The controls

Every 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. This chapter names every control, explains the three kinds of screen (views, menus and editors), and covers SHIFT, undo, help and the keys.

The panel

Each knob on screen is drawn as a ring with its value, and the ring turns: bipolar values fill from the middle. If a knob has no job on the row the cursor is on, its ring is dark and the legend shows a dash.

Views, menus and editors

There are only three kinds of screen.

In a menu, a row can be one of four things:

HOME goes back one level. The cursor position of each menu is remembered. The STEP menu on SEQ reopens on the row you used last. The PAD menu on KIT finds that row by its name, so the same row comes back even though the hit's rows come and go with the step; with a hit under the cursor it opens on HIT VELO, the hit's first row, unless the row you used last is further down.

The screen

The top line is the header: where you are (the view, and the project or track after it), the transport (a triangle while playing, a red dot while recording), the position as bar.beat, the tempo, four squares that flash the beat, and a small square after the title when the project has changes you have not saved. While you turn SELECT, five small marks replace the words after the title and show where you are on the wheel. The line under the picture is the hint: the next useful move. At the bottom, K1 to K4 show their value and name (the legend), and the tag at the right of the hint line says what the keys do. Short messages (toasts) appear at the top for a second or two and name what just happened, such as UNDO T3 TAKE. While a web page is linked over USB (remote control), a small link mark sits in the header (see MIDI and sync).

One rule for shortcuts

Every page follows the same rule: SHIFT + a control does its other action, and SEL held while you turn a knob moves a number ten at a time (a press of SEL opens or confirms). The hint line teaches the rest.

The hint line takes turns. It lists CONTROL: VERB pairs. When they do not all fit on one line, it shows them in turns, a new set every 3 seconds: first the page's main moves, then its hidden gestures. SETTINGS > HINTS OFF hides it as before; the footers of the menus take turns too.

The undo toast. After anything undo can take back (a take, DICE, a pattern edit, a clear, a print, a longer loop, a deleted track), a toast says what SHIFT + REC would undo: SHIFT+REC: UNDO T3 DICE. It waits until the toasts before it are done and nothing is recording, and shows once for each new undo step. See Recording and undo.

Questions: everything destructive asks

Anything that can lose work stops and asks first. A question shows the action and what it costs, with two choices: ALGORITHM picks, SEL confirms, HOME cancels. The safe choice, CANCEL, is highlighted first.

There is one gesture for every delete: hold SHIFT and hold REC with the cursor on the thing you want gone. A ring fills and names it (CLEAR T2, DELETE NIGHT BUS); let go before it fills and nothing happens. It then asks. If the cursor is on something with nothing to delete, it says so (NOTHING TO DELETE HERE).

Most things are also undoable: a tap of SHIFT + REC takes back the last thing you did on any track, and SHIFT + PLAY brings it back. See Recording and undo.

SHIFT

Hold HOME and it becomes SHIFT. You can use it without thinking about it, because the FM-1 tells you what SHIFT does while you hold it:

• At once: a button, knob or key pressed with HOME down does its SHIFT job straight away, with no waiting. The keys are SHIFT keys from the moment HOME goes down; only a key you were already holding when you pressed HOME stays a note.
• After the BACK TAP time (300 ms): the header shows SHIFT and the key lights show the current values.
• After twice the BACK TAP time (600 ms) with nothing used: the screen fills with the SHIFT screen. It answers "what does SHIFT do here?" in words: the page's own jobs in big type at the top (SEQ DICE T3, SAVE LAST LOOP ONTO T3, HOLD REC CLEAR T3 ASKS), then what works everywhere (REC UNDO T3 TAKE, PLAY REDO, SEL CHORDS OFF, ARP ARP PAGE), the knobs, and a picture of the keys with each SHIFT key and its current value. Using any control puts the page back.

The SHIFT screen follows the page you are on, so it is always correct for where you are. PERFORM keeps its stage and shows a band over the tick line instead.

A tap of HOME shorter than the BACK TAP time, with nothing used, is the back step. A key pressed while HOME is down counts as used, so that tap does not go back. You can change the time in SETTINGS > CONTROLS (200 to 400 ms).

Careful: while HOME is down every key is a SHIFT key, so a note played then sets the loop's length, the launch or the click instead of sounding. Tap HOME between notes, not under them.

What SHIFT does

The SHIFT keys

Hold HOME and the keys set how a loop records, from the first key. After the BACK TAP time their lights show the current value. They are in three groups, from the left:

The mute and solo keys of earlier builds are gone: MIX and PERFORM do that for any track.

Buttons that open tools

SEQ, ARP, FX, ENV, LFO, EDIT and GLO open their screens from anywhere, and most go back where you were when you press them again. (The sound browser is opened by turning PRESETS.)

A track plays its sequencer pattern or the arpeggiator, not both, and there is one arpeggiator in the project: if the other is on, the button says so (ARP ON THIS TRACK, SEQ ON THIS TRACK) and nothing changes. On a KIT track, SEQ opens the drum step grid, which is part of the track, so there is nothing to switch. HOME only changes the view: it never switches a pattern or the arpeggiator off, and it never stops the music.

Help on the panel

Hold any of FX, ENV, LFO, EDIT, GLO, ARP, SEQ, SAVE or PLAY for a second on a view and a card says in a line what it does and what SHIFT adds (PLAY's says HOLD + K1: TEMPO. SHIFT: REDO). Let go and nothing happens: the card is only a look.

The hint line gives the next useful move on every view but PERFORM. It is on by default; SETTINGS > HINTS switches it off. The keybed tag at its right stays.

The keys

The 27 keys always play something. A tag at the right of the hint line says what, and the key lights agree.

The octave belongs to the track: OCT- and OCT+ change the selected track's octave, and the keys and chords follow it. Every key is velocity sensitive.

Fast values

Knobs accelerate: a quick turn moves further. Hold SEL and turn to move a number ten at a time; the legend says X10 under each knob it works on. This works on every screen, MIX's strips and MAIN included. A knob that has a recorded lane on the track is the exception: there the legend says CLEAR, and turning it with SEL held clears the lane (see TRACKS).

Every value that runs from 0 to 100 moves one unit a click, so you can land on any number: the macros (and their step locks), a track's LEVEL and SEND on MIX, MAIN's four, a pad's LEVEL and SEND, CLICK VOL, a pattern's GATE, GENERATE's DENSITY and the arpeggiator's SWING. A pad's CONDITION still moves 5 % a click.

Troubleshooting