MIDI

The FM-1's MIDI connections (USB and Bluetooth) are run by the stock firmware, and Groove OS listens in. Each track has its own MIDI channel, so a controller or a DAW can play and record any track. The FM-1 can follow an external MIDI clock, Program Change picks sounds, a CC map drives the panel, and DX7 voices and banks you send become track sounds.

The MIDI settings live on SETUP > CONNECT (see Settings):

Neither is saved: at power-on they're back to 1-4 (track 1 on channel 1) and INT. A project load leaves them as they are.

Channels

Track 1 listens on the first channel, track 2 on the next, and so on for as many tracks as the session has. MIDI CH shows the range: 1-4 with four tracks, 1-8 with eight. The range wraps past 16: first channel 15 with four tracks shows 15-2 (tracks on 15, 16, 1, 2). The range follows when you add or delete a track.

A note-off always takes the way its note-on took, so a held note never gets stuck when you change the selected track.

Pro tip: A MIDI keyboard or a DAW clip is a good way to record a part that's hard to play on the FM-1's short keybed. Arm REC on the FM-1, then play the part from the controller, on the channel of the track you want.

Notes out

The keys you play go out over USB MIDI as on a stock FM-1: the stock firmware sends them. Groove OS itself sends no notes: what the tape, SEQ and the arp play stays inside the FM-1.

Clock

With EXT:

• The tempo follows the incoming clock and the BPM on screen shows it. Small wobbles are smoothed out; the tempo changes for a real change (0.8 BPM), or for a slow drift of 0.3 BPM after two bars.
• Start starts the tape from the top on the next clock.
• Continue after a Song Position waits for the sender to reach the start of the FM-1's next loop, then starts the tape from the top, so the two line up.
• Stop stops the tape.
• If the clock stops for a quarter of a second, the FM-1 keeps the last tempo and runs on it. The next clock starts the measurement afresh.
• PLAY and the tempo control still work: a tempo you set by hand holds until the next clock corrects it.

Note: Clock out goes out over USB MIDI, the way the keys' own MIDI goes out. It is new in this build: if another device doesn't follow it, make the FM-1 the follower (EXT) instead and tell us.

MIDI OUT tracks

A track whose ENGINE is MIDI plays an external synth instead of a sound: everything the track plays (its recording, its pattern, the arp, your keys while it is selected) goes out as MIDI notes on its own channel (MIDI CH, 1-16; track 1 starts on channel 1, track 2 on 2 ...). The velocity follows the track's VELO, its level sends CC 7 when you move it, mute ends what the tape holds, and STOP lets go of every note the tape and the pattern held. A note always ends on the channel it started on, even if you change the channel or the engine while it sounds. A panic sends All Notes Off and Sustain Off on every MIDI OUT channel. While a MIDI OUT track is selected, the FM-1 doesn't also echo the raw keys on its own channel. A KIT track set to MIDI still plays its own drums (drum MIDI out comes later).

Program Change

A Program Change on the selected track's channel loads a preset onto the selected track, as the browser does:

The track's four macros go back to 0, and the project shows unsaved changes. A Program Change is ignored while the preset browser is open, and on a KIT track it shows KIT TRACK: NO PROGRAM CHANGE. Program Changes on other channels are dropped: they never load a stock preset while Groove OS runs.

The CC map

CCs on any track's channel drive the panel, as if you touched the control:

The panel CCs go the same way as the physical controls, but only on Groove OS pages: a control that would open a stock screen (STOCK GLOBAL, the stock tools) is dropped, and on a stock screen the panel CCs do nothing. There is no CC for SAVE or SHIFT.

Sounds over SysEx

Send a DX7 voice or a DX7 bank to the FM-1 and Groove OS takes it: a voice becomes the selected track's sound, a bank opens a question and then the preset browser, where you pick the voice you want. Nothing is written to the FM-1's own presets. The sound lives in your session, and a project save keeps it like any other sound (see PROJECT).

n can be any device number (MIDI channel 1-16). Each message is checked before anything changes: its length, and its DX7 checksum. Values outside the DX7's ranges (an algorithm of 40, say) are brought into range, so a damaged voice can't upset the engine.

A bank: the question, then the browser

BROWSE opens the browser on S 01, the bank's first voice, and loads it on the selected track so you hear it. From there the browser works as always (see the preset browser): each detent of PRESETS or ALGORITHM loads the next voice and previews it, K1 BANK steps between the banks, SEL keeps the voice, HOME puts back the sound the track had before BROWSE.

The SYSEX tab is temporary. When the browser closes (SEL, HOME, another control, or 4 s without a turn) the tab and the bank are gone and the memory they used is freed. The voice you kept stays on the track. To use another voice from the same bank later, send the bank again.

Pro tip: Select the track first (SHIFT + ALGORITHM), then send. A voice or a bank always goes to the selected track.

What gets refused

The FM-1's own presets

While Groove OS runs, DX7 dumps never reach the stock firmware, so they can't overwrite banks A to D any more. To replace the FM-1's own presets with a bank (the stock bank screen, K1-K4 for bank A-D) or a single voice, start the FM-1 in safe mode (hold OCT- and OCT+ while you switch it on) and send it there. See safe mode.

The Groove sound kit is available as one DX7 bank, fm1-groove-kit-bank.syx (32 voices), on the website's download section. The same sounds are built into Groove OS as the GROOVE bank of the preset browser, so you don't need to load them to use them (see KIT and the GROOVE bank).

Bluetooth

Bluetooth MIDI is the stock implementation. To turn it on or off, open SETUP (GLO) and hold HOME for a second on that page: the stock firmware toggles Bluetooth and HOME's LED shows the state. On every other page a long HOME press is SHIFT and never touches Bluetooth.

Coming in v1.1: a web companion over WebMIDI for backing up projects and importing sounds (the dim COMPANION card on SETUP > CONNECT).

Troubleshooting