HENLO 2.8.1 H3 — The Complete Guide

The HENLO H3 controls and inherited SLOOP features, every button, every combination, every page, in one place. This guide is written to be read from the top the first time, then used as a reference: the cheat sheet at the end has every combination on one page.

HENLO H3 is a UI fork of SLOOP 2.8.1, a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1, based on Felucca by Leo Kuroshita / Hügelton Instruments. The short manual is SLOOP.md; the project page is README.md.

How to read this guide

The 16 white keys, numbered:

The 11 black keys are F#3, G#3, A#3, C#4, D#4, F#4, G#4, A#4, C#5, D#5, F#5. The "first four black keys" are F#3, G#3, A#3 and C#4.

Contents

• What's new in 2.8

1. Install and update
2. The panel
3. The big ideas: tracks, colours, tap and hold
4. Your first beat in 60 seconds
5. Every button, alone
6. Playing the keys
7. The drum track
8. Recording
9. The layers, one by one
10. The step sequencer: steps, nudge, locks, fills
11. Key, scales, chords and CHORD+
12. Mix: levels, mute, solo, fills, tap tempo
13. Undo, clear, save, projects, autosave
14. Song mode: sections, chains, songs
15. The screens
16. Every page, knob by knob
17. The sounds and the twelve engines
18. Effects: master, punch-in, per track
19. The visualiser
20. The HOME menu and the lights
21. MIDI
22. USB audio
23. Your own samples and drum kits
24. The web editor
25. Backup, rescue, going back, troubleshooting
26. Cheat sheet

What's new in 2.8

3,000 of you now follow SLOOP — thank you. 2.8 is a deeper way to write and shape your music, and most of it comes from your comments and reports. Each item points to its full write-up below.

• A NOTES editor: a piano roll for the synth tracks. Tap SEQ on a synth track for the pattern as a piano roll, and write and edit notes step by step: KNOB 1 the notes (a chord's one by one), KNOB 2 the pitch, KNOB 3 the length, KNOB 4 the force; PRESETS zooms, EDIT deletes. Hold OCT+ on a step for its sheet — SLIDE, NUDGE, FILL, MOVE, COPY, DELETE. See The step sequencer.
• The same per-step sheet on the DRUMS grid. Hold OCT+ on a drum step for RATCHET, NUDGE, FILL, MOVE, COPY, DELETE — the groove, shaped step by step. See The step sequencer.
• The playing section on the main screen. The TRACKS screen shows which section — A to D — is playing, in its own colour. See The screens.
• Filter resonance. The per-track filter gains a resonance, 0 (clean, as before) to 10: HOME menu → AUDIO → FILTER RESO. See Per track.
• The FX filter on the drum track too. FX → FILTER now works on drums: sweep and shape the whole kit, live. See Per track.
• Drum TUNE on the noise sounds. On the DRUMS Sound page, TUNE now also shapes the brightness of the tone-less sounds (closed hats, shakers, claps). See The drum track.
• A smoother punch-in. A settable fade-in and out for the 27 punch-in effects: hold FX, then SELECT, 0 (instant) to 15 (~0.37 s). See Punch-in effects.
• Steadier external MIDI clock. The incoming tempo is read from the average of the last beats, so a steady 140 no longer wavers 139 / 140 / 141; a real tempo change is taken at once. See MIDI out, clock in.
• MIDI Bank Select (CC 0). Reach every preset past the 128 Program Change range — the rest of the factory sounds, then your own user presets by slot. See MIDI CCs.
• USB RESCUE, fixed. Holding OCT− at power-on now reliably opens USB rescue mode. See Rescue and special modes.
• Going back to stock changed. The in-browser return-to-stock was removed (it was not reliable on every system); use M-VAVE's own updater M-UPGRADE. See Going back.

Everything from 2.7 is unchanged and still here. Projects, autosaves and backups from 2.7 load as they are, and a project saved in 2.8 opens in 2.7 too.

1. Install and update

1. Back up your music using the linked SLOOP editor, then close its MIDI connection.
2. Open the HENLO installer in desktop Chrome or Edge. If the embedded installer cannot connect, use Open installer directly.
3. Connect the FM-1 with a USB data cable and press Install. Allow MIDI/SysEx access.
4. Keep the cable connected until installation finishes. The device restarts with the HENLO logo; ABOUT identifies HENLO 2.8.1 H3.

The HENLO page checks the bundled H3 package before enabling Install. Its source download matches that build. The upstream SLOOP installer installs upstream firmware instead.

Updating keeps your projects, presets, samples, kits and settings. The installer checks the package (SHA-256), SLOOP's update loader checks it again (CRC) before it starts the new firmware, and a damaged package is refused before anything is written.

Before you go back to an older SLOOP (2.3 or earlier), save a backup in the editor: 2.3 cannot read 2.4 projects (format FUN5).

2. The panel

3. The big ideas: tracks, colours, tap and hold

Four tracks

ALGORITHM picks the track you play, record and edit, on every screen. The screen and the whole editor take the colour of the selected track. White on the screen always means what you are touching; red always means recording.

Tap and hold

Every function button has two lives:

• Tap it: its pages open (sound design, settings), as on any FM-1 firmware. Tap it again: the next page of that button. SELECT also walks the pages of that button, both ways. Each button remembers the last page you used.
• Hold it: a layer. While it is held, the 16 white keys and KNOB 1–4 do something else, and after 0.14 s the screen shows the 16 keys as 16 tiles (four rows of four: keys 1–4, 5–8, 9–12, 13–16) and the knobs as dials. Let go: back to playing.

The layers are FX (punch-in effects), EDIT (erase), ARP (note repeat), SEQ (steps), SEL (key and chords), GLO (mix) and SAVE (song). ENV and LFO have no layer: they only open pages.

Landmarks: while a layer is held (and always on the drum track) keys 1, 5, 9 and 13 glow dimly — the first key of each row of tiles — so you can find a tile without looking. Keys at full light are what is on.

Lock a layer: hold its button and tap HOME. The layer stays open with the button let go (LOCK on the screen, the button blinks): both hands free, one on the keys, one on the knobs. Any other button lets it go (HOME, the layer's own button, ENV…) and does only that; PLAY, REC and OCT− / OCT+ keep working inside a locked layer.

Inside any layer: PLAY still starts and stops, SELECT sets tempo except in FX/PUNCH, where it sets FADE, and the ALGORITHM / PRESETS knobs wait (no jump when you let go).

4. Your first beat in 60 seconds

1. Turn ALGORITHM to track 4 (orange). The white keys play 16 drum sounds: F3 kick, G3 kick 2, A3 snare, B3 clap, C4 hat, D4 open hat… Turn PRESETS to pick a kit: try 808 or BOOMBAP.
2. Press REC (rec ready). Play a beat freely, at your own tempo — no click, no count-in. Hold OCT− while you hit for ghost notes, OCT+ for hard hits.
3. Press REC on the "1" after your last bar. The loop closes: its length sets the tempo, the hits snap to the grid, and it plays at once.
4. Press REC again while it plays: you record on top (overdub). Hold ARP and hold the hat key (C4): a 1/16 hat roll, recorded as ratchets.
5. Turn ALGORITHM to track 1 (blue, 808 BOOM), press REC, play a bass line.
6. Hold SEL and press the key of your song (for example D). Select track 2, hold SEL and turn KNOB 1 to 7TH: every white key is now a chord of the key, one finger each.
7. Hold FX and hold a key (white or black) for a punch-in effect; still holding FX, turn KNOB 2 for DUST, KNOB 3 for DUCK.
8. A mistake? EDIT + OCT−: undo.

5. Every button, alone

Combinations at power-on and while stopped

6. Playing the keys

Synth tracks (1–3)

• The keys play the selected track. The notes you play always go out on USB MIDI (the track's channel).
• OCT− / OCT+: octave −3 … +3; both together: back to 0. The OCT lights show when you are off 0.
• What the keys play depends on the track's KEYS setting and CHORD mode (SEL layer or SEL page):

• The GM KIT sound (SAMPLE engine) is the exception: the lowest key is a kick (C2), no scale.

Drum track (4)

16 sounds, one per white key; a black key plays the sound of the white key on its left (two fingers on one sound, for fast rolls). Hold OCT− for ghost notes, OCT+ for hard hits. See The drum track.

Velocity and levels

The FM-1's keys have no velocity: on the drum track every hit has one of four levels — GHOST, SOFT, NORM (as played), HARD — chosen with OCT− / OCT+ as you play, or later in the step sequencer. On synth tracks a note has a FORCE too, and a step an accent (NOTES page, KNOB 4).

