BROWSER ALPHA / FAQ

Your loop's sound.
Your loop's timing.

The WAV holds the slices. The markers tell the emulator when each one should play.

What works in this alpha?

The browser instrument, WAV and exact-marker import, individual slice audition, original-timing playback, browser saves and sequencer tempo sync are available. All 25 instrument voices now have selectable opt-in high-pass/low-pass filters, input boost and a sample-peak ceiling. Basic paged arrangement and chord metadata controls are included. Chord-following bass, MIDI pad accompaniment and broader arrangement controls remain development targets.

Follow the quick start or load the public synthetic demo directly from the emulator. The demo's six unequal onsets make changes in groove easy to hear.

Can this website open a raw REX file?

Use the matching WAV slice bank and marker JSON exported by a compatible converter. This static website has no native REX decoder. The local lab supports optional native conversion when its separate decoder is configured. SDK installation and distribution permissions remain separate from this public package.

Why can the WAV be longer than the loop?

The WAV packs each intact slice end to end, including its ringing tail. Marker startSample and endSample locate that sound in the bank. Marker time is its original musical onset in seconds. Adding slice lengths together would lose overlaps and gaps.

How does sync keep the pitch?

Play with FM1 · keep pitch schedules slice starts against the internal sequencer clock. Each slice plays at its original speed. At faster tempos tails overlap more; at slower tempos gaps may appear. This is slice sequencing, rather than continuous stretching of sustained audio.

If stopped, both start from beat one. If already playing, the loop joins the next four-beat bar. Instrument PLAY then stops and restarts both. Original loop length is retained: a 7/8 loop still spans 3.5 quarter-note beats. Enter its source BPM if the markers have none.

Which files belong together?

Choose the _slices.wav and _markers.json from the same export. JSON can carry sample rate, frame count, channels, BPM, loop duration and exact boundaries. Manual import validates the available dimensions. The local converter handoff also validates the WAV checksum.

CSV uses Slice,Start,End,Time in seconds, with an optional final Loop,,,duration row. Legacy Slice,Duration,Total CSV cannot recover the original onsets; re-export from the REX source. A rendered full-loop WAV is different from a packed slice bank.

What are the limits?

At tempos that exceed the overlap capacity, sync stops with an explanation. Lower the tempo and arm sync again.

Where does Save put my work?

Save import in browser stores the WAV and markers in this browser; Reopen saved import retrieves them. The instrument SAVE control stores instrument state separately. A different browser or website address has different storage. Keep your source files as a portable backup.

Does this put samples into my FM1?

This alpha provides browser audition. Device sample storage, firmware image checks, real CPU measurements, save/reboot and physical recovery tests are separate milestones. No Acultur8 hardware installer is included here.

Which release is this?

First-kick browser prerelease identifies the accepted kick checkpoint at 1394e5f. Its hosted files, source fingerprint and WASM match the tested build. The original alpha remains recoverable.

Browser alpha.1 passed mandatory CI and hosted synthetic import, tempo sync, transport and save/reopen checks. Lossless fonts and the shared command/save foundation are merged; the audible 909 kick editor passed local and hosted acceptance. Physical-device acceptance remains pending.

How do I use a sound strip?

Switch on the emulator, choose a voice in the sound-strip selector, then enable its strip and the stages you want. High-pass removes low frequencies; low-pass reduces high frequencies. Boost raises level into the limiter, and the negative dBFS ceiling caps that sound before pan and effect sends. Existing projects start bypassed. Use Undo/Redo for edits, and stop the sequencer before Save project. Settings apply to the selected voice; other voices keep their own settings. The instrument mono BREAK strip is separate from Marked-WAV preview.

This is a sample-peak limiter with no lookahead or true-peak claim. Effects and other sounds can still add together after the strip; keep the existing master protection. The browser prototype is accepted; physical-device performance remains pending.

How do I arrange blocks and chords?

Switch on the emulator, set Length while stopped and enable arrangement. Each block assigns five patterns, mutes, a duration of 1–8 four-quarter-note bars and an optional I–VII degree. Twelve pages cover 192 rows. Editing selects the row shown in the controls without moving playback. Queue chooses the next musical-bar transition, or the start block while stopped. The C engine displays the playing chord; bass-follow and accompaniment are still pending.

