Clipper Pro — the Clipper synthesizer on the M-VAVE SMK-37.
Free and open source (GPL-3.0). Clipper by isod89, grown out of SLOOP and based on
Felucca by Leo Kuroshita / Hügelton Instruments; the SMK-37 board layer by
genkigenki. Everyone who made it possible: CREDITS.md.
Install it from the browser · Clipper Pro: controls, install · Démarrage rapide (français) · Essais sur le SMK-37 · Clipper's quick start · Building · Releases · Report a bug
Clipper is a synthesizer: 23 engines and 407 sounds, HYBRID (three oscillators, two filters, a modulation matrix), FMX, FM6, WAVE, VECTOR, JUNO, ACID, MACRO and more, four macros on every sound, effects, an arpeggiator, a step sequencer, microtuning, MPE, USB audio and MIDI. Clipper Pro is that firmware on the M-VAVE SMK-37, with what the bigger keyboard brings, made for playing a synthesizer:
| 37 velocity keys | the 27 middle keys as Clipper's, velocity from your unit's factory curves; the outer 10 play more notes |
| 16 RGB pads | NOTES: the sound on the pads, in its kind's colour (QNT WHITE: the scale); SOUNDS (KNOB BANK): the sounds of a kind on the pads, a tap loads one; the steps and tiles when a layer is held |
| 4 faders, 4 banks | A MACROS (BRITE, TIMBR, MOTN, SPACE; HYBRID's M1..M4), B ENV (ADSR), C TONE (cutoff, resonance, LFO rate, glide), D MIX (chorus, delay, reverb, level) |
| 8 knobs | MASTER, SELECT, ALGORITHM (the kind of sound), PRESETS, and the screen's four dials, as the FM-1's |
| Wheels and pedal | the pitch bend (Clipper's BEND range), the mod wheel (the sound's MW destination, the matrix), a sustain pedal |
| MIDI | USB MIDI, and the TRS MIDI OUT jack: the keys, pads, wheels, pedal, arpeggiator and sequencer go out on both |
| Models | SMK-37 Pro (and Starrykey 37 Play), SMK-37 Elite, MKE-P37: one package each, the installer picks the right one |
Status: Clipper Pro 1.3, a bug-fix release (no more distortion at the end of notes, 3.5 mm and USB; UNISON no longer stacks its voices in phase; PHYS strings in tune; NZ ARCADE, SAMPLE and GRAIN follow the top keys; a firm press on a layer button opens its pages; on REC READY a knob changes only its own value; the faders follow a real volume curve; the sustain pedal held as long as you like; no hanging note on TRS MIDI OUT; the lights no longer freeze after 25 days; the installer no longer freezes Chrome on Windows; VECTOR's filter MODEL changes without a click; SLOOP projects keep Clipper's values; backups keep your wavetables; the way back accepts M-VAVE's V16), built on Clipper 1.3, tested on the SMK-37 as 1.2. Install at your own risk (read the safety notes); your unit's calibration is never written, and M-VAVE's own updater takes you back at any time.
Install
- Back up the keyboard's flash once (see Safety). The keyboard must run M-VAVE's V016: update an older one with M-VAVE's updater (M-UPGRADE) first.
- Open isod89.github.io/clipper-pro in Chrome or Edge (or build it
yourself on Windows:
INSTALL-CLIPPER-PRO.batbuilds the three packages in WSL and opens the same installer). - Plug the SMK-37 straight into the computer (a USB data cable), close other MIDI apps, tick the box, press Install Clipper Pro. The page reads the model and writes its package, then checks the keyboard after the restart.
On Windows, if the page stops while the keyboard restarts into its update mode: close Chrome completely, open the page
again and press Install (it goes on where it stopped), or run INSTALLER-USB-PRO.bat (no browser). The command line
does the same: python tools/fm1_install.py build/release/.
Editor
Clipper's web editor works with Clipper Pro: every parameter live, the HYBRID and FMX patches, the MOD SEQ, the tuning,
DX7 banks, wavetables, the sequencer, backups. Open it from the installer page or with OPEN-EDITOR-PRO.bat.
For FM-1 owners
This repository still builds Clipper for the FM-1 (./build.sh, unchanged from Clipper 1.1: the FM-1 build compiles to
the same code). Clipper for the FM-1 lives at isod89/clipper-fm1; its README is
kept here as README-CLIPPER.md.
Credits
CREDITS.md names each of them and what they did.
- Felucca: Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments, the open FM-1 firmware Clipper is built on.
- SLOOP and Clipper: isod89.
- The SMK-37 port: M. Geisler (@genkigenki): fm1-to-smk37, the board layer and its patch series, the pad picker and the FADER BANK screen, the installer library that works on Windows.
- @ChanceTheMaker, sloop-smk: the ideas behind the pedal, the TRS note-off flush and the installer's disposable MIDI session.
- The second core: @andrerezemini (sloop-lab), Charles Vestal (X0X), @keremimo (Melodee).
- Also: @juanjiant-bit (JIANT FM), AL-255 (FM-1-RE), kagaimiq (JieLi tools), and the Felucca and SLOOP communities.
M-VAVE, SMK-37, MKE-P37, Starrykey and FM-1 are trademarks of their respective owners; Clipper Pro is not affiliated with them. Licence: GPL-3.0 (LICENSE, LICENSING.md).