7. The drum track

The 16 sounds

• Levels: GHOST, SOFT, NORM, HARD (hold OCT− / OCT+ while you hit). Softer hits are darker as well as quieter.
• Ratchets: a hit can repeat x1–x4 inside its step (ARP rolls record them; SEQ + step + KNOB 3 sets them).
• Choke: the closed hat and the pedal hat cut the open hat.
• 6 drum voices, separate from the synths' 8.

Kits

PRESETS on the drum track (or KNOB 1 on the DRUMS kit page, or the editor) picks the kit:

Every kit is level-matched. The kit is saved with projects and song sections. Changing the kit never touches the pattern. Your own kits work like any other: steps, levels, ratchets, fills, choke, MIDI.

The DRUMS screen

Open it with EDIT or SEQ tapped on the TRACKS screen while the drum track is selected. It has three pages, grid, kit and (2.7) sound; EDIT / SEQ tapped goes to the next one, SELECT right / left walks them.

Grid page — the 16 sounds × 16 steps, levels as shades, ratchets as notches.

Kit page — 16 pads that flash on every hit; the keys play the pads.

Sound page (2.7) — each of the 16 sounds tuned and shortened or lengthened, on every kit. Play a key (or turn KNOB 1) to pick the sound: its pad is framed, and a sound you changed shows a small square.

On the synthesised kits (808, 909… and your SYN1–4) DECAY shortens or lengthens the sound itself; on the sampled kits (ACOUSTIC … DUST, USR) it can only shorten it (a fade), +3 plays the sample as it is. (2.8) On the synthesised kits, TUNE also shapes the brightness of the tone-less sounds (closed hats, shakers, claps), which have no pitch to shift: lower it for a darker, duller hat, raise it for a crisper one. The settings are kept with the project and with each section A–D, so a section can have its own tuning; changing the kit keeps them, NEW sets them back to 0. A project from an older SLOOP opens with every sound as its kit has it.

While the song plays in song mode, the grid's hit and level knobs wait (STOP THE SONG FIRST).

8. Recording

SLOOP records live and layers every pass on top of the last (overdub). Notes go to the nearest step as you heard it: the ~12 ms between a key and its sound are taken back, so what you play on the beat lands on the beat. Chords are kept on the synth tracks whose VOICE is POLY (up to 4 notes a step; a MONO, LEGATO or UNISON sound, as most basses and leads, plays and records one note at a time); held notes become ties. (2.7.1) On a POLY track each held note goes on until its own key is let go, even while other notes start and end over it: hold a note, play others on top, and it keeps sounding in the pattern (up to 4 at once). (2.7.2) On a MONO, LEGATO or UNISON track, a note played while the one before is still held is recorded legato and plays back as you played it: with LEGATO the sound goes on into the new note without a new attack (it glides only with GLIDE or a SLIDE), where before the sequencer ended the note and started the next one again. It works from the FM-1's keys and from a MIDI controller alike. Let go of the second note while the first is still held: the pattern does not go back to the first one (the live sound does). The TRACKS page draws one mark a step; the NOTES page shows a chord's notes one by one (2/3…).

Over held notes (2.7). On a POLY track, a note you record while held notes of the pattern ring (a pad tied over the bar) no longer cuts them: they go on under it, and your note ends where you let it go. Up to 4 notes sound at once on a track (a fifth makes the oldest held one end there). Entering steps by hand (SEQ + key) still replaces what plays, so a long note can be cut on purpose. On SLOOP 2.6 such a pattern plays the held notes again where a note was laid over them.

With a MIDI keyboard: REC records the selected track. A keyboard on channel 1, 2 or 3 always plays track 1, 2 or 3 (2.6: the channels of GLO → MIDI), whatever track is selected: set it to channel 4 (or 4–16) to play and record the selected track. From 2.6, if your keyboard plays another track than the one recording, the screen says MIDI PLAYS TRACK n (once a take).

What REC does

REC again while armed disarms it (REC OFF). In song mode, REC waits until the song is stopped (STOP THE SONG FIRST), and arming REC switches back to loop mode.

While recording, the REC light is solid and the track shows a red rec. Turn ALGORITHM while recording and the take moves to the next track without stopping.

The REC screen (armed, before the first note)

LENGTH and START apply when you record at a tempo (MODE tempo, or a project that already has notes); a free take makes its own length. MODE, START and QUANT are settings of the FM-1 (they stay as you left them, also for recording while the song plays).

QUANT off (2.7). A note you play still goes into the nearest step, and how far off the grid you played it becomes that step's nudge (SEQ + step + KNOB 4: 1/64 of a step, about 2 ms at 120 BPM in 1/16). So the pattern plays back with your groove, and you can still edit it step by step (a nudged step shows its dot; SEQ + step + OCT− puts it back on the grid). It works for the keys and MIDI, in the free take too; the arp and note repeat stay on their grid. A step has one nudge: the first note in a step sets it, and the other notes of a chord or other drum sounds on that step follow it (in DIV 1/32 the steps are twice as fine). Undo (EDIT + OCT−) takes a take's nudges back with its notes. During the count-in, REC cancels it and PLAY goes back to rec ready. SELECT sets the tempo on this screen.

Free take: the loop follows you

1. On an empty project, REC, then play freely. The screen shows free take, the seconds, and the loop it would make right now (2 bars · 92 bpm).
2. Press REC on the "1" after your last bar. SLOOP picks 1, 2 or 4 bars at the tempo nearest the one set (within 3 % the set tempo is kept), writes your notes with their lengths and levels, and plays the loop at once. All four tracks take that length.
3. PLAY during a free take drops it. A take closes by itself after 24 s.

Metronome and swing

• The PLAY light flashes on every beat: a silent metronome.
• An audible click: GLO → GLOBAL → CLICK = OFF, REC (only while a track records) or ON (whenever it plays). It is a short tick of its own (higher on the first beat of a bar), heard with every kit, even with the drum track muted or another track soloed; its level follows GLO → DRUMS → LVL. The click is never recorded, and the count-in always clicks.
• Swing goes from 0 (straight) to 100 (the strongest: a step pair played 75 / 25, as MPC swing at 75 %): HOME, KNOB 1 or GLO → GLOBAL → SWING for all tracks, SEQ + KNOB 3 (or SEQ → PATTERN → SWG) per track; a track's swing adds to the global one. Triplet divisions are never swung.

What gets recorded

• Synth tracks: the notes (and chords) with their lengths; ties for held notes; ARP rolls as ratchets; CHORD+ chords as they sound.
• Drum track: the hits with their levels; ARP rolls as ratchets (a 1/32 roll on a 1/16 track: x2 on each step).
• Never recorded: punch-in effects, the click, notes played in a layer that uses the keys for something else (FX, SEQ, GLO…).

9. The layers, one by one

All seven layers at a glance:

FX — punch

Keys pressed while FX is held never play or record notes.

EDIT — erase

All the knob turns of one EDIT hold count as one change for undo.

The drum mutes stay on until you unmute the sound (EDIT + a black key, then its key again); they are a performance tool, not part of the pattern: a project loaded or a new one starts with every sound playing. A muted sound still plays from the keys and from MIDI, and its ratchets are muted too.

ARP — roll (note repeat)

While recording, a roll is written as ratchets (a 1/32 roll on a 1/16 track: x2 on each step). Rolls ignore fills. (The arpeggiator is something else: tap ARP for its pages.)

SEQ — steps

The 16 white keys are the 16 steps of the current page; the lit ones play.

A held step that you edited with a knob is kept when you let go (only a plain tap clears). Details in The step sequencer.

SEL — key and chords

Details in Key, scales, chords and CHORD+.

GLO — mix

The tiles show what is heard; the fill and bar tiles light while they act.

SAVE — song

Details in Song mode.

10. The step sequencer: steps, nudge, locks, fills

Each track has up to 64 steps with its own length (1–64) and division (1/32 to two bars). Tracks of different lengths loop on their own and stay in phase (polymeters). A synth step holds up to 4 notes (a chord) with a level and ratchet, a tie or a rest, an accent and a slide; a drum step holds any of the 16 sounds, each with its own level and ratchet.

