Chapter 6· Groove OS 1.4

KIT

Play along as you read: Play it live opens a working FM-1, running its real software, on the screen this part of the page is about. Tap a control's name in the text to find it on the panel.

A KIT track is a whole drum kit on one track: eight pads, programmed and mixed as one part. You play the pads from the keys, write beats on a drum-machine step grid, and shape every pad's tune, decay, level and send. Drums take one of your eight tracks, not four.

Making a kit

Way	What happens
`+ ADD TRACK` on TRACKS, then `FM KIT` or `VA KIT`	A new kit track, played by the FM engine or by the VA drum models.
, then a kit, on an empty track	The track becomes a KIT track. On a kit track, taking another kit swaps the sounds under the same beat. While a kit is highlighted in the browser, the keys play its pads, so you can try it first.
`TRACK menu > ENGINE`	Switches an empty track to a kit (a track with notes must be cleared first).

There are three kits built in: PUNCH (a tight 909 feel for house and techno), DUSTY (soft and round, for lo-fi and hip-hop) and STEEL (for techno tempos, with a metallic ride). Each plays as FM drums or VA drums. EMPTY's drums are the PUNCH kit, as VA drums.

Kits from the website

Every sound pack from the website, CORE and the ten genres, brings its own drum kit, free: slots 1 to 8 of the sound pack, one sound per pad (see Sound packs). Once a sound pack is in a bank, PRESETS lists its kit under KITS, by name, after PUNCH, DUSTY and STEEL; 's legend shows where it sits (C01). Its eight drum sounds stay out of the bank's own list, so a sound pack shows just its 24 sounds there; turn the TYPE filter to DRUMS to find a kit's drum sounds one at a time and play one on a sound track. The FM-1 holds up to four sound packs at once, one per letter, so up to four website kits next to the built-in three.

Loading a kit from the Sounds page

On the Sounds page, open a sound pack (See inside): its page plays its kit's 8 pads in the browser. Add to FM-1 puts the whole sound pack, kit and sounds, into the letter you pick: what the letter holds is backed up in the browser first, and the sound pack replaces it (see Loading banks from the website). Right after you install Groove OS, the Install page's Start with CORE card (See sound packs) brings you here.

Then, on the FM-1: select the drum track (or an empty track), turn to KITS, play the keys to hear a kit, and takes it.

Taking a loaded kit copies its sounds into your project, the way a sound track keeps its sound: the project plays the same after you load something else into that bank, and on another FM-1. A project holds the sounds of two loaded kits (any number of tracks can use them; the built-in kits don't count). A third says SONG FULL: 2 LOADED KITS: put one of the kit tracks back on a built-in kit first, and its sounds make room. A kit made for the VA engine makes the track a VA kit, an FM kit an FM kit. A project made with a loaded kit opens on Groove OS 1.1 too, with each pad on the built-in drum closest to it.

Your own kits

Kits of your own drum sounds, made on Your own sounds on the website from your own recordings or its free kits, are listed under KITS too, after the kits from sound packs; 's legend says OWN on them. Take one the same way: try it on the keys, takes it. See Your own sounds.

Pads and sounds

A kit has eight pads. Each plays one of 12 drum sounds, or the track's own sound, or nothing (OFF), or a sound of a loaded kit the project holds, or one of your own sounds (see Your own sounds). The PAD menu names them in short form; a loaded kit's pads show the names the kit gives them (808, C.HAT).

Family	Sounds (as the PAD menu writes them)
Kicks	PUNCH kick (`P.KICK`), `BOOM`, RUMBLE kick (`R.KICK`), DUSTY kick (`D.KICK`)
Snares	CRACK snare (`C.SNR`), DUSTY snare (`D.SNR`)
Others	`CLAP`, closed hat (`C.HAT`), open hat (`O.HAT`), `RIDE`, `RIM`, `PERC`

On a VA kit, each pad plays the VA drum model of the same name.

