SLOOP DX7 Banks

DX7 voices play as the patch is, as upstream SLOOP plays a DX7 cartridge voice (its editor's cartridge presets: every value at its default, 'the patch plays as it is') and as M-VAVE's firmware plays its own: dry, no level trim. Build 26's per-voice level matching is removed: upstream's method judges a sound by its name (PIANO: short chords, PAD: held chords), which fits its own labelled sounds but not a cart — PIANO 6 swells like a pad, got +11.5 dB and played 10 dB over SYN PAD 5 on single notes. Kept: the names in banks 5–12 (25), KEY VELOCITY (default 100) and dry picks (27).

Safe over builds 19–27: nothing is erased, no bank needs reloading. Going to plain upstream and back can erase banks 1–8 — save a backup in the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

DX7 voices played as M-VAVE's own firmware plays them: a voice picked from PRESETS is dry (it carried FM6's first sound's chorus 45, delay 25, reverb 35), and KEY VELOCITY (HOME menu → SYSTEM, KNOB 3; 60–127, default 100) sets how hard the keys play — at 127 the DX7 voices sound as bright as they were made to (PIANO 2: brightness 2290 → 3365 Hz); SLOOP's own sounds get about 1 dB louder (3.7 at most). The level table is measured again dry: within 0.5 dB. Fixed: build 26 worked out an unknown voice's level in the audio interrupt when a song section changed; now the main loop does.

Safe over builds 19–26: nothing is erased, no bank needs reloading. Going to plain upstream and back can erase banks 1–8 — save a backup in the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

Every DX7 voice plays as loud as SLOOP's own sounds. SLOOP levels its 153 sounds by measuring each on a computer (tools/level_presets.py); a DX7 voice used to take FM6's first sound's trim and play as loud as its patch happened to be — the FM-1's factory voices up to 18 dB apart. Now the FM-1's 128 factory voices and the deckard vocal voices are measured the same way (tools/level_dx.py, the same phrases, loudness and target) and listed in the firmware by the sound of each: within 1 dB, 0.23 dB rms. Any other voice gets an estimate from its envelopes, about 3 dB rms. Very quiet voices stop at the +11.5 dB ceiling SLOOP's own quietest sounds share (19 factory ones, mostly percussion, 1–8 dB short). The trim follows the voice: a pick, PTCH, a project, a user preset.

Also in 25: every DX7 voice in banks 5–12 shows its own name.

Safe over builds 19–25: nothing is erased, no bank needs reloading. Going to plain upstream and back can erase banks 1–8 — save a backup in the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

Every DX7 voice in banks 5–12 shows its own name. From build 16 on, the PRESETS list and TRACKS named a voice in banks 5–12 after the voice 128 or 256 slots below it, in banks 1–4 (a choir listed as GUITAR), while it played its own sound. Nothing else changed from test build 24: SLOOP 2.5 under the twelve DX7 banks, the jump by kind and FX → KEEP.

Safe over builds 19–24: nothing is erased. Going to plain upstream and back can erase banks 1–8 — save a backup in the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

SLOOP 2.5 under the fork's additions. Everything of upstream 2.5 — the PHYS and NOISE engines, 153 sounds, the drum synth with your own SYN1–SYN4 kits, the drums' delay send (GLO → DRUMS → DLY), USB audio at 48 kHz, the MIDI CC map, the editor's piano roll, MIDI files and Song page, swing shown 0–100, SEL as printed on the button — plus the twelve DX7 banks by name, the jump by kind and FX → KEEP, as on build 23.

• FX → KEEP → RESET also sets the drums' new delay send back.
• The DX7 banks are backup objects 100–111 now: 2.5 uses 9 for its drum kits. Backups made on builds 14–23 restore here, and the editor still restores into those builds.
• A .syx bank file may hold fewer than 32 voices: a slot of zeros, or the INIT VOICE that Export writes for an empty slot, loads as an empty slot.

Safe over builds 19–23: nothing is erased, the twelve banks stay. Going to plain upstream and back can erase banks 1–8 — save a backup in the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

As test build 22, with the fork's effect controls on one page of their own, FX → KEEP (right after FILTER, which is upstream's page again): PHONE, TAPE and HALF as plain ON/OFF switches, one at a time as the punch engine runs them, the same on every track; and RESET on KNOB 4 — one click arms, a second within a second and a half puts every effect back to its default (the selected track's sends to what its sound came with, its slicer off, its filter centred, and everything shared: the delay and reverb settings, the master, the drums' reverb, the kept punch-in). Safe over builds 18–22: nothing is erased. Not a SLOOP release.

