EssenceFM v7.0 feedback and bug reports
KODAMO | EssenceFM v7.0 is out, with a lot of new features and improvements! https://kodamo.org/firmwares?synth=efm We want to make sure this new firmware is bug-free, so do not hesitate to report here any issues you might be encountering. |
jbowman | Thanks so much for this, looking forward to giving it a try! |
Avi F | Ok, great so far! Update went in very quickly. And thanks so much for making lots of awesome improvements. The only issue I ran into, regards mainly perhaps my own lacking of understanding how to get more voices into the performance sequencer. I have several factory sounds runnning, my goal is to just do 4 sounds, each on ch 1,2,3 and 4, to play a 32 step sequence. The thing was, I was able to only get channel 1 and 2 to record into the performance sequencer. The first patch that I selected, which I made myself, does use four different layers of 4 single cycle waves [one patch] - the second, is the 2 op piano factory sound. 3 was going to be FM bass 4 - however I did not hear any sound from the touch screen keys for it. And the fourth patch is wah syn KS. Somehow it will not record the other two patches [set to channel 3, and 4], from playing in the performance; also, the touch screen piano in the perf.seq menu, it makes no sound when I am attempting to play or record channels 3 or 4 patches that I selected for either of those, but the touch screen piano in the perf. sequencer, works fine to play and/or record, for the channels 1 and 2 patches. The performance levels of channels 1 through 4 are not muted. When I go into performance menu and change patches 3 or 4, to midi channel 1, they do not make sound when I play them on my midi controller [samson graphite 49, set to channel 1], but when switched to the patch button mode, it does play on the controller all sounds assigned to midi channel 1, of course, but still there is no sound coming from the performance sequencer piano on the touch screen, when the performance menu of the third ptch, is set to either midi channel 1, or channels 3 and 4, [my intended 3rd or 4th channel for the other two sounds i wish to sequence]. I do have midi in the global-main menu, set to channel 1, I changed it to omni to see if this would make a difference, but when i check again it goes back to 1, perhaps it is a default. |
| KODAMO | The sequencer controls MIDI channels, not parts (that can be a source of confusion). Have you checked that your MIDI channel assignation is OK for all parts in your performance? You should hear sound when using the touch piano otherwise it means something isn't configured correctly |
| Avi F | Ah, I dont know why, but when i create a new one, it works with no problem at all! I wonder if it may have been because I had used that performance mentioned earlier, with my oxi one, that perhaps the midi was set differently. However it looks the same. I probably did miss something. Anyways, all good now. |
monosynth | Is there an external midi clock setting to start stop the sequencer? I can't seem to find it 🧡 |
| KODAMO | Not yet. Could be added soon to respond to MIDI Start/Stop commands |
| monosynth | Oh please do. Would be a big help getting it locked up with other equipment such as a drum machine or sampler. |
| monosynth | Start, Stop, External clock. |
| jbowman | Update went very smoothly for me also. The sequencer is great. I would love it to be able to modulate MIDI ccs on my Mask1, if that could be an option in future. |
MaxB61 | Hi guys, I've found that the "Volumes for all 6 operators with operators color-matched to the encoders that control their volume" doesn't operates after some Voice editing (i.e. Randomizing). Even if I change to another Voice , the color matched volume encoders doesn't operate. Max P.S.: thank you for the massive 7.0 upgrade! |
| MaxB61 | My previous post was incomplete.... The color matched volume encoder return to operate touching the free window on the left of the Base Tab in edit Voice. |
| MaxB61 | Found the problem, it was my mistake. While editing the Voice I inadvertently touched one of the operator squares on the touch screen at the bottom left and at that point all the operator square icons became gray, passing the control of the Knobs to the Basic parameters of the operator (Waveform, Phase, etc.). Only then touching the free area of the touchscreen did the control of the Knobs pass back to the Volumes of the operators. Sorry, I was too hasty. |
| KODAMO | No worries! Yes it is the intended behavior. So normal workflow isn't too disrupted. |
Jazz Paladin | For bugs, I have had a few instances when clearing patches / voices, not all parameters were reset , a few times mod matrix or envelopes didn’t clear |
fish233 | been playing around with the update a few hours yesterday, didn't run into issues yet. the colour coding of operator levels is super nice. also thanks for implementing the updating saved voice w/ multiple instances in a patch. (all these little things help a lot regarding faster workflow imho) |
