Yanfei visual guide

Use this guide to find the controls and recognize each screen. The pictures come from the y13 browser emulator. Your notes, colors, and sound names can differ. Select a picture to open it at full size. For each engine, use the engine guide. For page functions and sound settings, use modes and shared controls. For all procedures, use the user guide. For shortcuts, use the control reference.

Find the controls

Emulator panel: SELECT and PRESETS at the left, four sound knobs at the right, SEQ PLAY and REC below them, and the tracker keys across the bottom.
The emulator panel with tracker labels enabled. Use the printed control names on your FM-1.
Control Start here
SEQ button Open the tracker.
REC button Enable note entry. In section editing, press again to return to navigation.
SELECT knob Move between rows. Hold the SHIFT key to change page.
ALGORITHM knob Select a track.
PRESETS knob Change the selected tracker value. On HOME, select a sound.
KNOB 1 through KNOB 4 Change the displayed sound settings; on DETAIL, change the note settings.
GLO button Open the song arrangement after tracker activation.
SAVE button Open the save pages. PROJECT saves the whole song.

The EDIT button is in the panel's top row. It opens sound settings. The EDIT key is the rightmost keyboard key. It edits tracker cells. SHIFT and OPTION in these instructions are keyboard keys.

Find the tracker keys

Tracker keyboard map: LEFT OFF DOWN UP RIGHT at the left, sixteen note keys in the middle, and SHIFT PLAY OPTION EDIT at the right.
The keyboard positions stay fixed when you change octave. OPT on this picture means OPTION.
FM-1 key position Tracker control Computer key in the emulator
F3, leftmost key LEFT Z
F#3 OFF in NOTE mode S
G3 DOWN X
G#3 UP D
A3 RIGHT C
D5 SHIFT R
E5 PLAY Y
F5 OPTION U
G5, rightmost key EDIT O

The sixteen keys from A#3 through C#5 enter notes in NOTE mode. Hold a modifier before you press the other key. For example, hold SHIFT, press UP, then release SHIFT. Computer arrow keys turn SELECT and ALGORITHM.

Find your place on the screen

Press SEQ. On a fresh boot, ALL opens. Pause between SEQ presses; a quick double press opens another control layer.

ALL view with four engine columns, a white selected cell on track 2 at row 04, and four note values in the footer.
ALL shows the four tracks together. The white cell is the edit position. In this example, FM6 is the selected track.

Read the screen from top to bottom:

  1. ALL S00: you are editing song section 00.
  2. 1/4: page one of four.
  3. NOTE: the note keys can write into the selected cell. NAV means navigation.
  4. 120: tempo in beats per minute.
  5. Four engine headings: tracks 1 through 4, from left to right. The selected heading is underlined.
  6. 00 through 0F: the sixteen rows on this page. The numbers are hexadecimal.
  7. CH, RT, ND, VEL: chance, ratchet count, timing offset, and velocity for the selected row.

A message can temporarily replace the bottom values. A thin line below a cell marks playback. The white edit cell can be elsewhere.

Change view

You want to… Control
See all tracks or individual note columns SHIFT + UP switches ALL and PHRASE.
Open the current chain SHIFT + LEFT from ALL or PHRASE.
Open SONG GLO button, or SHIFT + LEFT from CHAIN.
Edit the selected song section SHIFT + UP from SONG.
Open a chain from SONG, or a phrase from CHAIN SHIFT + RIGHT.

Enter notes and hear them

Use an empty row. Save existing work first if you need to keep it.

  1. Open ALL with SEQ.
  2. Use LEFT or RIGHT to select a track.
  3. Turn SELECT to choose a row.
  4. Press REC once. The heading shows NOTE.
  5. Press a note key, or hold up to four note keys together.
  6. Release all note keys. The cursor advances one row.
  7. Press PLAY to hear the section. Press PLAY again to stop.
ALL during playback: NOTE PLAY in the heading, a white edit cell, and separate thin playhead lines below the playing rows.
The example contains single notes, two-note cells, chords, and drum hits. PLAY repeats the selected section.

A single note shows its pitch. Two notes show two pitches. A larger set shows a chord name when it matches a known chord, or MULTI. The stored pitches stay the same when the display shows a chord name. Use SHIFT + UP to see them separately.

Move through four bars

A new section has four pages. At DIV 1/16 and a phrase length of sixteen rows, each page takes one bar. Turn SELECT past row 0F to reach the next page. Hold SHIFT and turn SELECT to change page while keeping the row position.

ALL on page 4 of 4, with rows 30 through 3F and two notes on the last selected row.
4/4 means page four of four. The last row, 3F, is row 64 when counted from one.