As test build 21, with RESET reworked: FX → FILTER KNOB 3, one click, puts the SELECTED track's effects back to what its sound came with (the sends its preset says, slicer off, filter centred; the drum track's reverb too). Nothing else is touched — the other tracks, the master section and KEEP stay. Build 21's version zeroed every effect on every track behind a two-detent arm. Safe over builds 18–21: nothing is erased. Not a SLOOP release.

SUPERSEDED by test build 22 (v2.4-b22-test): its DRY zeroed every effect on every track; build 22's RESET restores the selected track's own.

Install THIS over build 18, not build 19: a device that loaded its twelve banks on 18 keeps every one of them (18's own record is honoured); from 16 or 17, banks 1–4 refill themselves and the rest come up empty. The editor's DX7 card can now delete a voice, move one to another bank, tidy a bank and name banks (names live in the editor and in a backup file). Otherwise as test build 19. Not a SLOOP release.

SUPERSEDED by test build 20 (v2.4-fork6-test). Do NOT install this over a build 18 that has banks loaded: its first start erases banks 1–8. Build 20 keeps them.

SLOOP 2.4.1 plus the owner's additions: twelve banks of 32 DX7 voices by name in PRESETS (D1–D384; banks 1–4 filled with the FM-1's factory voices by the editor itself, 5–12 for your own .syx, several at once), newly claimed banks erased once at first start, hold HOME + PRESETS / KIND to jump by bank, FX → FILTER KEEP. USR4 is 32 KiB on this build. Not a SLOOP release.

Same as test build 16 (eight DX7 voice banks by name, the jump by kind, KEEP), plus: a bank newly claimed from USR4 is erased once at the first start of the build that claims it, so voices an earlier firmware left in that flash no longer appear as a full bank. Install it before loading anything into banks 5–8. Not a SLOOP release.

SLOOP 2.4.1 plus the owner's additions: eight banks of 32 DX7 voices listed by name in PRESETS (D1–D256; banks 1–4 are filled with the FM-1's factory voices by the editor itself, 5–8 take your own .syx), hold HOME + PRESETS / KIND to jump by kind, and FX → FILTER KEEP. Install from the fork's installer page; back up with the editor first. Not a SLOOP release.

SLOOP 2.4.1 plus: four banks of DX7 voices on the FM-1 (loaded as .syx from the editor's Library page, listed by name in PRESETS, PTCH D1–D128, carried by a backup); hold HOME + PRESETS to jump by kind and a KIND knob on the PRESETS page; FX → FILTER, KNOB 2 KEEP leaves PHONE, WOBBLE or HALF on, shown in the header. Branch majid, commit f78c797. The FM-1 shows 2.4-FORK1 BETA under ABOUT. Not a SLOOP release. Coming from a 2.3-DX7 test build: back up with the editor first; 2.4 uses the old DX7 banks' flash, so re-load the .syx files into the new banks afterwards. USR4 holds 64 KiB on this build.

SLOOP 2.4.1 plus one addition: hold HOME and turn PRESETS to jump a kind at a time, and a KIND knob on the PRESETS page (branch kind-jump, commit 48cb1bb). The FM-1 shows 2.4-KIND1 BETA under HOME menu → ABOUT. Not a SLOOP release. Coming from a 2.3-DX7 test build: back up with the editor first; 2.4 stores its FM6 bank and the USR4 sample slot where the DX7 banks were, so those banks are gone after this install — re-import the .syx files through the editor's Import SysEx.

Test build of SLOOP 2.3 with a DX7 engine, plus a LATCH option for the punch-in effects (build 12). Not a SLOOP release: it is the test-build branch of this fork — the dx7 branch (upstream PR #27) and the punch-latch branch (PR #28) merged. The FM-1 reports it as 2.3-DX7 BETA, package identity FM-1_923. SLOOP keeps your projects, user presets, samples and settings across the update, as always; back up with the editor first anyway.

Which build is on the installer page? The banner at the top of the page says TEST BUILD n, its date and the commit; HOME menu → ABOUT on the FM-1 shows the same date after an install. This note is kept for the newest build only.

Install from the browser

Chrome or Edge, a USB data cable, no hub: https://majnikool.github.io/sloop-fm1/webapp/installer/ — press INSTALL, exactly as with SLOOP's own page. The package sloop-2.3-dx7.fwsc attached below is the same file, for the Python installer (python tools/fm1_install.py sloop-2.3-dx7.fwsc).