| KODAMO | You're welcome! <blockquote>For bugs, I have had a few instances when clearing patches / voices, not all parameters were reset , a few times mod matrix or envelopes didn’t clear</blockquote> Will investigate that |
pgoergen | Hello, thank you for still updating the EssenceFM and for the great new features!!!! Will there be an updated manual? |
| KODAMO | Yes of course, it will be updated in the upcoming days |
MDMA | It was worth it just for the fireworks on startup Very quick and easy to update Love having two LFOs and free running envelopes I shall report back should I uncover any bugs Thank you so much!!! |
DX100 | Thanks so much, it's so good to know that the development is not dead! |
| Jazz Paladin | Another bug noticed, I have run into a few occasions today where the panic button did not null a feedback loop I had created on accident with a LFO. I needed to reset the power for it to stop. |
| KODAMO | Can you provide more information? Ideally, attaching the voice here could help to find the issue. I'm not sure I understand what an "LFO feedback loop" is. <blockquote>For bugs, I have had a few instances when clearing patches / voices, not all parameters were reset , a few times mod matrix or envelopes didn’t clear</blockquote> Do you mean pressing the Clear button on the voice list page? Mod matrix would still have some entries after clearing it up? |
| MaxB61 | Hi, probably a bug on LFO2. Pressing a note on the keyboard (or pressing the "Note" button on the EFM panel) and keep pressed, if I try to modify the Speed parameter (knob 3) the speed does not change in accordance but remains at the initial value. If I want the new value to be accepted I have to stop the note played and then press it again. |
| MaxB61 | Thank you for the prompt LFO2 fixing! 😀 I've found severe bugs on the Performance Sequencer, with freezing crash of the EFM......but I think that you find them by yourselves 😜 Max |
| KODAMO | It is best to provide as much information as possible on what you found exactly, so we can reproduce the bug and fix it |
| MaxB61 | Take a Performace (i.e. the first Cinematic), press Seq, press Rec and after the Play arrow button. The sequencer starts looping in Realtime Recording mode. Play some notes on the masterkeyboard (not too much) and sometimes play other few notes (to overdubbing with the previous played). After a reasonably number of loops (maybe from 10 to 20 loops) the EFM always freeze and the only way to exit it's to switch it off. |
| MaxB61 | Another bug I've found it's with the operators level in Voice Edit mode. Take a Voice (i.e. the standard soundbank voice J-77 Digi Power Chords). Play a note on the masterkeyboard. Now press Edit. If you rotate the coloured knobs to modify the assigned operators levels you will hear an annoying zipper-noise (in this voice on the operators 1-4-5-6). Touching the relative operator square and editing the volume level (knob 3) in the Base window there is no zipper-noise. This problem it's present on various voices and the operators involved are almost never the same (and neither are the algorithms) |
| KODAMO | Thanks for the report about the sequencer. About the voice edit thing, it is normal because on that voice (Digi Power Chords) CC1 is controlling OP1, 4, 5 and 6 volumes in the mod matrix. So trying to control them manually will create this glitchy sound. Moving the slider with your fingers does not produce any noise because it has no effect (its action is disabled on purpose). Maybe the best we could do in that situation, is to also disable volume control with the knobs when their volume is controlled by the mod matrix so the behavior is the same as for the volume sliders on the touchscreen. |
| KODAMO | <blockquote>After a reasonably number of loops (maybe from 10 to 20 loops) the EFM always freeze and the only way to exit it's to switch it off.</blockquote> Your finding about the sequencer is interesting because it is not specific to the sequencer, but related to some CPU overload that can happen when many layers are triggered at the exact same time (the sequencer is perfect for that, since MIDI isn't fast enough to trigger many notes in a single millisecond, but the sequencer is). Some people occasionally ran into what appears to be this issue, without ever being able to reproduce it reliably, because it requires such a tight timing. I think we will finally solve that mysterious bug that arose occasionally! 😀 |
pandar1 | Haven't tried the sequencer so far... one question... it's possible to set up different lenghts for each sequencer track in order to create interlocking rhythmic patterns? thanks |
| MaxB61 | Not a problematic bug, but I've found in Sequencer that scrolling up and down the "Ch x" tracks with the Data Knob some "green colorized step boxes" stay painted outside the grid steps window (as you can see in the attached picture). |
