yarns-loom

Introduction

This manual explains how Loom differs from a stock Yarns. For documentation about Yarns’ native capabilities (which Loom largely retains), check the manufacturer’s manual!

Table of contents

• Panel controls and display
  • Global control and display of the active part
  • Tap tempo changes
  • Other changes
• Synth voice
  • Oscillator controls
  • Oscillator synthesis models
  • Amplitude dynamics: envelope and tremolo
• Sequencer
  • General recording controls
  • Play mode
  • Step sequencer
    • Swing
    • Slide
    • Improved step selection
    • Other changes
  • Loop sequencer mode with real-time recording
  • Arpeggiator
    • Interaction between ARP DIRECTION and NOTE PRIORITY
    • Sequencer-driven arpeggiator
      • Using ARP PATTERN to enable the sequencer-driven arpeggiator
      • How it works
    • Programmable ARP DIRECTIONS
      • General concepts
      • JUMP direction
      • GRID direction
• MIDI
  • Layouts
  • Event routing, filtering, and transformation
  • MIDI Control Change messages
    • Control change mode
    • Added CCs
    • Macro CCs that control combinations of settings
    • Other CC improvements
  • Clocking
    • Clock ratios
    • Clock offset
    • Predictable phase relationships between clocked events
    • Improved interaction between keyboard and clock start/stop
  • Song position
    • What the song position controls
    • Using the song position
  • Hold pedal
    • Display of pressed/sustained keys
    • Hold pedal mode per part
    • Pedal polarity
  • Polyphonic voice allocation (NOTE PRIORITY and VOICING)
    • Note priority
    • Polyphonic VOICING options
    • Other changes
  • Legato and portamento
  • LFOs
    • Frequency
    • Vibrato LFO
    • Spread: detune or dephase a part’s LFOs

Panel controls and display

Global control and display of the active part

• Display periodically flashes the active part and its PLAY MODE
• Hold Tap/Rest to switch the active part (the new active part will flash briefly on the screen)
• The active part is used for:
  • Selecting the recording part when pressing REC
  • Front-panel latching (hold REC)
  • Editing part-specific settings

Tap tempo changes

• If a single tap is received without follow-up, the tempo is set to use external clocking
• After setting a tempo, the result flashes on the screen

Other changes

• Moved configuration-type settings into a submenu, accessed by opening ▽S (SETUP MENU)
• Print flat notes as lowercase character (instead of denoting flatness with b) so that octave can always be displayed
• Improved clock-sync of display fade for the TE(MPO) setting
• Splash on save/load

Synth voice

Oscillator controls

• Configured via the ▽O (OSCILLATOR MENU)
• OM (OSCILLATOR MODE) switches the oscillator between OFF, DRONE, and ENVELOPED
• OS (OSCILLATOR SHAPE) sets the waveform (see below)
• Each wave shape has a timbral parameter that can be modulated by several sources
  • TI (TIMBRE INITIAL) sets initial timbre
  • TL (TIMBRE LFO MOD): attenuator for the bipolar LFO’s modulation of timbre
  • LS (TIMBRE LFO SHAPE) sets the shape of the timbre LFO (triangle, down saw, up saw, square)
  • TE (TIMBRE ENV MOD): attenuverter for the envelope’s modulation of timbre
  • TV (TIMBRE VEL MOD) attenuverter for velocity’s modulation of the timbre envelope (velocity can polarize the timbre envelope)

