LOOM-8 0.7

New

• Ten new drum models for the kit's keys: the x models (x kick, x snare, x hat, x clap, x tom, x rim, x fm, x noise, after MACHINEDRUM), sophie (Sophie's FM percussion: fuse, stack, split, shard, pipe, boom, kick) and clang (digisophie). Any key can use any model.
• Nine new factory kits after Loom, named for fibers like the engines: Nylon, Elastane, Wire, Burlap, Sequin, Frayed, Denim, Linen and Velvet. They all keep the default kit's layout (kick, snare, closed and open hat, clap, two toms, conga, shaker, string, fm), so a pattern plays the same parts on every kit. A kit track's SEL list on Engine: KIT.
• Eight user kits instead of four (SAVE KIT: K1 to K8).
• The battery level beside the tempo.
• knit's oscillator 2 has a fine tune (hold HOME on the Sub page, ±50 cents).
• Hold a scene's key to clear it.
• The backup page keeps your sample bank in the .loom8 file too, and puts it back on restore.
• Update mode from the keys on every FM-1: hold REC while switching on (also in safe mode).
• More headroom: the second core and the drums take less CPU, so busy songs play more smoothly.

The breaks have moved. The four factory breaks (classic, heat, choke, ecstasy) are no longer built into the firmware, which freed room for the new drums. Add them back in one click on the samples page ("Add the breaks"): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/ — until then, projects that use them keep their names and play silence there.

Fixes

• Arrange: KNOB 4 on the THROW track read "THROW P" (cut off); it now reads PATTERN.

Your projects: projects, user presets and user kits from 0.5-beta on open and are converted; your four user kits become K1 to K4. Projects, presets and kits saved by 0.7 don't open in 0.6.1 or older.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.7.fwsc below.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.6.1

New

• Chord entry on Steps: hold a step, tap SEQ to write its chord with the keys instead of toggling steps. Changes only the notes — length, tricks and locks stay. Let go of the step and keep playing — chord mode stays on until SEQ is tapped again. OCT+/OCT- change the keyboard's octave while it's on.
• A third theme, b/w: the original black background, white text and red accents, with the same eight track inks.

Fixes

• A drum pad on the Engine page's drumline stayed lit after one hit; it now fades out again.
• The footer's first-boot hint no longer covers up a held step's own footer, or chord mode's.
• Arrange and Mix: a track's mute key now lights off when muted, full for the selected track, and dimmer for the rest — it used to be backwards (muted tracks lit, everyone else dark), and Mix had no mute lighting at all.
• A melodic track's filter-type list had a confusing entry named "dynamic" (it meant "no filter") sitting out of order in the middle of the list; it's renamed to "off" and moved to the end, after bp12.

Your projects: projects and user presets from 0.5-beta on open and are converted. Projects and presets saved by 0.6.1 don't open in 0.6-beta or older.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.6.1.fwsc below.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.6-beta

Your projects: projects from 0.5-beta to 0.5.4-beta open and are converted. Projects saved by 0.6 don't open in older versions.

Changes (things that work differently now)

• MIDI channels are fixed: T1-T8 listen on channels 1-8. A keyboard on channel 1 now always plays T1. Set it to channel 12-16 to play whichever track is selected.
• A track's MIDI CHANNEL row is now MIDI OUT: on or off.
• Notes that come in over MIDI are no longer sent back out.
• SAVE with a step held no longer clears that step's locks. Hold the step, press SEL, pick CLEAR LOCKS.
• Arrange's KNOB 4 now picks the selected track's pattern. The metronome is still on REC's knobs.
• When a kit track drives the pump, only the melodic tracks duck; the drums keep their punch.

Scenes and song

• 32 scenes instead of 16. On Arrange and Song, OCT switches the white keys between scenes 1-16 and 17-32.
• Arrange shows a level meter beside each track. COND and THROW light when one of their steps plays.
• Every page's header shows the scene playing.
• Mute single drum sounds in a scene: on Arrange, hold a kit track's black key and tap white keys 1-11.
• Jump or loop bars: on the Bar page, hold SEQ and press black keys 1-4 (the pattern's bars). One key jumps to that bar at the next bar line; two held loop that range; one tapped twice loops that bar. The loop is saved with the pattern.
• DOUBLE PATTERN (Steps' SEL list) doubles the pattern's length and copies it, locks included, into the new half.

