random bytes); the rest of its sequencer area keeps Skiff's data, and what V16 does with it later is untested. If V16 misbehaves after the way back, M-VAVE's M-UPGRADE writes V16 again. Please tell us on #64 how it went.
• On an FM-1 that ran V16 before Skiff, Skiff updating itself goes through V16's start-up code, which we haven't tried either. If the installer says the update loader didn't appear, nothing was written and Skiff carries on as it was: please tell us on #64.
• As in 2.0.1: on the SMK-37, an update loader started by switching the keyboard on after a power cut mid-write is still reset by the watchdog about 40 to 45 s into each run; the installer resumes it until the write finishes. The SMK-37's sustain pedal hold is tested on the computer only.
• A full backup from the editor doesn't keep the samples' own levels and sends (nor SLICE's hand-set slices): they stay with the slot on the unit.
• Some Learn videos still show Skiff 1.3; new ones for 2.0 are on the way.

Going back to 2.0.1

• Install skiff-2.0.1.fwsc (or the SMK package) from 2.0.1's release. Nothing saved changes between 2.0.1 and 2.0.2; there, LENGTH shows a note longer than 16 steps but turns it back to 16 at most.

Credits

Skiff is built on Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments). The README's Credits have the rest.

Files

• skiff-2.0.2.fwsc: the FM-1 package (identity FM-1_720)
• skiff-2.0.2.zip: the FM-1 package, the app image, SHA256SUMS and every licence and attribution text they need
• skiff-2.0.2-smk37.fwsc: the SMK-37 Pro package (identity SMK-37 Pro_720)
• skiff-2.0.2-smk37-elite.fwsc, skiff-2.0.2-smk37-mke.fwsc: the SMK-37 Elite and MKE-P37 packages (identities
  SMK-37 Elite_720, MKE-P37_720), not tried on a keyboard yet

SHA-256:

e3592e5ce04823df8ac72b90f69c3a4d575cb13449cc3bb9e845cf1bfa3d546a  skiff-2.0.2.fwsc
ffe141b8b668465849fa351dd0443b625d8bbd72856144d7ed1236ef0634f364  skiff-2.0.2.zip
1acfaf4f46c9cb9a1bd81b2d813758a7b4899cec31cec9742d7b90446b1911ce  skiff-2.0.2-smk37.fwsc
3f960ff856e8b3e903a6ff16ff5a96a4408b676085fb8f8552bb2c7cf4a42e94  skiff-2.0.2-smk37-elite.fwsc
31b886536fd65f193694c3fcec3138772e188a07db27e3b854ab4463ab41b1b6  skiff-2.0.2-smk37-mke.fwsc

The packages hold three unmodified files of the JieLi AC79 SDK (Apache-2.0); see LICENSING.md. M-VAVE, FM-1 and SMK-37
are trademarks of their respective owners; Skiff is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.