FM-1+VA

A custom firmware for the FM-1, focused on live performance, quality-of-life features, and the addition of a brand-new Virtual Analog engine.

Install Read the manual

FM-1_0892026-09-27

The FM-1 in pink and purple, lit from the upper left, with its screen on.

Acid

The Sequencer plays a 303-style bass line with slides and accents. Three knobs work the filter's Cutoff, Resonance, and Envelope.

An Interface for Playing

Most of the work went into how the FM-1 feels to play. Every setting is reached the same way, and the four knobs adjust parameters from any screen.

  • Four Knobs on Every Screen

    KNOB1 to KNOB4 adjust parameters in real time from any screen on the device, including the Sequencer and the menus. Each knob can be custom-assigned to parameters, including on-the-fly by holding SEL.

  • SEL Enters, HOME Goes Back

    SEL works as Enter on every screen: it opens a group, carries out an action, or answers a question. HOME goes back one level.

  • Groups Inside Groups

    Settings sit in groups, and a group can hold more groups. An FM preset's list holds its six operators and its effects; a Virtual Analog preset's holds its oscillators and its filter. Each effect has its own group of settings inside those.

  • Lists That Scroll

    Every screen is a list, six rows at a time, with the setting's name on the left and its value on the right. SELECT scrolls the list and ALGORITHM changes the highlighted value, so every setting on the synth is found and changed the same way.

The Screens

These are the firmware's own screens, running in an emulator.

  • The HOME screen on the SUPERSAW preset.
    HOME
  • A Virtual Analog preset's oscillator list: Waveform, Super, Detune, Drift, Sub, and Noise.
    Oscillator
  • The algorithm diagram: six operator boxes and their connections.
    Algorithm
  • The Sequencer's step grid while a pattern plays.
    Sequencer
  • The Arpeggio screen.
    Arpeggio
  • The GLOBE screen with Theme highlighted.
    GLOBE

Moving a Step

The Sequencer edits without menus in the way. Pick a step up and put it somewhere else.

  • Hold and Turn

    Hold SEL on a step that has notes and turn SELECT. The step lifts off the grid and rides with you across it. Let go over an empty step to move it there; let go over one that has notes and the two swap.

  • A Copy Instead of a Move

    Turn ALGORITHM instead of SELECT, and the step leaves a copy behind as it travels. A bassline's opening can become its ending without recording it twice.

  • Everything Comes With It

    A step's notes, velocities, and per-step settings (Ratchet, Gate, Chance, Transpose, Accent, and Slide) move or copy as one piece. The message on screen names the two steps involved.

The FM-1 from above, pink and purple, with its screen on.

Virtual Analog

A Virtual Analog preset starts from a waveform and shapes it with a resonant filter, the way an analog synthesizer does.

  1. Waveforms

    Sine is a pure tone with no harmonics above the note. Saw has every harmonic and sounds the brightest. Square has only the odd harmonics and sounds hollow. Triangle has the odd harmonics too, but much quieter, so it sounds close to a sine.

  2. Super

    Super fades in six more copies of the wave around the center one, and Detune spreads them apart in pitch. Drift gives every note its own slightly wandering tuning, the way the oscillators of an analog synth do.

  3. Subtractive Synthesis

    Start with a bright wave and take away what you do not want with the filter. Cutoff sets where the filter begins to act, and Resonance boosts the frequencies right at the cutoff.

  4. The Filter

    LP12 and LP24 keep the lows and remove the highs, LP24 more steeply. BP keeps a band around the cutoff, and HP keeps the highs. Each note has its own filter envelope: Envelope sets how far it opens the filter, and Shape sets how it rises and falls.

A Color for Your FM-1

Press GLO and choose a Theme on the GLOBE screen to change the colors of every screen. The seven themes are named after the FM-1's body colors.

The FM-1 from above, pink and purple, with its screen on.

What It Adds

  1. Virtual Analog Presets

    Any of the 128 presets can run a Virtual Analog engine in place of FM synthesis, with four waveforms, up to seven copies of the wave per note, and a resonant filter with its own envelope.

  2. A Sequencer You Can Edit

    Patterns hold up to 64 steps. Steps can be moved, copied, and pasted on the synth, and whole patterns can be copied between the 16 slots. Each step has its own Ratchet, Chance, Gate, and Transpose, and PLAY starts the Sequencer from any screen.

  3. DX7 Patches Play as Written

    M-VAVE's sound engine is Dexed, the open-source DX7 emulation, with four changes that make DX7 patches play differently from the original: operator detune is too wide, fast LFOs run slow, algorithms 4 and 6 stay altered after any patch that uses feedback, and a note ended with a velocity-0 note-on keeps sounding. All four are corrected.

Getting Started

  1. Install the Firmware

    Install from Chrome or Edge on a computer, with the FM-1 connected by a USB cable. The install takes under a minute, and your saved presets and patterns are kept.

    Install

  2. Get the Presets

    Sixteen Virtual Analog presets replace presets 113 to 128. Save a backup of all 128 first; you can put them back at any time.

    Get the presets

  3. Read the Manual

    The manual covers every screen and setting, from choosing a preset to the Sequencer and MIDI.

    Read the manual

Coming Soon

  • Open-Source Firmware

    The firmware's source code, decompilation, emulator, and documentation, published under GPL-3.0-or-later.

  • Preset and Pattern Manager

    A web app for backing up, editing, organizing, and restoring the FM-1's presets and patterns.

  • FM and VA Editor and Player

    A web app for editing and playing FM and Virtual Analog presets in the browser.