Elixir manual

Elixir is the firmware of the Erica Synths LXR-02 drum machine, ported to the M-VAVE FM-1 and extended. This manual covers version 0.14.1: the LXR's sound engine and sequencer as they map onto the FM-1's keys, buttons and knobs, and everything Elixir adds.

Elixir is unofficial. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Erica Synths, M-VAVE or Hügelton Instruments. It is free software under the GPL-3.0 (see Licence and credits at the end). Up to version 0.13 it was called Kettle.

1. Before you install

Status

Elixir has been tested extensively in its browser emulator and with host tests (the same C sources compiled for a computer), and it has run on one real FM-1 so far (October 2026). There, a busy pattern used about 60% of the processor on average, with a 64% peak. Elixir shows its load on screen (see the CPU meter); reports from other FM-1s are welcome. Versions 0.6 to 0.9 (PERFORM 2, the models, KEYS, the kit library) have so far only run in the emulator: their load on the FM-1 hasn't been measured yet. The models (Rings', from 0.9) are the heaviest part, so watch the CPU meter with two or three drum voices on a model, or with PERFORM 2 effects on.

Before the first install: official V15

Put the FM-1 on M-VAVE's official firmware V15 before installing Elixir for the first time. This is what everyone who makes FM-1 firmware recommends. Elixir's package, like Felucca's, is built for V15's flash layout and update loader, and V15 is the firmware you return to.

The install page has a Check my FM-1 button. It asks the FM-1 what it runs: FM-1_015 is official V15, FM-1_9xx is an alternative firmware (Felucca, Kettle or Elixir), and anything else is an older official version. If it isn't V15, get V15 (FM-1.fwsc) from M-VAVE's download page and install it with the page's Official V15 section, or with M-VAVE's own updater.

Installing

Use the Elixir install page (install/ on the Elixir site) in Chrome or Edge. Connect the FM-1 straight to the computer with a USB data cable, close other apps that use MIDI, and press Install Elixir. Allow MIDI (SysEx) when the browser asks. The page sends the package, waits for the FM-1 to restart and checks that it now runs Elixir. Don't unplug the cable or close the page while it writes.

From a terminal, tools/fm1_install.py does the same. It needs Python 3 with mido and python-rtmidi:

python3 tools/fm1_install.py elixir.fwsc

Upgrading from Kettle

Elixir was called Kettle up to version 0.13. It is the same firmware under a new name, so update it as you would any Elixir release: skip V15 and install Elixir over Kettle from Elixir's install page. Your projects, kit library and settings stay where they are and load as before. Backups made with Kettle's library page (.ktbk, .ktp, .ktlb) restore on Elixir; the file types keep their names.

The FM-1's USB name changes from "Kettle" to "Elixir". Some computers keep showing the old name for a while; Elixir's install and library pages, and fm1_install.py, find the FM-1 under either name. Kettle's old install page only looks for "Kettle", so use Elixir's from now on.

Going back

Install the official FM-1.fwsc (V15) with the install page's Official V15 section, or with fm1_install.py FM-1.fwsc. Elixir has no backup of its own: copy anything you want to keep before you go back. (The page checks that the file is the unmodified V15, so a damaged or wrong file can't be written.)

Elixir keeps its projects and settings in the same flash area Felucca uses for its own data, so installing Elixir replaces anything saved by Felucca (back it up with Felucca's own page first), and installing something else afterwards replaces Elixir's projects.

If something goes wrong

How an update works decides what can be recovered. The firmware that is running (official, Felucca, Kettle or Elixir) answers the installer, checks the package and starts the FM-1's update loader. The loader writes the new firmware and restarts. So:

• An install was cut off (cable pulled, page closed, computer asleep): the FM-1 stays in update mode, waiting for the loader's write. Plug it in and press Install again (or run fm1_install.py again). It finishes the write. This works for Elixir and for V15.
• Elixir runs but something is wrong (it misbehaves, it's too slow, you don't like it): install V15 from the page. Elixir answers the installer like any other firmware.
• Elixir crashes as it starts (it never reaches the grid): this is the case to worry about, because no firmware is left to answer the installer. Elixir's boot guard notices two crashed starts in a row and sends the FM-1 to the chip's own UBOOT mode on the next start. UBOOT is built into the chip and survives any firmware, but neither the install page nor fm1_install.py can write from it. Recovery then needs Leo Kuroshita's FM-1-transporter: a Seeed XIAO RP2040 board wired to the FM-1's USB lines, which can rewrite its flash.
• Hold OCT− and OCT+ together for 5 seconds to enter UBOOT by hand (the screen shows UBOOT). This is only useful with the Transporter. Turning the FM-1 off and on should leave it, but this hasn't been tried on hardware.

Elixir has installed and started on one real FM-1, from V15, with the install page. That is still very little testing: install it knowing that a start-up crash would need the Transporter to undo.

2. Quick start: a beat in two minutes

1. Press HOME. The screen shows the grid: seven tracks (D1 D2 D3 SN CY CH OH) by sixteen steps.
2. Press black key 1 (D1, the kick). Tap white keys 1, 5, 9, 13. They light up: the kick plays on every beat.
3. Press black key 4 (SN). Tap white keys 5 and 13.
4. Press black key 6 (CH, closed hat). Tap white keys 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15.
5. Press PLAY.
6. Turn KNOB 1 to change the tempo, KNOB 2 for shuffle.
7. Select D1 again (black key 1), press EDIT and turn the knobs to change the kick's pitch and waveform. Press ENV for its envelope.
8. Hold COPY (OCT+) and press black key 9 (bar 2): bar 1 of every track is copied into bar 2 and the pattern is now two bars long. Press bar key 9 again on its own to see bar 2, and change it.
9. Press SAVE, turn KNOB 1 to PROJECT, press OCT+, name it, press OCT+ again.

3. The panel

Keys, buttons and knobs

The FM-1's keyboard has 16 white keys and 11 black keys, numbered left to right in this manual.

Locks: on any sound page, hold a step key and turn a knob to set that parameter for that step only (a parameter lock). See locks.

