Owner's Manual

What it adds

• Starts in Pattern Play, ready to play. Formats its own memory when the memory is blank or corrupt.
• Pattern Play and Pattern Write, step write and tap write all switch while running.
• Instant pattern change, and bank change from Pattern Play.
• A mute layer with solo, mirrored by MIDI CCs.
• A free MIDI note for every key of the EXT INST lane.
• Per-instrument lengths, locked to the pattern or running as a polymeter, and nudge.
• Randomize per instrument, at 16 densities.
• Pattern direction: forward, backward, ping-pong or random.
• Repeat layer (note repeat at 1/4 to 1/32) and reslice layer (live loops).
• MIDI pattern select by program change and by note, switchable MIDI thru and clock output.
• A whole-memory SysEx backup and an editor that reads and writes it.

To make room, the cassette save, verify and load and the cartridge copy were removed, and Track mode stores fewer measures (Reference 3).

The Basic Course covers what changes the moment you switch on. The Intermediate Course covers the pattern functions, the Advanced Course the live layers and Track mode. The Reference lists the MIDI messages, the backup and a one-page summary of every key combination.

Panel names

Controls are written as they are printed on the panel, for example SHIFT, CLEAR, EXT INST, INST SELECT, LAST STEP, SCALE, SHUFFLE/FLAM, CYCLE, TEMPO, BACK, FWD, AVAIL MEAS, TAPE SYNC, ENTER, START and STOP/CONT. There are four TRACK keys, three PATTERN GROUP keys and 16 main keys, 1 to 16.

How key combinations are written

• SHIFT + CYCLE: hold the first key, then press the second.
• Tap: press and release with no other key held.
• Running: the sequencer is started. Stopped: it is not.
• LEDs: off, lit, blinking.
• 1 is the three-digit display, blanks included.

The black WORKS IN tab at the top of a section says in which mode, and whether stopped or running, the section applies.

Power-on

The machine starts in Pattern Play, group I, pattern 1, stopped, with the display blank. Press START and pattern 1 plays. TRACK 1 takes you to Track Play.

Memory format

A format erases every pattern and every track in both banks. No demo patterns are written. It also sets the EXT INST notes back to 36 to 51, MIDI thru back to on and MIDI clock output back to always.

The memory is now empty and ready to write.

Automatic format

At every power-on the firmware checks that its memory is set up, and formats it by itself if it is not. A new machine, a flat backup battery or no battery at all therefore comes up empty and ready to play rather than full of random data. Very rarely, random memory can pass the check. If the machine ever starts with nonsense patterns, format it by hand as above.

First start after another firmware

Memory written by the original firmware does not pass the check, so the first start formats it and every pattern and track is erased. Dumps made with the original firmware cannot be loaded into this one (Reference 2). Memory from an earlier superOS-909 build keeps its patterns, but its tracks are cleared once, because this build stores its instrument lengths and directions where the old Track mode kept its songs.

Sync mode

Any mode, stopped

SHIFT + TAPE SYNC steps through internal clock, MIDI sync and DIN sync. The display shows which one is selected; hold TEMPO to see it again at any time.

MIDI Start and Continue are obeyed only in MIDI sync. MIDI Stop stops the machine in every mode. In DIN sync the machine stops as soon as the master stops.

While running, SHIFT + TAPE SYNC opens the reslice layer instead (Advanced Course 2).

MIDI thru on or off

Pattern Play, stopped

Press CYCLE. Each press switches MIDI thru on or off; while you hold the key the display shows 1 (on) or 0 (off). The setting is kept when the power is off. On is the default.

• Thru on: notes, controllers, program changes, pitch bend, pressure and SysEx received at MIDI IN are copied to MIDI OUT.
• Thru off: only SysEx is still copied.
• Either way, received MIDI Start, Continue and Stop are always passed on, and received MIDI clock is passed on in MIDI sync.

MIDI clock output

Pattern Play, stopped

Hold BACK and press CYCLE. On the internal clock, each press switches between sending MIDI clock all the time and only while running; while you hold the keys the display shows the new setting. The setting is kept when the power is off.

In MIDI or DIN sync the machine passes the master's clock on to MIDI OUT, whatever this setting.

MIDI channels

Pattern Play or Track Play, stopped

LAST STEP + main key sets the send channel (EXT INST notes and mute CCs). SHUFFLE/FLAM + main key sets the receive channel and turns omni off. While either key is held the display shows its channel. Both work as on the original firmware, but now from Pattern Play too.

Pattern Play and Pattern Write, running

• SHIFT + the lit PATTERN GROUP key switches between Pattern Play and Pattern Write without stopping. The pattern keeps its place. The group LED blinks in Pattern Write.
• In Pattern Write, SHIFT + TEMPO selects step write and SHIFT + BACK selects tap write, running or stopped. Steps are written while the pattern runs; stopped, the main keys pick the pattern to write, as before.
• Entering Pattern Write selects BD for step write. INST SELECT + main key picks another instrument.

Rolling across the keys

In step write you can roll a finger across the main keys: every key you touch sets its step, without lifting in between. In every other mode the keys work as before, so a held key and a second key still make a chord.

Pattern Play, stopped or running

A bank change happens at once when stopped, and at the end of the current chain when running. The bank LED shows the bank.

Patterns can also be selected over MIDI by program change or by note (Reference 1).

Pattern Play and Pattern Write, stopped or running

The mute layer turns the main keys into one mute key per instrument. Mutes stay in force when you leave the layer, so you can open it, set the mutes and go back to writing.

Leaving the layer

Tap EXT INST, or change mode: SHIFT + PATTERN GROUP, SHIFT + TEMPO, SHIFT + BACK, a TRACK key, or, in Pattern Write, SHIFT + EXT INST (which goes on into the EXT INST lane). Mutes and a solo stay in force until you clear them or switch off. Tap EXT INST in any pattern mode to see them again.