Oscillator synthesis models

• Filtered noise: TIMBRE sets filter cutoff, voice pitch sets filter resonance
  • Low-pass, notch, band-pass, high-pass
• Phase distortion, resonant pulse: TIMBRE sets filter cutoff
  • Low-pass, peaking, band-pass, high-pass
• Phase distortion, resonant saw: TIMBRE sets filter cutoff
  • Low-pass, peaking, band-pass, high-pass
• State-variable filter, low-pass: TIMBRE sets filter cutoff (resonance is fixed)
  • Pulse, saw
• Pulse-width modulation: TIMBRE sets pulse width
  • Pulse, saw
• Saw-pulse morph: TIMBRE morphs toward pulse
• Hard sync: TIMBRE sets detuning of the secondary oscillator
  • Sine, pulse, saw
• Wavefolder: TIMBRE sets fold gain
  • Sine, triangle
• Dirac comb: TIMBRE sets harmonic content
• Compressed sine (tanh): TIMBRE sets compression amount
• Exponential sine: TIMBRE sets exponentiation amount
• Frequency modulation: TIMBRE sets modulation index
  • 11 integer ratios (ordered from harmonic to inharmonic)
  • 8 ratios based on the inverse Minkowski question-mark function
  • 7 ratios that are integer divisions/multiples of pi

Amplitude dynamics: envelope and tremolo

• Configured via the ▽A (AMPLITUDE MENU)
• Tremolo can be applied to envelope and oscillator
  • Tremolo uses the same LFO frequency as vibrato
  • TR (TREMOLO DEPTH): attenuator for the unipolar tremolo LFO’s reduction of gain
  • TS (TREMOLO SHAPE): the shape of the tremolo LFO (triangle, down saw, up saw, square)
• ADSR envelope with velocity modulation
  • Envelope controls voice amplitude when the OSCILLATOR MODE is ENVELOPED
  • Envelope is available as an aux CV output (ENVELOPE) in all layouts
  • ATTACK INIT, DECAY INIT, SUSTAIN INIT, RELEASE INIT: initial settings for ADSR segments
    • Segment times range from 1 ms (2 ticks) to 5 seconds
  • ATTACK MOD VEL, DECAY MOD VEL, SUSTAIN MOD VEL, RELEASE MOD VEL: attenuverter for velocity’s modulation of the segment
  • The envelope’s segments and their sensitivity to velocity are set by ATTACK TIME INIT, ATTACK TIME MOD, etc.
  • Peak attack amplitude can be velocity-scaled via PV (PEAK VEL MOD)
    • Positive values: peak attack amplitude is lower when velocity is lower
    • Negative values: peak attack amplitude is lower when velocity is higher
    • Zero: peak attack amplitude is always maximum

Sequencer

General recording controls

• Hold REC to clear sequence
• Hold TAP to toggle triggered-erase mode, which will clear the sequence as soon as a new note is recorded
• First REC press switches the display to show the pitch (or RS/TI) instead of the step number (press again to exit recording)

Play mode

• Setting PM (PLAY MODE) sets how each part generates MIDI and CV/gate output
• MANUAL: Output is generated by the MIDI controller only
• SEQUENCER: Output is generated by the sequencer
  • Sequencer output can be augmented by the MIDI controller depending on the SEQUENCER INPUT RESPONSE setting
• ARPEGGIATOR: Output is generated by the arpeggiator
  • The arpeggiator may be be driven by either a static arp pattern or the sequencer, depending on the ARP PATTERN setting

Step sequencer

Swing

• SWING works with all clock ratios, not just ratio 4:1 (f.k.a. sixteenth notes in stock firmware)
• Swing can be applied to either even or odd steps
  • When SWING is counter-clockwise, odd steps (1, 3, 5…) are swung by the selected amount
  • When SWING is clockwise, even steps (2, 4, 6…) are swung (stock Yarns behavior)

Slide

• While in recording mode, hold START to toggle slide on the selected step
• If the selected step has slide, the display will show a fade effect
• When a REST or TIE is recorded, slide is removed from that step. If a real note is later overdubbed into this step, slide must be re-added manually

Improved step selection

• Display brightens while the selected step is being played
• When using encoder to scroll through steps, wraps around if the end is reached

Other changes

• Replaced the EUCLIDEAN ROTATE setting with a more general STEP OFFSET – allows starting the step sequencer on any step
• Euclidean rhythms can be applied to the step sequencer as well as the arpeggiator
• Capacity reduced from 64 to 30 notes, to free up space in the preset storage