Hold SHIFT and OPTION, then turn SELECT to set one through four bars. Shortening a section keeps the notes on its later pages. At another DIV or a shorter phrase length, a page can take a different amount of time. The section still ends at its set number of beats.

To copy a page, hold SHIFT and OPTION, then press LEFT. At the destination page, hold SHIFT and OPTION, then press RIGHT. This pastes a shared reference. To make separate note edits, press SHIFT + OPTION + EDIT to clone it. If two sections share a chain, clone that chain in SONG before you change its pages.

Edit each note or drum lane

Melodic notes

Press SHIFT + UP from ALL to open PHRASE.

Detailed melodic view: note columns N1 N2 N3 N4, instrument I, velocity VEL, chance percent, and ratchet RT.
Each row holds up to four pitches. I selects its instrument. The other values apply to the whole row.

Use LEFT and RIGHT to select a column. Turn PRESETS to change the value. Hold EDIT and press LEFT or RIGHT to move a pitch by one semitone. Hold EDIT and press UP or DOWN to move it by one octave. In ALL, these pitch edits transpose the whole chord.

Drum lanes

Select a DRUM track, then open PHRASE with SHIFT + UP if needed.

DRUM view: eight lane columns KD SD CH OH LT HT CP RM, followed by instrument I and velocity VEL.
X marks a hit. An exclamation mark marks an accent. I and VEL are shared by the row.

Select a lane with LEFT or RIGHT. Press the EDIT key to switch the hit on or off. Press EDIT + UP to add its accent, or EDIT + DOWN to remove it.

Make a song

Press SHIFT + LEFT to open CHAIN.

CHAIN C04 with P00 on two successive links. The second link has a transpose value of 12.
This chain plays P00 twice. The second pass is one octave higher. Both links use the same phrase.

PHRASE contains phrase references. TRANSPOSE changes playback pitch. A paste shares the original phrase. A clone makes separate notes and automation. Clone a phrase with SHIFT + OPTION + EDIT on its link. Its instrument numbers remain shared.

Press GLO to open SONG.

SONG with four section rows. Track 1 uses chain C00 in rows 00 01 and 03, and C04 in row 02.
An A–A–B–A example: section 02 has a separate chain for track 1. The other three tracks keep their original chains.

Each row is one section. Each column is one track's chain. The top shows the selected section's length. R means repeat; W means play once and wait. Hold OPTION and turn PRESETS to set the selected track to REPEAT or WAIT.

SONG with a two-bar section and the track headings 1W 2R 3R 4R.
In this two-bar example, track 1 waits after its chain ends. Tracks 2 through 4 repeat.

To make the example, copy section 00 with SHIFT + OPTION. Paste into rows 01, 02, and 03 with SHIFT + EDIT. In row 02, clone the chain that must change with SHIFT + OPTION + EDIT. Open it with SHIFT + RIGHT and clone any phrases that need different notes. See the full arrangement procedure.

Set note timing

Select the note row, then press SEQ until DETAIL appears.

DETAIL screen with four knob cards: CHANCE 100 percent, RATCH 1, NUDGE 0, and VEL 100.
The four knobs now change this row's note settings. PRESETS selects the row.
Knob Field Meaning
1 CHANCE Whether the row plays; this field also contains cycle conditions.
2 RATCH One through four triggers in the step.
3 NUDGE Early or late timing. Set QUANTIZE OFF and RATCH to one to use it.
4 VEL Velocity.

Hold OPTION and turn SELECT in the tracker to set the row gate. HOLD continues the note until another note, OFF, section completion, or stop. A finite gate releases it earlier. See note duration.

Save the whole project

Stop playback. Press SAVE until PROJECT appears.

PROJECT screen showing slots A B C D, with A selected, and SLOT ERASE LOAD SAVE knob cards above.
PROJECT saves the song, phrases, chains, instruments, and settings together.
  1. Select A, B, C, or D with KNOB 1.
  2. Turn KNOB 4 right to select SAVE.
  3. Press OCT+. Confirm OVERWRITE with OCT+ if it appears.
NAME screen headed SAVE PROJECT A, with an editable name and bottom hints OCT plus SAVE and OCT minus CANCEL.
NAME is the last step before the write. OCT+ saves; OCT− cancels.

Set the name if required. KNOB 1 moves the text cursor. KNOB 2 changes its character. Press OCT+ to write the project. SAVE > USER saves one sound. Use PROJECT to keep the whole song.

Use the browser aids

Open the emulator. Below the panel:

These controls work in the browser. They do not take space in the firmware.