The screen

LEDs

• Step keys: lit = step on; the playing step flips its light; beats (1, 5, 9, 13) glow faintly.
• Track keys: the selected track lit; each flashes when its track plays; a muted track goes dark.
• Bar keys: the shown bar lit, the playing bar breathing, bars past the track's length dark.
• Buttons: the current mode's button lit; REC lit when recording; OCT− lit while SHIFT is held, OCT+ while COPY is held; OCT+ breathes when it will act as OK, and during Control All and its dialog.
• PLAY: green while playing, dark for half a step on each beat.

4. Tracks and voices

Elixir has the LXR-02's six voices on seven tracks:

Every voice has a transient generator (click), an amp envelope, a filter, a waveshaper, a sample-rate reducer, pan and an output, plus Elixir's additions: sends, bit reduction, tilt EQ, waveshaper choice, random per hit, choke groups and cross modulation.

5. Programming patterns

A pattern has seven tracks of up to 64 steps (four bars of 16). Each track has its own length, so tracks can loop against each other (polymeter).

The grid (HOME)

• Select a track with its black key (or ALGORITHM).
• Tap a white key to turn that step on or off.
• Bar keys (black 8–11) show bars 1–4. With FOLLOW on (CONFIG), the screen follows the playhead.
• Knobs: tempo, shuffle, the track's length, the track's volume.

On the grid, a step's height shows its velocity, an outline means a chance below 100%, a notch means a flam, a tick underneath means a shift, a dot top right means a lock, a dot top left means a trig condition, and a bar underneath means a ratchet.

Track length

• SHIFT + bar key: the selected track becomes 1, 2, 3 or 4 bars long.
• Length knob on the grid (KNOB 3): any length from 1 to 64.
• LAST (SHIFT + white key 14): tap the step that should be the track's last. Press SHIFT + 14 again to set all tracks at once.

The pattern lasts as long as its longest track (in time, counting track clocks). Shorter tracks keep looping on their own across the pattern's end.

Copying

• Copy a bar to another bar: on the grid, hold COPY (OCT+) and press a bar key. The shown bar is copied, every track, into that bar, with each step's velocity, locks, timing, conditions and ratchets. A track that ended before the target bar grows to include it, unless its length isn't a whole number of bars (a 12-step track stays at 12). On other pages (sound pages, step edit), COPY + bar key copies the selected track only.
• Copy a track: hold COPY, press the source track's black key, then the target's.
• Copy a pattern: on the pattern page, hold COPY, press the source pattern's white key, then the target's.

Clearing

Hold SHIFT and press OCT+ (CLEAR). A list opens; turn SELECT to choose, then press SHIFT + OCT+ again to confirm. Letting go of SHIFT cancels. On a sound page (or in KEYS) the list opens on CLEAR SOUND, so SHIFT + OCT+ twice puts the sound you're shaping back to its init state.

Mutes and solo

SHIFT + a track's black key mutes or unmutes it (in PERF, the black keys mute on their own).

SHIFT + GLO solos the selected track: only soloed tracks play, from any page, so you can shape one sound inside a busy pattern. Select another track and press SHIFT + GLO again to solo it too; SHIFT + GLO on a soloed track takes it out. The mutes are kept underneath and come back as they were when the last solo goes. A soloed track has a bar beside its name on the grid; the others show as muted. Solo isn't saved.

Tempo, shuffle, MIDI sync

• Tempo: KNOB 1 on the grid, the PERF page or CONFIG. Turn it all the way down to MIDI to follow incoming MIDI clock.
• Shuffle: delays every other 16th; saved with the pattern.

6. Step edit

Press SEQ. Tap a white key to select a step (its key breathes; tap it again to turn the step on or off). Turn SELECT, or press SEQ again, for the four pages (SEQ goes round from RATCHET to STEP; any other button leaves step edit):

• Note: the pitch the voice plays at (C4 = as set).
• Chance: the probability the step plays (PERF's FILL key plays it anyway).
• Flam: OFF, x2, x3, x4, x6, x8: the step repeats evenly inside its length.
• Shift: −7 … +7 eighths of a step, early or late.
• Ratchet: the step plays Hits times, evenly at Rate (1/32, 1/48, 1/64, 1/24). Fade: FLAT, DOWN or UP.

Bouncing ratchets

Turn Shape to BOUNCE and the ratchet falls like a dropped ball: the hits start far apart and come closer and closer together. With BOUNCE, KNOB 1 sets 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 or 16 hits, and KNOB 2 sets the Curve:

The first gap and a pitch drift are set for the whole track on the BOUNCE page (section 12): Bounce (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32; 1/8 at first) and Bnc pitch (−12 … +12 semitones over the bounce: −5 makes a tom fall as it settles). Fade works on bounces too.

A bounce plays out over the steps that follow it. The next hit on the same track cuts it off, so leave room after it. TAPE STOP slows bounces with everything else.

MIDI notes played while in step edit set the selected step's note.

Locks

A lock sets one parameter to a different value on one step, for example a higher filter cutoff on the last kick of the bar. Each step can hold two locks.

• The quick way: on any sound page (EDIT, ENV, SCL, LFO, GLO, the mixer), hold a step key and turn a knob. The step turns on if it was off, and the knob's card shows the locked value in the accent colour.
• On the LOCKS page: choose any lockable parameter (any voice's sound parameter, the FX bus, the sends, the reverb, Elixir's shaping parameters) and its value.

Every sound parameter can be locked except the reverb's model.

Trig conditions

The Condition knob (STEP page) sets when a step plays:

"Times round" are counted per track from PLAY, so on a 12-step track, 1:2 plays every other 12 steps. The step's chance still applies on top of its condition.

Ratchets

A ratchet repeats the step: Hits 2–8, at a Rate of 1/32, 1/48, 1/64 or 1/24, with the velocity FLAT, fading DOWN or rising UP. Unlike a flam (which divides the step), a ratchet keeps its own rate and can run past its step.

7. Recording live

Press REC (it lights), then PLAY.

• Notes you play (MIDI notes on a track's channel, or rolls in PERF) are written into the nearest step.
• Knob moves on sound pages are written as locks onto the step that is playing, if that step is on.
• SHIFT + CLEAR while recording erases the selected track's steps as they pass.
• SHIFT + REC opens the record options: the lock lane (1 or 2) knob moves record into.