Loop sequencer mode with real-time recording

• To enable, ensure SM (SEQ MODE) is set to LOOP
• To use, press REC to enter real-time recording mode
  • Play notes to record them into the loop
  • Press START to delete the oldest note, or TAP for the newest
  • Display brightness shows the progression of the loop, or the note being played
  • Channel LEDs show the quarter-phase of the loop
  • Scroll the encoder to shift the loop phase by 1/128: clockwise shifts notes earlier, counter-clockwise shifts notes later
• Loop length is set by the L- (LOOP LENGTH) in quarter notes, combined with the part’s clock settings
• Note start/end times are recorded at 13-bit resolution (1/8192 of the loop length)
• Holds 30 notes max – past this limit, overwrites oldest note

Arpeggiator

Interaction between ARP DIRECTION and NOTE PRIORITY

• NOTE PRIORITY sets the basic ordering/sorting of the arp chord (the keys held on the keyboard)
• ARP DIRECTION sets the algorithm used to traverse the ordered arp chord
• By combining these, traditional arp behaviors can be achieved:
  • With NOTE PRIORITY = LOW: set ARP DIRECTION to LINEAR for “up,” or BOUNCE for “up-down”
  • With NOTE PRIORITY = FIRST: set ARP DIRECTION to LINEAR for “played order”

Sequencer-driven arpeggiator

Using ARP PATTERN to enable the sequencer-driven arpeggiator

• Clockwise = pattern-based arpeggiator rhythms (stock Yarns)
• Counter-clockwise = sequencer-driven arpeggiator
  • S1-S8 will reset the arpeggiator state after every 1-8 plays of the entire sequence (step or loop)
    • Reset helps generate more predictable arp patterns
  • S0 never resets the arpeggiator state

How it works

• Like the normal arpeggiator, the arp chord is controlled by holding keys on the keyboard
• Unlike the normal arpeggiator, the sequencer-driven arpeggiator advances when the loop/step sequencer encounters a new note, instead of advancing on every clock pulse
• A sequence (either loop or step) must exist to produce arpeggiator output
• The arpeggiator respects rests/ties in a step sequence
• The velocity of the arpeggiator output is calculated by multiplying the velocities of the sequencer note and the held key

Programmable ARP DIRECTIONS

General concepts

• The arpeggiator always has some active position, e.g. “the 3rd key of the chord”
• Changes in the active position (“movement”) are determined by the pitch of notes emitted by the sequencer
  • If ARP PATTERN is not sequencer-driven, the sequencer pitch data is replaced by the position in the 16-step pattern rhythm
• Sequencer pitch is interpreted based on its:
  • Key color (is the key black or white?)
  • Displayed octave number (with C as the first note of the octave)
  • Pitch ordinal within octave and color, e.g.
    • When the sequencer pitch is the 2nd white note of octave 5, the pitch ordinal is 2
    • When the sequencer pitch is the 4th black note of octave 2, the pitch ordinal is 4
• The octave and color are used for different purposes by each direction
• The pitch ordinal sets the minimum arp chord size for which the arpeggiator will emit a note
  • For a sequencer pitch with pitch ordinal N, the arpeggiator emits a note only if there are N or more keys in the arp chord, e.g.:
    • When the sequencer pitch is the 3rd white key of its octave, a note is emitted only if there are 3+ keys in the arp chord
    • When the sequencer pitch is the 1st black key of its octave, a note is emitted only if there are 1+ keys in the arp chord
  • Allows dynamic control of the arpeggiator’s rhythmic pattern by varying the size of the arp chord

JUMP direction

• Uses a combination of relative and absolute movement through the chord
• Both colors advance the active position in the arp chord by octave-many places, wrapping around to the beginning of the chord
• White steps emit a note from the active position in the arp chord, e.g.:
  • When the sequencer pitch is the 5th white note of octave 2, and the active position is 1 out of the arp chord’s 6 notes, the active position is first incremented by 2 to become 3, and then the 3rd note of the arp chord is emitted
• Black steps ignore the active position, instead treating the pitch ordinal as an absolute position in the arp chord, e.g.:
  • When the sequencer pitch is the 3rd black note of octave 5, the emitted note is the 3rd note of the arp chord, while the active position is incremented by 5