| Jazz Paladin | Not sure if it helps, but when I am using my DAW to play back things I recorded , when I hit the stop button on my daw transport, it is changing the PAN setting on whatever Kodamo voice I am using by -1, from 64 to 63, etc. I got a video of this in action if it helps. Note that it only does this the first time I start and stop playback , doesn’t happen subsequently until I reset the PAN back to 64 |
| KODAMO | Can you check in Global > MIDI > Monitor, what your DAW sends when pressing the stop button? I think it might send a CC that resets panning or MIDI reset command. It is probably a setting on the DAW side. Now your report is still helpful since 64 should be the center, so that will be fixed in the upcoming firmware. |
| MaxB61 | Another report about the Performance Sequencer: Take a Performance with differents Patches for every single Channel Start a new recording Press Rec and record few notes on Ch.1 After press the Play arrow (loop recording) Play some notes from MIDI Ch.2 from the masterkeyboard Repeat the same with another MIDI Ch. and so on. Everytime that you add new note events, the previous looping notes are not correctly played with random time slide/shift effect and random note muting. When you don't play notes from the keyboard, the previous events are correctly played. |
| KODAMO | Haven't been able to reproduce the issue. When a new step is played, it stops the previous notes on the same track if their length would make them overlap with the new step (overlaps are not supported currently). Maybe that is what you are experiencing? |
| Jazz Paladin | Regarding pressing the Stop button in my DAW, here is a screenshot of all the midi information that is being received in the message monitor and causing it to switch to Pan 63 |
| fish233 | <blockquote> related to some CPU overload that can happen when many layers are triggered at the exact same time </blockquote> slightly off topic (also happens with the previous OS), but this week i've found a replicable way to make the EFM cpu crash with my Octatrack. It involves switching from an extremely busy performance. switching banks on OT, sending a bank message on the first trig to switch a performance and immediately start sending extremely fast arps with long release times (almost instantly reaching about 150 voices). it doesn't happen if the OT is already in the target bank + EFM in the target performance. this is deliberately torturing the machine so i don't really see this as a bug 😄 |
| KODAMO | <blockquote>Regarding pressing the Stop button in my DAW, here is a screenshot of all the midi information that is being received in the message monitor and causing it to switch to Pan 63</blockquote> I confirm your DAW is sending an "all controller reset" CC 121. We will change 63 for 64 for panning but that reset behavior will continue when you play stop (resetting also part volumes, fx sends etc.), you have to disable that in your DAW if possible. I am actually unsure about what should be reset when receiving this CC. "All controllers" is pretty vague, some say it should reset all CC, some say only pitch bend/wheels and pedals... |
| pandar1 | Just a quick question—since you were already adding the initial mode and bank, would it be possible to also include the initial performance/patch/voice? |
| MaxB61 | Hi, I just downloaded and installed the latest release 7.0c. As previously I confirm that in the Performance Sequencer, in Loop Recording mode, every time a new note is received and recorded the timing of the previous recorded notes is completely altered. While it returns to normal as soon as the incoming MIDI data flow ends. I made a video of the problem; I hope it can be understood. Also the presence of a Metronome would be appreciated. Max 🙂 |
| KODAMO | Can you please upload the video to some file sharing platform and share the link? Directly attaching huge video files isn't possible here. |
| MaxB61 | Uploaded to Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mbascdx8vlxumderf4fqz/VID_20250521_162424752.mp4?rlkey=3j47wi9b6kffj0egyyfxz3ude&st=h60sph0p&dl=0 |
| KODAMO | Thank you for the video, fixed in 7.0d 😉 |
| monosynth | Any chance Midi clock in for the sequencer is coming? 🧡🧡🧡 |
| MaxB61 | Now with the 7.0d release the sequencer timing in live mode it's perfect. Thank you! In the sequencer it would be very nice if you could give the Transpose value directly from the external masterkeyboard; it could be done so that by touching the Transp tab on the display it is highlighted in reverse and then the data coming from the MIDI IN are used to vary the transposition (with a Mono logic of Priority Low or Priority High...). In my opinion it would be very creative in a compositional context.🙂 Max |
| MaxB61 | A note about the Knobs in Performance mode: On the Performance > Knob Assign page, changing the knobs themselves (Default Value) does not lead to contextual changes in the sound generated. In order to hear the effect of the change applied by the knobs, you have to go back to the main Performance page and move the knob again; that's not good! The values changed in Knob Assign should apply the CC messages in real time. |
