First beat & playing the keys

3.1BasicsGUIDE.md §4

Your first beat in a minute

SLOOP starts with nothing loaded: no factory patterns, no demo song. Everything you hear is something you played. The quickest way in is to play a drum beat at whatever tempo feels right and let SLOOP work out the loop from it. Each step below links to the section that explains it properly.

From silence to a loop

Turn ALGORITHM to track 4, the orange one. The 16 white keys are now drums — KEY 1 (F3) is the kick, KEY 5 (C4) the closed hat. Turn PRESETS to change kit; 808 and BOOMBAP are good places to start. See The 16 drum sounds and The 37 drum kits, and yours.
Tap REC. The screen says rec ready. On an empty project there is no click and no count-in: just play a beat at your own pace. Hold OCT- as you hit for a ghost note, OCT+ for a hard one (Ghost notes, hard hits and ratchets).
When you have played your last bar, tap REC exactly where the next “1” would fall. The loop closes, its length becomes the tempo, the hits snap to the grid and it starts playing straight away (Free take: the loop follows you).
Tap REC again while it plays to record on top — an overdub. Hold ARP and hold the hat key: you get a 1/16 hat roll, written into the pattern as ratchets (Note repeat). Tap REC once more to stop recording; the loop keeps going.
Turn ALGORITHM back to track 1 (blue, its sound is 808 BOOM), tap REC and play a bass line over the drums (What REC does).
Hold SEL and press the key your song is in — D, say. Then select track 2, hold SEL and turn KNOB 1 to 7TH: each white key now plays a whole chord that fits the key (Key and scale, Chord mode: a chord under every finger).
Hold FX and hold any key, white or black, for a punch-in effect over the whole mix. Keep FX held and turn KNOB 2 for DUST or KNOB 3 for DUCK (Punch-in effects, Master effects: DUST, DUCK, FILT, ROLL).
Not happy with the last pass? Hold EDIT and press OCT- to undo it (Undo, clear and start again).

From the community

Sloop - Firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1 Complete tour
3dSam
A seven-minute tour of SLOOP 2.2 from 3dSam, the channel behind SLOOP, played on SLOOP itself. Much has been added since, but the layers it shows work the same way.

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.

Using the M-VAVE FM-1 with SLOOP Custom Firmware | First Go
Darren Lock Music
A first session from early October: jamming with SLOOP, first impressions and a look at the browser editor. By its own description, a first go rather than a full review.

3.2BasicsGUIDE.md §6

Playing the synth tracks

Tracks 1–3 are synths. Whichever one ALGORITHM has selected is the one the keys play. Out of the box every key plays its own note, chromatically, as on any keyboard — but a synth track can also lock the keys to a scale or turn each key into a chord.

Key combinations

Tap OCT-: Moves the keys down an octave, as far as −3.On a synth track
Tap OCT+: Moves the keys up an octave, as far as +3.On a synth track
OCT- + OCT+: Puts the keys back to octave 0.On a synth track

The OCT lights tell you when you are away from octave 0, so you always know where you are. On the drum track the same two keys do something else entirely: see Ghost notes, hard hits and ratchets.

What the keys play

`KEYS`	`CHORD`	Result
`OFF`	`OFF`	Every key plays its own note, chromatically. This is how a track starts.
`SNAP`	`OFF`	Every key still plays, but a note outside the scale is rounded down to the nearest scale note.
`WHITE`	`OFF`	Only the white keys play: they step through the scale from C4, which is the root of the key. The black keys are silent.
Any	On	Each white key plays a chord built from the scale, with C4 as the I chord; the black keys modify the chord (CHORD+: the black keys change the chord).

Both settings belong to the track, so a bass can play freely while a pad plays chords. You set them while holding SEL or on the SEL page — see Key and scale and Chord mode: a chord under every finger.

3.3BasicsGUIDE.md §6, §7, §10

Levels and force: dynamics without velocity

However hard you press an FM-1 key, it sends the same note: the keys have no velocity. SLOOP gets round that with four fixed levels instead of a sliding scale. A hit or note is GHOST, SOFT, NORM or HARD, and NORM is what you get by simply playing.

	Drum track	Synth tracks
Called	Level	`FORCE`
Values	`GHOST`, `SOFT`, `NORM`, `HARD`	`GHOST`, `SOFT`, `NORM`, `HARD`, then `ACC` (accent)
While playing	Hold `OCT-` for `GHOST` or `OCT+` for `HARD` as you hit (Ghost notes, hard hits and ratchets)	The OCT keys change the octave here, so dynamics are set in the sequencer
Afterwards	On the DRUMS grid (KNOB 4 on a hit) or in the SEQ layer (The SEQ layer: steps under your fingers)	On the NOTES page, KNOB 4 on the note (The NOTES page: a piano roll for synth tracks)

On the drum track, a softer hit is darker as well as quieter, much as a real drum is when you play it gently. Ghost notes between the main hits are what make a programmed beat feel played.