The DX7 engine and four banks of 32 voices in flash, empty until you load them (below). No voice data is in the firmware: the collections such voices come from are not SLOOP's to redistribute.

Load voices from the editor

The 128 factory voices as four standard DX7 bank files are published by KingParamount — direct downloads: bank 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 (4104 bytes each; header and Yamaha checksum verified). Any other DX7 .syx works the same way: a 32-voice bank of 4104 bytes, or a single voice of 163 bytes.

1. Open the editor from the install page (Editor) and press Connect.
2. Library tab → the DX7 voices group on the right: bank 1 to 4 and their 32 slots.
3. Choose Bank 1, press Load .syx, pick FM-1_factory_bank1.syx. The 32 names appear. Repeat with banks 2 to 4 and the other three files.
4. On the FM-1, select a synth track and turn PRESETS: after the 68 SLOOP sounds come the loaded DX7 voices by name, each tagged with its bank (DX1 to DX4), then your user presets. Stop on one and the track plays it with the DX7 engine. To move faster: hold HOME and turn PRESETS — each click jumps to the next kind (basses, keys, … FX, each DX7 bank, the user presets; the kind flashes in the header, no menu opens). The PRESETS page (SAVE from any page but TRACKS) has the same jump on KNOB 3. On the EDIT page PATCH, knob 1 (PTCH) steps through the 128 slots directly.
5. In the editor, double-click a voice to set it on the selected track when that track runs the DX7 engine (Play on this track does the same). Export .syx writes a bank out for Dexed; Erase bank clears it.

Or send voices straight from Dexed (as on a DX7 or the stock FM-1)

Connect the FM-1 by USB, select a track that runs the DX7 engine, and send from Dexed (or any SysEx tool) to the FM-1's MIDI port:

• One voice (Dexed: Send current program): written into the track's current slot and heard at once. No question is asked, as on the stock firmware — pick a slot you can afford to lose first.
• A 32-voice bank (Dexed: Send bank): the screen asks DX7 BANK n? SAVE=YES for the bank the track's voice is in. Press SAVE to replace it; any other button, or 15 seconds, drops it.

The knobs

ENV (ATK DEC SUS REL), LFO, FX, ARP, SCL and the sequencer work on a DX7 track as on any other engine. HOME is SLOOP's TRACKS screen, as always; the voice knobs are on the EDIT pages. The ENV page is a VCA in front of the voice: the voice's own envelopes are inside the operators, so the DX7 preset leaves ATK 0 / SUS 127 and a long REL.

The punch-in effects can stay on (PR #28)

Hold HOME → menu → PUNCH: HOLD is SLOOP as before (the effect while its key is held); LATCH makes FX + a key switch the effect on and leave it on with both hands free — the same key again, or STOP, switches it off, another key changes it. The FX layer's subtitle reads key: on/off in LATCH. The sends (tap FX) and the master DUST / DUCK / FILT are unchanged; they always stayed on.

What to check, in order

1. Play chords on a DX7 track, then on two DX7 tracks at once: the eight voices are shared like for every engine.
2. Save a project with a DX7 track, power the FM-1 off and on: it comes back on the same voice.
3. Make a backup from the editor: the file now holds the four DX7 banks (objects 8–11); Erase bank, then restore the backup, and the bank is back.
4. Hold HOME → turn PRESETS down to the PUNCH line (the 8th) → KNOB 1 right: LATCH; OCT− leaves the menu. hold FX, press a white key, let both go: the effect stays. Same key: off. PLAY twice (start, stop): a latched effect ends on STOP.
5. Install SLOOP 2.3 again from its own page. The project opens with the DX7 track on ANALOG and nothing else lost. Install this build again: the DX7 banks are still there (the installer never touches the stored data).

Test state

Nine commits on the branch, the last one the fixes of a line-by-line review (two integer overflows in the engine, the confirm press, restore onto 2.3); the engine's scaling constants were checked line by line against the msfa source (Dexed's core). The repository's whole host test suite passes on this branch: storage, recovery, sequencer, drums, UI pages, soak, presets, MIDI, USB audio, update loader, projects, slicer, the new DX7 test, the 98 golden renders unchanged plus one new, the installer and the web editor. One pre-existing line is red with the current toolchain on the untouched 2.3 tree as well: the audio ISR's static cost budget. It is not from this change. Not yet done: the test on a real FM-1, which is what this build is for.