Playing the pads

On TRACKS with a kit track selected, the keybed tag says PADS:

The white keys play the pads, eight to a run (pad 1 on the first white key, repeating up the keybed). Velocity counts.
The black keys 1 to 8 select a pad and sound it. K1 to K4 then edit that pad.
records pad hits like notes.

Trying another kit

Turn and move to a kit row (PUNCH KIT, DUSTY KIT, STEEL KIT): the keys now play that kit's pads, laid out as above, on any track, so you can hear it before you take it. Your own kit is not touched and nothing is recorded. Move to a sound row and the keys play that sound as notes instead, even on a kit track. takes the kit, keeps yours; either way the keys play your track again. The kit you try always sounds as FM drums; taking it onto a VA kit gives the VA drums.

The step grid

Press on a kit track, or choose PADS + STEPS ▸ in the TRACK menu (a kit has this one row where a sound track has SOUND ▸ and SEQUENCER ↵: the pads and their steps are one screen). From anywhere else (TRACKS after , MIX, SETTINGS) always brings you back to the grid, and switches the kit's steps back on if they were off (KIT STEPS ON); on the grid itself (or in its PAD and KIT menus) switches the kit's steps off (KIT STEPS OFF, the SEQ light goes out) and goes to TRACKS. The hits stay and play on: they are the track's. The header says T1 KIT (the track's number, then KIT). The grid shows the loop: the eight pads as rows, the 16 steps of a bar as columns. The playing column is orange, a hit with a chance or condition is struck through, and a ratchet is split. Under the grid are the selected pad's velocities (in orange), its name, and its sound's picture drawn in the knobs' colours: the blue wave is TUNE, the green envelope DECAY, the yellow bracket LEVEL.

Control	What it does
White keys	The 16 steps of the bar shown. A tap (let go within 300 ms) sets or removes the selected pad's hit. A hold only puts the cursor there: the hit stays as it was, so the PAD menu keeps its hit rows. In the PAD and KIT menus they are the steps of the cursor's bar, even while another bar plays.
Black keys	Select the pad and sound it. Never writes a hit.
Hold + a black key	Set or remove that pad's hit at the cursor step, and select the pad: walk to a step with , then hold and press drums to place them there. The hint line says `SEL+PAD: HIT AT CURSOR`. On the pattern row (no step yet) it only selects the pad and says `SEL+PAD: ON A STEP`. The hit takes the kit's `VELO`, or with `KEY` the velocity you press the black key with. In the PAD and KIT menus it works the same on the cursor step.
, OCT+	The previous or next bar (up to four bars show).
	Walks the steps; the next bar appears at the bar line.
Hold or +	Select the pad (up or down).
`TUNE`, `DECAY`, `LEVEL`, `VELO`	The selected pad's tune (-12 to +12 semitones), decay (`14%` to `379%`, 100 % as designed) and level (0 to 100, one a click), and the kit's velocity (`KEY`, 40, 64, 80, 100 or 127).
	The PAD menu for the cursor step.
Hold (SHIFT is held down)	Clear the selected pad's hits (asks: `CLEAR PAD 2 HITS?`, and this one cannot be undone). On the pattern row it clears every hit (undoable).
	DICE: a new beat on the same kit (one undo). Also the KIT menu's `DICE` row.

FOLLOW: while the music plays, the grid shows the bar being played. Touching the cursor, a knob or a step key holds it still for two seconds; lets it follow again at once.

Try it·On the FM-1

The snare is selected. Tap the third white key: a snare hit lands on step 3.

3A3

The pattern row

Move the cursor up to position 0, before step 1: the pattern row. The body shows every pad's hits over all the bars at once. to are LENGTH (in steps, the track's bars), RATE (kit grids always run at 1/16), SWING and VELO. SWING is the project's swing, the same value as the TIME row's on TRACKS: turning it here also swings the sequencer patterns on 1/16. opens the KIT menu.

