Chapter 12· Groove OS 2.0 beta

PERFORM

Play along as you read: the FM-1 beside the text is a working one, running the real Groove OS 2.0, and it follows the part of the page you are reading. Tap a control's name in the text to find it on the panel, and press Start on a Try it card to be shown. Sound stays off until you turn it on.

PERFORM 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.

The screen

SELECT turns to PERFORM, the third view, right after MIX, so the mixer and the stage view are one detent apart while you play.

Part	What it shows
The scene row (top)	`A` to `K`, laid out like the black keys that launch them. The playing scene is filled, a queued one blinks, a stored one is framed, an empty one is dotted.
The big letter	The scene playing. Beside it, what is coming: `▸E IN 1 BAR`, or `ON THE BAR`.
The big number	The tempo.
Eight track cells	Number and name (four letters) of each track. Playing is framed; muted is dark; a mute that is queued blinks.
Eight punch-ins	`DIVE`, `LIFT`, `ECHO`, `WASH`, `1/4`, `1/8`, `1/16`, `FILL`. A lit one is on.
Four throw bars	`FILTER`, `REVERB`, `DELAY`, `DRIVE`, each as a bar with a white tick at the project's own value.
The knobs	K1 to K4: the four throws, with their values.

There is no line of next moves here, as other views have: the screen is built so the keys and the knobs explain themselves. The keybed tag says MUTES. Under the throws a small grey line says what the tick means (TICK: THE PROJECT'S VALUE) or, with a KIT track, how to mute a pad (HOLD SEL + WHITE KEY: MUTE A PAD); while you hold it says which pads the white keys mute (SEL + WHITE KEY: MUTE PADS 1-8, or 9-16 on the kit's other page).

The keys

The 16 white keys and 11 black keys are the surface. From the left, white keys count 1 to 16.

White keys 1 to 8: mutes

You do	What happens
Tap a key	Mutes or unmutes that track, on the launch line (see `LAUNCH` in TRACKS). The cell blinks until it lands.
Hold a key (a quarter second)	Solo while held, at once. Let go and everything comes back.
Hold and tap several	The mutes are staged: they all land together when you let go of , at the next line. Tap a staged key again to take it out.

This is how you drop a whole group of parts in and out on the bar, not one at a time. Only as many keys act as you have tracks.

Try it·On the FM-1

Tap the first white key: DRUMS mutes on the next bar. Tap it again to bring it back.

1F3

Pad mutes

A kit is one track, so muting it takes all the drums out. For the classic drop, the kick out and the hats on, mute the kit's pads instead: hold SEL and tap white keys 1 to 8. Each is a pad of the kit on the page the kit is showing: pads 1 to 8 on PADS A, pads 9 to 16 on PADS B (switch the page with on the kit's step grid, see KIT).

You do	What happens
Hold	White keys 1 to 8 show the kit's pads: lit is playing, dark is muted, blinking is queued. The line under the throws says `SEL + WHITE KEY: MUTE PADS 1-8`, or `9-16` on `PADS B`.
Hold and tap a key	That pad mutes or unmutes on the launch line (`T1 PAD 1 OUT`, `T1 PAD 1 IN`, `T1 PAD 12 OUT` on page B). Tap several and they land together.
Tap it again before the line	Takes it out of the queue.

The kit is the selected track if it is a KIT, otherwise the first KIT track. With LAUNCH on BAR the pads land on the next bar, on BEAT the next beat; with LAUNCH OFF or the music stopped they land at once. A pad mute is the pad's own MUTE (the PAD menu's row): it stays when you leave PERFORM, and it is saved with the project.

Careful: a tap of on PERFORM is also a tempo tap, but only a tap counts: press and let go with nothing else used in between. Hold and tap pads and the tempo is left alone, so you can mute as many pads as you like in one hold.

Pro tip: for a drop on the bar, hold , tap the kick's key a beat before the line, and let go. Do the same on a later drop to bring the kick back in.

White keys 9 to 16: punch-ins

Punch-ins are effects you play. Hold the key to have it on; tap it to latch it on, and tap a latched one to let it go. Leaving PERFORM or stopping the music lets every latch go, so a stutter never follows you to another screen. While one is latched the header says PUNCH LATCHED.

Key	Name	What it does
9	`DIVE`	The filter closes down.
10	`LIFT`	The filter opens up, with resonance.
11	`ECHO`	Every note repeats three times.
12	`WASH`	More reverb.
13	`1/4`	Repeats the current slice of the music in quarter notes.
14	`1/8`	The same in eighths.
15	`1/16`	The same in sixteenths.
16	`FILL`	Plays the fill (see below).

They work on the sequencer's events, so there is no audio buffer to run out.

