Radio Music Mk2 Quick Start

What Radio Music does

Radio Music Mk2 is a 4HP sample player. It loads audio from microSD banks, lets you scan files with STATION, set start point or pitch with START, retrigger with RESET, and can be remote-controlled from 8mu over USB.

First setup (5-10 minutes)

  1. Format a microSD card as FAT32 or exFAT (MBR partition table).
  2. Create one bank folder in SD root, for example 0_core.
  3. Put a few known-good files in that folder (start with WAV PCM 16-bit 44.1kHz).
  4. Insert card, power on, monitor OUT.
  5. Turn STATION to choose files and press RESET to retrigger.

Controls and I/O

| Control / jack | Function | |—|—| | STATION knob | Selects file (station) in current bank | | STATION push | Hold to browse/select bank 0-15 | | STATION CV | Adds CV offset to station selection | | START knob | Start position (Start mode) or pitch/speed (Pitch mode) | | START push | Toggles Start mode and Pitch mode | | START CV | Start offset (Start mode) or pitch CV (Pitch mode) | | RESET button | Retriggers playback | | RESET jack | Trigger input when pulseMode=0; pulse output when pulseMode!=0 | | OUT | Audio output |

SD card structure

  • Root-level playable content should be in bank folders whose names start with 0..15.
  • Folder suffix text is allowed: 0, 01 drums, 15-koto are valid.
  • Audio files in SD root are ignored by current firmware.
  • Files starting with _ or . are ignored.
  • File order is lexicographic (alphabetical/ASCII), so use numeric prefixes (000_, 001_, …).

Supported audio files

  • Use 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV for first bring-up.
  • RM2 also plays AIFF (.aif/.aiff) and RAW (.raw) files.
  • Stereo playback uses the left channel.
  • RAW is interpreted as 44.1kHz 16-bit mono.
  • Compressed formats and 32-bit PCM are not supported.
  • Full sample-rate and bit-depth matrix is in docs/radio-music-user-manual.md and docs/radio-music-module-reference.md.

settings.txt essentials

At boot, the module reads /settings.txt (created automatically if missing). You can also place settings.txt inside a bank folder for bank-specific overrides.

Most-used keys:

  • loopMode: 0 no loop, 1 forward, 2 ping-pong
  • tunerMode: 0 switch, 1 fade, 2 radio
  • speedMode: 0 tape, 1 notes, 2 90s/time-stretch
  • pulseMode: 0 reset input, non-zero enables pulse output
  • stationPotImmediate, stationCVImmediate, startPotImmediate, startCVImmediate, pitchPotImmediate, pitchCVImmediate
  • highQuality: 1 high-quality playback path, 0 lo-fi path

Edit settings.txt (quick workflow)

  1. Power off and remove SD card (or use mass-storage mode below).
  2. Open /settings.txt in a plain-text editor.
  3. Change one key at a time, save, reinsert SD, and reboot RM2.
  4. For bank-specific behavior, add settings.txt inside that bank folder.
  5. If settings become unusable, delete settings.txt and reboot; RM2 regenerates default settings.

Special power-on modes

  • Hold STATION push during power-up: USB mass-storage mode (press RESET to reboot back to playback).
  • Hold START push during power-up: START CV calibration mode.
  • Hold RESET + STATION push + START push during power-up: RP2040 bootloader (for firmware update).

START CV calibration (quick procedure)

  1. Power off.
  2. Hold START push while powering on.
  3. Patch stable 1V/oct CV to START jack and play same note across octaves.
  4. End after at least two octaves are captured (press RESET) or let it auto-finish.
  5. Check success flash pattern, then reboot to normal playback.

Firmware update (quick procedure)

  1. Download the correct .uf2 firmware file.
  2. Power off.
  3. Hold RESET + STATION push + START push while powering on.
  4. Connect USB and copy .uf2 to the RP2040 boot drive.
  5. Wait for reboot, or power-cycle manually.

8mu quick start

  • Connect 8mu to Radio Music USB.
  • 8mu sliders/buttons take over mapped playback parameters immediately.
  • To return fully to local-only behavior, leave sliders at zero and stop sending MIDI for a short period.

Other core behaviors to know

  • Hold STATION push and turn STATION to change banks; the selected bank is recalled on next boot.
  • pulseMode changes the RESET jack role; if retriggering stops working at the jack, check pulseMode first.
  • If playback fails after heavy SD edits, power-cycle and re-seat the card before deeper debugging.

Next

  • Practical workflows and full calibration/update procedures: docs/radio-music-user-manual.md
  • Complete settings and behavior reference: docs/radio-music-module-reference.md