There are three ways to enter steps:

1. Live — REC and play (see Recording).
2. The SEQ layer — hold SEQ, the white keys are steps (all tracks; see SEQ — steps).
3. The NOTES page (synth tracks, 2.7.2; the STEP page before) — tap SEQ: the pattern as a piano roll, each note a bar as long as it lasts, the one you edit outlined in white with its name over it, the beats ruled, the C rows named on the left and the playhead a line. A note's FORCE shows as its fill: GHOST dark, SOFT hollow, NORM and HARD full, ACC a white cap; a SLIDE a dash to the next note.

EDIT + OCT− / OCT+ undo and redo the edits, as before. Not while recording or armed (the keys record live then). On the drum track, the NOTES page shows DRUM TRACK: use the DRUMS grid or the SEQ layer.

The DRUMS grid has the same sheet (2.7.2): on the grid, OCT+ held opens it for the hit of KNOB 1's sound on KNOB 2's step: RATCHET (x1 … x4), NUDGE and FILL (the step's: every sound in it), MOVE (KNOB 2), COPY (OCT+: to the next step), DELETE (OCT+); OCT− closes it. OCT+ tapped still turns the page of steps.

The PATTERN page (tap SEQ again) holds the track's LEN, DIV, SWG (swing) and GATE (how long each note lasts).

Nudge (micro timing)

SEQ + step + KNOB 4 moves a step off the grid, from −32 to +31 in 1/64 of a step: minus = early (the step plays before its grid time, inside the previous step), plus = late. Its ratchets move with it; recording and swing stay on the grid. On the drum track the whole step moves, every sound in it. A nudged step shows a dot in the corner of its tile.

Parameter locks

A lock gives one sound parameter another value for that step only (Elektron style).

1. Turn the parameter you want on its page (for example FX → DLY send, or LFO → WAVE → RATE). That becomes the lock parameter (before you turn anything it is ENV → ROUTING → FLT).
2. Hold SEQ and hold the step.
3. Turn PRESETS: the first click makes the lock, one click away from the track's value; the next ones move it. A centred notification shows it (lock dst 14; lock flt -- = no lock yet).
4. ALGORITHM (step still held) steps through the other parameters, wrapping round.

At the next step without a lock on that parameter, it comes back to its base value (notes still ringing follow). A knob turned on the page while a lock is in force wins: that value becomes the new base. Several locks can sit on one step (one per parameter), 24 per track. The sound parameters of the track can be locked (and the PATTERN page's GATE); the arp, key / scale / chord, STRUM / VLEAD, voice-mode, MUTE, LEN / DIV / SWG and the global pages cannot (NOT LOCKABLE; NO LOCK LEFT when the 24 are used). A locked step shows the same dot as a nudged one; SEQ + step + OCT− clears both. Undo (EDIT + OCT−) is for steps and (2.7) their nudges: it does not bring locks back.

Fill conditions

SEQ + step + OCT+ cycles the step's condition:

1. Call a fill while you play: GLO + key 9 (as long as you hold it) or GLO + key 10 (the whole next bar). Build a beat whose rolls, crashes and pickup notes are FILL ONLY and whose main hat is NO FILL: one finger brings the fill in and out on the bar. A skipped step is silent whole (no note, no MIDI, no ratchet, no lock).
2. On the drum track the condition is the step's, every sound in it. STOP ends any fill. The arp and the rolls ignore fills.

Divisions

DIV: 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 (default), 1/32, 8T, 16T (triplets), 1/2, 1BAR, 2BAR. A 64-step track at 2BAR lasts 128 bars: drones, chord changes, slow songs.

11. Key, scales, chords and CHORD+

Key and scale

• SEL + any key sets the key of the song for the three synth tracks. (Also SEL page → ROOT, per track.)
• SCALE (SEL + KNOB 2 sets all three synth tracks; the SEL page sets the selected track alone): CHR (chromatic), MAJ, MIN, DOR (dorian), MIX (mixolydian), PEN (major pentatonic), MPEN (minor pentatonic), HARM (harmonic minor), PHRY (phrygian), LYD (lydian), LOC (locrian), MEL (melodic minor), BLUES, WHOLE (whole tone), DIMHW and DIMWH (diminished, half-whole and whole-half).
• KEYS: OFF (chromatic), SNAP (every key rounded down to the scale), WHITE (the white keys walk the scale from C4, the black keys are silent).
• TRANSPOSE (per track): ±24 semitones.

Changing a sound (PRESETS, a user preset) never changes the key, the chord mode, the pattern or the mix of its track.

Chord mode: one finger, one chord

Hold SEL and turn KNOB 1 CHORD on the selected synth track:

With a chord on, the white keys walk the scale from C4: C4 plays the chord of the key's I, D4 the II, E4 the III… and the keys below C4 carry on downwards. Every chord is built from the scale, so it always fits the song. With SCALE on CHR, the chords come from the minor scale. One finger plays the whole chord, and it is recorded as a chord.

CHORD+: the black keys change the chord

With a chord mode on, hold a black key while you play a white one — or press it while the chord is held, and the chord changes under your finger:

Both octaves of black keys work, and you can hold several. The 7th and 9th come from the scale: in C major, G4 plays G (the V chord), G# makes it G7, F# + G# make it Gm7; on C4, F# + G# give C-E♭-G-B. What you play is recorded as it sounds.

SEL → VOICING: STRUM and VLEAD

Tap SEL, then turn SELECT until the breadcrumb reads SEL → VOICING:

12. Mix: levels, mute, solo, fills, tap tempo

A muted track fades out in a few milliseconds and plays no new notes; its pattern runs on in time. Several solos add up.

Tempo: SELECT on TRACKS (or inside a layer except FX), GLO + key 16 tap tempo, or GLO → GLOBAL → BPM (40–240). With MIDI SYNC on, the tempo follows the master.

13. Undo, clear, save, sections, autosave

One song on the FM-1. The FM-1 holds one song: four sections, A–D, and the order they play in (the SONG screen). A section is a loop: the four tracks (sounds, patterns, kit, locks, nudges, fill conditions, the track filter) and the global settings of the loop (tempo, swing, key…). Your working loop (what plays in loop mode, kept by the autosave) is apart from them: LOAD copies a section into it, SAVE copies it into a section. A–D are not four songs. To keep several songs, save an editor Backup file per song (Song & sections tab) and restore the one you want to play. (Before 2.7 the SAVE page was called PROJECT, its slots 1–4: the same four sections.)

Settings of the FM-1 — SYNC, MIDI OUT, IN, the lights, the menu settings, the REC screen's MODE, START and QUANT — are not part of a section: loading one or NEW never changes them.

The SAVE pages (SAVE tapped, not on TRACKS)

Favourites (2.7). On the PRESETS page, turn KNOB 4 right: the sound is added to your favourites (FAV ADDED), up to 16, which come first in the PRESETS list, tagged FAV, in the order you added them; the PRESETS knob reaches them in a click or two from anywhere on TRACKS or HOME. KNOB 4 left removes it. A user preset can be a favourite too. They are a setting of the FM-1, kept through power-off (not in a project, and not in an editor backup). MIDI Program Change still counts the list without them.

GO: one click shows AGAIN: SAVE (or LOAD…), a second click within about 1.5 s does it. Presets and sections are written to flash only while the song is stopped.

14. Song mode: sections, chains, songs

The FM-1 holds one song: up to 16 steps of 4 sections, A–D. Each section holds the four tracks (sounds, patterns, kit): SAVE → SECTION shows them. For more songs, keep one editor backup file per song.

Make it live, by playing

1. Make a loop (the verse). SAVE + key 5: save A. Change the loop (the chorus) and save it into B (key 6), a bridge into C (key 7), an ending into D (key 8). Saving over a used section asks for the key again within 3 s.
2. Play the sections live: SAVE + key 1–4. Playing: the section starts on the next bar, every track from its first step, always in time. Stopped: it becomes the loop at once.
3. Quick chain: keep SAVE held and tap several section keys — A B B C, any order, repeats allowed, up to 8 — then let go. The first plays on the next bar, then each next one after the previous has played its pattern length (the longest track's), round and round. A centred notification reads chain A B B C; the section playing is lit, the next one framed. A single section tap, STOP, or PLAY in song mode ends the chain.
4. Record the song as you play it: SAVE + key 14. From the next bar every section you play, and for how many bars, is written into the song. SAVE + key 14 again, or STOP, ends it (SONG PARTS 5). It is saved by itself once you stop. SONG REC records what a chain plays too.
5. Play it back: SAVE + key 13 switches loop / song. In song mode PLAY plays the whole song and stops at the end (your loop is back afterwards).

