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Groove OS 2.0 beta

Manual

The manual for the Groove OS 2.0 beta, one chapter per page. It describes what the beta does today. The 1.4 manual is the one for the release you install by default.

  1. 01· Try it hereGetting startedGroove OS turns your M-VAVE FM-1 into a groovebox: up to eight tracks of FM, virtual-analog and drum sounds, a sampler that records from a phone, a computer or the FM-1 itself, a step sequencer, an arpeggiator, chords, scenes and a performance screen, all running on the FM-1 itself. This chapter gets the beta installed, makes your first sound and builds your first loop. This manual describes Groove OS 2.0, the beta. New to grooveboxes? Learn on your FM-1 teaches you on the FM-1 itself, a step at a time.
  2. 02· Try it hereLearn on your FM-1Learn is six short courses that run on the FM-1 itself: no computer, no screen but the FM-1's own, no connection. Take it on a train or to the park. A card says what to try next, you play, and the FM-1 notices when you have really done it. The music you make is yours, and it keeps playing while you learn.
  3. 03· Try it hereThe controlsEvery screen of Groove OS works the same way, so you only learn the controls once. ALGORITHM is the cursor, K1 to K4 change what the cursor is on, SEL opens it, HOME goes back, and while you hold HOME every control does its other job. This chapter names every control, explains the three kinds of screen (views, menus and editors), and covers HOME, undo, help and the keys.
  4. 04· Try it hereTRACKSTRACKS is the home view: your music as one lane per track, up to eight, with the tempo and the click at the top. This is where you select a track, turn its four macros, add and remove tracks, and reach each track's settings. A tap of HOME leads back here from every view but PERFORM.
  5. 05· Try it hereSOUNDEvery sound track has a sound of its own, FM or virtual analog, and you shape it three ways: with the four macros on TRACKS, in the SOUND view and its editors, and by picking a different sound in the browser. This chapter covers all three, plus the four banks A to D that hold the sounds, loading sound packs from the website, your own kits and instruments in the browser, copying sounds between tracks and sending DX7 voices from a computer.
  6. 06· Try it hereKITA KIT track is a whole drum kit on one track: 16 pads on two pages, 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. A pad can play a built-in drum, a sound from a sound pack, or a recording of your own. Drums take one of your eight tracks, not four.
  7. 07· Try it hereSAMPLERSample anything, then play it. Plug in your phone, press REC, and the sound is on a key a moment later, trimmed to where it starts, ready to chop across the keys, tune, loop and play. The SAMPLER also records the FM-1's own groove, so you can bounce a beat, chop it and play it back in a new order. All of it happens on the FM-1.
  8. 08· Try it hereSEQThe sequencer writes music one step at a time. Every sound track has its own pattern, drawn as a grid: steps across, the notes of your scale down. All the patterns play together, each with its own track's sound, alongside anything you have recorded. This chapter covers the grid, stacked notes, step settings and conditions, parameter locks, DICE, stored patterns and chains. Drum tracks use the KIT grid instead, which works in much the same way.
  9. 09· Try it hereKEYSKEYS is not a screen you play on; it is a layer over the keybed. What you set here holds on every screen: the notes you play are passed through your scale and your chords before any track hears them. Set a key and a scale once and every wrong note becomes a right one. Switch the chords on and one finger plays a whole chord.
  10. 10· Try it hereARPThe arpeggiator turns a held chord into a pattern of single notes, in time with the loop, on the selected track. Hold a chord, pick a mode and a rate, and the picture shows exactly what it will play. LATCH keeps it going after you let go, and PRINT records it onto the track.
  11. 11· Try it hereMIX and FXMIX is the mixer. Each track has a strip with its level, mute, solo and two sends, and the MAIN strip is the whole mix. The effects come in two places. TRACK FX belongs to one track: DRIVE, CRUSH, FILTER and SLICER, before its level. MAIN FX is shared by every track: the REVERB and the DELAY that the sends feed, then FILTER, DRIVE, CHORUS and PHASER on the whole mix.
  12. 12· Try it herePERFORMPERFORM is the stage view: a screen for playing a song live, built to be read in a dark room at arm's length. The keys become the performance surface: white keys mute tracks and trigger punch-in effects, black keys launch scenes, and the four knobs are throws that sweep the whole mix. While the music plays, PERFORM is locked against accidents.
  13. 13· Try it hereRecording and undoYou can play a part into a track, keep the loop you just played without having pressed record, turn a pattern into a recording, and move knobs while recording so the sound moves on every pass. Everything you do on any track can be taken back: undo works across all tracks and says what it undid. This chapter is about notes and knob moves. Recording sound, from USB or from the FM-1 itself, is the SAMPLER's.
  14. 14· Try it herePROJECTPROJECT is where your songs live: three slots on the FM-1, an automatic save that brings the session back after a power cut, a clean page to begin from, and a web page that copies projects to your computer and back. Songs to start from come with every sound pack. Everything in a song is saved: tracks, sounds, kits, recorded notes and knob moves, patterns, scenes, mix and effects, and which samples your tracks and pads play.
  15. 15· Try it hereMIDI and syncGroove OS listens to MIDI over USB, Bluetooth and the TRS MIDI jack, and sends it over USB and Bluetooth. Each track has its own MIDI channel, so a controller or a DAW can play and record any track. The FM-1 can send its clock to a drum machine, or follow someone else's. A track can play an external synth instead of a sound. Control changes drive the panel, and Program Change picks sounds. Over USB, a web page can also follow the FM-1 and play its panel.
  16. 16· Try it hereSETTINGSSETTINGS is how the machine behaves: the synth's bend and glide, MIDI, the controls' timing, the hints, startup, USB audio, Bluetooth, storage, your samples and the about page with the crash log. It is also where Learn opens. Tap GLO to open it, and tap it again to go back to where you were.
  17. 17Install, update and the way backGroove OS 2.0 is installed from a web page, over one USB cable, from Chrome or Edge. The same page updates the beta, puts 1.4 back whenever you like, and puts M-VAVE's own V15 or V16 back if you want it. This chapter explains what the install does, how to update, how to move between 1.4 and 2.0, what to do if an install is interrupted, and what rescue mode is.
  18. 18· Try it hereTroubleshootingWhen something looks wrong, start here. This chapter covers the safety nets (rescue mode, the crash log, reinstalling), what to do if the screen stays dark, and a table of the messages and problems you are most likely to meet. Each chapter also ends with a short table for its own screen.
  19. 19What's new in 2.0Groove OS 2.0 is built new for the FM-1, around a sampler. Plug in a phone or a computer, press REC, and the sound is on a key a moment later, ready to chop, tune, loop and play. The SAMPLER also records the FM-1's own groove, so you can bounce a beat, chop it and play it back in a new order. All of it happens on the FM-1.