The M-VAVE FM-1 DX7ish pocket synth has caused quite a stir since it launched earlier this year, for its compact, feature-packed, retro-nodding goodness at a decently low price.
Good though it is, there’s always room for improvement, and while M-VAVE has released official firmware updates, there was always the strong possibility of someone else creating unofficial firmware for the dinky synth.
The first custom firmware I’ve heard of is the just-released FM-1+VA by baudgirl, which not only ‘fixes’ some of the issues to make the FM-1 even closer to a DX-7, but also adds Virtual Analog synthesis for even more possibilities.
Thanks to the nature of the onboard JieLi AC7911B8 chip, the fact that firmware updates can be done over the air and the official M-UPGRADE app has been reverse-engineered, users can now experience an alternative feature set.
FM-1+VA
The FM-1+VA firmware is “focused on live performance, quality-of-life features, and the addition of a brand-new Virtual Analog engine.”
A lot of work went into the interface, with easier ways to adjust settings, settings in groups, scrolling lists, and more. Also sequencer editing without menus getting in the way.
The biggest addition is the VA synth. Start with a waveform and shape it with a resonant filter. Any of the 128 presets can run a VA 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.
In the sequencer, patterns hold up to 64 steps, which can be moved, copied and pasted on the synth, and whole patterns copied between the 16 slots. Each step has its own ratchet, chance, fate and transpose.
And DX7 patches play as written. The original firmware and sound engine used Dexed, the open source DX7 software, 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. This firmware corrects those.
Clearly a lot of work has gone into this, and it could be a worthy addition for FM-1 and DX7 fans. There’s a full help manual and sixteen VA presets available which, if used, replace original presets 113-128.
In future this is set to go open source, a web-based preset and pattern manager is forthcoming, as well as a web app for playing and editing both FM and VA presets in the browser.
More info and download links here: FM-1+VA