KEYS: playing a voice

SHIFT + EDIT turns the keyboard into an instrument for the selected track (ALGORITHM picks the track): the white and black keys play its voice chromatically, as on a piano, from F at the octave set (KNOB 1, Octave: F3 by default). SHIFT + EDIT again goes back to the grid. Under REC each note is written into the nearest step with its note and velocity, as a MIDI note would be, and it goes out on USB MIDI too. The sound pages opened from KEYS keep the keys playing, so you can play and tweak at once; PRESETS opens the sound browser.

The FM-1's keys have no velocity, so KEYS sets it: Velocity (KNOB 2) is the velocity of a key, and of PERF's rolls and SHIFT + white keys 1–7. Accent (KNOB 3) is the velocity of a key played with SHIFT held. Both are kept in the settings.

8. Patterns, banks and songs

Elixir has 32 patterns in two banks of 16, and 64 songs.

The pattern page (HOME, press again)

• White key: queue that pattern. While playing, it starts when the current pattern ends (the header shows >nn); while stopped, at once.
• Bar keys 8–9: bank 1 (patterns 1–16) or bank 2 (17–32).
• Knobs: kit change (AUTO: switching to a pattern also loads the kit saved with it), shuffle, Edits (KEEP or DROP, below).

Your edits stay. With Edits on KEEP (the default), a pattern keeps its changes when you switch to another, as on an Elektron box: the patterns are part of the project, and AUTOSAVE keeps the session, every pattern in it, through power-off. To keep a version for good, save the project (SAVE → PROJECT). RELOAD (SHIFT + white key 13) brings back the kit, and the playing pattern as it was when it started playing (or was last saved with SAVE → PATTERN).

With Edits on DROP, the LXR's way, changes to the playing pattern that haven't been saved (SAVE → PATTERN) are lost when another pattern starts. Edits is a setting: it stays through power-off.

Songs (HOME, press a third time)

A song is up to 64 rows, each a pattern (or END / LOOP).

• SELECT: the row.
• White key: write that pattern into the row and move to the next (bar keys pick the bank).
• KNOB 1: the row's pattern, END or LOOP; KNOB 2: which song.
• COPY: insert a row (a copy of the one above). CLEAR → DELETE SONG ROW: remove it.
• SHIFT + PLAY: play the song from the start. PLAY on its own plays the pattern alone.

9. Shaping the sound

Select a track, then press a sound button. Pressing the same button again moves to the next section; turning SELECT steps through every page. Each page shows eight parameters (two rows of four); the lit row is on the knobs, and pressing the button again (or SELECT) gives the other row.

The LXR's sound pages

The LXR's waveforms are SINE, TRI, SAW, SQUARE, NOISE and PWM; its transients SNAP, OFFSET, CLICK, CLICK 2, TICK, KICK, RIM, DRIP, HAT, CLAP, KICK 2, SNARE, TOM and SNAP 2. Each voice has one LFO, which can modulate any parameter of any voice; the velocity destination can be any of the voice's own parameters.

The LFO's mode

LFO MODE (LFO, the page after the LFO's two) sets how a hit starts the LFO, as on Elektron's machines. Retrigger (on the LFO page) still picks whose hits those are.

In HOLD, ONE and HALF, Retrigger OFF means the LFO's own voice's hits. A RANDOM wave draws a new value at each one-shot. The mode is part of the kit and can be locked per step; it doesn't morph.

Elixir's sound pages

Shape (SCL, after the filter):

• Shape chooses the waveshaper the voice's Drive goes into: LXR (the original curve; the default), FOLD (folds back from full scale), CLIP (hard clip), ASYM (soft on top, clipped below: even harmonics), RECTIFY (full-wave: an octave up). For all but LXR, the drive sets a gain of 1× to 8×.
• Bits: OFF, then 15 down to 1. Works after the sample-rate reducer (Mix page) for a full bitcrusher.
• Tilt: a one-knob EQ around 700 Hz. 0 is flat, + brighter, − darker.

Random per hit (LFO, after the LFO's two pages):

Each hit varies by up to the amount set: pitch up to an octave either way at 127 (small amounts are subtle, for humanising), decay from half to double, filter cutoff up to half its range either way, pan across the field.

Cross mod / choke (LFO, next):

• Source: another voice that modulates this one.
• Mode: DUCK (this voice drops while the source sounds: sidechain), FILTER (the source's level opens this voice's filter), RING (the two multiplied).
• Choke: a group 1–4. A hit on any voice in the group fades the others in that group out (within 1.5 ms). The hats already choke each other, since they share a voice.

Models: Rings (Drum 1–3)

The three DRUM voices have a second engine: a port of the resonators of Mutable Instruments' Rings, struck by the voice. It is set in the MODEL section (EDIT, after the transient; drum tracks only):

• Model: LXR (the LXR's own engine; the default), MODAL (Rings' modal resonator: a bank of up to 32 tuned modes, a struck bar, plate, bell or drum head), STRING (Rings' string: a plucked or struck string with dispersion) or FM (Rings' FM voice: two operators, with an envelope from the hit).
• Pitch is the voice's own Coarse and Fine on the oscillator page; the pitch EG and random pitch still bend it.
• Decay (Rings' DAMPING): how long it rings, from a short knock to minutes (STRING near 127 sustains for good).
• Bright (Rings' BRIGHTNESS): how much of the high end the hit brings out and keeps. Dark hits are quieter as well as duller, as in Rings.
• Struct (Rings' STRUCTURE): MODAL, the modes' spacing: around 34 (0.27) they are harmonic, lower they draw together, higher they spread into bells and metal. STRING: below 32 a curved bridge (a sitar's buzz), around 32 a plain string, above it a stiffer, more inharmonic one. FM: the modulator's frequency ratio, in steps (½, 1, √2, 2, 3, π, 4 …).
• Position (Rings' POSITION): MODAL, where it is struck (which modes sound); STRING, where it is picked up; FM, the feedback (below 64 on the phase, above on the modulator: grit).
• Exciter: what strikes it. 0 is Rings' own exciter (a filtered pulse for MODAL, a plucked noise burst for STRING, the envelope for FM); 127 is the voice's own sound (the LXR's oscillators, transient and amp EG, as if patched into Rings' input); between, a mix. With the voice's sound, the model rings with whatever the LXR plays into it.
• Tension: the pitch starts high on a hard hit and falls back in about 50 ms, as a drum head does. Up to an octave at 127, scaled by velocity.

