SLOOP Pro — the SLOOP groovebox on the M-VAVE SMK-37.
Free and open source (GPL-3.0). SLOOP by isod89, based on Felucca by
Leo Kuroshita / Hügelton Instruments; the SMK-37 board layer by genkigenki.
Everyone who made it possible: CREDITS.md.
SLOOP Pro: controls, menu, install · Démarrage rapide (français) · Essais sur le SMK-37 · The SLOOP guide · Building · Releases · Report a bug
SLOOP turns the keyboard into a four-track groovebox you play live: three synths and a drum machine, twelve synthesis engines, 153 sounds, 37 drum kits, your own samples, a song mode you play with your hands, 27 punch-in effects, a piano-roll note editor, parameter locks, micro timing and fills. SLOOP Pro is that firmware on the M-VAVE SMK-37 — with what the bigger keyboard brings:
| 37 velocity keys | the 27 middle keys as SLOOP's, velocity from your unit's factory curves (KEY VELOCITY: dynamic, soft, hard, fixed); the outer 10 play notes, or drums on the drum track |
| 16 RGB pads | the drum kit (default), the selected track's sound (NOTES) or its 16 steps, in the screen's track colours; the sound picker (turn K4); piano, mix and song tiles in the layers; PAD LIGHTS brightness |
| 4 faders, 5 banks | A level, B filter, C reverb, D delay of the four tracks, E the selected synth track's envelope (ADSR) |
| 8 knobs | MASTER, SELECT, track, sound, and the four dials, as on screen (or the SMK layout) |
| Wheels and pedal | pitch bend (BEND UP / DOWN), vibrato, a sustain pedal on the PEDAL jack |
| MIDI | USB MIDI and the TRS MIDI OUT jack (nothing left hanging when it is turned off), a full DAW mode with your own CC map |
| Models | SMK-37 Pro (and Starrykey 37 Play), SMK-37 Elite, MKE-P37: one package each, the installer picks the right one |
Status: SLOOP Pro 2.8.4, a beta built on SLOOP 2.8.4 (fixes: 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; the way back to the official firmware with V16). 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).
- Open the installer: isod89.github.io/sloop-pro in Chrome or Edge,
nothing to build. (Or build it yourself on Windows:
INSTALL-SLOOP-PRO.batbuilds the three packages in WSL and opens the same installer from your computer.) The keyboard must run M-VAVE's V016 first: update an older one with M-VAVE's own updater. - Connect the SMK-37 straight to the computer (a USB data cable), close other MIDI apps, tick the box, press Install SLOOP Pro. The page reads the model and writes its package, then checks the keyboard after the restart.
The command line does the same: python3 tools/fm1_install.py build/release/. Details, the way back to the M-VAVE
firmware and what to do if something goes wrong: SLOOP-PRO.md.
Editor
The SLOOP web editor works with SLOOP Pro: sounds, sequences and the piano roll, the drum kits and samples, songs,
backups, and the SMK-37's DAW MAP tab. OPEN-EDITOR-PRO.bat opens it (after a build), or use the installer
page's link.
For FM-1 owners
This repository still builds SLOOP for the FM-1 (./build.sh, as SLOOP 2.8.4). The FM-1
firmware and its installer live at isod89/sloop-fm1; its README is kept here
as README-SLOOP.md.
Credits
SLOOP Pro stands on the open work of many people; CREDITS.md names each of them and what they did.
- Felucca: Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments, the open FM-1 firmware SLOOP is built on.
- SLOOP: isod89 and contributors (README-SLOOP.md).
- The SMK-37 port: M. Geisler (@genkigenki): fm1-to-smk37, the board layer, the SMK-37 features, the reference SLOOP port and the update library of the web installer.
- @ChanceTheMaker, sloop-smk: the ideas behind the pedal, the pad brightness, the envelope fader bank, the TRS note-off flush, honest save results and the installer's disposable MIDI session.
- The second core: @andrerezemini (sloop-lab), Charles Vestal (X0X), @keremimo (Melodee).
- And: @renebohne, @juanjiant-bit (JIANT FM), @ordenador, 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; SLOOP Pro is not affiliated with them. Licence: GPL-3.0 (LICENSE, LICENSING.md).