CoralFlower

CoralFlower 0.6: 23 rhythms and six new kits

In this update the FM-1 gets 23 ready-made drum rhythms that play under your chords, six new drum kits, and a channel setting for MIDI keyboards.

What's new

• A rhythm machine. 23 ready-made rhythms, from Pop and HipHop to Jungle, Amapiano and Breakcore. Press HOME, then SEQ, turn SELECT to the Rhythm machine card and press SEQ. Turn SELECT to pick a rhythm and press PLAY. Press HOME, and the rhythm plays on while your keys play chords. PLAY on HOME stops it, and PLAY again starts it. On the rhythm machine page, turn SELECT while a rhythm plays, and the next one comes in at the bar line.
• One list for all time signatures. Twenty rhythms are in 4/4, then come Tamborzao in 2/4 and two MathRock rhythms, one in 5/4 and one in 7/4. Pick one, and the METRONOME's TIME SIG follows it. Under each name you see the usual tempo of its style, such as "~110 BPM"; your TEMPO stays as you set it.
• Each rhythm keeps your KIT and SWING. Change KIT or SWING on the rhythm machine page, and that rhythm keeps them after you switch off. A dot next to its name means you changed them. SEL brings back the rhythm's own.
• A rhythm becomes a pattern. On the rhythm machine, EDIT puts the rhythm into the first empty pattern, A to H, and opens its drums, so you can change any hit. REC records your chords over the rhythm into the first empty pattern; while the rhythm plays, the take starts at once. If all eight patterns are used, the screen asks you to clear one in the SEQUENCER. To put a rhythm into a pattern you already have, open that pattern's drums, hold EDIT, turn PRESETS and let go: the rhythm replaces the drums. Hold REC for a second to undo it.
• Six new drum kits. X Lo-Fi, X Club, X Deep, X Live, X Tech and X Break play on a new drum engine of CoralFlower's own. Five of them play each hit a little differently, the way a live drummer does; X Tech plays every hit the same, like a drum machine. They come first in every kit list, and an empty pattern's drums start on X Lo-Fi. The old kits and the patterns you recorded sound as before.
• Pick your MIDI keyboard's channel. GLO > MIDI > IN CH sets the channel the FM-1 takes keyboard notes from in the NOTES IN modes "FM-1 keys" and "Roots": All (the default) or 1 to 16. If another device also sends notes into the FM-1, set IN CH to your keyboard's channel, and only your keyboard plays the chords.
• BASS Off mutes the chords' bass in every pattern. With BASS Off, the bass the FM-1 plays under a pattern's chords stops at once. A Bass row you recorded yourself plays on, and the BASS page shows how to mute it.
• Icons for the sequencer and the rhythm machine. SEQUENCER and the song page show notes, the rhythm machine shows a drum. The tag at the top right of HOME shows the same picture next to SEQ, SONG or the rhythm's name. On the METRONOME, the Sequencer and Rhythm machine cards show which page SEQ opens next.
• Shorter help. On the SEQUENCER and the rhythm machine, GLO's help is shorter: the lines for what the screen already shows are gone.

Fixed

• After a long jam with no stop, a setting you changed could go back to its old value when you switched off. Now the FM-1 saves about 200 changes in a row while the music plays.
• REC during the count-in calls the take off and takes you back to where you pressed REC.
• When you move a chord with the frame on the thin line after its flower (hold EDIT, turn SELECT), it moves one step, and the next chord stays in place.
• A note held on a MIDI keyboard no longer sticks when you change NOTES IN.
• The source code builds from a fresh copy (GitHub #4).

Install

Open https://ficusficusov.github.io/CoralFlower/ in Chrome or Edge on a computer. Connect the FM-1 with a USB cable that carries data, without a hub, and press "Install on your FM-1". If the FM-1 runs CoralFlower, ChoralRoot or Felucca, the installer saves your sounds to a file first; since 0.3.1 that file also holds your patterns. Updating from 0.3.1 or later keeps your settings, sounds and patterns. Installing firmware is at your own risk.

You can try 0.6 in the browser first: https://ficusficusov.github.io/CoralFlower/play/

Feedback

Tell me what works, what doesn't and what you'd like next. Open a GitHub issue or email iambemoli@gmail.com. News goes to the Telegram channel https://t.me/ficusficusov.

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CoralFlower 0.6 for the M-VAVE FM-1 (package identity FM-1_930).

Install it from your browser at https://ficusficusov.github.io/CoralFlower/ (Chrome or Edge on a computer, with the FM-1 connected by USB). You can also try CoralFlower in the browser first, with no install: https://ficusficusov.github.io/CoralFlower/play/

SHA256SUMS lists the package and the app. The package holds three JieLi AC79 SDK files (Apache-2.0); LICENSE, LICENSING.md and LICENSES.zip carry every licence. Installing firmware is at your own risk; the official M-VAVE firmware can always be reinstalled.