Row	What it does
`KIT`	`PUNCH`, `DUSTY` or `STEEL`; the sounds change under the same beat, and a question asks first if you have edited pads (`LOAD DUSTY KIT?`). `OFF` turns an empty kit track back into a sound track. A loaded kit shows its name here; choose another loaded kit in PRESETS.
`VELO`	`KEY` (each hit keeps the velocity you played) or a fixed velocity for the whole kit (40, 64, 80, 100 or 127).
`ALL TUNE`	Tune every pad at once, -12 to +12 semitones on top of each pad's own.
`ALL DECAY`	Change every pad's decay at once, on top of each pad's own.
`DICE ↵`	DICE, exactly as : a new beat on the same kit over all its bars (one undo), with the kit's DRUM DICE settings. The menu stays open: again rolls again.
`GENERATE ▸`	The kit track's own DRUM DICE settings (below).
`CLEAR ALL HITS`	Empty the kit's pattern (asks). Dimmed with no hits (`NO HITS`).

DRUM DICE. A kit track keeps its own settings for DICE, by the kind of drum each pad plays. Turning them changes nothing yet: the next roll uses them. They are saved with the song.

Row	Values	What it sets
`KICK`	`AUTO`, `OFF`, 1 to 100 %	How busy the kick is. It keeps the bar's first beat unless it is `OFF`.
`SNARE / CLAP`	`AUTO`, `OFF`, 1 to 100 %	The backbeat, ghost notes and claps.
`HATS / RIDE`	`AUTO`, `OFF`, 1 to 100 %	How busy the hats and ride are. The open and closed hat never land together.
`PERCUSSION`	`AUTO`, `OFF`, 1 to 100 %	The rim and other percussion.
`VARIATION`	`LAST BAR`, `REPEAT`, `EACH BAR`	The last bar varies, every bar repeats the same hits, or each bar is rolled on its own.
`ROLL ↵`, `RESET SETTINGS ↵`		Roll with these, or put them back to `AUTO`.

AUTO is DICE as it always was. OFF leaves that kind of drum out of the next beat; with every kind OFF the beat stays as it is (NOTHING TO ROLL). The percentages steer the rules for each kind: they are not the share of steps that get a hit.

A kit's beat is the track's recording, so a kit has no stored patterns A to P: it is as long as the track (1 to 8 bars), and undo, DUPLICATE and CLEAR treat it like any other track. Make it longer (SHIFT and F3, G3, A3 or B3, or LENGTH) and the bars it had repeat into the new ones, so a one-bar beat becomes two bars of the same beat; a tap of takes the copies and the length back (UNDO T1 LENGTH).

Try it·On the FM-1

Hold SHIFT (HOME) and press SEQ: DICE rolls a new beat on the same kit.

SHIFTSEQ

With the cursor on a step, opens the PAD menu: the pad's settings, then the settings of the hit under the cursor. It reopens on the row you used last, found by its name: the hit's five rows come and go with the step, and the rest stay where you left them. On a step with a hit, when you last used one of the pad's own rows, it opens on HIT VELO instead, so the hit's rows are right there.

Row	Values	What it does
`SOUND`	`OFF`, `TRACK` (the track's own sound), the 12 drum sounds, then the loaded kits' sounds the project holds, then your own sounds by name	What the pad plays. One of your sounds this FM-1 doesn't have shows with a question mark (`?KICK`) and plays a built-in drum instead: see Songs remember their sounds.
`TUNE`	-12 to +12 semitones	Pitch.
`DECAY`	`14%` to `379%` (31 steps; 100 % is as designed)	Ring time.
`LEVEL`	0 to 100	The pad's volume, one a click (hold for ten).
`CHOKE`	`OFF`, `A`, `B`	Pads in the same group cut each other off: a closed hat cuts the open one.
`REVERB`	`TRACK`, then 0 to 100 %	How much of this pad goes to the shared reverb, so the clap gets a room while the kick stays dry. `TRACK` follows the track's own send. `TRACK` sits at the bottom: one click right from it is 0 % (a dry pad), then 1 % a click; left from 0 % is `TRACK` again.
`DELAY`	`TRACK`, then 0 to 100 %	The same for the shared delay: an echo on the snare alone.
`MUTE`	`ON`, `OFF`	Silences the pad.
`HIT VELO`	up to 127	This hit's velocity. This row and the four below it (`CONDITION`, `RATCHET`, `FLAM`, `NUDGE`) are listed only when the cursor step has a hit.
`CONDITION`	`ALWAYS`, 95 % down to 5 % in 5 % steps, then 11 conditions	How likely the hit is, and when it plays: `FILL`, `!FILL`, `1:2`, `2:2`, `1:3` to `3:3`, `1:4` to `4:4`.
`RATCHET`	`OFF`, `2X` to `4X`	Repeats the hit within its step.
`FLAM`	`OFF`, `ON`	A quiet grace hit about 15 ms before.
`NUDGE`	-11 to +11 ticks	Moves the hit slightly off the grid.
`COPY`, `PASTE`, `CLEAR`		Copy, paste (asks) or clear the pad's hits (asks; dimmed with none: `NO HITS ON THIS PAD`).
`CLEAR LOCKS`		Removes the hit's parameter locks.

