GLIDE v3.7: chord mode, a loop pedal that keeps time, two modes

The biggest update since the jam row. Every key can now be a whole chord, the loop pedal locks to the beat so a progression you record stays tight forever, and a new Basic mode makes GLIDE something you can hand to anyone. Underneath it all, a calmer play screen that shows you only what is switched on.

Two modes: Basic and Advanced. GLIDE is one instrument with two depths now. Basic is the essentials: every key always does the same job, seven scales, a Tilt feel row with four ready maps, and about two dozen settings. Advanced is everything the instrument can do. Settings → Mode, the first row, switches between them, and switching loses nothing: your sounds and settings are the same in both, Basic only hides a row. In Basic, holding fn shows a sound picker, and a key that lives in Advanced (fn+c, say) shows a card naming the feature and where the switch is. A new unit starts in Basic. A unit that updates asks which you want on its first start, with Advanced already lit: press enter and everything you use today stays as it was.

Chord mode. fn+c (Advanced) makes every key a chord: on a seven-note scale the key you press sounds its triad in key, so the I is major, the ii minor, and you cannot really play a wrong chord. Slide a shape and the whole chord glides with you. On the chromatic scale you pick the chord by hand: the bottom row spells maj, min, maj7, min7, dom7, dim and aug, and latches, so you can re-colour a held note under your finger.

The loop pedal keeps time.

• A tap of alt now counts you in, four clicks, and recording starts on the downbeat. A chord struck a hair early lands on the beat.
• The loop closes on the bar line and starts there, not on your tap: close a little late and it still sounds as if you hit the line, and the chord you started with comes in straight away.
• The loop and the metronome share one clock, so chords you played on the click stay on the click however many times the loop comes round.
• The loop point is seamless: a chord held over the line keeps ringing into the next pass.
• In chord mode the loop records whole chords, quality included, so you can loop a progression and solo over it.

A calmer play screen. The status bar shows the sound, key, scale and octave, plus a badge only for what is switched on (the chord type or harmony, the trigger action, solo). Under the scope a live strip stacks the tilt slider, the loop and the backing chords, and stays empty when they are not in use. The harmonograph sits back in the centre.

Smaller things.

• Settings is easier to read: one bright cursor for every kind of row, section names at the left edge with their rows indented beneath, and How to play as a quiet link at the top beside the mode.
• The CREATE section is now CREATE SOUNDS.
• Panic (bksp) during a loop keeps the take; tap alt and it counts back in.
• After a slow SD save freezes the screen for a moment, the loop and the click pick up in time instead of firing everything they missed at once.
• The splash reads v3.7.

Your saved sounds, settings and SD library all carry over, and the sounds already in your bank sound exactly the same. Install the same way as any update: copy GLIDE.bin to /apps/, delete the installed GLIDE in Launcher, then install the new one.