On a synth track, ACC is the last stop on the NOTES page’s FORCE knob. It belongs to the whole step, so every note of a chord on that step is accented together. The piano roll draws force as the fill of each note: dark for GHOST, hollow for SOFT, solid for NORM and HARD, with a white cap for an accent.

3.4BasicsGUIDE.md §9, §11, §16

Key and scale

Hold SEL — the top-row button between FX and ENV, not the SELECT knob — and the keyboard becomes a key picker. Press any key and that note becomes the root of all three synth tracks at once; the title line confirms it, for example KEY D. The drum track is not affected.

Key combinations

SEL + KEY: Sets the key of the song for all three synth tracks.
SEL + KNOB 2: Picks the scale for all three synth tracks.
SEL + KNOB 3: Sets KEYS — how the keys follow the scale: OFF, SNAP or WHITE.
SEL + KNOB 4: Transposes the selected track by up to 24 semitones either way.

SEL · SEL layerHold SEL. Any key sets the key of the song.

CHORD

Chord type for the selected synth track; each white key then plays a chord from the scale.

KNOB 1Range OFF, TRIAD, 7TH, 9TH, SUS4, POWER

The 16 scales

On screen	Scale
`CHR`	Chromatic — every note
`MAJ`	Major
`MIN`	Minor
`HARM`	Harmonic minor
`MEL`	Melodic minor
`DOR`	Dorian
`PHRY`	Phrygian
`LYD`	Lydian
`MIX`	Mixolydian
`LOC`	Locrian
`PEN`	Major pentatonic
`MPEN`	Minor pentatonic
`BLUES`	Blues
`WHOLE`	Whole tone
`DIMHW`	Diminished, half-whole
`DIMWH`	Diminished, whole-half

The layer sets the song-wide key and scale. To give one track something different, tap SEL for the SEL page: its ROOT and SCL change the selected track alone, so a lead can sit in a mode the others don’t share.

SEL · SELTap SEL.

ROOT

The key of this track alone; SEL + KEY sets it for all three synth tracks.

KNOB 1

3.5BasicsGUIDE.md §11, §26

Chord mode: a chord under every finger

Chord mode turns a synth track into a one-finger chord machine. Each white key plays a complete chord, and because every chord is made from the notes of the scale, nothing you press can clash with the song. The chord is recorded as a chord, not as a single note.

Key combinations

SEL + KNOB 1: Picks the chord type for the selected synth track: OFF, TRIAD, 7TH, 9TH, SUS4 or POWER.

Chord types

`CHORD`	Scale degrees	On C in C major
`OFF`	Single notes	—
`TRIAD`	1-3-5	C–E–G
`7TH`	1-3-5-7	C–E–G–B
`9TH`	1-3-7-9, no fifth — the voicing heard in lo-fi and R&B	C–E–B–D
`SUS4`	1-4-5	C–F–G
`POWER`	1-5-8: root, fifth and the root an octave up	C–G–C

The white keys follow the scale, not the note names printed on them. C4 always plays the I chord of the song’s key, D4 the II, E4 the III and so on upwards; below C4 the keys keep counting down. Set the key to D and C4 plays D major.

Which key plays which chord (TRIAD, key of C major)

Degree	White keys	Chord
I	`KEY 5` C4, `KEY 12` C5	C
II	`KEY 6` D4, `KEY 13` D5	Dm
III	`KEY 7` E4, `KEY 14` E5	Em
IV	`KEY 1` F3, `KEY 8` F4, `KEY 15` F5	F
V	`KEY 2` G3, `KEY 9` G4, `KEY 16` G5	G
VI	`KEY 3` A3, `KEY 10` A4	Am
VII	`KEY 4` B3, `KEY 11` B4	B diminished

3.6IntermediateSLOOP 2.4+GUIDE.md §11, §26

CHORD+: the black keys change the chord

In chord mode the black keys become chord modifiers, an idea SLOOP borrowed from the HiChord and minichord. Hold one or more of them while you press a white key, or press them while a chord is already sounding and the chord changes under your finger. Either octave of black keys works the same.

Key combinations

F# + WHITE KEY: Flips the chord between major and minor.With a chord mode on
G# + WHITE KEY: Adds the 7th.With a chord mode on
A# + WHITE KEY: Turns the chord into a sus4.With a chord mode on
C# + WHITE KEY: Adds the 9th.With a chord mode on
D# + WHITE KEY: Plays an inversion of the chord.With a chord mode on

Modifiers stack: hold two or three black keys and they all apply. The added 7th and 9th are taken from the scale rather than fixed, so they always belong to the key you are in.

Worked through in C major

G4 on its own gives G major — the V chord of the key.
Hold G# as well and the 7th joins: the scale’s F, so G becomes G7.
Hold F# and G# together: minor plus the 7th, so G becomes Gm7.
Now try the same pair on C4. The scale’s 7th on C is B, so minor plus 7th gives C–E♭–G–B.