The SONG screen

Open it with SAVE tapped on TRACKS (or on DRUMS), or SAVE + key 16. It shows the chain and edits it by hand:

The song's settings can only be edited while it is stopped (STOP FIRST). An empty section cannot play (EMPTY SECTION: REC).

15. The screens

Short messages appear in an automatically dismissing centred popup, leaving the header and bottom controls visible: KEY D, ERASED, AGAIN: SAVE, NEXT: B, chain A B B C, lock flt 12…

The lettering (2.6) is Terminus Bold, all in capitals: thicker strokes, easier to read on the small screen at arm's length; H3 uses a fixed header and consistent bottom controls.

16. Every page, knob by knob

1. Tap a button to open its first page (or the last one you used); tap it again for its next page, or turn SELECT to go back and forth. The number after the title (PATTERN 2/2) counts the pages SELECT goes through; tapping SEQ once more also opens the SONG screen, a screen of its own (2.7: it is no longer counted, so SEQ no longer reads 2/3).
2. On the drum track, pages that do not apply to it show DRUM TRACK.

Notes:

• Global pages (DLY, REV/CHO, GLOBAL, MASTER, SYSTEM, DRUMS) are the same whatever track is selected.
• SYNC, MIDI and IN are settings of the FM-1, kept when you load a project.
• On the drum track, applicable pages include FILTER, INSERT / INSERT 2, SLICER, PATTERN (SEQ), the SONG screen and the global pages; its kit, level, reverb and pan are on the DRUMS kit page, and its filter is FX + KNOB 4.
• FM6 tracks ignore the ENV page and ENV → ROUTING (each operator has its own envelope).
• ARP modes (2.7, after Felucca 1.4 / 1.5.1). With C, E and G held: UP C E G · DN G E C · UPDN C E G E · DNUP G E C E · RND at random · ORD in the order you pressed them · REPEAT the last note you pressed, again and again (OCT ignored) · UP+8 C E G C' (the first note again an octave above the top) · CONV C G E (from the outside in) · DIVG E G C (from the inside out) · PINKY C G E G (the top note between the others) · THUMB C E C G (the bottom note between the others) · WALK one step up or down at random, from the bottom · CHORD the held notes together (the first four), on every step, an octave higher each step through OCT. OCT spreads the list over 1–4 octaves; ARP → PLAYBACK ORD PLAY keeps the order you played for the other modes. Until 2.6, ORD played as UP unless ARP → PLAYBACK ORD was PLAY: now it always follows the order you pressed.
• KBD HOLD (2.7): ARP → PLAYBACK → HOLD ON with ARP → MODE OFF holds the notes you play, without an arpeggio: let go and they go on sounding (a pad, a drone, a chord to play over with one hand). The next note you play with no key down replaces them (a new chord); notes played while keys are still down join them. The keys' MIDI note-offs wait too, so gear played from the FM-1 holds with it. HOLD OFF (or ARP on, another project, NEW) ends them; loading another sound ends the held notes too, but HOLD stays ON. Projects saved before 2.7 open with HOLD OFF when their arp is OFF (it did nothing then), so nothing hangs by surprise. It works for MIDI notes too. Recorded as you hear it: a held note ends where it is replaced. Up to 2.6, HOLD did nothing with the arp OFF.
• ARP SWG (2.7): the arp's swing also works with the sequencer stopped (the odd steps late), as it does while playing; until 2.6 it only worked while playing.
• ARP and sounds (2.7): while the arpeggiator runs (MODE not OFF), loading another sound (a preset or a user preset) keeps the arp: its settings (both ARP pages) and the notes it holds or latches go on with the new sound. With the arp OFF, a preset that has an arp of its own (8BIT ARP…) brings it, as before. (2.7.1) An arp that came with the sound (8BIT ARP, a user preset saved with its arp) and that you did not change goes with it: the next sound brings its own (most often OFF). Change one of its settings and it is yours: it goes on with the next sounds.
• ENV SYNC (ENV → ROUTING → ESYNC ON, 2.6): ATK, DEC and REL become note values of the tempo, from 0 through 1/64T … 1/4, 1/2 … to 4BAR, with triplets and dotted values; at 120 BPM an ATK of 1/4 lasts half a second, at 60 a whole one. They follow the tempo as it changes. OFF: times in milliseconds, as before.
• LFO → TIMING (2.6): SYNC locks the LFO's cycle to a note value of the tempo (RATE is then ignored; OFF: RATE, as before) · TRIG NOTE restarts the LFO at PHS on each new phrase (as before), FREE lets it run on · POL BI swings above and below the value, UNI only above it (a tremolo that only lowers the level, a wobble that only opens).
• FILTER (EDIT, ANALOG only, 2.6): the ANALOG engine's filter as a low-pass (as before), band-pass or high-pass; CUT, RES and KTR are the same values as on EDIT 2.
• On the screen, EDIT 1 and EDIT 2 carry the engine's own page names: ANALOG OSC / FLT, DIGITAL OPS / MOD, PHASE PHS / LINE, LOFI CHIP / MOTN, SAMPLE SET / TONE, VOICE VOWL / TONE, TRIO OSC / TONE, WHEEL BARS / TONE, GRAIN GRAN / SPRY, FM6 OPS / PATCH, PHYS BODY / EXCT, NOISE SRC / MOVE.
• Any sound parameter on these pages can be locked on a step (see Parameter locks), except the pattern, arp, key and voice-mode ones.

17. The sounds and the twelve engines

The sound bank

153 factory sounds, every one a full patch on one of the twelve engines, all level-matched (the same LEVEL gives the same loudness). PRESETS browses them by kind — basses, keys, organs, pads, leads, plucks and bells, stabs, FX — with the kind shown next to the name; your 32 user presets come after. A new project starts at 90 BPM with 808 BOOM on track 1, RHODES on track 2, LOFI FLUTE on track 3 and the 808 kit on track 4.

To pick an engine directly: SAVE → PRESETS → KNOB 2. To start from the engine's defaults: SAVE → TOOLS → INIT.

The twelve engines

Each engine's eight parameters are on EDIT 1 (KNOB 1–4) and EDIT 2 (KNOB 1–4), tap EDIT once and twice; the screen shows them under the engine's own page names (for example DIGITAL: OPS, MOD). A dash is an unused knob.

The SAMPLE sets are free recordings (CC0: Versilian Studios VSCO-2 CE and VCSL, Sonic Pi), coloured like a record through an old sampler. GRAND PNO is a Steinway recorded note by note; long notes fade as on the real one.

Polyphony

The three synth tracks share one pool of 8 voices; the drum track has its own 6. Played on its own, each engine's maximum polyphony is:

In MONO or LEGATO a track plays one note at a time; UNISON stacks detuned voices within the same cap. When more than one synth track sounds at once, the 8-voice pool is split between them: a part that needs a voice takes the oldest sounding one.

FM6 and DX7 patches

FM6 is msfa, the synthesis core of Dexed, as Felucca 1.0 ported it: six operators with their own four-stage envelopes, keyboard scaling, velocity, ratio or fixed frequency and detune; 32 algorithms, feedback, LFO, pitch envelope; six voices per track. The eight EDIT values above are macros on top of the patch; the track's FLT moves MLVL (so LFO → FLT still brightens it), SHP the feedback, PIT the pitch.

1. Edit full patches in the web editor's FM6 panel (Sound page, on an FM6 track): every operator, Send to track, Store in bank (B1–B27), Import SysEx (a DX7 voice or a 32-voice bank: thousands of DX7 and Dexed patches play on the FM-1; or drop the .syx file on the panel) and Export SysEx. Store cartridge in bank (2.5) puts a whole 32-voice cartridge on the FM-1 at once: the first 27 voices are ticked (or tick the ones you want, up to 27), and one write puts them in B1, B2… in order; the editor asks before replacing, and the rest of the bank stays.
2. Stop the song first. Before storing you can choose to also add them to the user presets (in the free slots, or from a slot you pick): each voice gets a user preset with its name that plays its B slot, so on the FM-1 you pick it by name with PRESETS or SELECT, like any sound; the editor says which user presets it would replace. (A user preset keeps PTCH, not the patch: the voice itself stays in the bank.) Then pick them on the FM-1 with PTCH (EDIT page 2: B1–B27 after the factory F1–F8). A project keeps the track's PTCH, not the patch itself: store an edited patch in the bank to keep it.

