Chapter 8
Performance layers
27 punch-in effects, erase as it plays, note repeat, live mutes, solos and fills.
The seven layers at a glance
Seven function buttons open a layer while you hold them. The 16 white keys and KNOB 1–4 change job, and after 0.35 s — or straight away if you touch a key or knob — the screen draws the keys as 16 tiles in four rows of four, with the knobs as dials. Let go and the keys play notes again. ENV and LFO have no layer; they only open pages.
| Hold | SLOOP’s name | White keys | KNOB 1–4 | Tap instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FX | punch | A punch-in effect per key, while held — black keys too | master FILTER · DUST · DUCK · TRK FILT | FX pages |
| EDIT | erase | Erase that sound or note from the pattern | SHIFT · LENGTH · TRANSPOSE · — | EDIT pages |
| ARP | roll | Note repeat, locked to the grid | RATE · — · — · — | ARP pages |
| SEQ | steps | Steps 1–16 of the current page (The SEQ layer: steps under your fingers) | SOUND / NOTE · DIV · SWING · LENGTH | SEQ pages |
| SEL | key | Set the key of the song | CHORD · SCALE · KEYS · TRANSPOSE | SEL pages |
| GLO | mix | Mute, solo, fill and tap tempo | The levels of tracks 1–4 | GLO pages |
| SAVE | song | Play, chain and save sections A–D, song mode, SONG REC | — | SONG screen from TRACKS, otherwise the SAVE pages |
True in every layer
- PLAY still starts and stops the transport.
- SELECT sets the tempo — except in the FX layer, where since 2.8 it sets the punch-in fade (Punch-in effects).
- ALGORITHM and PRESETS hold still while a layer is open, so the track and sound don’t jump when you let go.
- Keys 1, 5, 9 and 13 — the first tile of each row — glow dimly as landmarks, so you can find a tile without looking. They glow on the drum track all the time. Keys at full brightness show what is on.
From the community
a fairly deep dive into sloop v2.3 (m-vave fm1 custom firmware)
BIG UMAMI
Twenty-four minutes cut from a two-hour live stream on version 2.3, starting from a blank project. Older than 2.8 — 76 sounds then — but the workflow carries over.
Punch-in effects
Hold FX, then hold a key: its effect is applied to the whole mix until you release the key, and it stops without a click. The loops and the gate are tied to the tempo and begin on a grid line, so they land in time. There are 16 effects on the white keys and, since 2.6, 11 more on the black keys. Keys you press with FX held never play or record notes.
White keys, by row of tiles
| Row | Keys | Effects, left to right |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KEY 1–4 | Loops of 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 |
| 2 | KEY 5–8 | Stutter in 1/16 triplets · reverse · tape stop · half speed |
| 3 | KEY 9–12 | Low-pass sweep · high-pass sweep · phone · bit crush |
| 4 | KEY 13–16 | Alias, a drop in sample rate · gate in 1/16 · echo on a dotted 1/8 · tape wobble |
Black keys, lowest to highest
| Key | Effect | What you hear |
|---|---|---|
| F#3 | KILL LOW | Everything below about 250 Hz cut away, steeply (24 dB/oct), like a DJ mixer’s kill. |
| G#3 | KILL MID | The band from about 250 Hz to 2.5 kHz removed. |
| A#3 | KILL HIGH | Everything above about 2.5 kHz removed. |
| C#4 | REWIND | The mix slows, stops and spins backwards ever faster through about a third of a second of what just played, then stays silent until you let go. |
| D#4 | OCT UP | The whole mix an octave higher. |
| F#4 | FLANGER | A jet sweep lasting a bar, with left and right offset. |
| G#4 | AUTO-PAN | The mix folded to mono and swung left and right once a beat. |
| A#4 | FREEZE | Everything is sent into the reverb and sustained there until you release the key, then it decays at the reverb’s SIZE. |
| C#5 | LOOP 8T | A loop of one 1/8 triplet. |
| D#5 | MONO | Left and right summed into one. |
| F#5 | FADE OUT | The mix fades to silence over two beats. |
While FX is held the screen draws all 27 keys as a keyboard: the white keys as the usual four rows of tiles, each black key above them between its two white neighbours. The effect you are holding lights white.
Key combinations
- FX + WHITE KEY
- Plays that key’s punch-in effect on the whole mix while held.
- FX + BLACK KEY
- Plays one of the eleven extra punch-in effects while held.
- FX + KNOB 1
- Sweeps the master FILTER: low-pass to the left, high-pass to the right, off in the centre.
- FX + KNOB 2
- Adds master DUST, the old-sampler-and-vinyl treatment.
- FX + KNOB 3
- Sets master DUCK, the sidechain pump from the kick.
- FX + KNOB 4
- Sweeps TRK FILT, the filter of the selected track only.
- FX + SELECT
- Sets the punch-in fade, from 0 (instant) to 15 (about 0.37 s).
FILTERMaster filter
A DJ filter on the whole mix: left of centre a closing low-pass, right an opening high-pass, off in the centre.
KNOB 1
The four knobs drive the Master effects: DUST, DUCK, FILT, ROLL — FILTER, DUST and DUCK on the whole mix — and TRK FILT, the same one-knob filter on the selected track alone, drums included (The track filter).
Fade (2.8). With FX held, SELECT sets how the punch-ins come and go, shown top right. At 0 they switch instantly, with just enough smoothing to avoid a click; at 15 they ease in and out over about 0.37 s.
Over MIDI. Choose a channel for FX CH on GLO → MIDI 3 and the notes F3 to G5 on that channel play the same 27 effects from a pad controller or a DAW (MIDI 3: effects, drum map and remote buttons).