Pattern Write, stopped or running

The EXT INST lane is 16 extra tracks stored with each pattern, one per main key, which play MIDI notes on the send channel. Each key now has a note of your choice (36 to 51 after a format), kept in memory. The lane always plays; you only open it to see and write it.

Writing the lane

SHIFT + EXT INST opens and closes the lane, and leaves the mute layer if it was open. In the lane the main keys write the steps of the selected track, and INST SELECT + main key picks which of the 16 tracks you write, as it picks an instrument normally. Step write and tap write work as usual.

Leaving the lane, opening the mute layer or changing mode also ends the note display. A memory format puts every key back to notes 36 to 51.

Pattern Write, step write, running

Each instrument in a pattern can play its own number of steps. Start the pattern and select step write (SHIFT + TEMPO) first: these keys work only while running. All settings apply to the instrument picked with INST SELECT + main key, and are stored with the pattern. CH and OH share one setting. Accent and the EXT INST lane always follow the pattern.

Locked and polymeter

• Locked (the default): the instrument starts over with every pass of the pattern, so every bar sounds the same.
• Polymeter: the instrument loops on its own length and drifts against the pattern. It goes back to its first step only at START and at the start of every 8th bar, never in the middle of a bar.

What you see

• Steps past the instrument's length are dark and cannot be set. They are kept: make the length longer and they come back.
• The running light follows the selected instrument's own step.
• Tap write records, and CLEAR + key erases, each instrument at its own step.
• An edit is heard from the next step; a sound that is playing is not cut.
• Clearing a pattern resets its lengths, polymeter settings and direction. Copying a pattern takes them along.

Pattern Write, stopped or running

• Every hit is written at the level the key you selected the instrument with gives on a first press in step write. Step over the hits afterwards to change single levels.
• Only that instrument's visible steps change. Other instruments, steps past its length and the pattern settings stay as they are.
• In Pattern Play the combination does nothing. CLEAR without SHIFT works as before.

Pattern Play and Pattern Write, stopped or running

Each pattern has its own playing direction, stored with the pattern.

The bar itself always runs forward, so the pattern stays in time with the clock and with other gear. Locked instruments, accent and the EXT INST lane follow the direction; polymeter instruments keep looping forward. This CYCLE press does not touch the MIDI thru setting.

Pattern Play and Pattern Write, running

The repeat layer retriggers the voices you hold at a fixed rate, in time with the pattern.

• 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 fall on the pattern's own steps, so they swing with the shuffle and land where the running light lands.
• 1/32 plays two hits in every 16th; SHUFFLE pushes every second one later.
• Repeats between steps play without accent. The step's own hit keeps its accent.
• While the layer is open the main keys, tap write and instrument select belong to it. Mutes apply to the repeats.
• While the layer is open the TRACK keys set the rate and do not enter Track mode.
• The layer also closes on SHIFT + TEMPO, SHIFT + BACK, any mode change, or opening the mute or reslice layer.

Pattern Play and Pattern Write, running

The reslice layer loops a short piece of the pattern for as long as you hold a key.

While the layer is open the main keys, tap write and instrument select belong to it.

Track Play, stopped or running

A track is a list of measures, each measure a pattern chain. Track mode works as on the original firmware. From a pattern mode, stopped, TRACK 1 to 4 enters Track Play and SHIFT + TRACK enters Track Write. PATTERN GROUP or SHIFT + PATTERN GROUP goes back to the pattern modes.

Hold SHIFT through the whole of a SHIFT entry: releasing it cancels.

Track Write, stopped or running

The TRACK LED blinks in Track Write. START plays the picked pattern chain, which loops; you can write while it plays. Bank changes are made in Track Play.

The track is now written. Press TRACK 1, then START, to play it.

Editing a track

Track memory

Each bank holds 362 measures, shared by its four tracks. When the memory is full, a write or insert shows 0 and nothing is written. A measure stores the first pattern of its chain, so changing a pattern's chain later changes how the track plays.

Messages are received on the receive channel (default 10). EXT INST notes and mute CCs are sent on the send channel (Basic Course 2). Notes 35 to 51 play the voices, and MIDI clock, start, stop and continue work as described in Basic Course 2.

Program change and pattern notes work in Pattern Play only. CC 59 and CC 60 change the same settings as the panel and are kept when the power is off. Song position and song select are not sent or acted on. What is copied to MIDI OUT is set by MIDI thru (Basic Course 2).

Any mode, stopped

The whole memory, both banks with patterns, lengths, directions, tracks, EXT INST notes and settings, goes out and comes back in as 32 SysEx pages. The superOS-909 Studio editor does this for you and can also fetch, send, save and load single patterns. To do it by hand:

Record a dump with any SysEx utility and send it back the same way, waiting for each 04 before sending the next page. A page answered with 05 has already been written, so always send it again. Dumps from other firmware are not accepted.

• Cassette save, verify and load. SHIFT + keys 14 to 16 in Track mode do nothing. Tape sync still works.
• The original SysEx dump and load (replaced, Reference 2).
• The cartridge copy (SHIFT + key 11 in Track Play).
• MIDI song position and song select.
• Track memory is 362 measures per bank instead of 896.

• Mutes are live only: they are not stored and do not work in Track mode.
• The MIDI channels and omni setting return to their defaults at every power-on.
• The EXT INST lane has one channel and one velocity for all keys.
• CH and OH share one length, polymeter setting and nudge.
• Randomize writes one level per instrument.
• An instant pattern change to a pattern with a different scale can make one step slightly long or short.
• Mute changes received by CC light the main keys only while the mute layer is open.

Every function drawn on the panel, with its LEDs and display: superOS-909 Shortcut Guide.