| pandar1 | About the sequencer, it's possible to change the step note or velocity once inserted? |
| KODAMO | It is not possible, you have to record it with the right notes/velocities (first note entered will clear the step, then it's finished once all keys are released). We could add an "edit" button for steps in the future but not sure if really needed, it is probably faster just to re-enter the notes.On the Performance > Knob Assign page, changing the knobs themselves (Default Value) does not lead to contextual changes in the sound generated. Thank you for the suggestion it makes sense 👍 In the sequencer it would be very nice if you could give the Transpose value directly from the external masterkeyboard; it could be done so that by touching the Transp tab on the display it is highlighted in reverse and then the data coming from the MIDI IN are used to vary the transposition (with a Mono logic of Priority Low or Priority High...). Great idea! |
| pandar1 | I believe the edit function would be a very helpful addition. Setting the velocity precisely using the keyboard can be quite challenging, and being able to quickly adjust a wrong note is often more efficient than deleting and re-entering it. Also, while I understand this might be more complex to implement, having the option to set different lengths for each sequencer track would be a fantastic feature. |
rotur65 | Tried to update to 7.0d using several flash drives, external drives, SD cards all formatted to ExFat (Mac OS does not have Fat32) with no luck...the Essence FM here does not recognize any of the external media that I insert on the front usb port. Very frustrated here... Update : All good now. Formatted on an old Windows machine and went through smoothly |
traffkin | a couple of years ago i suggested several additions and the reply was quite positive as i remember: 1. it would be great to have the ability to interconnect operators with the mouse, not just by touch screen (second button or something) 2. it would be great to be able to use an LFO as kinda complex non-cycling function generator, LFO without looping, one-shot arbitrary function. the good example might be the drawable functions on the Fairlight CMI 3. make the screensaver to wake up by mouse gesture |
| KODAMO | 1 and 3 would be easy to implement, I fear we forgot about this because mouse is so rarely used. 2 is probably possible too but definitely needs more involvement |
| traffkin | great! i hope it shouldn't take another couple of years either 😉 |
pete.m | Thanks so much for the update, Kodamo. I really appreciate what you've done. |
Audiologic | I don't know if it's a bug or an hardware problem but all the right top buttons (UNDO - REDO - COPY & PASTE) are not functioning. Has anyone ever had a problem with this ? |
| KODAMO | It might be a hardware problem, probably a connection issue between the front board and main board. When editing a voice, try pressing Undo/Redo, it should definitely undo/redo any actions done here, like modifying the algorithm, changing parameter values. If it does not work please contact us for a repair (totally free under warranty) |
| pete.m | I checked, and I don't have any problem using the UNDO, REDO, COPY or PASTE buttons, so maybe it is a hardware problem. Maybe it's relevant that it's happening with four buttons that are positioned right next to each other. |
| Avi F | The efm mk2's performance sequencer does have step tieing, which I think is great, but I think it might be also nice/more convenient, to be able to adjust step velocity , and gate (Smaller divisions of a single step length) for the performance sequencer. My graphite 49 midi controller can play all the different channels for the 16 different performances, except when i change to another midi channel besides channel 1, and get ready to record, the sound somehow ends up changing also, though I can hear sound (but it changes). For now, I just enter note info via the touch screen for the other channels besides channel 1. I can at least use channel 1 for my midi controller which will work for velocity aftertouch etc when recording in the perf. Seq. I love the layout of how it all works. Very straightforward. |
| fish233 | Late reply but with latest OS and the memory bus fix i didn't have any random crashes yet when switching banks with busy sequences, thanks K! |
Inhibitd | Im trying to implement a midi delay with the wave sequencer in performance mode on a single channel while sending midi on multiple midi channels for the rest of the performance sending from daw. I hit latch and the voices one shot imitating a delay as they should however when the sequencer is running ALL active incoming notes on every midi channel feed back and stack, even when the wave sequence is not clocked and the midi out from the efm is removed. I cant change it so same notes cancel as = no midi delay.. please take a look as delay is life. |
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