Velocity sets how hard it's struck.

The modes a MODAL voice runs drop as more drums use MODAL: 32 with one, 24 with two, 16 with three (Rings does the same with its polyphony). STRING plays down to 43 Hz at full bandwidth; below that it runs at a lower rate, as Rings' does at its lowest. A limiter keeps every model below full scale. Rings' sympathetic strings, its other models and its reverb aren't ported.

The model replaces the oscillators, transient and amp EG in the output: the model's own Decay sets how long the voice sounds. Everything after the oscillator still applies: the filter, drive and shape, bits, tilt, sends, LFO, random per hit and cross modulation. The model's settings are part of the kit and can be locked per step; Model itself doesn't morph: the voice keeps its own kit's engine while the other knobs morph.

From 0.8 and earlier: the old models (SKIN, BAR, BELL, PLATE, TUBE) are gone. A project or kit that used them loads with MODAL in place of SKIN, BAR, BELL and PLATE, and STRING in place of TUBE; the knobs keep their values, so they sound different. Check those sounds after updating.

The sound browser

On a track's sound pages (or in KEYS), turn PRESETS: a list of sounds that track can take opens, and each step plays the sound on the track. It lists the library's saved sounds, then the voices of the library's kits, of the 64 kit slots and (on a private build) of the factory bank; a drum track lists all three drums of each kit, the others their own voice. Kits' voices still as the init kit are left out. SELECT moves through it too. OCT+ keeps the sound; OCT− puts back what you had. SAVE → SOUND saves the track's sound into the library, to come up first next time.

Control All: every track at once

As on Elektron's boxes: hold OCT+ on a sound page and turn a knob, and that parameter moves on every track. The title reads CONTROL ALL. Turn the filter's frequency and the whole kit gets darker.

• Relative. Each voice moves by the knob's steps from its own value, clamped to its range, so the voices keep their differences. The card shows the selected track's value.
• The same parameter is the one with the same name in the same section: the filter's frequency on each voice, the amp EG's decay (the closed hat's and the open hat's decay both). A voice without it is left alone: FM moves only Drum 1–3, a model only the drums. Elixir's own pages (shape, random, cross mod) move every voice. The hats share a voice, so it moves once.
• Page while you hold. The sound buttons and SELECT still page: hold OCT+, turn the filter, press ENV, turn the decay. Everything you change during the hold is one move.
• Keep or revert. When you let go of OCT+, a dialog asks REVERT THE KIT? and the changes keep sounding until you answer. Press OCT+ again (the default) to put the whole kit back as it was before the first turn (CONTROL ALL REVERTED), or OCT− to keep the changes (CONTROL ALL KEPT). So a thumb slipping off OCT+ doesn't keep anything by accident. While the dialog is open, the knobs, keys and other buttons do nothing, except PLAY and REC. You can also press OCT− while still holding OCT+ to revert at once, then turn again to start a new one. As on Elektron, the kit is the working copy: RELOAD (SHIFT + key 13) or loading the kit goes back further.
• COPY still works. Until a knob turns, OCT+ is COPY as before (track, bar). Once a knob has turned, the voice keys select a track and the bar keys show a bar; nothing is copied on release.
• With morph. What you hear is a mix of the kit and the morph target, so a change to the kit alone fades out as morph goes up: at full morph you'd hear nothing. So with morph turned up, Control All moves the morph target's value by the same steps too, and the change is heard at any morph amount and stays as you turn morph. Reverting puts the target back as well. CONFIG → CONTROL ALL → Morph: KIT ONLY moves the kit alone instead (the LXR's way); BOTH KITS is the default. The kit slot the target was loaded from isn't changed.
• Not recorded. Under REC, Control All writes no locks: it changes the kit. A kit loaded during the hold or the dialog (a pattern change, MIDI) ends it, kept.

10. Mixer, sends, FX bus and reverb

The mixer (GLO, after the Mix pages)

Turn SELECT for eight pages:

The bars show the current page's values, with each voice's level on the volume pages.

Sends

• FX send sets how much of the voice goes through the FX bus instead of straight to its output. At 127 all of it does. (This is the LXR's "Out = FX BUS"; kits from the LXR or from older Elixir versions that used it load as FX send 127.)
• Reverb send feeds the voice into the reverb, on top of its output.

The FX bus (FX)

One effect at a time.

The phaser and flanger sound strongest at DRY/WET 50%. Output sends the bus to stereo or one side.

Reverb

A separate send bus after the FX bus, from Felucca: ROOM (a Freeverb-style room), SPRING (one spring of a spring tank: chirps and drips), HALL (a dense, smooth, stereo hall). Size sets the length, Damping the darkness, Level the return. When nothing is fed to it and its tail has died away, it stops processing to save CPU.

11. Kits and morph

A kit is every sound parameter of all six voices (including the sends, the reverb and Elixir's shaping). Elixir holds 64 kits.

• Browse and load: turn PRESETS. The kit list opens on the 64 slots, or on the kit library if you browsed that last. KNOB 1 switches it: From: SLOTS or From: LIBRARY (the library's kits, L1 …, empty ones left out; from 0.9.2). Turn PRESETS to choose, press OCT+ to load. It closes by itself after 6 seconds. (On a sound page, PRESETS browses single sounds instead: the sound browser.)
• Load / save: SHIFT + white key 8 opens LOAD KIT; SAVE opens SAVE KIT (see saving).
• LXR-02 kits: kits from an LXR-02 SD card (.SND files) come in through the library page. A voice the LXR routed to its FX bus comes in with FX SEND 127, which sounds the same. Elixir's own settings (sends, reverb, shaping, models) start at their defaults. A whole LXR project (kits, patterns, songs) comes in the same way.
• The kit library: besides the 64 slots, the FM-1 keeps 128 kits and 128 single sounds in its flash, apart from the projects: loading another project leaves them. SAVE → KIT with To: LIBRARY (KNOB 3) saves there; LOAD → KIT with From: LIBRARY loads one into the sound being edited (SAVE → KIT keeps it in a slot). SAVE / LOAD → SOUND does the same for one track's sound (KNOB 3: the track). The library page backs the library up.

