KIT and the GROOVE bank

A KIT track plays eight drum pads from one track, so a whole beat needs one track instead of four. KIT shows the pads, lets you shape each one, and edits their hits on a step grid. The GROOVE bank is the set of 32 sounds built into Groove OS that the pads, and any synth track, draw on.

A kit or a single voice

Every track is either a synth track or a KIT track.

A single drum voice, such as PUNCH KICK from GROOVE, is a synth track's voice: it plays on every key, pitched where the sound is pitched. Only a KITS template makes a KIT.

A track changes kind only while it is empty and not recording. Its notes mean pitches on a synth track and pads on a KIT, so Groove OS refuses to reinterpret them.

Making a KIT

The quickest way is a new track. On TAPE, with the cursor on the ruler, press SEL for TAPE > ACTIONS and choose ADD KIT TRACK: a new last track (up to 8) that is already a KIT, selected: T5 NEW KIT TRACK. The template follows the tempo: DUSTY below 100 BPM, PUNCH from 100 to 125.9 BPM, STEEL from 126 BPM. Its TRACK sound is the voice a new synth track would have had. See TAPE: Actions.

DUPLICATE T2 in the same menu copies a KIT track with its template, VELO and all eight pads, and its hits.

To turn a track you already have into a KIT, use the browser, on any page:

1. Select an empty track (SHIFT + ALGORITHM).
2. Turn PRESETS, then K1 to the KITS bank.
3. Turn PRESETS to PUNCH KIT, DUSTY KIT or STEEL KIT. The track becomes a KIT at once. Play the keys to hear it.
4. Press SEL to keep it, or HOME to put the synth track back.

From KIT: if the selected track is a synth track, KIT shows a card instead of pads. Turn K1 to make it a KIT.

To go back to a synth track, empty the track and use MAKE SYNTH TRACK (see Kit actions), turn K1 KIT to OFF, or load a single voice from the browser.

Opening KIT

The pads screen

Playing the pads

With a KIT track selected, the keys play its pads on every OS page. The keys are counted from the lowest one, so OCT-/OCT+ and transpose never move a pad. Note names below are at the default octave.

White-key hits record like any notes when you press REC: count-in, overdub, quantize and undo work the same as on a synth track. The key lights show the pads as they hit, and the selected pad's black key.

Pad values

Put the cursor on a pad. K1-K4 edit it; hold SHIFT for the second row.

The drum sounds are the first 12 sounds of the GROOVE bank:

Turning a pad's SOUND to a hat puts it in choke group A if it had none. Turning a hat into anything else sets its choke to OFF.

The TRACK sound

TRACK plays the KIT track's own voice: the voice it had before it became a KIT. It plays at C4, plus TUNE. Edit it on SOUND > VOICE, or with EDIT in the stock editor.

1. On an empty track, load a voice with PRESETS and press SEL.
2. Turn PRESETS to the KITS bank, load a kit and press SEL.
3. On KIT, move the cursor to a pad and turn K1 SOUND to TRACK.

Pro tip: A voice that sustains keeps sounding while you hold its key, and releases like a synth note. Drum sounds always play whole, however short the hit.

Choke

Pads in the same choke group cut each other: a hit on one silences the others in that group. Every template puts the closed and open hat in group A, so closing the hat cuts the open one. Group B is free for your own pairs, for example two toms or a kick and a long BOOM.

Velocity

K2 VELO on the kit row sets how hard every hit plays.

The kit row's velocity mode shows at the top right of the pads screen.

The kit row

Put the cursor on the kit row at the top.

A template change shows T1 DUSTY KIT (your track and kit).

Changing the kit with K1 replaces all eight pads' SOUND, TUNE, DECAY, LEVEL, CHOKE and MUTE with the template's; the hits stay. When you have edited any pad, it asks first: LOAD DUSTY KIT?, PAD EDITS ARE LOST, with Cancel highlighted (ALGORITHM to LOAD, SEL to answer, HOME to keep your pads). Pads as the template left them change at once, one template per detent.

Pro tip: To try kits and come back, use the browser: HOME there puts your pads back exactly.

Kit actions

Press SEL on the kit row.

Pad steps

Press SEL on a pad to open its step grid. The grid is the tape itself: 8 pad rows by the 16 steps of one bar, the entered pad's row lit. What you program here plays and records like any take, and TAPE shows it. There is no separate pattern to print.

A hit belongs to a step if it lies within 1/32 note of that step's 1/16 line, so unquantized playing still lands on the grid.

Step values

Program a pattern

1. On KIT, move the cursor to a pad and press SEL.
2. Tap the white keys for the steps you want.
3. Press a black key to switch to another pad's row, and tap its steps.
4. Press OCT+ for the next bar, if the track is longer than one bar.
5. Press PLAY to hear it. Keep editing while it loops.

Hits you add in one visit to the grid are one take: SHIFT + REC undoes them together. While recording, they join the take being recorded.

Pro tip: Set the track's length on TAPE first (LENGTH, BARS). The grid shows as many bars as the track has.

Pad actions

Press SEL with the cursor on the pad (the first position in the grid).

How a kit plays

• One voice per pad. A new hit on a pad cuts its previous one, like a drum machine.
• Drums play whole. A drum sound rings out fully however short the key press or recorded note.
• Choke cuts the other pads of the same group (see Choke).
• Voice budget. All KIT tracks together use at most 6 of the FM-1's 12 voices. A hit beyond that cuts the kit voice that has rung longest, nearly always a tail, so melodic tracks keep their notes.
• Pads and melodic notes don't cut each other. The one exception is a TRACK pad whose voice uses key scaling or detune.

The kits

The KITS bank holds three templates. All share one pad order, so your hands learn it once: 1 kick, 2 snare, 3 clap or rim, 4 closed hat, 5 open hat, 6 rim or clap (STEEL: ride), 7 percussion, 8 ride or percussion. Every pad starts at LEVEL 100; the sounds carry the balance.

The GROOVE bank

GROOVE (GROOVE in the browser, G 01-G 32) is a bank of 32 original DX7 voices for lo-fi, house and techno, built into the firmware. It does not use or change the FM-1's banks A to D. Load any of them on a synth track from the browser; the first 12 are also the pad sounds.

"Play at" is where the sound is as designed. Kicks, basses, keys and METAL PERC follow the key; snares, clap, hats, ride and rim sound the same on every key.

On SOUND, a GROOVE voice shows its number and role under its name, such as G 21 KEYS. The DUO sounds show SPLIT.

Pro tip: DUSTY DUO and PUNCH DUO put a kick and a hat in one voice on a synth track. They are not kits: for eight pads, load a template from KITS.

The GROOVE bank as SysEx

The same 32 voices also ship as DX7 SysEx files in the repository, for use with the stock firmware or other DX7 tools. Groove OS does not need them: GROOVE is already built in.

While Groove OS runs, sending the bank asks BANK: 32 VOICES and lets you browse it onto a track; a single voice goes onto the selected track (see MIDI: Sounds over SysEx). Neither touches the FM-1's own presets.

In safe mode (the stock firmware) the stock bank screen appears instead, where K1-K4 choose bank A, B, C or D.

Careful: In safe mode a bank replaces that bank's 32 factory presets, and a single voice overwrites the stock firmware's current preset slot in flash immediately. The FM-1 cannot send its presets back, so keep a copy of the factory banks before you send anything there.

Troubleshooting