SLOOP 2.3

USB audio, a MIDI keyboard on the jack, MIDI clock, a choice of how REC records (free take or the tempo you set, with a count-in), lights for playing in the dark, a full backup, and CHOP for recordings of any length.

New

USB audio: record the FM-1 on a computer. On USB the FM-1 is now also an audio input named Felucca: 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo, class compliant, no driver. Choose it in your DAW or in Audacity and record the master output, exactly what the headphones play. Its level (HOME menu → USB AUDIO): MASTER follows the MASTER knob, as the headphones do; FULL is a fixed level, as with MASTER all the way up and kept from clipping, so the knob only sets the headphones (for an audio interface with no level control). MIDI, the web editor and the installer keep working on the same cable. The first time, the computer sets the FM-1 up again as a MIDI + audio device; the MIDI port keeps its name. This is Felucca 1.0's USB audio input by Leo Kuroshita, brought into SLOOP. Thanks!

MIDI keyboard on the MIDI IN jack. The FM-1's 3.5 mm TRS MIDI input now works. Plug in a keyboard or a pad controller through a TRS-to-DIN MIDI adapter (if nothing plays, try the other adapter type, A or B):

• channels 1–3 play the three synth tracks
• channel 10 plays the drums
• channels 4–16 play the selected track (set your keyboard to channel 4 and it follows the track you pick)

The input reads its buffer by content, so no note is left hanging. That fix comes from Felucca [Salt] by ChanceTheMaker, found by keremimo on an FM-1 with an Akai MPC Sample. Thanks!

MIDI clock in. GLO → SYSTEM → SYNC = USB or TRS. SLOOP follows the master's tempo, START, CONTINUE and STOP, pulse by pulse, so it never drifts. SYNC is a setting of the FM-1: it stays when you load a project. (After Felucca 1.0, from contributions by ChanceTheMaker and keremimo.)

Choose how REC records. Press REC while stopped: the REC screen now has three dials.

• KNOB 1 mode (empty project): free — the free take, the tempo follows your playing — or tempo — record at the tempo you set with SELECT.
• KNOB 2 length: the loop of the selected track, 1, 2 or 4 bars.
• KNOB 3 start: note — your first note starts the loop — or count — press PLAY for one bar of clicks (4, 3, 2, 1 on the screen), then it records.

Mode and start are settings of the FM-1: they stay as you left them. In a project that already has notes, it always records at the tempo set.

Lights for playing in the dark. Hold HOME for the menu:

• LIGHTS: OFF / LOW / MID / HIGH. Every button glows at that level, so the labels can be read on a black FM-1. What is active (the page, PLAY, REC, the octave) stays at full light and still blinks as before.
• KEYS: OFF / C KEYS / WHITE KEYS. The C keys, or every white key, glow too.
• NOTES: ON / OFF. On the synth tracks, the notes sounding light their keys, live or from the sequencer, on every page, in every layer and in the windows (ERASE…). Contributed by @renebohne (#11). Thanks!

These are settings of the FM-1, not of a project: loading a project or NEW PROJECT does not change them.

Backup and restore. In the web editor's Projects tab, Save a backup puts everything on the FM-1 in one file: the music you are working on, the 4 projects, the user presets, the 3 sample slots and the settings. Restore from a file puts it all back (stop playback first).

CHOP: recordings of any length. A recording longer than a sample slot (about 7 s) is no longer a dead end. Tick the chops you keep and untick the rest, shorten any chop (its length slider, or the handle at the bottom of the wave), or press Fit to slot to shorten the longest ones just enough. Only the kept chops go to the slot or to the WAVs, on consecutive keys.

Back to the official firmware from the installer page. Open Return to the official firmware (V15), save a backup first, then select M-VAVE's FM-1 V15 file (only that exact file is accepted). To come back to SLOOP, install it again and restore your backup.

Fixes

• The knobs answer every click: no more dead moments, double clicks or jumps (SLOOP was built on Felucca 0.9's knob reading; 2.3 reads them as Felucca 1.0 does).
• No more hanging notes from a computer: when a lot of MIDI arrives at once over USB, nothing is dropped any more (the computer is asked to wait a moment); a malformed MIDI message is ignored.
• When the processor is overloaded, SLOOP fades out one voice at a time, never the bass or the lead, instead of cutting the oldest note.
• Keys play about a millisecond sooner.
• A key let go just after a change of VOICE (POLY, MONO…) no longer leaves its note stuck.
• The settings, projects and presets are checked more strictly when they are read back from flash.

Many of these fixes, the MIDI clock and the USB audio input come from Felucca 1.0 / 1.0.1 by Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic). Thanks!

Install

Connect the FM-1 by USB, open the web installer (Chrome or Edge) and press INSTALL, or python tools/fm1_install.py sloop-2.3.fwsc. Your projects, user presets, samples and settings are kept. You can go back to 2.2 at any time with the .fwsc of the 2.2 release; it simply ignores the new settings (LIGHTS, KEYS, NOTES, SYNC, USB AUDIO, the REC screen's mode and start) and has no USB audio.

Beta: install at your own risk. Bluetooth MIDI is still not supported (the radio stays off, as in Felucca). Back to the official firmware: the installer page, or M-VAVE's M-UPGRADE.

Files

• sloop-2.3.fwsc: the firmware package