18. Effects: master, punch-in, per track

Signal path

Each synth track: engine → drive (DST) → INSERT (2.6) → SLICER → FILTER (the track's own) → level (and DUCK) → pan and sends to the stereo chorus, the tempo delay and the reverb. The drum track has its own INSERT (2.6), slicer, filter, level, pan, reverb send and (2.5) delay send. Then the whole mix, with the effect returns (and, 2.6, the TEXTURE bed): DUST → punch-in effects → FILT (the DJ filter) → MASTER volume → limiter (2.6: it looks one block, 0.7 ms, ahead: a loud hit is already turned down when it comes, never pushed into the output's soft clipper).

Master: DUST, DUCK, FILT, ROLL

On FX + KNOB 1–3, or GLO → MASTER:

Punch-in effects

FX + white key: the effect runs on the whole mix while the key is held and lets go cleanly when you release it. Loops and the gate are locked to the tempo and start on the grid. Fade (2.8): hold FX, then SELECT (shown as F0–F15 in the first header row) sets a fade-in and out for the punch-ins, 0 (off — instant, just an anti-click) to 15 (about 0.37 s): the effects ease in and out instead of snapping on and off. Over MIDI (2.7): set GLO → MIDI 3 → FX CH, and that channel's notes F3 … G5 play the same 27 effects (see the MIDI settings).

FX + black key (2.6): eleven more, on the black keys from the lowest F# to the highest.

The screen shows the 27 keys as a keyboard: the white keys in four rows of four, as on the other layers, the black keys above them, each between the two white keys it sits between on the FM-1 (the one after a row's last white key at the right end of that row). The effect held is lit white.

Texture (2.6)

GLO → TEXTURE (and TEXTURE 2): a looping bed under the whole mix, the glue of lo-fi and ambient tracks, without taking a track. It goes into the dry mix (not the sends), before DUST, the punch-ins and the master filter.

The texture is saved with the project, and each song section (A–D) has its own. The generated sources use no memory; at SRC OFF nothing runs.

Per track

• FILTER (FX → FILTER, or FX + KNOB 4 for the selected track): one knob, left a low-pass, right a high-pass, centre off. It stays when you change the sound, can be locked on a step, and is saved with the project. Its resonance is set once for every track in HOME menu → AUDIO → FILTER RESO (0 clean … 10, 2.7.2). (2.8) The drum track has it too: FX → FILTER sweeps and shapes the whole kit, live.
• Sends (FX page): DST drive, CHO chorus, DLY delay, REV reverb. The delay and the reverb / chorus settings are global (DLY and REV/CHO pages). The delay's TIME includes dotted 1/8 and 1/16.
• SLICER (FX → SLICER): a tempo gate (GATE) or stutter (STUT), 16 patterns, 1/8 to 32T, with a depth.
• INSERT (FX → INSERT and INSERT 2, 2.6, after Felucca 1.5): one effect on the track alone, right after its drive; the drum track has one too, on the whole kit and its sends. MIX sets dry / wet. A, B and C change with the type:

A, B, C and MIX can be locked on a step. TYPE OFF (or MIX at 0) costs nothing: the track sounds exactly as without it.

19. The visualiser

On the TRACKS screen, tap HOME: the whole screen becomes a visualiser of what SLOOP plays.

The visualiser sees the mix as if MASTER were all the way up: with MASTER turned down, even to 0, it still moves at full size. It costs the sound nothing.

20. The HOME menu and the lights

Hold HOME (0.7 s) to open the menu; hold it again to close it. The menu is in five sections (2.7.1: SEQ):

The knobs (2.7). A slow turn is fine tuning, one value a detent. Turn faster and the value sweeps wider, progressively (x2 up to x16 on the widest values); turning back to correct is always one value a detent, and lists of names never jump. MENU → SCREEN → KNOB ACCEL OFF keeps one value a detent everywhere. LEVEL and PAN glide over about 3 ms instead of stepping at each detent, on every track and the drums: no zipper on a held note. Both after JIANT FM by juanjiant-bit.

All of these are settings of the FM-1, kept when you load a project or start a new one.

Lights

• LIGHTS — every button glows at that level, so its label can be read in the dark (on a black FM-1 the labels are unreadable unlit). What is on — the page, PLAY, REC, an octave — stays at full light and still blinks.
• KEYS — the Cs, every white key, or every key glow at the LIGHTS level too (KEYS turns LIGHTS on at LOW if it was off).
• NOTES — ON: the notes sounding on the selected synth track light their keys, played live or by the sequencer (each for at least a tenth of a second, so short sequencer notes show too). The drum track always lights its hits. Works on every page and in every layer.
• Always: PLAY flashes on every beat; REC blinks when armed and is solid while recording; the button of the page shown is lit; in a layer, keys 1, 5, 9, 13 glow dimly and what is on is fully lit; OCT− / OCT+ light when the octave is off 0; a locked layer's button blinks.

Hardware calibration

If a button or knob does the wrong thing, HOME menu → SYSTEM → HARDWARE CALIBRATION (or hold OCT− + OCT+ while switching on): press each button and turn each knob to the right as the screen asks. 30 s without input cancels it and keeps the old setup.

21. MIDI

Where MIDI comes in

• The MIDI IN jack (3.5 mm TRS on the FM-1): a keyboard or pad controller with a MIDI output, through a TRS-to-DIN MIDI adapter. If nothing plays, try the other type of adapter (type A / type B).
• USB: a computer or phone (a DAW, a MIDI routing app) or a USB MIDI host box. A USB keyboard plugged straight into the FM-1 cannot work: both are USB devices, and a USB link needs a host.

Both work at once.

All the MIDI settings: GLO → MIDI, MIDI 2 (2.6) and MIDI 3 (2.7)

Every MIDI setting is on these pages of GLO (tap GLO until MIDI). They are settings of the FM-1: kept through power-off, not changed by a project, and in the web editor's backups.

• CH1–CH4: OFF or 1–16. A track's channel plays it (notes, CCs, sustain, pitch bend, Program Change) and its keys and sequence go out on it. OFF: nothing in, nothing out for that track. Two tracks never share a channel: turn a channel onto one another track has and it goes on to the next free one, and the screen says whose it was (CH 3 = TRACK 3). Changing a channel ends whatever was still sounding on it, here and on the other gear. CH4 is also on GLO → DRUMS (the same setting).
• IN: NOTES (notes, CCs and the clock: normal) · CLOCK (only the clock and START / CONTINUE / STOP; every note and CC ignored, except the REMOTE CCs when REMOTE is on) · CH 1 … CH 16 (only that one channel, always on the selected track; CH1–CH4 and OTHER are set aside, the clock still followed). Opening GLO → MIDI while IN is not NOTES says so on the screen (IN CH 5: SEL TRK ONLY, IN = CLOCK: NO NOTES).
• OTHER: what a channel that no track has does: SEL plays the selected track (set your keyboard to channel 4 and it follows ALGORITHM) · OFF ignores it (a sequencer's channels for other gear on the same cable).
• OUT: KEYS only what you play on the keys goes out · SEQ the sequencer, the arp and the rolls go out too.
• FX CH (2.7): OFF (the default) or 1–16. On that channel the notes F3 … G5 (MIDI 53–79) are the FM-1's 27 keys with FX held: a note held holds its punch-in effect, its release lets it go (white keys: effects 1–16, black keys: 17–27, as on the FM-1). A pad controller, a keyboard or a DAW can play and automate them. That channel only plays effects (choose one no track uses); it works with IN = NOTES or CH n, not with IN = CLOCK. A key of the FM-1 (FX + key) takes over at once.
• DR MAP (2.7): how the notes reaching the drum track (on CH4, or on IN CH n with the drum track selected) pick the 16 drum sounds. GM (the default, as before): the General MIDI notes, for DAWs and MIDI files: 36 kick, 35 kick 2, 38 snare, 39 clap, 42 hat, 46 open hat, 44 pedal hat, 37 rim, 40 snare 2, 43 low tom, 48 high tom, 49 crash, 51 ride, 70 shaker, 63 conga, 56 cowbell (any other note plays the nearest of them). 1-16: any 16 notes in a row play the 16 sounds in order, from note 36 (KICK, KICK 2, SNARE, CLAP, HAT, OPEN HAT, PEDAL, RIM, SNARE 2, LOW TOM, HI TOM, CRASH, RIDE, SHAKER, CONGA, COWBELL), and again every 16 notes: a keyboard or a row of pads plays the whole kit wherever it starts. What the drum track sends on MIDI OUT stays GM.
• REMOTE (2.7): OFF (the default) or 1–16. On that channel, CC 102 … 115 press the FM-1's 14 buttons from a controller or a DAW: a value of 64 or more holds the button down, below 64 lets it go (a controller's button sends 127 then 0: a tap; held: a hold). Everything works as on the panel: taps, holds and their layers, combinations (a button held + a key), OCT− / OCT+. CC 102 FX · 103 SEL · 104 ENV · 105 LFO · 106 EDIT · 107 GLO · 108 HOME · 109 SAVE · 110 ARP · 111 SEQ · 112 PLAY · 113 REC · 114 OCT− · 115 OCT+. Choose a channel no track uses; its other messages work as usual (notes, other CCs, MIDI LEARN).
• CLOCK (2.7): OFF (the default) or OUT. OUT, the FM-1 is the clock master on USB: it sends the MIDI clock (24 pulses a beat, at its tempo, also while stopped so the other gear knows the tempo), START when its sequencer starts (after a count-in, when it starts) and STOP when it stops. A DAW, a drum machine or another groovebox set to follow MIDI clock then plays in time with SLOOP and starts and stops with it. It works with SYNC = INT only: a FM-1 that follows a clock (SYNC USB or TRS) never sends one (no loop through a computer). The FM-1's TRS jack is an input: the clock goes out on USB. A setting of the FM-1, kept through power-off.
• BEND: the pitch bend's range, 1–12 semitones (default 2).

