zp12

zp12 is zvenson again, this time with the right obsession: turning the FM-1 into a 12-bit sampling and drum machine in the style of the E-mu SP-1200. 32 pads at 26.04 kHz, tuned by playback speed with zero-order hold — deliberately no interpolation: the aliasing is the sound. And since the FM-1 has no audio input, the browser samples on its behalf: microphone, line or file, threshold-triggered start “like on old samplers”, trim, and onto a pad. Then the FM-1 plays it back on its own.

Workflow

Boom-bap/hip-hop beatmaking with the classic crunch, plus live loop jamming with mutes and solos on the knobs, fader-style. Sixteen loops from 1 to 32 bars (or AUTO length derived from the first take), 512 hits per loop, 4 songs. Real-time recording with count-in and AUTO CORRECT from 1/8 to 1/32T, per-hit locks (TUNE/DECAY/CUT), classic stepped swing — 50/54/58/63/67/71% — and roll, reverse and tape-stop punch-ins.

Engines & what it emulates

SP-1200-style 12-bit linear sampling (2-in-3-bytes packing, 26.04/27.5 kHz) with the 45→33 trick and its doubled storage. The SP-1200’s filter architecture, mirrored channel by channel: 8 outputs with a dynamic 4-pole resonant LP in SSM2044 style on channels 1–2 — opens on the hit, closes two octaves through the decay —, fixed LP on 3–6, nothing on 7–8. The 27 factory sounds come from CC0 sources: zero vintage samples. FX: the FDN chorus/delay/reverb from sloopDX plus a DJ filter.

What sets it apart

• ~2.5 s of memory for your own samples; 6.3 s if it borrows space from sloopDX’s bank.
• The autosave lives in a flash region sloopDX doesn’t touch.
• PDF cheat-sheet and demo video: “I Turned the M-VAVE FM-1 Into an SP-1200 Style 12-Bit Sampler”.

Status & caveats

The hub has listed it as stable since 2.1 (10-09) — the “early test build” notice was from the 2.0 days. Very active: repo created on October 7, 2.0 out the very next day. The elegant part is that it coexists on flash with sloopDX: switch between the two and both firmwares' data survives.