SLOOP 2.7

SLOOP now runs on both of the FM-1's processor cores: about twice the room, so the crackles some of you heard with many voices and INSERT effects are gone. With it come fifteen arp modes, KBD HOLD, the tune and decay of every drum sound, favourite sounds, samples that loop, recording with your own timing, a new MIDI page, your own screen colours and a LIVE page in the editor to play a whole show from a computer, a tablet or a phone. Once again, most of it comes from your comments, issues and tests: thank you.

Install: open the installer page in Chrome or Edge, connect the FM-1, press INSTALL. Make a backup with the web editor before updating.

New

• Two cores: room for more. The sound is computed on both of the FM-1's cores, the same sound with about twice the room before the processor runs out. On by default; HOME menu → SYSTEM → 2ND CORE turns it off (at the next power-on). ABOUT says 2 CORES. If the second core does not answer at power-on, SLOOP runs on one, as before.
• Fifteen arp modes (from Felucca 1.5.1): REPEAT, DNUP, UP+8, CONV, DIVG, PINKY, THUMB, WALK and CHORD join OFF, UP, DN, UPDN, RND and ORD; ORD now plays the notes in the order you pressed them. The arp keeps going when you load another sound.
• KBD HOLD (#103): ARP 2 → HOLD ON with the arp OFF holds the notes you play (a pad, a drone, a chord to play over). The next note played with no key down replaces them.
• ARP SWG with the sequencer stopped (#52).
• Samples that loop while the key is held: LOOP or LOOP+TAIL on the editor's Samples page, loop points on sliders snapped to zero crossings, a WAV's own loop read.
• Tune and decay every drum sound: the DRUMS screen's new SOUND page (EDIT / SEQ tapped, or SELECT): play a key to pick a sound, KNOB 2 TUNE (−8 … +7 semitones), KNOB 3 DECAY (−4 … +3), on every kit. Kept with the project and each section. The web editor's Sound page has it too: with the drum track, a DRUMS card (kit, level, pan, filter, sends, INSERT, and each pad's tune and decay; tap a pad to hear it).
• Favourite sounds: on the PRESETS page, KNOB 4 right adds the sound to your favourites (up to 16), at the top of the PRESETS list; left removes it.
• QUANT off (REC screen, KNOB 4): what you play keeps your timing, stored as each step's nudge.
• Overdub over held notes on a POLY track: held notes of the pattern go on under what you record.
• GLO → MIDI 3: FX CH plays the 27 punch-in effects from a controller or a DAW (notes F3 … G5); DR MAP 1-16 plays the drums from any 16 notes in a row; REMOTE presses the 14 buttons with CC 102 … 115; CLOCK OUT (#106) makes the FM-1 the clock master on USB.
• MIDI CC 74 sweeps each engine's own cutoff or brightness.
• Faster knobs: turn fast and the value sweeps wider (HOME menu → SCREEN → KNOB ACCEL, on by default); LEVEL and PAN glide.
• The editor's LIVE page: the whole FM-1 under your hands for a show, with the mouse, a finger on a tablet or phone, or the computer's keys: PLAY / STOP, REC, undo / redo, BPM and TAP, swing; sections A–D that play from the next bar, loop / song, SONG REC, FILL while held and FILL BAR; a mixer strip per track (sound or kit, level with its meter, filter, pan, reverb, delay, chorus, drive, mute, solo); the master filter, dust and duck; the 27 punch-in effects as pads (hold or LATCH); two octaves of keys or the 16 drum pads; full screen and keyboard shortcuts. It runs the FM-1's own code, so both always agree. The mixer and keys also work with an FM-1 on 2.6. For a real show: 8 scenes (how it sounds — the mix, filters, sends, each sound's knobs, the arp, the master — recalled at once or morphed over 1 to 16 bars, and an A/B crossfader), a PERFORM card (every knob of the track you play, its arp and key, its INSERT and the shared effects, its steps as a grid), chains of sections, roll and erase from the page's keys and pads, the pattern's shift / ×2 / ½ / transpose, each pad's tune and decay, rev / echo throw and the master volume, favourite sounds and your USER presets in the lists, MIDI learn (any control on any USB controller), a lock against stray taps, the clock and the set's time, the set recorded as a WAV from the FM-1's USB audio, a tempo and a cue for each song of the setlist. Every card says what it is for, its ? explains it, and first live in 5 steps shows the way.
• Songs as files and a playlist: Song & sections → Export this song saves the loop, the sections A–D and their order as one .sloopsong file; Load a song file puts it back. The LIVE page's playlist plays your songs one after the other (each loads in a few seconds with the FM-1 stopped, then starts); save the list for a gig.
• Steadier on two cores: at power-on SLOOP raises SYSVDD to 1.38 V and VDC14 to 1.60 V, as M-VAVE's own firmware does (the boot loader leaves 1.26 V and 1.40 V, too low on some units with both cores busy). ABOUT shows both.
• Your own screen colours: the editor's new Theme page (five colours, background, white too, an accent, the tracks' colours, a name), MENU → COLOR. Share a theme as one line of text.
• USB RATE (HOME menu → AUDIO): AUTO, 44.1 or 48 kHz, for phones that record the USB audio distorted.
• The drum MUTE mode stays when you let go of EDIT (#126).
• SAVE → SECTION A–D (was PROJECT 1–4): the four slots are the song's sections and are named so. The FM-1 holds one song; to keep several, save one editor backup per song (the Song & sections tab).

Changed

• Kicks you hear on any speaker. The kicks of the synthesised kits (808, 909, 606, 80S, TRAP and the others) were mostly a 50 Hz sine: felt on a big system, but the FM-1's speaker, a phone or earbuds play nothing that low, so only a quiet click was left. They now have drive and a deeper pitch sweep that carry them up where any speaker plays, a softer click, and more level (as loud as the sampled kits). The same note underneath. Your projects on these kits get the new kicks.
• USB SERIAL left the menu: the developer console no longer fits the FM-1's flash. The USB audio input shows on every Mac without it.
• The page counter counts the pages SELECT walks (SEQ: STEP 1/2, PATTERN 2/2).

Compatibility

Projects, autosaves, presets and backups from 2.6 load as they are, and the second core turns on by itself. The kicks of the synthesised kits sound punchier (above). Going back to 2.6: projects saved in 2.7 open there without what 2.6 does not have (the new arp modes, KBD HOLD, the drum TUNE and DECAY, your theme, your favourites, MIDI 3), and a looping sample may play differently. Keep a backup made before updating.

Thanks

• andrerezemini (sloop-lab): the sound on the second core and 38 KB of RAM back (pull request #111), on the dual-core start of Charles Vestal (X0X) and keremimo (Melodee).
• Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic) / Hügelton Instruments: Felucca, and in this release the new arp modes (Felucca 1.5.1).
• Charles Vestal (X0X 1.0.9): the supply levels for a steady second core.
• juanjiant-bit (JIANT FM): the knob acceleration and the LEVEL / PAN glide.
• @renebohne: MIDI CC 74 on each engine's cutoff (pull request #71).
• Everyone who commented, opened an issue or tested the beta: the second core, the arp modes, KBD HOLD, the drum tune and decay, the favourites, the swing, the clock out, the sample loops and the section names all come from you.