Reverb and echo throws
A throw opens the effect sends all the way for a moment — the classic dub move on a mixing desk. Hold FX and hold OCT- for REV THROW: the reverb sends of all four tracks, drums included, jump to maximum until you let go, with a glide of about 12 ms each way. FX + OCT+ is ECHO THROW: the same for the delay sends, with the delay’s FDBK held at 70 % or more while you hold. Hold both octave buttons for both throws at once.
Key combinations
- FX + OCT-
- Throws every track into the reverb while held.
- FX + OCT+
- Throws every track into the echo, feedback up, while held.
- FX + OCT- + OCT+
- Throws into the reverb and the echo together.
- A throw works together with a punch-in key — hold one of those as well.
- The song’s own send values never change. Nothing is saved or recorded: let go and the mix is as it was.
- The delay’s time and tone and the reverb’s size are set on their own pages (Sends: chorus, delay and reverb).
Erase as it plays
The EDIT layer takes things out of the selected track’s pattern. Hold EDIT and press a key: on the drum track that sound goes, on a synth track that note — and with CHORD on, its whole chord. ERASED flashes on the screen.
| Transport | What is erased |
|---|---|
| Playing | Only the steps the playhead crosses while you hold the key, MPC style. Hold the hat key for a bar and that bar’s hats are gone. |
| Stopped | That sound or note from the whole pattern, in one go. |
Key combinations
- EDIT + KEY
- Erases that sound or note from each step the playhead crosses while you hold it.While playing
- EDIT + KEY
- Erases that sound or note from the whole pattern.While stopped
- EDIT + KNOB 1
- Shifts every step one later (right) or one earlier (left).
- EDIT + KNOB 2
- Doubles the pattern by copying it after itself (right), up to 64 steps, or halves it (left).
- EDIT + KNOB 3
- Transposes every note a semitone up or down.On a synth track
SHIFT
Moves every step one later (right) or one earlier (left).
KNOB 1
However many knob turns you make in one hold of EDIT, they count as a single change, so one undo takes them all back. Undo and redo live in this layer too, on the octave buttons — see Undo, clear and start again.
On the drum track, a black key in this layer switches the white keys from erasing to muting — see Drum mutes.
Drum mutes
Instead of erasing a drum sound you can silence it and bring it back later. On the drum track, the EDIT layer has a second mode, MUTE: its white keys mute and unmute their sound in the sequencer, live, and nothing in the pattern is touched.
- Select the drum track with ALGORITHM.
- Hold EDIT and press any black key. The screen reads
mute: key = sound. - Still holding EDIT, press white keys to mute or unmute their sounds. A muted sound shows
OFFin red. - Press a black key again, with EDIT held, to go back to erasing.
Key combinations
- EDIT + BLACK KEY
- Switches the EDIT layer between MUTE mode and erasing.On the drum track
- EDIT + WHITE KEY
- Mutes or unmutes that sound in the sequencer.On the drum track, in MUTE mode
How drum mutes behave
- Since 2.7 SLOOP stays in MUTE mode after you release EDIT: hold EDIT again and a white key mutes at once.
- A sound stays muted until you unmute it.
- Mutes are a performance tool, not part of the pattern: loading a project or starting a new one brings every sound back.
- A muted sound still plays from its key and from MIDI. Its ratchets in the pattern are muted with it.
Note repeat
Hold ARP and hold a key: the note or drum sound fires again and again at the RATE, in time with the tempo and the swing, until you release the key. This is not the The arpeggiator, which you reach by tapping ARP and which plays patterns from the notes you hold — note repeat simply hammers the key you are holding, in time.
Key combinations
- ARP + KEY
- Repeats the key on the grid at the RATE until you let go.
- ARP + KNOB 1
- Sets the RATE: 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 32T or 1/64.
- ARP + KEY + OCT-
- Turns the roll into ghost hits.On the drum track
- ARP + KEY + OCT+
- Turns the roll into hard hits.On the drum track
RATE
How fast a held key repeats, locked to the tempo and swing. The same setting as ROLL on GLO → MASTER.
KNOB 1Range 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 32T, 1/64
- The same rate sits on
GLO → MASTER → ROLL; it is one setting in two places. - Recording, a roll is written into the pattern as ratchets: a 1/32 roll on a track in 1/16 becomes ×2 on every step it covers.
- Rolls ignore fills.
- For ghost and hard hits without a roll, see Ghost notes, hard hits and ratchets.
Mutes, solos, fills and tap tempo
The GLO layer puts the mixer under your fingers. The first eight white keys mute and solo the four tracks, keys 9 and 10 call fills, the last white key taps the tempo, and the four knobs set the track levels. The tiles always show what you can hear.
Key combinations
- GLO + KEY 1–4
- Mutes or unmutes track 1–4.
- GLO + KEY 5–8
- Solos track 1–4; several solos add up.
- GLO + KEY 9
- Plays a fill for as long as you hold the key.
- GLO + KEY 10
- Makes the whole next bar a fill; press again before the bar to cancel.
- GLO + KEY 16
- Taps the tempo, two taps or more.
- GLO + KNOB 1–4
- Sets the levels of tracks 1–4.
- GLO + SELECT
- Sets the tempo, inside the visualiser too.
level 1Track 1 level
The level of track 1, blue.
KNOB 1
How it behaves
- A muted track fades out within a few milliseconds and starts no new notes, but its pattern keeps running in time — unmute it and it comes back in the right place.
- Solos add up: solo tracks 1 and 4 together to hear just those two.
- The
fillandbartiles light while a fill is playing. What plays during a fill is set step by step with Fill conditions. - The first black key, F#3, switches MIDI LEARN on and off in this layer — see MIDI LEARN.