SLOOP 2.8.3: hold a note under others, drums that no longer drop out, cleaner chops, a safer second core
A sequencer, drums and stability release. Thanks to everyone who reported the "chopping notes" problem, and to SHIKANANE for the drums report.
Hold a note while you play others over it
- On a POLY track, a note you hold is never restarted or cut by the sequencer while you record other notes over it, and it plays back whole. Before, the held note stuttered and cut out halfway through.
- The same in a free take (REC in an empty project): a note held while you play others over it now goes on under them when the loop closes. Before, it stopped at the next note.
- When you overdub, a note held over steps that already have notes keeps going through them. You can play a long bass under a melody you recorded earlier, up to 4 notes per step.
- In SEQ > NOTES, KNOB 3 LEN now extends a note under the notes after it instead of stopping at NOTE AHEAD. You can program a long bass under a melody this way, and every note keeps its own length. Shorten it again and the melody is exactly as it was.
MONO and LEGATO sounds
- A MONO or LEGATO sound plays one note at a time. Track 1's default 808 BOOM is one of them. So holding C1 and playing C2 over it replaces C1, which is how a mono synth works.
- The screen now tells you: the first time you play a key over a held one while recording (a free take too), and when LEN stops on such a sound, it says MONO: SET VOICE POLY.
- To keep both notes, set VOICE to POLY (EDIT > VOICE page, VCE), or record on a POLY sound such as track 2's RHODES.
Drums that no longer drop out
- The drum track has 6 voices. When all six were busy, a new hit took the oldest voice, even the kick's. On a busy beat (16th hi-hats, ride, crash, snare and clap), most kicks were cut short or lost.
- Now a hit takes a free voice first. If none is free, it takes the voice of its own sound if that sound still rings (a hi-hat cuts the last hi-hat, as on a drum machine). Otherwise it takes the oldest voice, and the kick is taken last.
- Tested on every kit with a busy beat: no kick is cut by another sound.
Samples and chops start with their attack
- On SAMPLE and SLICE sounds, a sample played again while its voice was still sounding restarted at the level the voice had: a click at the start of the chop, and ATK did nothing. That was every note on MONO, LEGATO or UNISON, and the same chop played twice on POLY.
- Now the voice fades out in about 1.5 ms and the new note starts from silence with its ATK, every time. Different chops on POLY already worked and are unchanged.
A safer second core
- On some FM-1 units the second core can misread a word under heavy load, such as a backup over USB. It then jumped to a wrong address and the FM-1 crashed, and the crash screen stayed until a power cycle.
- Now the second core checks every job before running it and refuses a wrong one. SLOOP then goes on with one core until the next power-off (ABOUT says 1 CORE) instead of crashing.
- A crash on the second core no longer freezes the FM-1. A crash while both cores run also leaves the next start on one core, until you power off.
- If it keeps happening on your FM-1, set HOME menu > SYSTEM > 2ND CORE to OFF, then power off and on.
Layer pages no longer flash
- A quick tap on a function button no longer flashes its layer page on the way. A layer now shows after you hold the button for 0.35 s (it was 0.14 s), or right away when you use a key or knob while holding.
Reliability
- MIDI in: if a burst arrives faster than SLOOP can read it, notes that lost their note-off are now released, so none stays stuck.
- A voice that was fading out and gets played again now counts toward the 8-voice budget, so a heavy chord can't go over it and make another note drop.
Compatibility
- The step format is unchanged (2.7's), so a project saved in 2.8.3 opens in 2.7 and 2.8.x.
- Your projects, presets, samples and settings are kept when you update.
Install from the browser: https://isod89.github.io/sloop-fm1/ (Chrome or Edge, FM-1 on USB).