Sound

• Shared LFO, on GLO's new LFO page: one LFO that moves several tracks at once, synced from 16 bars to 1/16, or free. Targets: cutoff, resonance, pitch, pan, volume, sends or character. Black keys 1-8 pick the tracks. On a kit, white keys 1-11 pick one sound, 12 all of them.
• Sample engine: a Loop page with loop start and loop length. The loop point is crossfaded, so it doesn't click.
• Strum builds each key's chord in the conductor's scale: in C major the white keys give C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim. Hold several keys to set your own chord; it then moves along the scale (a C7 gives Dm7 on D, G7 on G).
• Kits: each sound on a step has its own velocity. Hold the step and turn KNOB 1.
• knit's detune now detunes oscillator 2 too (up to 20 cents).
• Weave shows every bar (OCT) and has a new rule, "pitch".

Editing

• Copy and paste a bar, a step, or only its locks. Steps' SEL list has COPY BAR, PASTE BAR and PASTE LOCKS ONLY. A held step's SEL list has COPY STEP and PASTE STEP.
• Hold SEL and turn a knob to erase that knob's automation in the pattern (or only on the steps you hold).
• Mix: hold several black keys to solo several tracks.
• On Steps, hold SEQ: OCT moves the keys' octave and PRESETS changes the track's sound, so you can try notes before writing them.
• LOOP THROWS (GLO's SEL list): "drift" leaves the pattern where the loop throw ended instead of jumping back in time.
• The drawings on the sound pages (envelopes, filter, waveform, LFO, the faders on Mix) now move with automation and locks while the pattern plays.
• On Steps, steps with notes light their LEDs brighter than empty steps.
• HOME's SEL list opens LOAD PROJECT and SAVE TO on the project you have open, marked "(open)".

MIDI

• Channels: T1-T8 on 1-8, FX I on 9, FX II on 10, the master and the scenes on 11, the selected track on 12-16.
• CC control of each track's level, pan, sends, cutoff, resonance, attack, decay, release, glide and LFO amount; a kit's sounds (mute, pan, level); FX I and II; the master (EQ, color, pump, level). The full table is in the manual. While recording, incoming CCs are written into the pattern's automation.
• CC OUT (GLO's SEL list, on by default): turning a mapped knob sends its CC, so a DAW can record your moves. CCs that came in, locks and automation aren't sent.
• Scenes: Program Change 0-31 or notes 36-67 on channel 11 select scenes 1-32, timed like Arrange's white keys. SCENES OUT (GLO's SEL list, off by default) sends a Program Change when you change scenes.
• Notes out are on by default (Setup's NOTES) in new projects and in projects from 0.5-beta. Each track has MIDI OUT on its EDIT pages' SEL list.
• A kit hit's MIDI note now ends when the hit does.
• No stuck notes: a note played again while it's still sounding gets its own note-off, and ALL NOTES OFF ends every note LOOM-8 sent.

Fixes

• Clearing the scene that's playing hands over to the nearest scene.
• Inserting or deleting song slots while the song plays keeps its place.
• CLEAR LOCKS can be undone and keeps a kit's tunings.
• PASTE brings the locks with the steps, and refuses to paste a kit pattern onto a synth track or the reverse.
• A refused paste no longer writes the held step when you let go.
• A mono sample retriggered no longer clicks.
• Slices play to the note's gate, however short.
• The curves drawn on the pages no longer show notches.
• The REC strip on the kit pages shows the steps written.
• SAVE with no slot saves to the slot SAVE TO shows.
• No empty Players page when the player is off.
• A repeated MIDI note is no longer cut short.
• A removed step comes back plain when you write it again.

Built on GitHub: this release was built and tested from its source on GitHub and signed with build provenance. BUILDING.md shows how to check it.

Install (Chrome or Edge, FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.6-beta.fwsc below. Your projects, presets and samples stay.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.5.4-beta

Undo covers everything. HOME + REC undoes and HOME + PLAY redoes: a track's sound (knobs, PRESETS, Randomize presets, scramble, reset), the master, the song, scenes and weave, and a record take, as well as pattern edits and step locks.

Playing and editing

• Jump (HOME) goes past step 16 on longer patterns, to the downbeat of every bar.
• Hold a page's own button (EDIT, ENV, FX, LFO, ARP) while the sequencer plays and a kit's black keys play the hits instead of only picking the key to edit.
• Hold EDIT and turn ALGORITHM to change the track's engine.
• ARP is shown as disabled on a kit.

Fixes

• Steps recorded during the count-in now land on step 1.
• Early steps in live recording no longer play twice (the live trigger, then the step).
• Letting go of a loop throw (stutter on a slice track, for example) puts the pattern back at the right step, in sync with the other tracks.
• The filter resonance display no longer squares off at high resonance; the peak rounds into the top.
• The help cards for ARP, FX, ENV, EDIT and GLO fit the screen.

