Screens

Quasar on FM-1's screen, as firmware draws it. Made for reading at a glance: few words, very large type, high contrast, colour for each track.

Track view: P1, track 1, HAMMER profile, its 4 macros, level meter and pan

Track view

Track's number on bar in its colour, with its engine profile (here HAMMER) and, below, sound's family. 4 macros main knobs turn, as bars; level, segmented; pan. Top left, pattern playing; top right, octave.

PRESETS changes profile; HOME draws new sound; white keys play track.

HAMMER circuit page: AMT, PITCH, FOLD, RUMBLE

Circuit page

EDIT shows sound's 6 pages: circuit's own knobs, named for its mode (here HAMMER: AMT, PITCH, FOLD, RUMBLE), then ENV, WRECK, MACRO and 2 ROUTE pages. 1/6: page 1 of 6. KNOB 1–4 set rows shown; PRESETS turns to other 4.

WRECK page: FOLD, RING, RING FRQ, CRUSH

WRECK

After every voice: wavefolder, ring modulator with its own frequency, sample-rate reduction and (on other half) bit reduction. All at 0, it is bypassed.

ROUTE page: SRC, DST EXT, DEPTH, MACRO

Route

Pulsar's cables, inside sound: source (SHAOS, LFO, divider, noise, FX output, any track's output or envelope), destination in circuit, depth, and macro that scales it. 4 per sound.

PHRASE page: DENSITY 50, COMPLEXITY 50

Phrase generator

In step view, 1st black key draws new phrase on track; held, this page sets how dense and how complex it comes out. Complex phrases bring polymeters, other clocks, Euclidean layers and ratchets.

TRANSFORM page: TRACKS ALL, STACK 2, DEPTH 60, MIX 100

TRANSFORM

SHIFT and 6th black key held: random stack of effects over some tracks. Its page, key held alone: TRACKS, STACK, DEPTH and MIX. Each row has RND first, which draws new value at every press.

FX page: MODE BPF, FX TO DLY, TIME, TUNE

FX processor

SEQ turns through panel's pages: SHAOS, LFO, FX, MIX, then chosen track's DUCK and AUTO 1–3. FX is Pulsar's processor: BPF, DBL or PCH, delay or hall, TIME, TUNE, FB, clock that slows it, MAD!.

PATTERNS grid with REPEAT 2 in its title: break playing

BREAK

3rd black key held breaks pattern; way it plays shows in title (here REPEAT 2). On PATTERNS grid, white key held saves break as pattern.

Track view with PERF in red on status line

PERFORMANCE

7th black key: PERF in red while it is on. Change anything; press it again and all of it goes back. Main knobs move that macro on every track with notes.

SESSIONS grid: 16 slots, slot 6 chosen

Sessions

SHIFT + SAVE: sessions, laid out as patterns are. White key loads its session at once; held, it saves session playing there.

Session's page: COPY, DELETE, TEMPO 99, MUTE QT NO, CTRL KNOBS

Session's page

SAVE on slot: LOAD, SAVE, COPY, DELETE, session's TEMPO and MUTE QT, and CTRL — what PERFORMANCE moves on every track: macros alone (KNOBS) or everything (ALL).