illuminus5/skiff v2.5

Skiff 2.5

on GitHub

Skiff 2.5: 16 voices a track, a true-stereo delay and chorus, takes played while stopped, the delay and reverb beside their sends, a song you can follow and start from any entry, FILTER and STRUM.

Thank you, @iban01-n for the tempo drift (#107), @michaelmon1203 for the noise in fading notes (#110), @lxt548-gif and @b13nn for the jumping BPM on an external clock (#111), @b13nn and @LevienBrugman for the noise from INSERT's chorus (#101), @Section25 for the SMK-37 install on a Mac (#83), @klausw for the LARGE trap on HOME (#97), @aehk and @JusticeBublitz for REMOTE's knobs (#90), @solitairethegreat1 for asking what a new project does with the patterns (#95), and Big Umami's review on YouTube, which asked for more voices and wider effects.

Install on the FM-1: in Chrome or Edge with the Skiff installer, or download skiff-2.5.fwsc below and run python tools/fm1_install.py skiff-2.5.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-2.5-smk37.fwsc.

From 2.2:

• Your projects, sounds and patterns stay as they are; nothing is converted.
• Every FM-1 moves to MENU › SYSTEM › CPU 2 CORES once: up to 16 voices. One whose second core doesn't start says CORE 2 FAILED and stays on 1 CORE. The SMK-37 keeps its setting.
• Your songs keep a mono delay and sound as they did; a new project starts on STEREO.
• Undo keeps 6 levels instead of 8.

From 2.1.1 or older: read 2.2's notes too (USB audio before MIDI on Windows, NOTES OUT ALL).

New

• 16 voices a track: up to 16 sound on a track, and 16 between all six on two cores (8 on one).
  • The engines that cost more keep fewer: GRAIN and PHYS 3, VOICE 4, FM6 6; UNISON, the drums and SLICE 8.
  • A new note takes the quietest fading voice first, not the oldest.
  • On the FM-1, the busiest project we have plays at about 46 % CPU.
• A true-stereo delay (GLO › DELAY, PRESETS turns its MODE):
  • MONO is the delay as it was, bit for bit.
  • STEREO: two lines, the repeats wide; PING: the repeats from side to side.
  • Each track's PAN now reaches the delay, and with STEREO or PING the chorus's CHORUS and FLANGER are stereo too.
  • In STEREO and PING the repeats are kept at half the sample rate, so they lose the highs above about 10 kHz.
• FREE TAKE: play first, keep it after. With the transport stopped, play on the keys (or MIDI, or the arp), then SHIFT + SAVE.
  • Skiff finds the tempo, the length and where the 1 is, and shows it on its own screen: KNOB 1 the guess (double and half time offered too), KNOB 2 the bars, KNOB 3 the first beat, KNOB 4 TEMPO SET or KEEP.
  • PLAY listens, OCT+ keeps it, OCT− puts the track back.
  • It replaces the track's pattern (SAVE held brings the old one back).
  • The first phrase you play stopped says how, once.
• FX › DELAY and FX › REVERB: the track's send beside the delay's TIME, FEEDBACK and COLOR, and the reverb's TYPE, SIZE and DAMP.
• A card for PRESETS where it does something special: DELAY's MODE, PATTERN's DIR, INSERT's MIX. INSERT is one page now.
• A song you can follow: while it plays, a line along the header shows where it is, notched at the entries; SONG says BAR 9 OF 32, and its footer gives the entry's bars (BARS 9-16). A REST counts as long as the pattern before it, as it plays (#97).
• From any entry: on SEQ › SONG, SHIFT + PLAY plays the song from the entry KNOB 1 is on, every track where its list is at that point, part-way into a pattern if it must. SHIFT + EDIT empties that entry at once, playing too: its pattern stays, and SAVE held brings it back.
• SAVE › PROJECT's KNOB 3: LOAD, NEW (on any slot now), CLEAR SONG (every list emptied, the patterns kept, undoable) and CLEAR TRACKS (every track's steps; the sounds stay, the patterns stay in SAVE › PATTERNS).
• FILTR on FX › INSERT: CUTOFF, RES and SHAPE from low-pass through band-pass to high-pass, the curve drawn.
• STRUM on SCL › CHORD: a chord's notes one after another, spread over 1 to 100 ms, DOWN, UP or ALT, from the keys, MIDI and the patterns' chords alike.
• KEEP SENDS (MENU › CONTROL): ON, a new sound keeps the track's CHORUS, DELAY and REVERB, as it keeps LEVEL and PAN.
• REMOTE's knobs (#90): on REMOTE's channel, relative CCs turn the knobs: 116–119 KNOB 1–4, 85 ALGORITHM, 86 PRESETS, 87 SELECT (1–63 right, 65–127 left).
• LARGE keeps HOME's names (#97): under the big cards, the six tracks' sounds; a HOME tap shows the scope.
• HOME tapped: each theme its own view of the voices: QUARK's particles live as long as the notes, SKIFF's sea with its boat, CRYPT's six creatures.
• NOTES says SHIFT + EDIT: DELETE when a note is in the selection.
• On the SMK-37: its knobs' names where a hint names a knob (K4: MODE).