IN and OUT are also on GLO → SYSTEM, next to SYNC (the clock), where they were before 2.6.

Examples. A keyboard on channel 1 plays track 1; select another track and play it from channel 4 (OTHER = SEL). An external sequencer with drums on 10, bass on 2, pad on 11, lead on 8: CH1 = 2, CH2 = 11, CH3 = 8, CH4 = 10, OTHER = OFF. A KeyStep Pro whose other channels drive other gear: IN = CH n, and that channel plays the selected track.

MIDI out, clock in (GLO → SYSTEM)

• MIDI out: each track on its channel (CH1–CH4). With SEQ, set a DAW track to record the FM-1's MIDI and you get the pattern as notes, or let SLOOP drive another synth. Every note is ended, STOP ends whatever was still on, and notes that came in are never sent back (no MIDI loop).
• Clock in: START plays from the top, CONTINUE carries on, STOP stops; the tempo follows the master pulse by pulse (24 a beat), so SLOOP cannot drift. When the clock stops for half a second, PLAY on the FM-1 plays at its own tempo again. A MIDI START during the REC count-in starts and records at once.
• Switching IN, or a channel, releases any note still held: nothing is left hanging.
• Bluetooth MIDI is not supported: SLOOP never switches the radio on.

MIDI CCs (2.5)

The knobs of a MIDI controller set the sound (the standard CC map of Felucca 1.1.5). A CC acts on the track its channel plays, as the notes do (each synth track's channel, the drum channel the drum track, the others the selected track), and sets its parameter as a knob would: 0–127 over the parameter's range, 64 the middle of PAN and FILTER. It changes the sound's value itself (as a knob, so saving keeps it); the screen and the web editor follow.

Sustain and pitch bend (2.6). The sustain pedal (CC 64, on the track its channel plays): while it is down, a note you let go keeps sounding until the pedal comes up (the arp keeps it, a recording holds it as you hear it; a note played again meanwhile ends with its key). Pitch bend bends the track its channel plays, smoothly, by up to BEND semitones (GLO → MIDI 2: 1–12, default 2); the drum track ignores it. Other CCs (mod wheel…) are ignored, unless you map them with MIDI LEARN.

Program Change (2.6, after Felucca 1.5.1 and @renebohne's PR #179). A Program Change on a track's channel loads its sound: on a synth track, number n is the n-th sound of the PRESETS list (0 the first: 808 BOOM; the 153 factory sounds by kind, then your user presets in order), on the drum channel kit n. A number past the end is ignored. The screen says T2 PROG 5. IN = CLOCK ignores it; IN = CH n sends it to the selected track. (2.7.2) Bank Select (CC 0) reaches the sounds past the first 128: send CC 0 on the track's channel and it is latched for the next Program Change — bank 0 the first 128 of the PRESETS list, bank 1 the next 128, and so on (the rest of the factory sounds, then your user presets by slot). Send CC 0, then the Program Change.

MIDI LEARN (2.6)

Any knob of your controller onto any parameter of a track (after Felucca 1.5):

1. GLO + F#3 (the first black key): LEARN: TURN A KNOB; a centred popup prompts you to turn a knob.
2. Turn the knob of SLOOP you want (any page of the track, or LEVEL / PAN on TRACKS): T1 CUT: SEND A CC.
3. Move the knob on your controller: CC 21 = T1 CUT. Go on with other knobs, as many as you like.
4. GLO + F#3 again: LEARN DONE.

A learned CC sets that track's parameter whatever channel it comes on, and no longer does what the standard map gave it (a CC learned for one parameter is taken off the one it had before; up to 16 CCs). The CCs with a meaning of their own are never learned: bank select (0, 32), mod wheel (1), data entry (6, 38), expression (11), sustain (64), 96–101 and the channel modes (120–127). What is learned is a setting of the FM-1, kept through power-off and projects, and in the web editor's backups (restored with them, on this FM-1 or another); HOME menu → SYSTEM → MIDI LEARN CLEAR, OCT+, forgets it all.

22. USB audio

On USB the FM-1 is also an audio input named Felucca: 44.1 or 48 kHz (the computer, phone or tablet picks; 48 kHz since 2.5, for the phones and apps that only take it), 16-bit stereo, class compliant, no driver. In your DAW, in Audacity or in a sampler app on your phone (with a USB-C cable or adapter) choose that input and record: you get the master output, exactly what the headphones play (after DUST, DUCK and FILT; the click and count-in too if they are on). MIDI, the editor and the installer keep working on the same cable.

HOME menu → AUDIO → USB AUDIO:

• MASTER (default): the recording follows the MASTER knob, as the headphones do. Keep MASTER well up while you record.
• FULL: a fixed level, as with MASTER all the way up (kept from clipping by the limiter); MASTER then only sets the headphones. Best for a computer input with no level control of its own.

The first time, the computer sees the FM-1 as a slightly different device (MIDI + audio) and sets it up again. On macOS 13–15, keep USB SERIAL OFF (the default) or the audio input may not show (2.6; from 2.7 the FM-1's build has no serial console and no USB SERIAL: the flash is full, and it was a developer's tool). (2.7.2) On macOS 15 and older, SLOOP up to 2.7.1 showed MIDI but no audio input: Apple's audio driver there stopped reading SLOOP's USB description before the audio part (after Felucca 1.5.1, the audio is now listed first). The FM-1 also reports a new USB version, so the Mac sets it up fresh.

HOME menu → AUDIO → USB RATE (2.7), KNOB 3: the rates the FM-1 offers. It takes effect at the next start: turn the FM-1 off and on (the menu shows RESTART until then).

• AUTO (default): 44.1 and 48 kHz, the computer or phone picks, as in 2.5 and 2.6.
• 44.1 KHZ: 44.1 kHz only, the samples exactly as the FM-1 makes them (as in 2.4). If a phone or tablet records the FM-1 distorted or noisy while a computer records it clean, try this first: the phone then converts the rate itself.
• 48 KHZ: 48 kHz only, for a device or app that needs it.

The computer or phone sees each setting as a slightly different device and may set it up again.

23. Your own samples and drum kits

The FM-1 has four sample slots, USR1–USR4, of about 7.4 s each (22 kHz mono). A slot holds either:

• an instrument, played by a synth track: engine SAMPLE, SET = USR1 … USR4 (or the GRAIN engine's SRC), or
• a drum kit, played by the drum track: KIT = USR1 … USR4, or USR3+4, one big kit of about 15 s over two slots.

A good setup: USR1 and USR2 as instruments, a big kit on USR3+4. You fill the slots from the web editor.