GRID direction

• Simulates an X-Y coordinate system
• The arp chord is mapped onto the grid in linear fashion, repeated as necessary to fill the grid
• Octave sets the size of the grid: 4th octave => 4x4 grid (minimum 1x1)
• White keys advance by 1 along the X-axis, moving left-to-right and wrapping back to the left
• Black keys advance by 1 along the Y-axis, moving top-to-bottom and wrapping back to the top

MIDI

Layouts

• 2+2 3-part layout: 2-voice polyphonic part + two monophonic parts
• 2+1 2-part layout: 2-voice polyphonic part + monophonic part with aux CV
• *2 3-part layout: 3-voice paraphonic part + monophonic part with aux CV + monophonic part without aux CV
  • Paraphonic part can use the new envelopes
  • Audio mode is always on for the paraphonic part
  • Output channels:
    1. CV: Part 1’s 3 voices mixed to 1 audio output, Gate: Part 4’s gate
    2. Part 2, monophonic CV/gate
    3. Part 2, modulation configurable via 3>
    4. Part 3, monophonic CV/gate
• 3M 3-part layout: 3 monophonic parts, plus clock on gate 4 and bar/reset on CV 4
• *1 2-part layout: 3-voice paraphonic part + monophonic part with aux CV
  • Output channels:
    1. CV: Part 1’s 3 voices mixed to 1 audio output, Gate: Part 1’s gate
    2. Part 2, monophonic CV/gate
    3. Part 1’s aux CV, configurable via CV
    4. Part 2’s aux CV, configurable via CV

Event routing, filtering, and transformation

• New SI (SEQ INPUT RESPONSE) setting changes how a playing sequence responds to manual input
  • OFF ignores keyboard input
  • TRANSPOSE is the stock firmware behavior
  • REPLACE retains the sequence’s rhythm, but overrides its pitch
  • DIRECT gives full use of the keyboard, allowing accompaniment of a sequence, etc.
• New IT (INPUT TRANSPOSE OCTAVES) setting to apply transposition to notes received by a part
  • Effectively an octave switch for the controller
• Parts can filter notes by velocity
  • Added UI for previously hidden settings V> (VELOCITY MIN) and V< (VELOCITY MAX)
  • Present for all layouts except 4V
  • Output velocity range is scaled to compensate for the restricted range imposed by input filtering
• Recording
  • Any MIDI events ignored by the recording part can be received by other parts
  • Recording part now responds to MIDI start

MIDI Control Change messages

Control change mode

• New global setting for CC (CONTROL CHANGE MODE)
• OFF: CCs are ignored
• ABSOLUTE: the setting is updated to the CC value (for use with traditional potentiometers)
• RELATIVE DIRECT: the setting is directly incremented by the CC value
  • For use with endless encoders
  • Uses the “twos complement” standard for translating MIDI values into a relative change
    • MIDI value 1 => setting + 1 (increment)
    • MIDI value 127 => setting - 1 (decrement)
  • Settings will increase or decrease by one value for each click of the encoder
  • Depending on how many values the setting has, the encoder may take anywhere from 1 to 127 clicks to scan the range of setting values
• RELATIVE SCALED: the setting is incremented by 0-100% of the CC value
  • Similar to RELATIVE DIRECT, but always takes 127 encoder clicks to scan the range of setting values, no matter how many setting values there are
  • Effectively gives all controllers the same travel distance from minimum to maximum

Added CCs

• Recording control: start/stop recording mode, delete a recording
• CC support for all new settings

Macro CCs that control combinations of settings

• Recording state and erase: off, on, triggered erase, immediate erase
• Sequencer mode and play mode: step sequencer, step arpeggiator, manual, loop arpeggiator, loop sequencer

Other CC improvements

• The result of a received CC is briefly displayed (value, setting abbreviation, and receiving part)
• Fixed settings to accept a negative value via CC
• Implementation Chart

