Recording · SLOOP guide

6.1BasicsGUIDE.md §8

How recording works

Recording in SLOOP means playing: you tap REC and play the keys while the loop goes round, and what you play is written into the selected track’s pattern. Every pass is added on top of what is already there — an overdub — so you can build a part a few notes at a time.

Each note goes to the nearest step, measured from when you heard it rather than when you pressed the key. There are about 12 ms between a key going down and its sound coming out, and SLOOP takes that delay back off, so a note you play on the beat lands on the beat. To keep your own timing instead of the grid, see Keeping your own timing (QUANT off).

Key combinations

Turn ALGORITHM: Moves the take on to the next track without stopping the recording.While recording

While a track records, the REC light stays on and the track shows a red rec — red always means recording in SLOOP. Turning ALGORITHM mid-take lets you lay down drums, then bass, then chords without ever stopping.

What gets recorded

Track	Written into the pattern
Synth tracks	Notes and chords with their lengths; held notes as ties; note-repeat rolls as ratchets; CHORD+ chords exactly as they sounded
Drum track	Hits with their levels; note-repeat rolls as ratchets — a 1/32 roll on a 1/16 track gives ×2 on each step
Never	Punch-in effects, the click, and anything you play while a layer such as `FX`, `SEQ` or `GLO` is using the keys for its own job

Whether a synth track keeps chords depends on its voice mode: a POLY track keeps up to four notes a step, while MONO, LEGATO and UNISON sounds — most basses and leads — play and record one note at a time. See Chords, held notes and legato.

6.2BasicsGUIDE.md §5, §8

What REC does

REC behaves differently depending on whether the loop is playing and whether the project has anything in it yet. It always records the selected track.

When you tap it	REC	Then
The loop is playing	Starts recording straight away	Tap `REC` again to stop recording; the loop carries on
Stopped, the project has notes	Arms: the screen says `rec ready` and the REC light blinks	Your first note starts the loop and becomes step 1; `PLAY` starts it too
Stopped, the project is empty	Arms: `rec ready · play freely`	A free take that sets the tempo (Free take: the loop follows you), or with `MODE` on `tempo`, the same as a project with notes

Key combinations

Tap REC: Starts recording the selected track; tap again to stop.While playing
Tap REC: Arms recording and opens the REC screen.While stopped
Tap REC: Disarms recording; the screen says REC OFF.While armed

Armed and waiting, the REC screen lets you choose how the take will record — at a set tempo or freely, how long the loop is, whether a count-in comes first, and whether notes snap to the grid. See The REC screen.

6.3IntermediateGUIDE.md §8, §13, §15

The REC screen

Tap REC while stopped and, until your first note, the screen becomes the REC READY screen: the tracks, with four dials underneath that decide how this take records. SELECT still sets the tempo here.

REC · REC READYTap REC while stopped.

MODE

Empty project only: a free take that sets the tempo, or recording at the tempo already set.

KNOB 1Range free, tempo

MODE: Only offered on an empty project. free gives you a free take whose tempo follows your playing (Free take: the loop follows you); tempo records at the tempo already set. Once the project has notes there is no choice: it always records at the set tempo, since a free take would change the tempo under what is already there.
LENGTH: How long the selected track’s loop is: 1, 2 or 4 bars. It applies whenever you record at a tempo; a free take works out its own length.
START: With note, your first note starts the loop. With count, you press PLAY and get one bar of clicks — 4, 3, 2, 1 counts down on the screen — and recording begins after it. Notes you play during the count-in sound but are not recorded.
QUANT: on places what you play on the steps. off keeps your timing as a nudge on each step (Keeping your own timing (QUANT off)).

Key combinations

Tap PLAY: Starts a one-bar count-in, then recording.Armed, with START on count
Tap REC: Cancels the count-in.During the count-in
Tap PLAY: Goes back to rec ready.During the count-in
Turn SELECT: Sets the tempo.On the REC screen

6.4BasicsGUIDE.md §8

Free take: the loop follows you

An empty project has no tempo worth keeping yet, so SLOOP takes it from you. There is no click and no count-in: you just play, then tell SLOOP where the loop ends. It works out the bars and the tempo from the time between your first note and that moment.

On an empty project, with MODE on free (The REC screen), tap REC. The screen says rec ready · play freely.
Play. The screen shows free take, a seconds counter, and the loop you would get if you stopped now — for example 2 bars · 92 bpm.
Tap REC right on the “1” after your last bar.
SLOOP picks 1, 2 or 4 bars at the tempo closest to the one already set, writes your notes in with their lengths and levels, and starts playing the loop. All four tracks take on that length.

Key combinations

Tap REC: Closes the loop, sets the tempo and plays it.During a free take
Tap PLAY: Throws the take away.During a free take

Good to know

If the tempo you played is within 3 % of the one already set, SLOOP keeps the set tempo exactly.
A free take ends on its own after 24 seconds.
ALGORITHM doesn’t switch tracks during a free take.
On a POLY track, a note you keep holding while you play others over it carries on under them when the loop closes, up to four notes a step (Chords, held notes and legato).
With QUANT off, the free take keeps your timing too (Keeping your own timing (QUANT off)).

