LOF-1

Manual

LOF-1 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a lofi groovebox. You play the lead on the keys and a tired jazz band follows you: it hears which chord your notes imply, and the comp, bass and drums move with it on the beat. Rest after a phrase and another instrument answers. Stop playing and the band carries on by itself; after a while a ghost takes the lead. Under it all an old record crackles, or a cassette hisses, or a radio drifts off the station.

This manual covers LOF-1 version 0.0.62.

1Install

Try it first: the emulator runs the same code in the browser, with sound, played with the mouse, a touch screen, your computer's keyboard or a MIDI keyboard.

Install: open the installer in Chrome or Edge, connect the FM-1 with a USB data cable and press Install. Don't unplug it while it's writing; when it finishes, the FM-1 restarts into LOF-1.

From the command line instead (needs pip3 install mido python-rtmidi): python3 tools/fm1_install.py lof1-VERSION.fwsc, with the file from the site's download.

Go back: "Back to the stock firmware", at the bottom of the installer, puts M-VAVE's firmware back. M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE, works too. HYP-1 goes on from its own installer, the same way.

2Getting started

LOF-1 starts by itself: the RedtailWorks card, then LOF-1, then the record drops and the band starts. A few minutes with it:

1. Listen. Preset 01 is playing: Rhodes, upright bass and the Dusty kit on vinyl, in D Dorian at 78 BPM. The screen says ON ITS OWN: nobody is playing the lead, so the band cycles its own progression. Turn MASTER for volume.
2. Play. Every key that's lit is in the key. Play a few notes, or hold two or three: the screen says FOLLOWING YOU and the chord changes, on the beat, to the one your notes imply.
3. Stop and wait. Leave the keys alone. The band carries on; after eight bars (the Daydream page's Wait) a ghost takes the lead. Touch a key and it's yours again.
4. Try another preset. Turn PRESETS: ten sessions, each its own key, tempo, band and tape.
5. Shape it. HOME is the Groove page: Tempo, Swing, Jazz (how rich the chords are) and Busy (how much the band plays). Every other voice has its own button and page.
6. Hold a button for a second and a card says what it does.

3Controls

4The screen

The header: the preset's number, the key, then what's on: FX, LOCK, SEQ, HOLD, SIDE B, DREAM, CHORDS; a little level meter and the tempo (EXT when MIDI clock drives it).

The main band: on Groove and the pages without a keyboard, the tape (a record turning, a cassette, a reel-to-reel deck or a radio, as the Dust page's character) and the chord: its name big, the chords before it, the beat, and what the band is doing: ON ITS OWN, FOLLOWING YOU, DAYDREAMING, CHORD HELD, with a countdown to Daydream or to Drift's next change. On a voice's page, a keyboard showing what that voice is playing. On the drum pages, the pattern.

The knobs: the page's four values, its name between them, and dots for where it sits among the pages.

5How the band plays

The chord. You set the key (Global: Root and Scale). LOF-1 listens to the lead: the notes you hold count most, then the last few you played; the chord now is a little sticky. On the beat it moves to the chord of the key your notes fit best. Jazz sets how rich it is: triads, 7ths, 9ths or 11ths. With no notes it cycles a progression in the key; REC holds the chord where it is.

Comp re-voices the chord on every change, close, open, shell or spread, and rolls it like a tired pianist: held, stabs, offbeats or an arpeggio. Bass plays the chord's roots: plain, root and fifth, walking, or dub. Drums play the pattern, swung, with fills. Busy sets how much they all play around you.

Answer listens for your phrases: when you rest after one, it answers, echoing your phrase (Echo high) or inventing its own (Echo low). Chatty sets how often.

Daydream. When the keys have been still for the Wait (4, 8 or 16 bars, or Always), a ghost takes the lead with phrases of its own in the key, on the chord. Fill sets how much of the time it plays, from sparse phrases to non-stop; Density how many notes a beat; Mood stepwise or leaping; Range how wide; Legato how long its notes are; Repeat how often it comes back to its last motif; Dynamics how much it accents. Any key takes the lead back.

