MIN-1

a minimalist ensemble for the FM-1, in the browser: the same code the FM-1 runs

Turn your phone sideways for bigger controls.

Off. It starts playing when you switch it on. Output

Playing

Keys play the chord. In EASY keys, the default, each white key is a chord of the key, the tonic leftmost; a black key is the chord of the white key on its left with a seventh; several keys make a richer chord. The keys light where the cycle is, so you can play along.
Let go and the cycle comes back at its next chord. With Hold on (Setup) a chord stays until you play the same keys again. In NOTES keys (Setup) the notes you hold are the chord.
PLAY plays and stops. EDIT rolls an idea for the page you are on: a new cycle, figure, line, bass or rhythm. SEL + EDIT goes back; ideas are kept with the piece.
ALGORITHM the chord cycle (eighteen, then Mine and Rolled). PRESETS the piece; in SONGS, the song.
OCT− / OCT+ move the upper part an octave. SAVE saves; hold it to put the piece back to its recipe.
Hold a button for a second and a card says what it does.

By hand: SEL held

Hold SEL (Tab, or Shift-click it) and the screen shows its map.

ENV ARP LFO SEQ FX bring their part in or out at the next chord; the arrangement is then yours (Build goes to 0).
White keys 1–8: grow, shrink, shift, flip, still, slower, faster, a new section. On the Upper or Lower page they work on that part, elsewhere on both.
REC learns a cycle: play two to eight chords one at a time, then REC; they become the cycle Mine. EDIT goes back to the idea before. PLAY switches between SONGS and LIVE.

Songs

REC records a song from the top, everything you do, until REC again; then it is kept and MIN-1 switches to SONGS.
In SONGS, PLAY plays the song back exactly, PRESETS picks one of eight, and holding SAVE deletes it. SEL + PLAY goes back to LIVE.
Record audio, under the FM-1, keeps what you hear: start it, play the song, stop it, and save a 16-bit stereo WAV to share.

The screen

At the top: the piece (in SONGS, the song), the key and the cycle, the tempo and the beat; a coral dot and the time while a song records.
The cycle's chords, the one playing filled. ROUND 2 OF 4 is the time round in this section; YOURS, in coral, when the keys have the chord.
A lane a part, in its colour, lit while it plays: the figures as dots (+ or − while the additive process grows or shrinks one), in Patterns each player's pattern, in Phase how far ahead the lower is.
At the bottom: the page's four knobs.

Mouse and touch

Drag a knob up or down, or use the scroll wheel over it.
Click or touch buttons and keys. On a touch screen several fingers work at once, so you can play chords and hold SEL.
With a mouse, Shift-click (or right-click) keys to hold a chord; click one of them to let it go. Shift-click a button to hold it down (SEL for its map, HOME for the tempo); click it again to let go.

Keyboard

White keys 1–8: Q–I, 9–16: A–K. Black keys 1–11: 1–0, -. Hold several at once for a chord.
Tab SEL, held: with Q–I the processes, with Enter learn a cycle. Shift+Tab still moves the focus.
Space PLAY, Enter REC, N EDIT, Esc HOME, Z / X OCT− / OCT+.
↑ ↓ turn SELECT (with Esc held, the tempo). ← → turn PRESETS.

The pieces

Twenty, on PRESETS, in four models. Each remembers how you left it, and the model is a knob too (System), so any piece can be played another way.

Arpeggio

Figures of the chord's tones, two against three; the additive process grows and shrinks them a note at a time.

Morning · Glacier · Lagoon · Machine · Skyline · Evening · Counting · Prism

Phase

Two parts play one figure; the lower slowly drifts ahead, locks in a step ahead, drifts on, and comes round to unison.

Drift · Breath · Weave · Tilt

Patterns

A chain of short patterns, each a little changed from the last; three players move along it at their own pace over a high pulse.

Bazaar · Field · Gears · Murmur

Bells

A melody walks the scale by step in phrases that grow from one note; a bell answers each note with the chord's nearest tone.

Vigil · Snowfall · Lantern · Chapel

Pages and knobs

One page a part, each on its own button: KNOB 1 is the part's level, KNOB 2 its sound. SELECT steps through the pages; GLO pressed again opens System. Some knobs take another name in some models (in brackets).

Form HOME

Evolve (Patterns: Move on): How restless it is: short sections, figures and chords that change. In Phase, how soon the parts unlock and drift on; in Patterns, how soon each player moves on.
Build: The slow arc between sparse and full: at each new section a part comes in or leaves. At 0 every part plays, or the ones you bring in by hand.
Process (Phase: Drift, Patterns: Spread, Bells: Phrases): How often a figure takes up the additive process. In Phase, how fast the lower drifts; in Patterns, how far apart the players may get; in Bells, how long the phrases grow.
Chord: How long each chord of the cycle lasts: 2 beats, 1 bar, 2 bars or 4 bars. Tempo is HOME + SELECT, from any page.

Upper ENV

Level, Sound: How loud; piano, organ, flute, strings or marimba.
Pulse, Figure (Patterns: Start, Bells: Bells): 2, 3, 4 or 6 notes a beat; the figure the chord is played in. In Patterns, the pattern it starts from; in Bells, where the bells answer: Above, Below, Both or Above 2. OCT− and OCT+ move it an octave.

Lower ARP

Level, Sound: How loud; piano, organ, strings or marimba.
Pulse, Figure (Patterns: Start): As the upper's. Against the upper's pulse they make the cross-rhythms: 3 against 2, 4 against 3. In Phase this is the part that drifts.

Bass LFO

Level, Sound: How loud; synth bass, organ, strings or piano.
Style, Octave: Long notes, a pulse, octaves, or root and fifth; an octave down or up.

Lead SEQ

Level, Sound: How loud; soprano sax, flute, horn, strings or piano.
Activity (Patterns, Bells: Pace), Harmony: How busy the line is (in Patterns and Bells, how quick its notes are); alone, a pair (a second voice below it) or in octaves.

Chords FX

Level, Sound: How loud; strings, organ or horn.
Rhythm, Room: Held, a swell on each chord, 8ths, beats, a breath, or a single high pulse; the plate reverb, how much and how long.

Setup and System GLO, GLO again

Tempo, Root, Keys, Hold: 40 to 200 beats a minute; the key's root, which moves everything; EASY or NOTES keys; Hold on or off.
Model, MIDI out, Lights, CPU: The model the piece plays in; on the FM-1, a channel a part and the clock over USB; the key lights (Off, On, or Keys: without the buttons' glow); how hard the processor works.

Saving

SAVE keeps the pieces and the songs in this browser, as the FM-1 keeps them in its memory; MIN-1 also saves by itself a few seconds after a change while it is stopped. Factory reset forgets them. It is the firmware, not a recording: what you hear is MIN-1 running at the FM-1's 44.1 kHz. The emulator comes from Charles Vestal's AMB-1, and the idea of running FM-1 firmware in the browser from Groove OS.