An instrument (editor → Samples)

1. Choose a slot. Four tiles show what each slot holds and how full it is; the page warns when sending would replace something (or half of your USR3+4 kit).
2. Make the sound, one of two ways:
   • From files (one note per file): drop up to 16 WAV files (any rate, mono or stereo). Each plays at its own note, the keys between play the nearest one, pitched. The note is read from the file name (KEYS_C4.wav, C4 = 60) or set in the list; a keyboard picture shows which keys play which file; ▶ plays a file; the meter shows the time used. Each file has a Gain (0 to −24 dB, 2.6); Match levels sets them so every file is heard at the same level (the loud ones turned down: every file comes in at full scale), then adjust by ear. Loop (2.7), for each file: ONE SHOT (plays once to the end, as before), LOOP (the whole file again and again while the key is held; let go, it ends its round) or LOOP+TAIL (the start plays, then the part between Loop start and Loop end again and again while the key is held; let go, the rest of the file, the tail, plays to the end). A short sample becomes a sound you can hold: a pad, a string, a voice, an organ. Set the points on the file's wave (the loop is lit); when you let go of a slider the point moves to the nearest zero crossing, so the loop does not click. Hold ▶ to hear it as the FM-1 plays it, let go for the tail. A WAV that has its own loop (set in a sample editor: its smpl chunk) comes in as LOOP+TAIL with its points. It takes no extra memory. The SAMPLE engine's LOOP (EDIT 1, KNOB 4) still turns loops off for the whole set. The release (ENV) still ends the note: set REL long enough to hear the tail. On SLOOP 2.6 such a file loops until the release ends it.
   • Chop a recording (CHOP): open or drop a recording (WAV, MP3, AIFF…) and cut it into up to 16 chops, one per key.
3. Send it and play it: name it, Send to USRn, then Play this slot on track 1, 2 or 3: that track switches to SAMPLE with SET = USRn.

CHOP in detail:

A recording of any length works: keep the chops you want, the slot takes about 7.4 s of them.

A drum kit (editor → Drum kit)

1. Your sounds. Drop a WAV on any of the 16 pads (KICK, KICK 2, SNARE, CLAP, HAT, OPEN HAT, PEDAL, RIM, SNARE 2, LOW TOM, HI TOM, CRASH, RIDE, SHAKER, CONGA, COWBELL), or Choose files to add several at once: they are sorted onto the pads by name (kick, bd, snare, hh, open, crash…; a second kick goes to KICK 2). Click a pad's wave to hear it. Each pad has Pitch (±12 semitones), Gain and Length (a cut ends with a short fade). Match levels (2.6, under the pads) sets every pad's Gain so the kit is heard even (as the ear hears it: the lows count less; the loud pads turned down to the quietest), then adjust by ear.
2. Where it goes. USR3+4 (the big kit, about 15 s; the editor shares the sounds out over the two slots by itself), or a single slot USR1–USR4 (about 7.4 s). Each choice shows what it holds now and what a send would replace. The meter shows the time used; too long? shorten the long sounds or press Fit the slot.
3. Send it. Name it, Send, then Use … on the drum track selects track 4 and sets its KIT (or turn PRESETS on the drum track: USR3+4 is the last kit).

Save as ZIP keeps the kit's 16 WAVs to share; Open ZIP (or dropping a .zip) loads one back.

On the FM-1 your kit works like any other: steps, levels, ratchets, fill conditions, the DRUMS grid, the keys, MIDI channel 10 (a note plays its lane's sound), the filter, the slicer, mute. The closed hat cuts the open one. A lane without a sound is silent, and so is an empty slot.

Your own synthesised kits (SYN1–SYN4)

SLOOP 2.5: the editor's Drum synth page changes every value of a synthesised kit, sound by sound, and the FM-1 plays the change at once. Never stored, SYN1–SYN4 are copies of 808, 909, TRAP and TECHNO.

1. Pick a kit, SYN1 to SYN4, and give it a name (8 letters: the DRUMS screen shows it). Start from + Copy makes it a copy of any of the 32 kits.
2. Pick a sound (KICK, SNARE, CLAP, HAT, OPEN HAT, LOW TOM, HI TOM, CRASH, RIDE, SHAKER, CONGA, RIM, COWBELL, CLAVE, KICK 2, SNARE 2): it plays (also Play; Play on change plays it after every change).
3. Change it. Each value is a tile you drag up or down, or a bar; double-click puts back the value of the kit it started from.

CRUSH (bits off) and S&H (a lower sample rate) act on the whole kit.

4. Store on the FM-1 keeps the four kits in flash (stop the song first); until then not stored yet shows (switched off before, the FM-1 may come back with the last stored kits). Use on the drum track sets KIT to it. Save file / Open file: a kit as a file, to share or to keep. A backup holds the four kits too.

24. The web editor

Open it from the HENLO installer page, the editor link, or OPEN-EDITOR.bat, in Chrome or Edge with the FM-1 on USB, and press Connect (allow MIDI). It follows the device live: turn a knob on the FM-1, the editor moves. It looks like the FM-1: the black screen, the four track colours, the FM-1's own pixel font. The language button switches English / Japanese.

1. Offline (2.6). Download the editor (under Connect, or on the installer page) saves the whole editor as one file for a computer, sloop-editor-2.6.html, also attached to each release.

2. Double-click it: it opens in Chrome or Edge without internet (Chrome asks once to allow MIDI) and works as the online one. Its sound library (kept in the browser) is its own, apart from the online editor's: move sounds between them with Export / Import, or a backup.

3. As an app, also on Android (2.6). Open the online editor or the upstream SLOOP installer once with internet, then Install the app (under Connect, or on the installer page; or Chrome's menu → Install app / Add to Home screen). This is the upstream app, not the HENLO installer; HENLO does not register an offline service worker. From then on the SLOOP app opens the editor without internet, and its link to the installer works offline too (with the firmware it installs). It stays the online site kept by the browser, so it uses the same sound library as the online editor, and it takes each new SLOOP version by itself the next time it opens online.

4. On Android, use the app rather than the downloaded file: Chrome on Android does not allow MIDI in a downloaded file.

Layout: the side bar has the pages in three groups — Track (LIVE, Sound, Sequencer, Tracks, Song), Sounds (Library, Samples, Drum kit, Drum synth), Device (Projects, Settings) — and the connection. On top: the page title, the messages, and on the Track pages the four tracks (number, sound, engine): click one to select it. With the side bar focused, the arrow keys move between pages.

Values: each value is a tile you drag up or down like a knob (Shift: fine), or a bar: click it, then the wheel or the arrow keys (Shift: steps of 10); double-click resets it.

LIVE (2.7). The editor's LIVE page plays the FM-1 in front of an audience: everything a show needs on one screen, with the mouse, a finger on a tablet or a phone, or the computer's keys. What its buttons do goes through the FM-1's own code (the same as GLO + key, SAVE + key, FX + key, REC, PLAY), so the FM-1 and the page always agree, and you can play on both at once.