Choose the key and mode for diatonic triads. Pentatonic chords require an explicit seven-note parent; choose it before changing mode. Chromatic mode cannot hold I–VII degrees. Stop before length/enable changes, Undo/Redo of arrangement or Save project. Busy requests retain your current project and transport. Broader insert/duplicate/delete, row-order operations and loop-range controls are still being developed. The published basic arrangement and harmony metadata are already accepted.

What is next?

Lossless fonts and shared commands/versioned saves are merged after review and required checks. The first kick checkpoint has passed. Combined resource design, audio expansion and arrangement/harmony now proceed in parallel.

The 909 kick checkpoint includes high-pass, low-pass, boost, ceiling, metering and persistence. The published all-25 release passes native/actual WASM, independent review, the complete fresh mandatory suite and local browser GUI acceptance, with hosted publication now accepted. Basic arrangement and seven-degree metadata are included; chord-following bass and external MIDI pads follow in the development plan.

When will the next features arrive?

Planning windows from resumed implementation are 4–7 focused days for sound controls and 8–12 for the musical browser alpha. These are conditional forecasts: memory redesign and failed acceptance may extend them. Physical-device qualification has no fixed date.

Why measure memory first?

The combined all-25 target passes all 15 original gates unchanged: image 579636/581564 bytes, general RAM 97860/98304 and pool 335712/344064. Pool free space is 8352 bytes with the unchanged 8192-byte reserve, leaving 160 bytes above reserve. New helper and caller costs are recorded separately in tests/all_sound_feature_costs.json and tests/all_sound_target_costs.json; these static estimates do not measure physical deadline headroom.

Additional lossless Huffman fonts preserve all 439 glyphs and 1756 rendered cases against the original renderer. Native focused draw is about 49.6% slower than the prior packet format. Physical draw timing remains pending; flash savings do not establish device performance.

Releases require tested commits, independent review and hosted checks. See the About page for Acultur8.com and Traxsource links.

Which sound-controls release is accepted?

All-sound browser alpha at c081d63 is published after independent review, complete mandatory checks and actual hosted acceptance. All 26 hosted files match the tested source and WASM. Basic arrangement alpha at e78ee13 remains accepted. Prior kick and original alpha releases remain recoverable.

What has passed for all 25 sound strips?

The published browser release processes eleven sounds in each 909/808 engine, both 303 parts and the instrument's mono BREAK part with high-pass, low-pass, input boost and a summed-sound sample-peak ceiling. Focused native and actual WASM checks plus independent source review pass. This ceiling has no lookahead or true-peak claim. The separate Marked-WAV preview keeps its own import and playback lane.

The complete fresh mandatory suite and actual local browser GUI acceptance pass. Hosted publication acceptance now passes in alpha.strips.1. Per-sound boost/ceiling is complete within browser functional acceptance; HPF/LPF remains in review for its explicit worst-case CPU/physical criterion. The unchanged static target gates do not establish physical CPU deadlines. Physical draw/audio timing, stack, DMA and device acceptance remain pending. Basic arrangement and saved harmony metadata are already publicly accepted at e78ee13; broader insertion/order/loop controls and actual bass-follow, MIDI and pad behavior remain pending.

Local GUI checks cover all 25 selectors, isolated 808 and BREAK edits, undo/redo, saved reload, four arrangement blocks with six synthetic slices synchronized to FM1 at 125 BPM using a 120 BPM source, PLAY stop, live-save rejection and stopped-save acknowledgement. The selected-view checking message clears after settings arrive. At 390px, the document is 375px and editor 343px wide. An older kick-only engine disables the other 24 selectors while keeping its kick controls usable, with no console errors.

Current implementation checkpoint

The autonomous implementation goal is active. Lossless fonts and the shared command/save foundation are merged in reviewed PRs #6 and #7 with passing CI and Pages deployment. The opt-in 909 kick is published after host/WASM response, limiter, metering, bypass, local and hosted editor, save/reopen and undo/redo checks.

The integrated target fits flash and memory and passes the original static gates. New active processing costs are measured separately; physical CPU, stack, DMA and device audio acceptance remain pending. Basic arrangement and saved chord metadata now have native/WASM timing, migration and transport-safety coverage. All-25 strips have passed native/actual WASM, independent review, the complete fresh mandatory suite and local browser GUI acceptance; hosted publication now also passes. Bass-follow, accompaniment and the whole-scene soak remain development targets.