Fixed

• Tracks of different DIVs drifted apart (#107): each DIV's step length was rounded on its own; now they all share one grid, the click, the launch points and CLOCK OUT too. Tried over 30 minutes: within a sample.
• Noise in fading notes (#110), improved: the mix and the master keep their low bits down to the output, and USB's 16 bits are dithered while there is sound. A reverb's own tail can still add some, far down: #110 stays open for it.
• The BPM jumped on an external clock (#111): the tempo is now the mean of the last 8 beats, a stray beat passed over, so a swung or jittery clock (a P-6, an EP-133) reads steady.
• High-pitched noise from INSERT's FLANG and CHOR (#101): loud chords clipped their line.
• SMK-37 install on a Mac (#83): the installer page now finds the keyboard's update port as macOS names it.
• SPEAKER EQ's LOWCUT and BASS+ made fading notes grainy.
• A TAKE could put a pass of the pattern before a switch into the new one.
• fm1_install.py could hang after the unit restarted into its update mode (the update itself was done).

Known

• #110: a reverb's tail can still add harmonics far down (see above).
• REMOTE's knobs are tried on the computer, not yet with a controller.
• A sound change while the music plays costs the audio one slow block (heard as nothing on our unit).
• FREE TAKE guesses between 40 and 240 BPM from the last phrase after a pause of 2.5 s, 30 s at most; 8 bars only at 1/8.
• macOS and Linux with the USB layout of 2.2 are not tried by us yet (#59).

Going back to 2.2

• Install skiff-2.2.fwsc (or the SMK package) from 2.2's release.
• Projects and sounds saved on 2.5 open there: the delay plays mono, STRUM is off, and an INSERT on FILTR plays as CHOR.
• MENU › SYSTEM › CPU stays on 2 CORES: 12 voices on 2.2.

Credits

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

Files

• skiff-2.5.fwsc: the FM-1 package (identity FM-1_725)
• skiff-2.5.zip: the FM-1 package, the app image, SHA256SUMS and every licence and attribution text they need
• skiff-2.5-smk37.fwsc: the SMK-37 Pro package (identity SMK-37 Pro_725)
• skiff-2.5-smk37-elite.fwsc, skiff-2.5-smk37-mke.fwsc: the SMK-37 Elite and MKE-P37 packages, not tried on a keyboard yet

SHA-256:

5311edc3d53d0b9bb2cfc3ecce727d6b0adff1994772ac9aebef9dc89baf5880  skiff-2.5.fwsc
7473fe77f246b7c058228258efcda7e62d99c71d67c7974bf7fc4297190f6f72  skiff-2.5.zip
4555679ecd63c8e93f4f2fd966213300f1fab1d10aef777030ecdb9e47ff95fc  skiff-2.5-smk37.fwsc
65c35e8feb835897aebf5f455c6e1b3b60317c87a4c2f0a63ff89b3cd8b75f9d  skiff-2.5-smk37-elite.fwsc
df3297436c21b57dd24b31135dae52dac94f387569c321c3bc58f471633606eb  skiff-2.5-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.