Clocking

Clock ratios

• Clock divisions/multiplications are expressed as a ratio of the master clock
• CLOCK RATIO sets the frequency of the part’s clock relative to the master clock
• OUTPUT CLOCK RATIO sets the frequency of the clock output gate relative to the master clock
• Available ratios: 1/8, 1/7, 1/6, 1/5, 2/9, 1/4, 2/7, 1/3, 3/8, 2/5, 3/7, 4/9, 1/2, 4/7, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 6/7, 8/9, 1/1, 8/7, 6/5, 4/3, 3/2, 8/5, 2/1, 8/3, 3/1, 4/1, 6/1, 8/1
• These ratios are also used for LFO RATE when the LFO is clock-synced

Clock offset

• Setting C+ CLOCK OFFSET allows fine-tuning the master clock phase by ±63 ticks
• Applied in real time if the clock is running
• Designed to aid in multitrack recording
• Arithmetically, offset is applied after INPUT CLK DIV
• If offset is negative, the sequencer will not play any notes until tick 0 is reached

Predictable phase relationships between clocked events

• Sequencers’ phases are always calculated from the master clock state
• Allows sequencers to return to predictable phase relationships even after a stint in disparate time signatures

Improved interaction between keyboard and clock start/stop

• An explicit clock start (from panel switch or MIDI) can supersede an implicit clock start (from keyboard)
• Stopping the clock no longer stops manually held keys, though it still stops notes generated by the sequencer/arpeggiator

Song position

What the song position controls

• All clock-based events are synchronized to the song position
• Step sequencer will begin on the target step
• The loop sequencer and synced LFOs will advance to the correct phase of their loops
• Arpeggiator state is updated (based on any currently held arp chord) to the same state as if the song had played from the beginning

Using the song position

• The song position is saved when the clock stops
  • Display flashes || (pause)
• Cueing: the song position can be updated by a MIDI Song Position Pointer message
  • Display flashes << (rewind), >> (fast-forward), or [] (reset/stop) depending on the new song position
  • Note: this was tested with a Tascam Model 12 as a MIDI source, which implements cueing by sending MIDI Song Position Pointer followed by a MIDI Continue. If this doesn’t work with your MIDI source, let me know!
• Reset song position: long press Start/Stop button, or start via MIDI Start
• Play from song position: short press Start/Stop button, or MIDI Continue
  • Display flashes |> (play)

Hold pedal

Display of pressed/sustained keys

• Screen periodically shows tick marks to show the state of the active part’s 6 most recently pressed keys, and how the hold pedal is affecting them
• Bottom-half tick: key is manually held, and will stop when released
• Full-height tick: key is manually held, and will be sustained when released
• Steady top-half tick: key is sustained, and will continue after the next key-press
• Blinking top-half tick: key is sustained, and will be stopped by the next key-press

Hold pedal mode per part

• New part setting HM (HOLD PEDAL MODE sets each part’s response to the hold pedal
• OFF: pedal has no effect
• SUSTAIN: sustains key-releases while pedal is down, and stops sustained notes on pedal-up
  • Matches the behavior of the pedal in the stock firmware
• SOSTENUTO: while pedal is down, sustains key-releases only on keys that were pressed before pedal-down; stops sustained notes on pedal-up
• LATCH: uses the semantics of the button-controlled latching in stock Yarns – sustains key-releases while pedal is down; stops sustained notes on key-press regardless of pedal state
  • Matches the behavior of the front-panel latching (triggered by holding REC)
• MOMENTARY LATCH: like LATCH, but stop sustained notes on pedal-up, instead of on key-press
• CLUTCH: while pedal is down, sustains key-releases only on keys that were pressed before pedal-down (like SOSTENUTO); while pedal is up, stops sustained notes on key-press (like LATCH)
  • Notes triggered while the pedal is down are not sustained and do not cause sustained notes to be stopped, which allows temporarily augmenting a sustained chord
• FILTER: while pedal is down, ignores key-presses and sustains key-releases; while pedal is up, stops sustained notes on key-press
  • In combination with setting an opposite HOLD PEDAL POLARITY on two different parts, this allows the use of the pedal to select which part is controlled by the keyboard, while also supporting latching

