Web editor, samples & backup

1. 1Connect the FM-1 by USB and open the editor in Chrome or Edge, from the link above or the installer page.
2. 2Press Connect and allow MIDI access.
3. 3Pick a track from the four at the top of the page and start editing.

Without internet

• As a file: *Download the editor*, under Connect or on the installer page, gives you the complete editor in a single HTML file; each release carries a copy too. Double-click it and it opens in Chrome or Edge offline; Chrome asks once to allow MIDI. Its sound library is separate from the online editor’s — move sounds across with Export and Import, or a backup.
• As an app: open the editor or installer once online, then choose *Install the app* (or Chrome’s *Install app* / *Add to Home screen*). The app then opens offline, its installer link works offline too, it shares the online editor’s sound library, and it picks up each new SLOOP version the next time it opens online.
• On Android, use the app. Chrome on Android won’t allow MIDI in a downloaded file.

1. 1Choose a note length, from 1/1 to 1/16 of a bar, in steps of the track’s DIV.
2. 2Click an empty spot to add a note of that length. Clicking on the first step of an existing chord adds one more note to it — up to four, all the same length, as on the device.
3. 3Click a note to remove it. Removing the last note of a chord leaves rests behind.
4. 4Drag a note’s right end to make it longer or shorter; it can stretch as far as the next chord.

MIDI files

• Export MIDI saves the selected track’s pattern as a file such as sloop-track1.mid: notes with their lengths, levels and accents, at the song’s tempo. The drum track exports as General MIDI drum notes on channel 10.
• Import MIDI reads a file into the selected track at its DIV. A preview comes first: which of the file’s tracks to take, how many notes and steps, and what will change — notes moved to the nearest step, the loudest four kept where a step has more, notes cut short by the next, anything past step 64.
• Press Import to replace the pattern (and, if ticked, set its length), or Cancel to leave it alone. On the drum track, General MIDI notes go to their lanes and velocities become levels, from ghost to hard.

Transport and song

PLAY / STOP, REC on the selected track, undo and redo, BPM by knob or TAP, SWING, the position in the loop and song; LOOP / SONG, SONG REC, FILL while held and FILL BAR.

Sections A–D

Tap one and it plays from the next bar, or at once when stopped. Playing is lit, coming next blinks, empty is dim. You can save the loop into a section here, with a warning before overwriting one (Saving and playing sections).

Mixer

A strip per track: its sound with ‹ › to step through, a level fader with meter, filter, pan, sends and drive, mute, solo, and play, which points the page’s keys at that track and selects it on the FM-1, so REC records it.

Effects

The master filter, dust and duck, and the 27 punch-in effects as pads in four groups — hold one to hear it, or switch on Latch to toggle with taps (Punch-in effects).

Keys

Two octaves for the synth tracks, with octave, velocity, arp mode and hold; 16 pads for the drums at GHOST, SOFT, NORM or HARD. They send real MIDI notes on the track’s channel.

Scenes

Eight snapshots of how everything sounds — levels, mutes, pans, filters, sends, the sound’s knobs, INSERT, arp and the master bus — optionally with the sounds and tempo. Recall one at once or morph to it over 1–16 bars, or blend two with the crossfader. Sections change the notes; scenes change only the sound.

Perform

Four tabs for the track the keys play: sound, arp & key (for every synth track at once if you like), insert & bus, and steps.

Playlist

Songs exported as .sloopsong files. Tap one and the FM-1 stops, loads it in a few seconds — replacing its sections, loop and order — and can start it straight away. Each song can carry a tempo and a cue; the list saves as one file.

MIDI learn

Press MIDI learn, tap a control on the page, then move a knob or pad on a USB MIDI controller plugged into the computer.

Stage tools

A clock and set timer, a lock that ignores taps until you hold it, record set to capture the FM-1’s USB audio as a WAV, full screen and All off — plus chains, roll and erase, and reverb or echo throws.

Computer keys

1. 1Choose a slot. Four tiles show what each holds and how full it is; the page warns you if sending would replace something, including half of a USR3+4 kit.
2. 2Make the sound from separate files or by chopping one recording, as below.
3. 3Send it: give it a name, press Send to USRn, then Play this slot on track 1, 2 or 3 to put that track on the SAMPLE engine with your slot as its SET (SAMPLE and GRAIN).

From files, one note per file

• Drop up to 16 WAV files, any sample rate, mono or stereo. Each plays at its own note; keys in between play the nearest file, pitched.
• The note comes from the file name — KEYS_C4.wav, where C4 is MIDI note 60 — or you set it in the list. A drawn keyboard maps files to keys, ▶ auditions a file and a meter tracks how much of the slot you have filled.
• Each file has a Gain, 0 to −24 dB. Match levels turns the loud files down so all of them sound equally loud; fine-tune by ear afterwards.

Loop, per file (2.7)

ONE SHOT

Plays through once.

LOOP

Repeats the whole file while the key is held; let go and it finishes the current pass.

LOOP+TAIL

Plays the start, repeats the part between Loop start and Loop end while held, then plays the rest of the file when you let go — a short sample becomes a pad, string, voice or organ you can sustain.

CHOP: one recording across the keys

Screen

Five colours from faintest to strongest: Lines, Dim (empty steps, units), Labels, Secondary text and Values. Start from loads a built-in palette; Five steps from one colour builds all five from a single pick.

Background

Black by default, or any colour including white; Back to black resets it. Light ↔ dark flips the whole theme. The greys of tiles, empty steps and labels follow the background.

Accent

What you touch, the menu cursor and the playhead: white by default, dark on a light background.

Track colours

T1, T2, T3 and the drums — used for knob values, step tiles and meters.

Name

Up to 8 characters, shown in the menu’s COLOR list.

1. 1Stop the song, then press Send to the FM-1. The theme appears at once.
2. 2To switch between it and the built-in palettes, open the HOME menu’s SCREEN section and turn KNOB 1 on COLOR; your theme comes after MONO (The HOME menu).
3. 3Send again after any change — the page tells you whether what you see matches the FM-1. Read from the FM-1 brings the stored theme back into the page; Remove from the FM-1 deletes it.

What a backup holds

• The music in progress and the four sections A–D, with the song order.
• Your 32 user presets and the FM6 bank.
• The synthesised kits SYN1–SYN4, and the samples in USR1–USR4 — your own drum kits with them.
• The FM-1’s settings: screen colours and your theme, calibration, lights, SYNC, MIDI OUT and the MIDI channels, and anything you taught with MIDI learn.

Restoring

1. 1Stop the song with PLAY.
2. 2Press Restore from a file and choose the backup.
3. 3Wait while it writes. Everything on the FM-1 is replaced by the backup’s contents.