Slots or library? The slots are the project's kits, as on the LXR-02: patterns name their kit by slot number (the pattern page's Kit change on AUTO loads it), and loading another project brings its own 64. The library is a collection that stays whatever project is loaded: the place for kits you want everywhere, such as the LXR-02's factory kits or your favourites. Browse it with PRESETS, use a kit from it as the morph target directly, or take single voices from it with the sound browser. To give a pattern a library kit, load it and save it into a slot (SAVE → KIT, To SLOTS).

• Morph: load a second kit as the morph target (SHIFT + white key 9: LOAD MORPH; KNOB 3 picks the slots or the library), then turn Morph (PERF's first page, KNOB 3) from 0 to 100%. Every sound parameter crossfades towards the target (outputs, modulation targets and the reverb model stay). The header shows M while morph is above 0. SAVE → MORPH saves the mixture you hear as a new kit.

12. Generating tracks

Press ARP twice (past PERF). Turn SELECT for six pages. The first four are for the selected track; the last two (the links) are for the pattern:

Generators

KNOB 1 on the GENERATOR page picks how the track is made: OFF, EUCLID, MUTATE, TURING, CELLULAR or GRIDS. KNOBS 2–4 are that generator's settings, and change with it.

EUCLID is the LXR's Euclid: it rewrites the pattern's steps directly. It starts with no hits over the track's length and leaves the track alone until you turn Hits; from then on every turn of Length, Hits or Rotate rewrites the track at once (Hits back to 0 clears it). Its settings are saved with the pattern.

A second pulse. With EUCLID, the ACTION page (titled ACTION / EUCLID 2) has a second Euclidean pulse over the same length on KNOBS 2–4: Hits 2, Rotate 2 and Join, how the two are combined:

Hits 2 at 0 (OFF) leaves the first pulse alone, whatever the join. 4 hits OR 3 hits over 16 gives a tresillo against four on the floor; SUB carves gaps out of a busy pulse. DICE then keeps the number of hits the two made.

The others play a live copy of the track and change it as it plays; the grid shows what is playing. The pattern itself isn't changed until you COMMIT. Turning a generator on, RESET, or changing pattern starts the live copy again from the pattern; stopping and starting doesn't. So EUCLID then MUTATE mutates the Euclid rhythm.

Steps you tap on a generator's track change both the pattern and the live copy.

Actions

On the ACTION page, turn Action (KNOB 1) to pick one; the title then reads PRESS OCT+ TO …. Press OCT+ to do it. The actions are the generator's:

Grids

GRIDS plays a track from Grids' map of drum patterns. Each Grids track takes a part (BD, SD or HH; it starts as BD for D1–D3, SD for the snare, HH for the cymbal and hats), a density (how many of the map's hits play) and accent (the velocity follows the map).

The map's X, Y and Chaos are on the ACTION page (KNOBS 2–4) of a Grids track, and belong to the pattern, as on the module: one position drives every Grids track, so moving X or Y changes the kick, snare and hats together. Chaos varies the hits a little each time round.

A typical start: D1 GRIDS / BD, SN GRIDS / SD, CH GRIDS / HH, then explore X and Y, and COMMIT what you like.

Track: length, clock, direction

Each track can run at its own rate against the pattern: /4, /3, /2, 2/3, 3/4, 1x, 4/3, 3/2, x2, x3, x4. A hat at x2 plays 32nds; a track at 3/4 against a 16-step pattern makes 12 steps fit a bar (a polyrhythm). Combine with track lengths for polymeters. Flams and shifts scale with the track's step.

Direction sets the order the track plays its steps in:

A time round is still the track's length in steps, whatever the direction, so the track keeps its place in the pattern, and conditions (1:2 …) and generators count rounds as before. Flams and shifts follow the direction: a step shifted early sounds early before whichever step comes before it.

Bounce

Bounce and Bnc pitch set the track's bouncing ratchets (section 6): the first gap and the pitch drift.

Links (track coupling)

Links make tracks react to each other, so a pattern behaves like a small system instead of a loop: the kick ducks the hats, the open hat answers only when the closed hat rests, a snare hit makes the next hat rattle. Each pattern holds up to 8 links. SHIFT + SEQ opens the LINKS page from anywhere (it is also the fifth page after PERF).

A link reads as a sentence, and the screen shows it that way:

> When D1 hits, CH chance −60%, on the next step.

On the LINKS page, KNOB 1 picks the link (the row of 8 at the top shows which are set) and Start offers four starting points, so a useful link is one turn away:

Start shows EDITED once you change the link; turning it back to – clears the link. On the grid, a small mark by a track's name shows that a link joins it.

How they work. On each tick, Elixir first decides every track's hit (steps, chance, conditions, generators). Then it applies the links in order, 1 to 8, each one seeing what the links before it did. Then the hits play. So a link can point either way between two tracks, and loops are fine: if link 1 has D1 duck D2 and link 2 has D2 duck D1, link 1 wins. A flam's or ratchet's later hits keep what the links decided for its first hit, and the extra hits a link makes (TRIG) don't set off other links.

A worked example: a hat line that breathes.

1. Program four kicks on D1 (steps 1, 5, 9, 13) and closed hats on every step of CH.
2. SHIFT + SEQ, then turn Start to DUCK. The hat after each kick now drops out 60% of the time.
3. KNOB 1 to link 2, Start to CALL. Program open hats on every step of OH: they now play only in the two steps after a closed hat rests, so they answer the gaps DUCK made. Every bar comes out a little different.
4. KNOB 1 to link 3, then on LINK SETUP set When to SN hit, Target CH, Effect RATCH, Window NEXT. Add a snare on 5 and 13: the hat after it rattles.
5. Back on LINKS, turn Depth down to 0% and up again while it plays: the system fades out to the plain pattern and back.