Try it·On the FM-1

Tap white key 12, WASH: it latches on and pours more reverb over the mix. Tap it again to let it go.

12C5

FILL

Hold FILL. Steps whose condition is FILL play, and steps marked !FILL rest; a KIT track that has no such steps plays a busier beat instead (sound tracks without them play on as they were). Nothing is stored: let go and the groove returns. Set the conditions in SEQ and KIT.

Black keys: scenes

A scene remembers what plays: which stored pattern each track is on, and which tracks are muted. There are eleven, A to K, one on each black key.

You do	What happens
Tap a black key	The scene launches on the next bar. The key and the cell blink until it lands.
Tap it again before the bar	Cancels the launch.
+ a black key	Captures what plays right now into that scene (`SCENE CAPTURED`).

Scenes build forward: set up a section, capture it into a key, set up the next, capture that, and then play from key to key. Scenes are saved with the project.

Try it·On the FM-1

Hold HOME and press the first black key: what plays right now is captured into scene A.

HOME1F♯3

The key lights

On this view the key lights are the stage display: lit means playing (a track, the scene, a punch-in), dark means muted, and blinking means queued. While you hold , white keys 1 to 8 show the kit's pads instead. The lights are on or off only, so a muted track is simply dark.

The throws

to are four throws for the whole mix:

Knob	What it sweeps
`FILTER`	The master filter.
`REVERB`	Pours the whole mix into the reverb.
`DELAY`	Pours the whole mix into the delay.
`DRIVE`	The drive.

They move continuous values only, and they stay where you leave them, because encoders cannot feel your hand. The white tick on each bar is the project's own value. Press and all four glide back to the project's values over one bar. A throw is never saved: the song is never changed by it.

Turning the same value somewhere else, such as the delay's LEVEL on MAIN FX or DRIVE's GAIN, takes over from the throw: the value goes on from where the throw left it, and that is the project's value from then on.

Careful: a throw only works on an effect that is switched on. See MAIN FX.

Try it·On the FM-1

Turn K1 down: the master filter closes over the whole mix and stays where you leave it.

K1

Tempo

taps the tempo: tap along with the drummer, and it follows. A tap is a press of that you let go with nothing used in between; the moment you pressed it is the tap, so it is as accurate as ever. Holding for pad mutes is no tap and never moves the tempo. The second tap already sets it, and the average of the last three gaps keeps it steady.

The stage lock

PERFORM is the one view that guards itself while the music plays.

No destructive gesture works. Holding says LOCKED: PERFORM, and nothing is cleared. Stopped, the lock is off: PERFORM answers like any other view (NOTHING TO DELETE HERE).
A knocked SELECT does not leave the stage. While the transport plays or records (the count-in too), the first detent toward KEYS says TURN AGAIN TO LEAVE, and a second within a second leaves. Toward MIX, its neighbour, one detent goes straight there, playing or not, so you can reach the faders in one move. Stopped, PERFORM is a view like the others and one detent leaves either way.
HOME stays. A tap of HOME does not leave PERFORM: you leave it with SELECT, on purpose. The lock does not cover : a tap opens SETTINGS from here, as from every view, and a second tap brings you back.

HOME on PERFORM

Hold and PERFORM keeps its stage and puts a band over the throws: white keys 1 to 8 stage mutes, the black keys capture a scene, brings the throws back.

Recording on PERFORM

here is the ordinary record, an overdub: it records the notes you play. It does not record scene changes, mutes or throws.

Playing a set

PERFORM works for a whole set when you prepare it in the other views first:

Build each part on its own and store the patterns (SEQ).
For each section, mute what should not play, and capture it into a black key.
On stage, launch scenes on the bar, throw the filter into the chorus, punch in a fill.
Between songs, load the next project from PROJECT. Loading needs a short silence, because the FM-1 reads its flash and changes every sound.

Troubleshooting

What happens	Why, and what to do
`TURN AGAIN TO LEAVE`	The music is playing and you turned toward KEYS. Turn SELECT once more within a second, or stop first. Toward MIX one detent always leaves.
`LOCKED: PERFORM`	Deleting is locked while the music plays. Stop the music, or go to another view.
A throw does nothing	The effect it sweeps is switched off. Check MAIN FX.
A mute key did nothing	The key is beyond your tracks, or the mute is queued (the cell blinks) because `LAUNCH` waits for the bar.
+ a white key did nothing	The project has no KIT track. Pad mutes need one.
A pad is still muted on another screen	A pad mute is the pad's own `MUTE`. Unmute it here with + its key, or in the PAD menu.
A scene did not launch	It is queued for the bar (the key blinks), or you tapped it twice, which cancels.
A punch-in will not stop	It is latched: tap it again, or stop the music.
The throws no longer match the project	They stay where you left them. glides them back.