Song mode, undo & saving

10.1BasicsGUIDE.md §13, §14, §15

Sections and the one song

SLOOP’s memory is built around a single song. That song is made of four sections, A, B, C and D, plus an order to play them in — up to 16 song steps. A–D are not four separate songs: they are the parts of one, like a verse, a chorus, a bridge and an ending.

Section: A complete loop, frozen: all four tracks — their sounds, patterns, drum kit, parameter locks, nudges, fill conditions and track filter — together with the loop’s global settings, such as tempo, swing and key.
Song: The running order: up to 16 steps, each naming a section and how many bars it lasts. You build it on the SONG screen or record it as you play with SONG REC.
Working loop: What you hear and change in loop mode. It is separate from A–D: loading a section copies it into the working loop, saving copies the working loop into a section. The Autosave keeps it for you.

That separation is the key idea. Load section B, tweak a sound, and B itself is unchanged until you save over it. You can experiment freely and only commit what you like.

Some things belong to the FM-1 rather than to any section: SYNC, MIDI OUT and IN, the lights, the HOME menu settings and the REC screen’s MODE, START and QUANT. Loading a section or starting a NEW loop never touches them — more in Autosave.

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Saving and playing sections

Holding SAVE turns the white keys into the song layer. The first four keys play sections and the next four store them; further up, KEY 13 switches loop and song mode, KEY 14 is SONG REC and KEY 16 opens the SONG screen. Keep SAVE held while you press the key.

Build a song in four parts

Make a loop — a verse, say. Hold SAVE and press KEY 5 to store it as section A.
Change it into a chorus and store that with KEY 6 (B). Do the same for a bridge with KEY 7 (C) and an ending with KEY 8 (D).
Press PLAY. Hold SAVE and press KEY 1–4 to move between the four parts as the music plays.

Key combinations

SAVE + KEY 5–8: Stores the working loop as section A–D; over a used section, press the same key again within 3 s.
SAVE + KEY 1–4: Starts section A–D on the next bar, every track from its first step.While playing
SAVE + KEY 1–4: Makes section A–D the loop straight away.While stopped
SAVE + KEY 13: Switches between loop mode and song mode.
PLAY: Plays the whole song once and stops at the end, then your loop is back.In song mode

Loop mode and song mode

Loop: The working loop, or the section you last jumped to, goes round and round until you change it.
Song: PLAY runs through the song’s steps in order and stops after the last one. Afterwards your working loop is there again.

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Quick chains

A quick chain is an arrangement made on the fly. There is nothing to edit: you tap the sections in the order you want and let go.

Hold SAVE.
Without letting go, tap the section keys in order. KEY 1, KEY 2, KEY 2, KEY 3 gives A B B C. Any order works, repeats are fine, up to eight taps.
Let go of SAVE. The first section starts on the next bar.

Key combinations

Hold SAVE, tap two or more of KEY 1–4: Plays the tapped sections one after another as a looping chain.

Each section in the chain plays for its pattern length — the length of its longest track — before the next one takes over. A track of 32 steps at 1/16 lasts two bars, for example. After the last section the chain starts again from the first.

On screen

The title line spells the chain out, for example chain A B B C.
The section playing now is lit; the one coming next is framed.

What ends a chain

Playing a single section with SAVE + one of KEY 1–4.
Stopping with PLAY.
Pressing PLAY in song mode.

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Recording a song as you play

Instead of programming the song step by step, perform it. SONG REC listens to the sections you play live and writes each one into the song, with the number of bars it ran for.

Store your parts as sections A–D first (see Saving and playing sections).
Start playing. Hold SAVE and press KEY 14: recording begins at the next bar.
Switch sections with SAVE + KEY 1–4, or start a chain, and let each part run as long as you want.
To finish, hold SAVE and press KEY 14 again, or press PLAY to stop. The screen reports how many parts it wrote, for example SONG PARTS 5.
Switch to song mode with SAVE + KEY 13 and press PLAY to hear it back.

Key combinations

SAVE + KEY 14: Starts SONG REC from the next bar, or ends it.

There is no extra save step: the song is stored by itself once you stop. Chains are recorded too, so every section a chain plays ends up in the song, in order.

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The SONG screen

The SONG screen shows the song as a chain of steps and lets you change it with the knobs. Tap SAVE on the TRACKS or DRUMS screen to open it (see Every button on its own), or hold SAVE and press KEY 16 from anywhere.

SAVE · SONGTap SAVE on the TRACKS or DRUMS screen, or hold SAVE and press KEY 16.

StepSong step

Moves the cursor to a step of the song.

KNOB 1

Edit a song by hand

Stop the transport. The song can only be changed while it is stopped; otherwise the screen says STOP FIRST.
Turn KNOB 4 to set how many steps the song has, 1–16.
Turn KNOB 1 to a step, then KNOB 2 to pick its section and KNOB 3 to set how many bars it plays.
Tap SAVE to save the song.

Key combinations

SAVE + KEY 16: Opens the SONG screen.
Tap REC: Stores the working loop into the selected step’s section; over a used section, tap REC again within 3 s.On the SONG screen
Tap SAVE: Saves the song.On the SONG screen
Tap OCT-: Switches between loop mode and song mode.On the SONG screen
Tap OCT+ twice: Loads the selected step’s section into the working loop, replacing unsaved work; the second tap must come within 3 s.On the SONG screen
Tap PLAY: Plays or stops the song.On the SONG screen
Tap SEQ: Opens the SEQ pages.On the SONG screen
Tap HOME: Goes back to the TRACKS screen.On the SONG screen

Messages

Message	Means
`STOP FIRST`	You tried to change the song while it plays. Stop, then edit.
`EMPTY SECTION: REC`	The section you asked for holds nothing, so it cannot play. Store a loop in it first — SAVE + KEY 5–8, or `REC` here.

