Smack

Smack is a performance looper-mangler in the family of Sugar Bytes Looperator and dblue Glitch, built for hands-on hardware use on the Move. It records incoming audio — mic, line, USB-C, or whatever is upstream in the Signal Chain — into a continuously running 70-second ring buffer.

Capture is retroactive: press it and the last 1 step to 16 bars you already played become the loop, aligned to the clock grid. No punch-in anxiety. Prefer to record forward? Arm does that.

The loop is sliced on the grid, then a seeded roll hands out effects and slice-order swaps at the densities you set. Seed 1234 always produces pattern 1234 — the Seed knob literally browses patterns by number, and Re-Roll deals a fresh hand.

A/B punches between the untouched loop and the pattern, quantized so it always lands musically. Every slice can be inspected, muted, pinned to a chosen effect, or tweaked — from the pads or from a browser.

1 — Install. In Schwung Manager, search the Module Store for Smack, Smack In, or Oversmack. For a custom install, use the matching dedicated distribution repo:

2 — Load it. smack / smack-in go in a Signal Chain slot (smack also in Master FX); oversmack launches from the overtake menu.

On-device help ships with the modules: Shift+Vol+Menu → Help → Modules. And with schwung's screen reader enabled, the editor announces pads, knobs, and loop state as you go.

Capture (retro). Play something. Press Capture — pad 68 or the hardware Capture button on oversmack, jog-click in a slot editor (slots don't receive pads or the Capture button — firmware keeps them). The last Loop-Length of audio becomes the loop instantly — Smack was already listening. The ring keeps recording while the loop plays, so capturing again grabs whatever you played since.

Arm (forward). Press Arm; recording starts on the grid and loops automatically when Loop-Length is reached. The pad burns bright red while armed/recording.

A/B. Tap to flip between the clean loop (A) and the pattern (B). On oversmack, hold the pad for a momentary punch — it flips while held and snaps back on release. Flips use the A/B Quantize setting: Instant, next Slice, or next Loop boundary.

Re-Roll. Deals a new pattern from the current seed stream. Same knobs, new dice. The SEED knob browses patterns by number instead — seed 1234 is always the same pattern for the same loop settings, so you can write your favorites down.

Steps. The 16 step buttons show the pattern — one color per effect family, white playhead chasing through. In the chain UI a step press mutes that slice's effect (press again to restore the roll). On oversmack a step press selects the slice for editing with the palette. Loops with more than 16 slices page: jog wheel (oversmack) or pad 72 (chain).

Clear. Drops the loop and returns to idle. The ring keeps recording; nothing else is touched.

On oversmack, the upper three pad rows are the effect palette, grouped by family and lit in family colors. The arrangement is yours to change — Arrange pads in the web editor swaps pads, replaces a pad's effect entirely (duplicates welcome — two Delay pads at different times), and pins a variant to a pad ("Buzz — Massive" as a pad of its own). Variant pads assign, pin, and punch with that exact setting. The hardware follows instantly and the layout persists in presets. With a slice selected on the steps:

Tap a palette pad → assign that effect to the slice.
Re-tap the same effect → lock it exactly as it currently sounds (keeps the rolled parameter).
Hold ≥ ½ s → pin it. Pins survive Re-Roll — build a skeleton of moments you love, then re-roll everything around them.
Unlock (top-right pad) → hand the slice back to the dice.

Pinning never disturbs its neighbors: unlocked slices roll identically with or without pins, so a pattern you save today restores exactly tomorrow.

Global punch. Hold a palette pad with no slice selected and that one effect takes over the whole loop, in original order, for as long as you hold — pad pressure bends its parameter while you lean in. Release, and the pattern comes back untouched. Instant fills: hold Buzz, lean, release.

Mute vs clean. In the chain UI, a step press mutes a slice's effect (temporary, roll preserved). On oversmack, assigning Clean from the palette does the equivalent — and Unlock restores the roll.

Pad play (smack-in). In a slot's component editor the Move grid stays a note grid — so smack-in listens: with Pad Play on (the default), every pad triggers a pattern cell (note % slices) on the next Pad Rate boundary — the beat, by default — and repeats it while held, velocity as volume, newest pad winning. Release, and the loop is exactly where it would have been. MPC-style slice juggling with zero setup, on the stock pad grid.

smack-in and oversmack ship with a full browser editor, served by schwung-manager from the Move itself — open move.local:7700 → Remote UI. smack-in appears in its slot; oversmack under the Tool tab. Live sync both ways: pad moves show up in the browser, browser edits hit the pads instantly.

Per-slice tweaking. Click any slice, pick any effect, and set its parameter from a menu of musical options (the same lists as above) — finer control than the pad palette, same engine.

Depth & Mix. Every slice gets two more dials: a per-effect Depth (delay feedback, filter resonance, distortion drive, retrig decay, pitch glide, scatter chaos…) and a Mix that blends the effect with the clean slice — parallel crush, subtle stutters, 20%-wet reverbs. Both save into pins, presets, layouts, and even palette pads: a pad can be "Delay — Ping-pong, feedback 80, mix 50".

Effect presets. Save a favorite effect + parameter combo ("Buzz — Massive") and stamp it onto slices with a click.

Arrange pads. Reorganize the effect palette: click a pad to edit it — pick any effect (duplicates OK) and any variant — or click a second pad to swap positions. The Move's pad LEDs re-light as you go, and the layout is saved with presets. Factory layout is one click away.

Layouts. Save the entire pattern — seed, densities, resolution, pins — as a named layout. Applying one re-rolls the current loop into that exact pattern; the audio is untouched. Export/import as text to share.

Running two mono synths into Move's stereo line-in? Flip Channels to Dual Mono (pad 74, or the Shift knob layer) and Smack treats left and right as two independent signals — each with its own effect pattern, own slice order, own pins — then places them in the stereo field with Pan L / Pan R (equal-power, LFO-targetable from Master FX).

Lane select (pad 75) picks which lane the steps and palette edit — cyan for left, orange-red for right. Hold it and turn knobs 1–2 to set the pans. Both lanes share one seed stream, so dual-mono patterns are just as reproducible as stereo ones, and the A side always plays the raw stereo input untouched.