Links, their depth and the bounce settings are saved with the pattern (project format 6). Elixir 0.5 and earlier projects load with no links.

13. Performance mode (PERF)

Press ARP. The white keys act while held; SHIFT + key latches it on (the key again turns it off). Leaving PERF (HOME or SEQ) turns off whatever is latched.

The ALGORITHM encoder selects the track the throws act on (shown as THROW on screen).

The screen shows all 16 keys (lit: on, outlined: latched), the repeat length, the throw track, the DJ filter's position and, by name, the effects that are on.

PERF pages (SELECT)

The performance pages come first (PERFORM 2's among them, last), then the global LFOs, then the macros.

• PERFORM is the LXR's own PERFORMANCE page: tempo, roll rate, morph and the global sample-rate reducer.
• SRate: the LXR's global sample rate: every voice's own rate (Mix page) times this one, before the mix. Lower is grittier. It is part of the kit, so a kit can bring its own crush; it can be a macro's target and is recorded as locks under REC.
• MIX and MIX 2 stand in for the LXR's faders: ride the voices' levels while playing. They are the mixer's volumes (GLO), so they are part of the kit and record as locks under REC.
• DJ filter: off in the middle; left a low-pass on the whole output, right a high-pass.
• Macros: each macro knob moves one parameter between its Min and Max (Max below Min turns it the other way). Set them up on MACRO SETUP: pick the macro, its target (any lockable parameter), Min and Max. Turning a macro while recording writes locks, as any knob does.
• Tape time: 0.2 to 4 seconds.
• Roll sweep: while a roll key is held (or latched) on the PERFORM page, KNOB 2 turns from the roll rate into a smooth sweep from 1/4 to 1/192, off the grid. Turn it up while holding a kick for a drum-and-bass build, or down for a stutter that slows to a stop. SHIFT + KNOB 2 sets the gridded roll rate instead, which puts rolls back on the grid. The swept rate is not saved.
• Velocity: rolls play at the KEYS velocity (see KEYS).

Macros, the repeat length and the tape time are saved with the project. The DJ filter starts in the middle at power-on.

Global LFOs

Two LFOs that move the whole kit's performance controls, not a voice's sound. Slow one down to many bars and it plays the set for you: a kit morphing into the next over 64 bars, a filter opening over 16, comb resonance drifting in and out.

• The knobs stay put. The LFO moves the sound, not the setting: the Morph knob, the DJ filter and the effects' settings read as you left them, and that is what the project saves.
• Synced to the clock: the speed follows the tempo, MIDI clock, HALF and TAPE STOP. The LFOs run when stopped too (FREE, or after a trigger).
• OCT+ on a global LFO's page triggers it by hand (a FREE LFO has no trigger: set its Mode first).
• The screen shows both LFOs moving (L1, L2) on their pages. Both LFOs on the same destination add up.
• They are saved with the project.

A kit morphing into another over 64 bars: LOAD → MORPH the second kit; GLOBAL LFO 1: Dest MORPH, Depth +127, Speed 64 BARS, Wave SAW UP; MODE page: Mode ONE, Trig PLAY. Press PLAY: morph goes from the knob's value to full over 64 bars and stays there. With Mode FREE and Wave TRI instead, it morphs there and back for as long as you play.

PERFORM 2: the second bank

Turn SELECT on to PERFORM 2. While a PERFORM 2 page is on screen, the 16 white keys play a second set of effects, picked with Aphex Twin, Autechre, microhouse and dub techno in mind. The black keys (mutes) and the bar keys (repeat length) work as before. Hold a key, or latch it with SHIFT, just as on the first bank. Effects latched in either bank keep running when you change pages, and a key always lets go in the bank it was pressed in.

PERFORM 2: SETUP and SETUP 2 set how strong each one is: Drill (how many hits a drill can have), Jitter (the most it delays), Cuts (how many 32nds are cut), Pump (its depth), Comb (its note, C1–C7) and Comb fb (how long it rings), Crush (bits and rate together), Reverse (1/16, 1/8, 1/4). They are saved with the project.

COMB, CUTS and CRUSH act on the whole output after the DJ filter, in that order; REVERSE plays what came out of them. PUMP, SHORT and DRILL act on the voices, and HALF and JITTER on the sequencer, so MIDI out follows them too.

14. Saving

Press SAVE for the save page, SAVE again for the load page (SHIFT + SAVE opens load directly). KNOB 1 chooses the type, KNOB 2 (or SELECT, PRESETS, or a white key in the bank on screen) the slot.

Naming: KNOB 1 the letter's position, KNOB 2 the letter, KNOB 3 upper / lower case. OCT+ saves, OCT− alone goes back.

Projects

A project is everything: all 64 kits, the 32 patterns, the 64 songs, the settings, the sound as it is, the morph target, the macros. Elixir keeps four projects in the FM-1's flash.

The session saves itself. When AUTOSAVE is on (CONFIG → DEVICE), Elixir saves the session (all the patterns, with their edits, the kits and the rest) while stopped, once 8 seconds have passed since you stopped or last changed something and the sound (reverb and delay tails too) has died away. It loads it at power-on. The FM-1 runs on a battery, so this means nothing is lost when it switches off. If something keeps sounding (a frozen delay, pads played live), it saves anyway after 30 seconds of rest.

Writing to flash stalls the FM-1's processor for a moment, so every save (automatic or from the SAVE page) fades the output out, writes, and fades it back in: a save while something sounds is a short gap, not a click or noise. (Before 0.5.1 the save could come right after a stop and chopped the reverb tail into a burst of noise.)

A project has 48 KB. A typical one uses a fraction of that (a busy test project, every pattern 32 steps long on all tracks with every kit edited, takes about 33 KB), but a completely dense one can be too big: saving then shows PROJECT TOO BIG and nothing is written. If the automatic session save fails this way, the screen shows AUTOSAVE: PROJECT TOO BIG and it doesn't try again until something changes. Clearing unused patterns or tracks makes room.

Projects saved by older Elixir versions load in newer ones (the first 32 of 0.1's 64 patterns). Projects don't load in older versions than the one that saved them.