ALGORITHM does not change track on this screen. The web editor’s Song page edits the same running order with the mouse, and adds repeats and what happens at the end of the song: see The editor’s pages.

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Undo, clear and start again

Mistakes are cheap on SLOOP. There is one level of undo, a quick way to wipe a track, and three tools on the SAVE pages for bigger resets.

Key combinations

EDIT + OCT-: Undoes the last change.
EDIT + OCT+: Redoes what you just undid.
Hold REC for 2 s: Clears the selected track.

What undo covers

Only the most recent change — one level, not a history.
That change can be a recording pass, an erase, a track clear, or an edit to a step or the pattern.
Redo puts the change back again if you undo too far.

Clearing a track. Hold REC. After 0.7 s the ordinary REC press is cancelled and a ring starts to fill on screen; keep holding about 1.3 s more and the selected track is emptied (TRACK 2 CLEARED, for example). Let go before the ring is full and nothing happens. Undo brings the track back.

SAVE · TOOLSTap SAVE away from the TRACKS and DRUMS screens, then tap it again or turn SELECT until TOOLS shows.

CLRSQ

Clears the pattern.

KNOB 1Range GO

The TOOLS page

CLRSQ: Clears the pattern. For the sound, use INIT.
INIT: Resets the sound to the engine’s defaults and its first preset.
NEW: Starts a fresh loop: all four tracks of the working loop go back to their power-on sounds with empty patterns, at 90 BPM. The screen says NEW LOOP, A-D KEPT — your saved sections are not touched. In song mode, stop the song first.

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The SAVE pages

Tap SAVE anywhere except the TRACKS and DRUMS screens (where it opens the SONG screen) and you get the SAVE pages. Tap SAVE again, or turn SELECT, to move between them.

Page	For	More
`PRESETS`	Browsing the sounds by engine and marking favourites.	The sound bank
`USER`	Storing, loading and erasing your own sounds in 32 slots.	User presets
`SECTION`	Saving, loading and erasing sections A–D.	Below
`TOOLS`	`CLRSQ`, `INIT` and `NEW`.	Undo, clear and start again

SAVE · SECTIONTap SAVE away from the TRACKS and DRUMS screens, then tap it again or turn SELECT until SECTION shows.

SECTSection

Which section the other three knobs act on.

KNOB 1Range A–D

How GO works. Every action on these pages is a value called GO. Turn the knob once and the screen asks for confirmation — AGAIN: SAVE, AGAIN: LOAD and so on. Turn it again within about 1.5 s and it happens. Wait longer and nothing does.

Load a section into the working loop

Turn KNOB 1 SECT to the section you want.
Turn KNOB 3 LOAD to GO. The screen shows AGAIN: LOAD.
Turn it again straight away. The screen confirms, for example LOADED SECTION B.

SAVE on KNOB 4 works the same way in the other direction (SAVED SECTION B). ERASE (2.6) on KNOB 2, with the song stopped, empties the section: it reads EMPTY again and its key in the SAVE layer goes dark. Any song steps that played it are removed and the rest keep their order; if none are left, the song goes back to the default A B C D. Your working loop is not affected.

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Autosave

You never have to save work in progress. SLOOP keeps the working loop in flash on its own, and when you switch on again it comes back exactly as you left it.

When it saves

The transport is stopped.
You have not touched anything for 2.5 s.
At most once every 20 s.

Two kinds of memory

The music: The working loop (kept by autosave) and sections A–D (kept only when you save them, see Saving and playing sections). Sounds, patterns, kit, locks, nudges, fill conditions, track filter, tempo, swing and key all live here.
Settings of the FM-1: SYNC, MIDI OUT and IN, the MIDI channels and learned CCs, the lights, the HOME menu settings, the REC screen’s MODE, START and QUANT, and your favourite sounds. They are kept through power-off by themselves, and loading a section or starting a NEW loop never changes them.

An editor backup carries many of these settings as well — SYNC, MIDI OUT, the MIDI pages, learned CCs and the lights — but not your favourites. See Backup and restore.

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Keeping more than one song

Only one song fits on the FM-1, so your library lives on the computer. The The web editor gives you two ways to keep songs, and a playlist to run them one after another.

Song file (2.7): In the editor’s Song & sections tab, Export this song saves the working loop, sections A–D and their order as one .sloopsong file. Load a song file puts one back on the FM-1. This is the lightest way to keep a song.
Backup: The same tab’s Backup saves everything on the FM-1 in one file: the music, A–D, user presets, the FM6 bank, your drum kits and samples, and the settings. Restoring replaces all of it, so a backup per song works, but it also swaps your presets and samples. See Backup and restore.

Play a set from the LIVE page

Export each song as a .sloopsong file.
On the editor’s The LIVE page, add the songs to the playlist.
Tap a song, or press N for the next one. The FM-1 stops and the song loads in a few seconds; with play when loaded on, it starts by itself.
Use save the list to keep the playlist as one file to take to a gig.