3.7IntermediateGUIDE.md §11, §16

Strum and voice leading

Block chords played on one key can sound mechanical. The second SEL page has two cures. Tap SEL to open the SEL page, then tap it again or turn SELECT to reach SEL 2.

SEL · SEL 2Tap SEL, then tap it again or turn SELECT to the next page.

TRNTranspose

Moves the track up or down in semitones.

KNOB 1Range ±24

STRUM: Plays a chord’s notes one after another instead of all at once, with a gap of 1–60 ms between them. Turn right of centre for a downstroke (low note first), left for an upstroke (high note first); the centre is off. It works on chords you play and on the chord steps the sequencer plays back.
VLEAD: With voice leading ON, each new chord is voiced as close as possible to the previous one, so a progression glides from chord to chord instead of jumping around the keyboard.
TRN: Transposes the track, up to 24 semitones up or down.

3.8BasicsGUIDE.md §16

The arpeggiator

Each synth track has its own arpeggiator. Hold some notes and it plays them one at a time in a pattern, in time with the tempo. It lives on the ARP pages, which you open by tapping ARP. Holding ARP does something else: it opens the note-repeat layer, which retriggers a single key on the grid (Note repeat).

Select a synth track with ALGORITHM and tap ARP. The ARP page opens.
Turn KNOB 1 MODE away from OFF — UP is a good start. The arpeggiator is now running.
Hold a few keys. KNOB 2 sets the RATE, KNOB 3 how many octaves the pattern climbs through, KNOB 4 how long each note lasts.
Tap ARP again, or turn SELECT, for ARP 2. Set HOLD to ON and the arpeggio keeps going after you let go.
To stop, set MODE back to OFF.

ARP · ARPTap ARP.

MODE

The order the held notes play in; OFF switches the arpeggiator off.

KNOB 1Range OFF, UP, DN, UPDN, RND, ORD, REPEAT, DNUP, UP+8, CONV, DIVG, PINKY, THUMB, WALK, CHORD

ARP · ARP 2Tap ARP, then tap it again or turn SELECT to the next page.

SWGSwing

Delays every other arp note; works with the sequencer stopped too.

KNOB 1

Good to know

SWG swings the arpeggio, pushing every other note late. It works with the sequencer stopped too, not only while the loop plays.
ORD on PLAY keeps the notes in the order you pressed them for every mode that sorts them; NOTE sorts them by pitch.
The arpeggiator ignores fills, and its settings can’t be locked on a step.
Its notes go out over MIDI only when OUT is set to SEQ rather than KEYS (MIDI out).
On the drum track the ARP pages don’t apply and show DRUM TRACK.

3.9IntermediateSLOOP 2.7+GUIDE.md §16

The 15 arpeggiator modes

MODE on KNOB 1 of the ARP page decides the order of the notes. The table shows what each one plays when you hold a C major triad — C, E and G — with OCT at 1. Raise OCT and the same pattern repeats higher up, across as many as four octaves. Nine of these modes arrived in 2.7, from Felucca.

`MODE`	C, E and G held	How it moves
`OFF`	—	No arpeggio; the keys play normally (KBD HOLD: sustain without an arpeggio uses this).
`UP`	C E G	Lowest to highest, then round again.
`DN`	G E C	Highest to lowest.
`UPDN`	C E G E	Climbs, then comes back down without repeating the ends.
`DNUP`	G E C E	The same bounce, starting from the top.
`RND`	Any order	Picks the held notes at random.
`ORD`	As pressed	Follows the order your fingers went down.
`REPEAT`	G G G… (if G went down last)	Repeats the last note you pressed; `OCT` has no effect.
`UP+8`	C E G C′	Up, then the bottom note again an octave above the top.
`CONV`	C G E	Works inwards from the outside notes.
`DIVG`	E G C	Works outwards from the middle.
`PINKY`	C G E G	Returns to the top note between each of the others.
`THUMB`	C E C G	Returns to the bottom note between each of the others.
`WALK`	From C, wandering	Starts at the bottom and moves one note up or down at random.
`CHORD`	C+E+G together	Plays the held notes (up to four) as a chord on every step, an octave higher each step through the `OCT` range.

3.10IntermediateSLOOP 2.7+GUIDE.md §16

KBD HOLD: sustain without an arpeggio

The arpeggiator’s HOLD switch is also a sustain latch. Set MODE to OFF on the ARP page and HOLD to ON on ARP 2, and the notes you play simply keep sounding when you lift your fingers — no arpeggio. Hold down a chord, let go, and play a melody over it with one hand.

How the held notes behave

Play a note while no key is down and it replaces everything that was holding: a new chord.
Play notes while other keys are still down and they join the held ones.
The MIDI note-offs are held back too, so external gear played from the FM-1 sustains along with it.
Notes coming in over MIDI are held the same way.
When you record, you get what you heard: a held note ends at the point where it was replaced.

What ends the held notes

Setting HOLD back to OFF.
Turning the arpeggiator on, by choosing any MODE other than OFF.
Loading another project, or starting a new one.
Loading another sound — but HOLD stays ON, so the next notes you play are held again.