A condition plays the hit on only some passes: 1:2 on the first of every two, 3:4 on the third of every four. FILL and !FILL (not fill) follow the FILL punch-in on PERFORM (see PERFORM).

Parameter locks

Hold a step's white key and turn to : that one hit plays with its own TUNE, DECAY, LEVEL and VELO, and the pad's own values stay as they were. Holding the key without turning anything leaves the hit alone. A locked hit shows a cut corner. While you hold the key, the legend and the rings show the hit's values, and the hint says TURN: LOCK IT. An empty step gets its hit as you let go.

PAD > CLEAR LOCKS takes the hit's locks off. A project holds up to 64 locks in all (LOCKS FULL: 64 IN USE; clear some to make room). Locks are undoable, one edit at a time, though the newest edit only.

Voices

Each pad has one voice, so a new hit cuts the last one on that pad. All kits together use at most six of the 12 FM voices, and VA kits use the VA pool, so a busy beat never steals your bass notes.

Troubleshooting

What happens	Why, and what to do
The browser says `CLEAR THE TRACK FIRST` or the kit row is dimmed	The track has notes of the other kind. Clear it, or use an empty track.
The pads sound different while the browser is open	The keys play the highlighted kit or sound. Close the browser () to play your own kit.
and OCT+ do not change the octave on KIT	On the step grid they choose the bar. The pads do not move with the octave.
The grid shows only one bar	The track is one bar long. Lengthen it in the TRACK menu.
Hits all play at the same loudness	The kit's `VELO` is fixed. Set it to `KEY`.
The open hat stops when the closed hat plays	They are in the same choke group. Set one pad's `CHOKE` to `OFF` or `B`.
A pad is silent	It is muted (`MUTE`, or a pad mute on PERFORM), or its `LEVEL` is 0.
A step key did not add or remove the hit	It was held, not tapped: a hold only moves the cursor. Tap it.
I moved the cursor and pressed a key, and my hit disappeared	Each white key is one step, wherever the cursor is: the first is step 1, the second step 2. Pressing the first key again took step 1's hit off. Tap it once more to bring the hit back, and press the key of the step you want. The cursor is only for editing a hit ().
The kick is in the reverb	Its `REVERB` is on `TRACK` and the track sends. Turn it one click right: 0 %.
`FULL` when adding a step	The track holds as many events as it can. Remove some hits.
`KIT STEPS OFF`, and TRACKS came up	on the grid (or in its PAD and KIT menus) switches the kit's steps off. The hits stay and play on. Press again, from TRACKS or anywhere else, to open the grid.
`KIT STEPS ARE 1/16`	A kit's grid always runs at 1/16; its `RATE` cannot change.
`SONG FULL: 2 LOADED KITS`	The project already holds two loaded kits' sounds. Put a kit track that uses one back on PUNCH, DUSTY or STEEL (or delete it), then take the new kit.
A loaded kit is gone from KITS	Its bank was loaded with something else. Your projects keep the kit's sounds; load the kit again from the website to pick it for new tracks.