Drift (Groove 2) changes things every few bars by itself: the drums to another pattern (Next, or Random from patterns 1 to the Pool), and the progression to its other. SEL + SEQ makes a change now.

Dust is the tape under it all: crackle, pops and surface noise, hiss, hum, wow and flutter, the run-out groove when you stop, and Grain, a haze made of the music itself.

6The pages

Groove (HOME) and Groove 2 (HOME again)

Lead (ENV), Daydream, Daydream 2 (ENV again)

Lead: Level, Tone, Release, Lazy (loosens the velocity, and the ghost's timing). ALGORITHM picks the instrument: Rhodes, Wurli, Upright, Old upright, Vibes, Kalimba, Glock, Strumstick, Mute tpt, Tenor sax, Flute, Harmonica, Bell, Sine, FM piano, Marimba, Harp, Clarinet, Ocarina, Music box. OCT− / OCT+ move it by octaves.

Daydream: Wait (4, 8, 16 bars, Always), Fill, Density, Mood. Daydream 2: Range, Legato, Repeat, Dynamics. SEL + ENV turns Daydream on and off.

Comp (LFO), Comp style (LFO again)

Comp: Level, Tone, Voicing (Close, Open, Shell, Spread), Roll. Comp style: Pattern (Held, Stabs, Offbeat, Arp), Length, Push (how often it anticipates the next chord), Spread. Instruments: Rhodes, Wurli, Upright, Old upright, Vibes, Strumstick, Warm pad, Organ, Strings, FM piano, Marimba, Harp.

Bass (EDIT)

Level, Tone, Pattern (Roots, Root-5th, Walking, Dub), Slide. Instruments: Upright bs, Sub, Round, Pluck, Moog, Cello pizz.

Answer (ARP)

Level, Tone, Chatty, Echo. Instruments: Mute tpt, Tenor sax, Flute, Harmonica, Vibes, Kalimba, Glock, Bell, Whistle, Square, Clarinet, Ocarina, Marimba, Music box. SEL + ARP turns it on and off.

Drums (SEQ), Kit (SEQ again)

Drums: Level, Crunch, Pattern (1–8, changing on the bar), Fill. Kit: Kick, Snare, Hats, Perc levels; ALGORITHM: Dusty (samples) or Tape (synthesized). Hold SEQ for the sequencer (section 7).

Dust, Dust 2 (GLO)

Dust: Level, Age (wear: more crackle and pops, and scratches on the record), Surface, Hiss. ALGORITHM: Vinyl, Cassette, Reel, Radio. Dust 2: Grain (a haze of the music itself), Smear, Duck (under the kick), Hum.

Space (GLO again)

Tape (wow, flutter, saturation), Mellow (a low-pass over everything), Room (a plate reverb), Echo (a dotted eighth, dark and fading).

Global (GLO, four times)

Root, Scale (Major, Minor, Dorian, Mixolydian, Minor and Major pentatonic, Blues), Keys (Chromatic, Scale, or Chords: section 7), MIDI (Off, Notes, Clock, Both: section 9). SAVE here stores the preset, and only that: no Side B on this page.

A scale of your own (AMB-1's way): on the Global page the keys set the scale instead of playing. The lit keys are the notes in it; tap one to take it out, or tap a dark one to put it in (you hear it while you hold it). Scale then reads Custom; the band plays in your notes, its chords taken from whichever seven-note scale fits them best. Tap your way back to a named scale and it takes its name again; turning Scale goes back to the named ones. SAVE stores your scale with the preset.

Global 2 (GLO, five times)

Theme (Lamp, Matcha, Sakura, Midnight, Sepia: section 10), CRT (the old-TV look, on or off), Tune (±50 cents, for playing along with something not quite at A440), Lights (Off; Glow: the keys in the scale lit and the buttons glowing dimly; Keys: the keys only). These are the FM-1's, not a preset's: SAVE here stores them alone.

7Playing: chords, FX, the sequencer

Keys mode. Chromatic: every key its own note. Scale: the keys snap into the key. Chords: each key plays the scale's chord on that note, as rich as Jazz has it, and the band follows. SEL + HOME switches between notes and chords.