Backing up, restoring and LXR-02 kits

The library page (library/ on Elixir's site, from 0.7) connects to the FM-1 over USB MIDI in Chrome or Edge. It can:

• Back up every project and the session to one file on the computer (.ktbk), or download one project (.ktp). Elixir's own updates keep your projects. Installing V15 or another firmware may not, so back up first.
• Restore a backup or a project file, into the slots it came from or into a chosen slot, and load it. The old project stays in place until the restore has been written and checked, so pulling the cable halfway loses nothing.
• Import LXR-02 kits into the kit slots or (from 0.9.1) the kit library: pick .SND files, or a folder. A folder takes the .SND files in it and in all its subfolders, other files left out, so picking an SD card's top folder takes every project's kits, project by project. They fill from the number you choose, leaving out Init and empty kits: up to 64 into the slots, 128 into the library, and the page tells you how many didn't fit. Into the slots, save the project afterwards (SAVE → PROJECT) or let AUTOSAVE keep them; the library keeps them at once. (Chrome asks to "upload" a folder's files: the page only reads them, and sends nothing but the kits to your FM-1.)
• Import a whole LXR-02 project (from 0.8): pick one project's folder from the SD card, not the whole card (the page refuses a folder holding several). Its kits go into the kit slots by their numbers (so each pattern still finds its kit), its patterns into Elixir's patterns and its songs into the songs, replacing what's playing; then save the project. Elixir has 32 patterns to the LXR's 64, so you pick which half (a song step on the other half plays pattern 32). The factory and DLC projects' demo patterns come in this way.
• Back up and restore the kit library (from 0.8, a .ktlb file).
• Export kits as LXR-02 .SND files (the LXR's parameters only).

While a restore is being written, the output is silent and saving is held off. If the computer stops sending, Elixir gives up after 10 seconds.

The emulator has the same functions under Library, below the panel, so you can try kits before they go on the FM-1: import them into the emulator's kit library, browse them with PRESETS, then download the kit library (.ktlb) and restore it onto the FM-1 from the library page. The emulator holds what the FM-1 holds (64 slots, 128 library kits); to try more, import the next batch over them.

Built-in kit bank (private builds only). The LXR-02's factory and Hrtl kits can't be shipped with Elixir, but you can build them into your own copy: ELIXIR_KITS_DIR=folder:folder:… ./build.sh (and web/emu/build.sh), with folders of .SND files from your LXR-02 SD card or its downloads. Such a build:

• shows its version as "v0.7+K";
• starts a fresh unit with the bank's first 64 kits in the kit slots;
• adds a FACTORY type on the LOAD page. OCT+ loads the chosen kit into the sound you're editing (SAVE → KIT keeps it in a slot); the last entry, ALL > SLOTS, puts the first 64 into the slots.

The site builder refuses to publish a "+K" build.

15. MIDI

In: USB MIDI and the TRS MIDI jack. Out: USB MIDI (the FM-1 has no MIDI out jack).

• Notes: each track has a MIDI channel (CONFIG: MIDI CHANNELS). A note on a track's channel plays it. With the track's MIDI note set to ANY, it plays at the note's pitch; with a note set, only that note triggers it. Notes on the global channel play the selected track.
• Notes out: the sequencer sends each track's hits on its channel.
• CC: CC n sets parameter n − 1, as on the LXR. NRPN (CC 99 / 98, data entry CC 6) reaches every parameter: NRPN n sets parameter n + 128. The tables are below: the LXR's sound by CC, the rest by NRPN, and Elixir's own parameters.
• CC 0 loads a kit. Program change 0–31 on the global channel queues a pattern; Elixir sends one when its pattern changes.
• Clock out: always on, 24 PPQ, with start and stop.
• Clock in: turn the tempo all the way down to MIDI. Elixir then follows incoming clock, start, continue and stop. The header shows MIDI and the measured tempo.
• Filters (CONFIG: MIDI): what is received and sent: N notes, R clock and start/stop, C CC and NRPN, P program change.
• Route: TRS>USB forwards the jack's input to USB (soft thru).
• Remote (CONFIG: REMOTE, channel 16 by default): a second map, made for an 8-column controller such as Novation's Launch Control XL. See below.

The remote map

Everything on the remote channel goes to this map and nowhere else (the LXR's CC map and the notes ignore it, and the MIDI filters don't apply). It reaches what the LXR's map can't: mutes, solo, morph, tempo, the DJ filter, PERF's effects, Elixir's sends. Set the remote channel to one no track and not the global channel uses; the REMOTE page warns if it's shared. The whole map on one page, laid out as the controller is: the appendix.

Everything comes in rows of eight: columns 1–7 are the tracks D1 D2 D3 SN CY CH OH, column 8 the master. CH and OH both act on the hat voice, except their decays.

Knobs and faders: CC = row + column − 1

Buttons: note = row + column − 1 (note on: pressed; note off, or velocity 0: released)

The effects are PERF's (see Performance mode); they work from any page, and leaving PERF doesn't turn off what the remote latched.

Knobs (REMOTE page, KNOB 2):

• PICKUP (the default): a knob or fader does nothing until it reaches or passes the current value, then follows. If the value changes elsewhere (the panel, a kit), it waits again. Nothing jumps.
• ABS: the value goes straight to the control's position.
• REL: for endless encoders sending relative values: 64 ± n (65 up, 63 down) or two's complement (1 up, 127 down). Don't use it with faders.

Recording: under REC with the sequencer playing, a track's knob records locks on its own track, as a panel knob does on the selected track. The master column records nothing.

Feedback: when a value on the map changes from anywhere (the panel, a kit or pattern load, MIDI), Elixir sends its CC back on the remote channel, so encoder rings and motorless displays can follow. Button states go back as their notes: velocity 127 on, 0 off. These cover mutes, solo, the selected track, the rolls, the effects, PLAY and REC. A lock playing back isn't sent: the values are the kit's. Out is USB only, so feedback reaches the controller only when both are on a USB host (a computer or a USB MIDI host such as the mioXL), not with the controller's DIN out straight into the FM-1's TRS input.