• Transport: PLAY / STOP, REC (the selected track, as the REC button), undo / redo, BPM (drag the knob, or TAP), SWING, where the loop is (bar.beat) and, in song mode, which part and bar of the song.
• Song: LOOP / SONG, SONG REC, FILL while held and FILL BAR (the next bar is a fill), as GLO + key 9 and 10.
• Sections A–D: tap one: it plays from the next bar (stopped: at once); the one playing is lit, the one coming blinks, an empty one is dim. Save the loop into A B C D stores the loop (over a used section it asks first).
• Mixer, one strip per track: the sound (any preset; the drums: the kit) with ‹ › for the next one, the level fader with its meter, the pattern's progress, filter (left: low-pass, right: high-pass), pan, reverb, delay, chorus and drive (the drums: filter, pan, reverb, delay), mute, solo, and play: the keys below play that track (it is selected on the FM-1 too, so REC records it).
• Master FX: the master filter, dust and duck (FX + KNOB 1 to 3 on the FM-1).
• Punch-in effects: the 27 effects in four groups (loops & time, filter & EQ, colour, movement). Hold a pad: the effect plays while you hold it, as FX + key. Latch: a tap turns it on, another tap (or another effect) off.
• Keys: two octaves for tracks 1–3 (octave, velocity, the track's arp mode and hold), the 16 drum pads for the drum track (GHOST, SOFT, NORM, HARD). They are real MIDI notes on the track's channel (GLO > MIDI), so they sound at once.
• Playlist: your songs, one after the other. Export each song first (Song & sections → Export this song: the loop, the sections A–D and their order in one .sloopsong file), add songs here, and tap one (or next song, key N): the FM-1 stops, the song loads in a few seconds (its A–D, loop and order replace the FM-1's) and, with play when loaded, starts. The list stays in the browser; save the list keeps it as one file to take to a gig (add songs opens it again).
• Full screen: the page alone, the side bar hidden. All off lets go of every note and effect.
• Help on the page: every card says in one line what it is for, its ? explains how to use it, and the mouse over any control says what it does. First live in 5 steps shows at the top until you press got it (its ? brings it back). view: essentials keeps the transport, sections, mixer, keys and effects; view: everything adds the scenes, PERFORM, the playlist and the stage tools.
• Sections or scenes? The sections A–D change what plays (the notes: intro, verse, chorus…). The scenes change how it sounds (the knobs: filters, levels, effects), never the notes. Example: scene 1 "intro" with the filters closed and the drums low, scene 2 "drop" with everything open: play your loop, tap 1, then 2 at the drop — or let scene 2 come over 8 bars for a build-up.
• Scenes (8): a scene keeps how everything sounds now — each track's level, mute, pan, filter, sends and drive, its sound's knobs (the engine's 8 values, FLT PIT SHP, the envelope, glide, the LFO), its INSERT and arp, and the master bus (filter, dust, duck, the delay, the reverb, the chorus, TEXTURE, swing). + sounds keeps the presets and the kit too, + tempo the BPM. Store then a scene pad keeps it (double-click: its name); a tap recalls it at once or morphs there over 1 to 16 bars. The crossfader mixes two scenes (A and B) as you move it. Kept in the browser, and in the setlist file.
• Perform: the track the keys play, in four tabs: sound (the engine's values, the macros, the envelope and glide, the LFO), arp & key (MODE, RATE, OCT, GATE, SWG, ORD, HOLD; ROOT, SCALE, CHORD, TRANSPOSE, for every synth track at once if you want), insert & bus (the track's INSERT and filter; the delay, reverb, chorus, TEXTURE and the metronome) and steps (the 16 steps of a page, a drum lane a row: a tap turns a step on or off, a new synth step plays the last note you played; a right-click its fill condition; LEN, DIV, SWG, GATE).
• Sounds: ☆ on a strip makes its sound a favourite (at the top of every list, in this browser); your USER presets are in the lists too.
• MIDI learn: press MIDI learn, tap a control of the page (a fader, a knob, a scene, an effect pad, PLAY…), then move a knob or press a pad on your controller (any USB MIDI controller plugged into the computer). Learned controls work as soon as the page shows; a right-click in learn mode forgets one, forget all every one.
• The FM-1's live tools (2.7): chain (under the sections: tap 2+ letters, play chain: each section for its bars, looped, as SAVE + several keys), roll / erase for the keys and pads (roll repeats while held at the roll rate, as ARP + key; erase removes that note or sound while held, as EDIT + key), the pattern's shift ◀ ▶, ½ / ×2 length, transpose (PERFORM → steps, as EDIT + KNOB 1–3), each pad's tune and decay (PERFORM → sound on the drums), rev throw / echo throw while held and the volume (MASTER FX; turning the FM-1's MASTER knob, or knob, gives it back).
• Stage tools: the clock and the set's time (from the first PLAY; tap it to start again), lock (the page ignores taps, so nothing changes by accident; the keys of the computer and the controller still work; hold it to unlock) and record set: the FM-1's USB audio (the browser asks for the microphone once) recorded as a WAV file until you stop. In the playlist, ✎ gives a song its tempo (set when it loads) and a cue (shown while it plays, the next one under it).

The computer's keys (not in a text field): Space play / stop · 1–4 sections A–D · 5–8 mute tracks 1–4 (Shift: solo) · 9 fill while held · 0 fill bar · B tap · C REC · N next song · Z / X octave · ← → the track the keys play · A W S E D F T G Y H U J K O L P play (the drums: the 16 pads) · Shift + those keys: the first 16 effects while held · F1–F8 scenes (Shift: store) · Esc all off.

The mixer and the keys also work with an FM-1 on SLOOP 2.6; the transport, sections, fills and effects need 2.7. If the keys stay silent, the page says why: GLO > SYSTEM > IN = CLOCK (no notes), or a track with no channel while OTHER is OFF.

Your theme (2.7). The editor's Theme page makes the FM-1's screen your own, with or without the FM-1 connected:

• Screen: five colours, faintest first (darkest on a dark background, lightest on a light one): Lines, Dim (empty steps, units), Labels, Secondary text, Values. Start from takes a built-in palette (the other way round on a light background); Five steps from one colour makes the five from the colour you pick.
• Background: black by default, or any colour, white too (Back to black returns to it). Light ↔ dark turns the theme over: a white background, the five steps the other way, a black accent (and back). The greys of the pages (tiles, empty steps, labels) follow the background.
• Accent: what you touch, the menu's cursor, the play head: white by default; on a light background a dark one.
• Track colours: T1, T2, T3 and the drums (the knobs' values, the step tiles, the meters).
• Name: up to 8 characters; the FM-1 shows it in MENU → COLOR.
• The preview draws a SLOOP page with your colours, exactly as the screen will show them.
• Send to the FM-1 (stop the song first): the FM-1 keeps it and shows it at once. It then comes after MONO in MENU → SCREEN → COLOR; turn KNOB 1 to go back to a built-in palette and to your theme again. Read from the FM-1 brings it back into the page; Remove from the FM-1 deletes it. Send again after any change: next to the buttons the page says whether what you see is what the FM-1 has. Values and the Accent must stand out from the background so the menu stays readable: the page marks the one too close, Send says why, Make it readable moves just those two until they do, and the FM-1 refuses one too close. A theme made with a 2.7 beta still loads, with a white accent.
• Share: the line in the Share box (SLOOP-THEME-1:…) is the whole theme. Copy it into a comment or a message; anyone pastes it into the field below and presses Use.

A backup made with the editor keeps your theme. Back on SLOOP 2.6 the FM-1 shows the built-in palette you used last, and forgets the theme when it next saves its settings.

Piano roll and MIDI files (Sequencer)

Piano roll (a synth track): the steps left to right, the notes bottom to top (Octave up / down scroll). Choose a note length (1/1 to 1/16 of a bar, in steps of the track's DIV), then:

• click an empty spot: a note of that length. On the first step of a chord: one more note of it (4 at most, one length for all, as on the device);
• click a note: it goes (the last note of a chord leaves rests);
• drag the right end of a note: shorter or longer (ties), up to the next chord.

Every change goes to the FM-1 at once, and the grid shows the same steps.

Export MIDI saves the selected track's pattern as a MIDI file (sloop-track1.mid…): the notes with their lengths, levels and accents, at the song's tempo; the drum track as GM drum notes on channel 10.

Import MIDI reads a MIDI file into the selected track, at its DIV. First a preview: the file's track to take, how many notes and steps, and what changes on the way: notes off the grid moved to the nearest step, more than 4 notes on a step (the loudest kept), a note cut short by the next one, notes past step 64. Import replaces the track's pattern (and, ticked, sets its length); Cancel leaves it as it was. On the drum track, the GM notes go to the lanes (36 kick, 38 snare, 42 hat…) and the velocity to the levels, ghost to hard.

The editor writes presets, the FM6 bank and backups to flash only while the song is stopped, as the FM-1 does (it asks you to stop first). Try it without hardware: add ?mock=1 to the editor's address. The protocol is documented in web/EDITOR_PROTOCOL.md.

25. Backup, rescue, going back, troubleshooting

Backup and restore

Editor → Projects → Backup:

• Save a backup writes everything on the FM-1 to one file (SLOOP-backup-DATE.json): the music you are working on, the sections A–D, the 32 user presets, the FM6 bank, the SYN drum kits, the samples USR1–USR4 (your drum kits with them) and the settings (colours, calibration, song order, lights, SYNC, MIDI OUT).
• Restore from a file puts it all back: what is on the FM-1 is replaced. Stop the song (PLAY) first. A damaged file is refused before anything is written, and each object is written as a save writes it (a cut-off restore never leaves half an object).

A 2.4 backup restores into 2.4 (or later) only. Save a backup before every update and before going back.

Rescue and special modes

Going back to the official firmware

(2.8) The in-browser return-to-stock was removed, because it was not reliable on every system. To go back to the official firmware, use M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE (m-vave.com → Downloads → PC Software → M-UPGRADE) with the official FM-1 V15 firmware (PC Firmware → FM-1 V15); close every other app that uses MIDI first. Save a backup with the editor before you go. To come back, install SLOOP again and restore your backup.

If the official firmware comes up with odd settings or a scrambled display, it is reading the settings SLOOP left in the FM-1's memory — nothing is damaged. A factory reset in M-VAVE's own firmware, or M-UPGRADE's full restore, clears it; and installing SLOOP again brings your work back exactly as it was.

Troubleshooting

26. Cheat sheet

Buttons alone

Layers

Chord mode (CHORD on)

Power-on and special

Where is…?

SLOOP is based on Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments. Full credits and licences: SLOOP.md and LICENSING.md. M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners; SLOOP is not affiliated with them.