MIX and FX

MIX 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.

The strips

SELECT turns to MIX, the second view. Each track has a strip with a level fader, its M (mute) and S (solo) lamps, and two bars for its sends: REVERB on top, DELAY under it. Five strips show at a time and scroll with the cursor, and a row of squares under them says which tracks are on screen. The MAIN strip is pinned at the right. FX beside a track's number means one of its TRACK FX is on.

Turn ALGORITHM to move the cursor from strip to strip, past the last track to + (add a track) and on to MAIN. Moving onto a strip selects that track.

The strip under the cursor draws its values in the knob colours; the send K4 turns now is orange (REVERB, or DELAY while HOME is held). Hold SEL and turn LEVEL or a send to move it ten at a time (the legend says X10), on MAIN's knobs too. A recorded move of a knob is cleared in the TRACK menu's AUTOMATION (see Knob moves), never by turning.

• SEL opens the track's TRACK menu.
• FX opens the track's TRACK FX.
• Hold HOME+REC to clear the track (it asks).

A SAMPLE track, and a kit made of your own sounds, have a strip like any other track: its level, mute, solo and both sends, and its TRACK FX, work on the samples too (see SAMPLER).

Mutes and solos follow the LAUNCH setting: with BEAT or BAR and the music playing they wait for the next line, and the waiting item blinks (T3: WAITS FOR THE BAR). Set LAUNCH to OFF in the TIME menu for instant changes.

Careful: the meter beside a fader shows that the track is playing (its notes sounding), not a measured level.

The two sends

Every track has two sends: how much of it goes to the shared REVERB, and how much to the shared DELAY. The track itself always plays at its own level in MAIN; the sends add the reverb and the echo on top. So a bass at REVERB 0 stays dry and tight, and chords at REVERB 45 sit in the room.

• New tracks start with a little of both (REVERB 30, DELAY 15). Drum tracks start dry (0 and 0).
• A kit's pads can have sends of their own: the PAD menu's REVERB and DELAY (see KIT). A pad left on TRACK uses the track's.
• Both sends record like a macro: with REC on, turn one and the move is written onto the track.
• How loud the reverb and the echo come back is set once for every track, on MAIN FX or MAIN's REVERB and DELAY.

TRACK FX

Press FX on any page (or on a track's strip, or TRACK FX ▸ in the TRACK menu): the selected track's own effects open. The picture is the track's signal, left to right: through its four effects, then its level, into MAIN. The two sends branch off after the level.

ALGORITHM switches between the two groups, INSERTS and SENDS.

SENDS holds the same level and sends as the track's strip on MIX, with SOLO to hear the track alone while you shape it. An effect at 0 is drawn dotted and says OFF: it is bypassed. FILTER and both sends record like a macro (REC writes their lanes; a lane clears in the TRACK menu's AUTOMATION); the others are set and kept with the song.

• A kit track has the same page. Its sends apply to every pad left on TRACK; the line under the picture says how many pads send on their own.
• A MIDI OUT track has no effects: its notes leave the FM-1. The page says so.
• If a track sends to a reverb or delay that is switched off, the line under the picture says THE REVERB IS OFF: HOME+FX.
• On FM tracks and FM kits the four effects are not heard while SOUND's AMP ENV (all tracks) is on.

HOME+FX jumps to MAIN FX. FX again goes back to the page you came from.

MAIN

Move the cursor to the last strip. MAIN has four moves for the whole mix:

Each moves one a click; hold SEL for ten. These are the same four moves you throw on PERFORM. SEL or FX on MAIN opens MAIN FX; HOME or FX there brings you back to MIX.

A soft limiter sits after the effects and keeps the loudest mixes from clipping hard, without pumping. It starts just below the loudest level the FM-1 can play. There is no clip light on screen.

To sample the mix, the SAMPLER listens to the FM-1 itself: MAIN records everything you hear, with the MAIN FX, and DRY the same mix before them.

MAIN FX

HOME+FX opens it from any page. SEL or FX on MIX's MAIN strip opens it too, and so does FX on TRACKS' TIME row (FX again goes back to TIME). It is what every track shares. The picture is the whole mix: the tracks' sends feed the REVERB and the DELAY, their returns join every track in MAIN, and MAIN runs through FILTER, DRIVE, CHORUS and PHASER, in the order shown, to the output.

ALGORITHM moves the frame along the blocks: REVERB, DELAY, then the four on the whole mix. K1 to K3 are the block's values and K4 switches it on or off. Under the picture, the block you are on is drawn in the colours of the knobs that change it: the reverb's tail, the delay's repeats, the filter's curve, DRIVE's clipped wave, the sweep of CHORUS or PHASER. An effect that is off is drawn dark, with OFF: K4 TURNS IT ON.

The REVERB's and the DELAY's LEVEL is how loud they come back (MAIN's REVERB and DELAY). How much of each track goes in is the track's own send.

DLY>REV (delay into reverb): while it is on, an arrow from DELAY to REVERB says the echoes go into the reverb too, so they fade into the room. It is on by default, and it is saved with the song.

The menu

SEL opens the block's menu:

Every value, the order, each effect's on or off and DLY>REV are saved with the project.

The values change smoothly as you turn them. REVERB, DELAY, CHORUS and PHASER also switch on and off smoothly.

Careful: some changes fade the whole mix for a moment, and their toast ends in : A FADE: FILTER on or off, EARLIER or LATER, the reverb's or filter's TYPE, and BYPASS ALL.

Seven of the values record like a macro: the filter's cutoff and resonance, the reverb's and the delay's LEVEL, the chorus and phaser MIX, and DRIVE's GAIN. With REC on, turn one and the move is written onto the selected track.

DRIVE on the whole mix

DRIVE is Groove's own and works on the whole mix, the kick included. It is the same soft saturation as TRACK FX's DRIVE, made for a whole mix: it keeps the mix's level, and it never clips to a wall.

New projects and EMPTY start at a warm GAIN 35, TONE 50, LEVEL 80, with DRIVE off until you switch it on.

CHORUS and PHASER take the whole mix too, not only what each track sends: if one sounds too strong, turn its MIX down.

Troubleshooting