Connecting: a controller with a DIN out into the TRS input (with a TRS-to-DIN adapter: check the FM-1's TRS type), or both over a USB host. The FM-1 and the Launch Control XL are both USB devices, so neither plugs straight into the other.

16. Settings (CONFIG) and the CPU meter

GLO three times (past Mix and the mixer) opens CONFIG. Turn SELECT for its pages:

The CPU meter

The bottom of every CONFIG page shows the audio engine's load: CPU (the average), PEAK (the highest since CONFIG was opened) and, if it ever happens, LATE (audio buffers that were computed too late, counted since power-on: these would be heard as clicks). The text turns red above 85%. A buffer can be late because the engine ran out of time, or because something else held the processor; saves to flash no longer count (0.5.1), since they are not the engine's load.

To measure, open CONFIG while a dense pattern plays with the FX bus and reverb on, and note the numbers. The browser emulator always shows 0%, because it doesn't model CPU time.

The battery

At the right end of the CPU line: the battery's charge as three bars (as the stock firmware reads it), one bar left in red, an empty battery as a red outline. On USB power the FM-1 is charging and it shows USB instead.

17. Reference tables

SHIFT + white keys (outside PERF)

In PERF, SHIFT + a white key latches it instead.

Other combinations

The sound by CC

Each CC is received on its voice's track channel or on the global channel (10 by default). A CC with no voice (FX bus, global sample rate) is received on any of Elixir's channels. To control everything from one channel, send every CC on the global channel. The values go in as they are, so set list-type controls (waveform, filter type) to the range shown and pans to 0–127 with 63/64 as the centre. CH and OH share the HH voice: a CC for HH acts on both, except the two decays. CY and HH have three oscillators: Wave 2 and 3 are their FM oscillators' waveforms.

The rest by NRPN

NRPN n sets parameter n + 128: send CC 99 = n ÷ 128, CC 98 = n mod 128, then CC 6 = the value. Six numbers per voice-based setting, in the order D1 D2 D3 SN CY HH.

NRPN 120 (morph, 0–127 for 0–255) and 119 (roll rate, 0–13) act as the panel's knobs do (from 0.12). The DJ filter, repeat, tape, the PERFORM 2 effects, mutes and solo aren't in this map: use the remote map.

Elixir's parameters by NRPN

Six numbers per voice-based setting, in the order D1 D2 D3 SN CY HH.

The LXR's own parameters keep their CC and NRPN numbers.

Capacities

18. How Elixir differs from the LXR-02

What changed in the port:

• One stereo output. The FM-1 has one stereo output, so the LXR's two stereo pairs and four mono outputs all mix into it (a mono output to its side). Kits keep their routing settings.
• 32 patterns instead of 64, to make room for the new features.
• No SD card. Kits, patterns and songs live in projects in the FM-1's flash (four projects plus the automatic session).
• The FX bus output is a send. "Out = FX BUS" became each voice's FX send; old kits load with it at 127.
• No CV/gate and no MIDI out jack. MIDI goes out over USB.
• Fixed-point sound engine. The FM-1 has no floating-point unit, so the LXR's DSP was rewritten in fixed point. Tests compare every voice with the LXR's own code: levels match within 0.1 dB and tonal voices are near identical. Noise-based sounds differ only because the noise generator differs.
• Sequencer details: each track's flams and shifts only affect that track (the LXR's could swallow other tracks' notes); a step sends one MIDI note; MIDI clock out stays on the unshuffled grid; the faster and triplet roll rates play at their rate.

What Elixir adds:

• Sound: Control All (OCT+ held, a knob: every track); LFO modes (hold, one-shot, half); FX and reverb sends per voice; three reverbs; waveshaper choice; bits; tilt EQ; random per hit; choke groups; cross modulation; phaser and flanger; Rings' resonators on the drum voices; a sound browser and a kit library.
• Performance: PERF with fill, repeat, freeze, throws, feedback push, tape stop, filter sweeps, a DJ filter, four macros, the voices' volumes on two pages, PERFORM 2 and two global LFOs (morph, the DJ filter, the effects, down to 256 bars a cycle); KEYS, to play a voice from the keyboard.
• Sequencing: trig conditions, ratchets, per-track clocks, generators (mutate, Turing machine, cellular automata, Grids, Euclid with a second pulse), dice, commit and undo, and copying a bar across all tracks.
• Safety: the automatic session save, a CPU meter, and backup and restore over USB (the library page).

19. Troubleshooting

20. Licence and credits

Elixir is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPL-3.0-only). See LICENSE and NOTICE.md.

It is built from:

• The LXR-02 firmware, © 2012–2026 Erica Synths, GPL-3.0, itself built on Julian Schmidt's original Sonic Potions LXR: the sound engine, parameters, kit format, sequencer, MIDI and front-panel functions.
• Felucca, © 2026 Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments, GPL-3.0: the FM-1 hardware layer, boot, screen, graphics, USB, storage, updater, browser emulator and the reverb.
• Grids, © 2011–2012 Emilie Gillet, GPL-3.0-or-later (used under GPL-3.0): the drum map and its reading.
• Rings and stmlib, © 2012–2015 Emilie Gillet, MIT licence: the drum voices' models (a fixed-point port).
• Inter Tight (the screen's font) and DotGothic16 (the emulator page), SIL Open Font License 1.1.

"Erica Synths" and "LXR-02" are trademarks of Erica Synths; "M-VAVE" and "FM-1" are trademarks of their owner.

Building and testing

See README.md: building the firmware (./build.sh), the browser emulator (web/emu/build.sh), and the host tests (render_test, ui_test, compare_test, rings_compare, the library tests).

Appendix: the remote map at a glance

The remote map laid out as the controller is: the tracks across, the rows down. Everything is on the remote channel (CONFIG → REMOTE, 16 by default). CH and OH both act on the hat voice, except their decays.

Knobs and faders: the CC numbers (how they take values, PICKUP, ABS or REL: the remote map)

Buttons: the note numbers (note on: pressed; note off or velocity 0: released). Mute, solo and the latched effects toggle; the others act while held, except select, PLAY / STOP, REC and the patterns, which act on the press. Their lights follow the state: Elixir sends each note back, velocity 127 on and 0 off.