6.5IntermediateSLOOP 2.7+GUIDE.md §8

Keeping your own timing (QUANT off)

Snapping everything to the grid tidies a take but irons out its feel. Turn KNOB 4 QUANT to off on the REC screen and SLOOP keeps both: each note still goes into the nearest step, and how early or late you played it is stored as that step’s nudge.

A nudge is measured in sixty-fourths of a step, from −32 to +31. With 1/16 steps at 120 BPM, one unit is roughly 2 ms. The loop plays back with your groove, yet it is still a normal pattern: a nudged step shows a dot on its tile, and you can change the nudge or put the step back on the grid one step at a time (Nudge: micro timing).

How it behaves

It applies to the FM-1’s keys and to MIDI, in a free take as well.
The arpeggiator and note repeat stay on their grid.
Each step can carry only one nudge, taken from whichever note lands there first; any further chord notes or drum hits on that step share it.
At a DIV of 1/32 the steps are twice as fine, and so are their nudges.
Undo takes a take’s nudges back along with its notes.

6.6IntermediateGUIDE.md §8, §10

Chords, held notes and legato

What happens when you hold one note and play others depends on the track’s voice mode, VCE on the EDIT → VOICE page (Polyphony and voice modes). A POLY track can have several notes going at once; MONO, LEG (legato) and UNI (unison) play one note at a time.

	`POLY`	`MONO`, `LEG`, `UNI`
Chords	Kept, up to 4 notes a step	One note at a time
A note held while you play others	Keeps sounding underneath, live and in the pattern	The new note takes over, recorded legato
Held notes	Become ties: the note lasts until you let go of its key	Become ties

On a POLY track

Each note lasts until its own key comes up, however many notes start and stop over it — up to four sounding at once. A fifth ends the oldest held note at that point.
While you hold a note, the pattern never cuts it or plays it again, even through steps that already have notes. Overdub a melody over a long bass note and both survive.
Overdubbing over a pad that the pattern holds across the bar doesn’t cut the pad: it keeps going under your new note, and your note ends where you let go.
A free take keeps held notes the same way (Free take: the loop follows you).
The TRACKS screen draws one mark per step; the NOTES page lists a chord’s notes one by one, 2/3 and so on (The NOTES page: a piano roll for synth tracks).

On a MONO, LEGATO or UNISON track

Play a note while the previous one is still held and it is recorded legato, so it plays back as you played it. With LEG the sound runs into the new note without a fresh attack; it only glides with glide (GLD) or a SLIDE.
This works from the FM-1’s keys and from a MIDI controller alike.
Let go of the second note while still holding the first and the live sound returns to the first note — but the recorded pattern doesn’t.

6.7BasicsGUIDE.md §8, §12

Metronome, tempo and swing

SLOOP always gives you a silent metronome: the PLAY light flashes on every beat. If you would rather hear one, turn on the click. The tempo and swing controls live in a few places, so you can reach them from wherever you are.

Setting	Where	Values
Click	`GLO` → `GLOBAL` → `CLICK`	`OFF`; `REC`, only while a track records; `ON`, whenever the loop plays
Tempo	SELECT on the TRACKS screen or inside any layer; tap `GLO` + `KEY 16` twice or more for tap tempo (Mutes, solos, fills and tap tempo); `GLO` → `GLOBAL` → `BPM`	40–240 BPM
Swing, all tracks	KNOB 1 on the TRACKS screen; `GLO` → `GLOBAL` → `SWING`	0–100
Swing, one track	`SEQ` + KNOB 3 (The SEQ layer: steps under your fingers); `SEQ` → `PATTERN` → `SWG`	Added to the global swing

The click is its own brief tick, pitched up on each downbeat. It sounds with any kit and isn’t silenced by muting the drums or soloing another track, and it follows the drums’ level, GLO → DRUMS → LVL. It is never recorded, and a count-in always clicks, whatever CLICK is set to.

Swing runs from 0, dead straight, to 100, the strongest: each pair of steps split 75/25, like MPC swing at 75 %. A track’s own swing is added on top of the global amount, so you can swing the hats harder than the bass. Triplet divisions are never swung.

6.8IntermediateGUIDE.md §8, §21

Recording from a MIDI keyboard

A MIDI keyboard records into SLOOP just like the FM-1’s own keys. The one thing to watch is the channel. REC always records the selected track, but a keyboard on a track’s channel plays that track, whichever one is selected.

Keyboard channel	Plays
1, 2 or 3	Always track 1, 2 or 3 — the channels set on `GLO` → `MIDI`
10	The drum track, its channel by default
4, or any channel no track uses	The selected track, provided `GLO` → `MIDI 2` → `OTHER` is on `SEL`

Connect the keyboard to the MIDI IN jack with a TRS-to-DIN adapter, or through a computer or USB MIDI host — a USB keyboard plugged straight into the FM-1 can’t work (Where MIDI comes in).
Set the keyboard to send on channel 4.
Select the track you want with ALGORITHM, tap REC and play.

If your keyboard ends up playing a different track from the one being recorded, SLOOP warns you once per take with MIDI PLAYS TRACK n.

Everything else behaves as it does from the keys: QUANT off keeps your timing, legato playing on a MONO track is recorded legato (Chords, held notes and legato), and KBD HOLD holds MIDI notes too (KBD HOLD: sustain without an arpeggio).