Known: a pan throw reported as about 20 times too loud is not reproduced yet.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.5.4-beta.fwsc below. Your projects, presets and samples stay as they are.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.5.3-beta

Punch in knob motion: while it plays, on a sound page (Engine, Envelope, Filter, Character, Sends, LFO ...), hold REC and turn a knob. It is written onto the steps while you hold REC, as the keys punch in notes; let go and it plays back. The footer says "KNOBS record motion · KEYS record notes". The record settings (click, count-in, quantise, mode) are still on REC held while stopped, and on Steps and Bar. The Sends page now records motion too.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.5.3-beta.fwsc below. Your projects, presets and samples stay as they are.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.5.2-beta

A new kit is drier: only the clap and the fm key send to the reverb. The snare, toms, conga and string start dry (the kick and hats always did). Kits in projects you already have keep their sends as they are; send any key to the effects on FX, Sends.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.5.2-beta.fwsc below. Your projects, presets and samples stay as they are.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.5.1-beta

A fix release: no text is cut off on the FM-1's screen any more.

• The strum player's description ran off the screen; now it fits.
• Messages in the header kept losing their ends ("STEP RECORD keys write steps", "NO EFFECT YET play a key on EDIT", "NEW PROJECT no free slot: SAVE TO" and others): a long one now steps down to a smaller font instead.
• The tricks on the knob strip: "ramp down" and the skips take two lines instead of being cut. The portamento trick is now called glide.
• Shorter lines for the throws page, an empty song, a track with no steps, and the conga's pad.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.5.1-beta.fwsc below. Your projects, presets and samples stay as they are.
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/ · Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

LOOM-8 0.5-beta

LOOM-8's first public release, a beta: a pocket groovebox for the M-VAVE FM-1, inspired by the OP-XY's way of working.

Install (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 plugged in): https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/install/ — or download loom-0.5-beta.fwsc below. The installer can always put M-VAVE's firmware back.
Try it in your browser first: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/emu/
Manual: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/manual/
Your own samples: https://charlesvestal.github.io/fm1-loom/samples/

What's in it

• Eight tracks, nine engines: knit (subtractive, with a supersaw unison), rayon (two-operator FM), jacquard (wavetables), bellows (organ), cane (physical models: pluck, bow, reed, flute, bell, drum) and voile (voices: vosim, vowel, choir, whisper), both from Mutable Instruments' Braids; a sample player, a break slicer and an eleven-key drum kit (kick, snare, hats, clap, toms, conga, shaker, string, fm, or any sample).
• 85 factory presets, plus 16 slots of your own. Real samples built in: 909 drums, four breaks, piano, pizzicato bass, strings, brass, flute and an orchestra hit; put up to 32 of your own on it from the samples page in the browser: add, replace, rename, reorder and remove them, the ones already there kept as they are.
• A 64-step sequencer: chords on a step, fourteen step tricks (multiply, ramps, random, portamento, bend, jump, skips...), chances and A:B cycles, parameter locks on any knob, nudge, live and step recording, motion recording. The Bar page writes steps as well as Steps does.
• Kits: each key its own envelope, filter, drive, pan, play mode and sends; the kit's own bus filter (low cut, compressor, drive, hi cut) and a character stage on the whole kit.
• Shaping every track: two envelopes, a filter (lp24, ladder, lp12, hp, bp), a character stage (drive, fold, crush, ring, tilt, tape, sampler) and an LFO (wave, wobble, drift, pump).
• Players: arp (with styles, glide and stereo), strum and hold.
• Weave: cross two patterns into a third, bar by bar, step by step, or one's rhythm with the other's notes.
• The conductor: a track that moves the song through a progression, or follows one of your tracks' notes.
• Throws: twelve momentary effects on the keys (stutter, repeat, echo, build, jumble, warble, chop, ring...), on the drums, the melodic tracks or one track.
• Two send effects: chorus, delay, lofi, phaser or reverb (eleven modes, among them the PlayStation's own).
• Mix and master: per-track meters, mute and solo, a master EQ, master colour (tape, sampler...), compressor and a pump on the kick.
• Sixteen scenes and a song; three project slots; backup and restore from the site.
• USB: class-compliant MIDI in and out (clock and notes), and the FM-1 recordable as a USB audio input.
• Screen reader support through fm1-reader.
• Runs on both of the FM-1's cores.

Built on fm1-base and felucca-bsp, from Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments). GPL-3.0-only; see LICENSING.md for every source and sample. Not affiliated with teenage engineering.