Chord hold. REC: the band stays on this chord while you solo over it. REC again lets it go.

Side B. SAVE: the band drops to a breakdown on the next bar. Again: back in, with a fill.

FX. Press FX and the keys play effects while you hold them; the screen shows which key does what.

Hold SAVE in FX to lock effects on: tap as many keys as you like (they turn violet); keys already held lock too. Tap a locked key alone to unlock it. Press FX again and the locked effects keep playing while the keys play notes; SEL + FX turns every lock off.

The sequencer. Hold SEQ: the white keys are the sixteen steps of the lane, lit where it hits, and the step playing blinks across them. OCT− and OCT+ pick the lane (Kick, Snare, Rim, Clap, Hat, Open hat, Shaker, Perc); SEL + OCT− clears it, SEL + OCT+ puts it back. SEQ again leaves. On the drum pages, SEL + white keys 1–8 picks the pattern.

8The presets and saving

Each preset keeps your changes while you play. To keep them for good, go to Global and press SAVE: the preset playing is stored, with the drum patterns. Hold SAVE on Global for a second and a half to put the factory's version back (then SAVE to store that). Storing while it plays fades the music out for a moment (the FM-1 can't play while it writes its flash) and back in where it was.

9MIDI and your DAW

MIDI in (USB, or the TRS jack): notes on any channel play the lead, as the keys do. With Global › MIDI on Clock or Both, a DAW's clock drives the tempo (EXT in the header): START plays from the top, STOP stops.

MIDI out (Global › MIDI on Notes or Both): the lead on channel 1, the comp on 2, the bass on 3, the answer on 4, the drums on 10 (kick 36, snare 38, rim 37, clap 39, hat 42, open hat 46, shaker 70, perc 45).

The emulator can send the six voices apart, on eight output channels (the mix, then lead, comp, bass, answer, drums, dust), for recording into a DAW. Remote: with the emulator open and MIDI connected, SEL + GLO on the FM-1 makes its panel play the emulator (the FM-1 goes quiet); SEL + GLO again comes back. For livestreams, the emulator's Stream view shows the FM-1 and its screen large on a 16:9 stage, with whatever you press on the real one lit up.

10The screen: themes and the old TV

Global 2's Theme picks the screen's colours: Lamp (dusk purple and lamp light), Matcha (deep green and a pink blossom), Sakura (plum and cherry blossom), Midnight (navy and a streetlight) or Sepia (an old photograph).

Every screen comes out as if on an old TV: a slight curve, scanlines, darker edges, and a soft bright band rolling slowly down the screen. Global 2's CRT turns that off.

And if you leave LOF-1 alone long enough, someone may drop by to listen.

11Troubleshooting

• No sound: turn MASTER up; check PLAY is lit; check the levels on the voices' pages and that no mute is locked in FX (LOCK in the header: SEL + FX clears it).
• The band doesn't follow me: it follows on the beat, a beat or two after you. With REC lit, the chord is held.
• A ghost is playing: that's Daydream. Play a key, or turn it off with SEL + ENV.
• The clock does nothing: Global › MIDI must be Clock or Both. EXT shows while the clock comes.
• No MIDI out: Global › MIDI must be Notes or Both.

Recovering an FM-1 that won't start

If LOF-1 crashes twice while starting, it comes up in safe mode, quiet, with the installer still able to reach it: install again. If the FM-1 won't start at all, hold OCT− and OCT+ together for five seconds for the update mode, then install again, or put the stock firmware back from the installer.

12Credits

LOF-1 is a RedtailWorks project. It's a fork of AMB-1 by Charles Vestal, by way of HYP-1 and ECO-1. The platform (USB, update loader, storage, installer) is Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments. The sampled instruments are from Versilian Studios' CC0 libraries (VCSL, VSCO-2 Community Edition). The reverb is Jon Dattorro's plate. Screen font: Barlow Semi Condensed (SIL OFL). GPL-3.0.

M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners; LOF-1 is not affiliated with M-VAVE.