Pedal polarity

• New part setting HP (HOLD PEDAL POLARITY) inverts a part’s up/down pedal behavior
• Allows compatibility with any manufacturer’s hold pedals
• Allows reversing up/down semantics for the selected HOLD PEDAL MODE
• More information on negative (default) and positive pedal polarity

Polyphonic voice allocation (NOTE PRIORITY and VOICING)

Note priority

• Added new FIRST (oldest) setting to NOTE PRIORITY
• Voicing respects note priority wherever applicable

Polyphonic VOICING options

• sM STEAL LOWEST PRIORITY RELEASE MUTE (previously POLY)
  • Steal from the lowest-priority existing note IFF the incoming note has higher priority
  • Does not reassign voices to unvoiced notes on release
• PRIORITY ORDER (previously SORTED)
  • Voice 1 always receives the note that has priority 1, voice 2 the note with priority 2, etc.
• UNISON RELEASE REASSIGN (previously U1)
• UNISON RELEASE MUTE (previously U2)
• SM STEAL HIGHEST PRIORITY RELEASE MUTE (previously STEAL MOST RECENT)
  • Steal from the highest-priority existing note IFF the incoming note has higher priority
  • Does not reassign on release
• sR STEAL LOWEST PRIORITY RELEASE REASSIGN
  • Steal from the lowest-priority existing note IFF the incoming note has higher priority
  • Reassigns voices to unvoiced notes on release
• SR STEAL HIGHEST PRIORITY RELEASE REASSIGN
  • Steal from the highest-priority existing note IFF the incoming note has higher priority
  • Reassigns on release

Other changes

• Notes that steal a voice are considered legato
• Fixed unison to allocate notes without gaps
• Improve unison etc. to avoid unnecessary reassignment/retrigger of voices during a partial chord change
• Unison etc. reassign voices on NoteOff if there are held notes that don’t yet have a voice
• Allow monophonic parts to use all voicing modes

Legato and portamento

• Replaced LEGATO MODE setting (three values) with two on/off settings, LEGATO RETRIGGER (are notes retriggered when played legato?) and PORTAMENTO LEGATO ONLY (is portamento applied on all notes, or only on notes played legato?)
  • Enables a new behavior: notes played legato are retriggered + portamento is applied only on notes played legato
• PORTAMENTO setting has a shared zero at center
  • Increases constant-time portamento when turning counter-clockwise of center, and increases constant-rate when turning clockwise
• Broadened setting range from 51 to 64 values per curve shape

LFOs

Frequency

• LFO RATE (formerly VIBRATO SPEED) has a shared zero at center
• Increases clock sync ratio when turning counter-clockwise of center
• Increases frequency when turning clockwise

Vibrato LFO

• VB (VIBRATO AMOUNT) (in ▽S (SETUP MENU)) manually sets vibrato, for keyboards that don’t have a modulation wheel
• VS (VIBRATO SHAPE) (in ▽S (SETUP MENU)) sets the shape of the vibrato LFO (triangle, down saw, up saw, square)

Spread: detune or dephase a part’s LFOs

• LV (LFO SPREAD VOICES): dephase or detune LFOs between the part’s voices
  • Only available in polyphonic/paraphonic layouts
• LT (LFO SPREAD TYPES): for each voice in the part, dephase or detune between the vibrato, timbre, and tremolo LFOs
• Turning these settings counter-clockwise from center dephases the LFOs
  • Each LFO’s phase is progressively more offset, by an amount ranging from 0° to 360° depending on the setting
  • Ideal for quadrature and three-phase modulation
  • When dephasing, the LFOs always share a common frequency
• Turning clockwise from center detunes the LFOs
  • Each LFO’s frequency is a multiple of the last, with that multiple being between 1x and 2x depending on the setting
  • Facilitates unstable, meandering modulation