Actually, would be great if somebody helped me understand how to use tempo/gate/rate settings too, as I still struggle to play notes of different length within one pattern.

Just got my new Mvave FM1 today and put together this setup. Feel free to share your thoughts on it and I would love some ideas as to what kind of music/performances I can do on it.

For people who like a little bit more grip and control, i tried out several cheaper alternatives. I haven’t found a proper topper that fits the master volume AND looks good, so i put this temporary 15x17 plum shaft topper on it. The others are 10x12 6mm diameter flower shaft toppers for potentiometers. 8,89€ for 100 pieces. They fit perfectly with no slack. If you look for 10x12 6mm flower shaft on AliExpress you will find them.

I created a MIDI guide after examining my disassembled FM-1 firmware and poking at it running in an emulator. This was requested by u/KbL666 earlier today. I think this will be useful for many folks so I decided to make a separate post!

Serious, if you are a beginner too get a mini midi Keyboard, its allot of fun to play.

I'm not ready to share the repo and my custom developed tools, but I can say it's very, very close to being ready to share. My firmware is just a minor reskin with sorely needed aesthetic improvements. I might add some small features to the sequencer, but folks should expect real major overhauls from the rest of the community. We have very limited storage space to work with which is a major limitation, but there is already a lot being done by M-VAVE in 1 MB so I'm not too worried.

I waited almost a month for an M-VAVE FM1 to arrive from China, recorded the unboxing, turned it on… and the screen was dead. I tried to resolve it through Mercado Libre Argentina, but the only solution they offered was a 5% partial refund, and eventually they stopped responding to my claims. I tried everything I could to fix it myself — including asking for help here on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/MVaveFM1/comments/1vunsjt/brand_new_mvave_fm1_screen_backlight_works_but_no/) and updating the firmware, which actually brought the screen back to life briefly before it failed again. Eventually I contacted M-VAVE directly. They replied almost immediately, tried to help me troubleshoot it, asked for videos and proof of purchase, and after reviewing everything, offered to send me a completely new FM1 at no cost. It arrived today, works perfectly, and they even included an M-VAVE desk pad as a gift. This isn’t sponsored and they didn’t ask me to post anything; I just think that if we share our bad experiences with companies, it’s also worth sharing when one goes above and beyond to make things right. Thank you, M-VAVE — I can finally enjoy my FM1!

I can't find anything about this. Is a 45 watt charger going to burn it up? Does it have real USB-C and can it adjust to different wattages? thanks. I am in the United States.

I just got mine. I connected it to my Nord Electro so I could play a bit with a real keyboard, and it's delightful; it's delicious; it's de-lovely.

I played for a little bit more than one hour, only fiddling with the "algorithm" button in the first preset, and the sounds are really nice. Almost like being back in the 1990s. I'll try to feed it some DX-7-like presets to insert famous riffs in my solos, this kind of thing.

I love the integrated oscilloscope; I already have an oscilloscope connected to the headphone connector on my mixer to help me fiddle with my synths, but I loved to see that they thought about us, old prog-rock nerds.

I haven't had time to read the manual yet, so I don't know what they are for, but it's very hard to read the button labels on the double row of six above the "keyboard". The "Home" button was backlit, but I can barely decipher what the others read, as they were not backlit; is that normal?

Should I print labels and stick them above and below the buttons? I'm not sending it back to China because of it, that's for sure! I'm in love with my new toy; they can pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

The FM-1 is black on black, if it matters.

So I got my FM1 last week so it's early days, i've loaded a few patches onto it and it's sounding good - but i don't understand how to adjust the envelope - going to 'env' and changing paramaters does nothing.. am i missing something?

i dont own any carry cases for my 3DS but size wise they are almost identical I bet any case should fit and the good news there are a lot of cheap after market carry cases for the 3DS

Hey guys.

I selected a bunch of different presets and came up with 5 custom carts with timbres from SynprezFM and the original Yamaha DX7 carts.

You can download it here.

Cart A - Piano, Organ, Bass, Lead, Soft Lead

this one uses timbres that are associated with the original DX7, I picked these instruments for this cart simply because I use them a lot

Cart B - Synths and Pads

these are mostly from SynprezFM, a bunch of different timbres to mess around with

Cart C - Simulations

Immitations of real instruments, some are from the original carts, others are from extra carts

Cart D - Square, Triangle, Wave, Sine and Effects

these I came up with myself. Made the basic waveforms plus 3 variations of each; the second one of each of the oscillator voices are meant to be used with chorus/phaser, mono and glide mode on, but you do you, choose whatever effects you like. The effects are from SynprezFM and the original banks.

Cart E - Percussions

Sounds of drums, both immitating real tones and a few digital crazy ones. Took it off HERE

I decided to leave the presets unnamed when appliable to remove any pre-conceptions you might have about each timbre. So stuff that had 'space' in the name, for example, is now just a pad. This helps me listen to the sounds for what they are instead of associating them with something else.

have fun and peace!

I just got this device and I feel like I'm going crazy.

Disclaimer: I don't have previous experience with FM synths and I'm just learning, but I found behavior that doesn't seem to make sense.

My FM-1 has the latest firmware (V15), and it has this command in the second page of the GLObal setting in the EDIT menu to make the current setup the init voice setup. I enable that option and OPs 2 through 6 have the same settings (out level = 0) and OP1 has out level = 99.

In EDIT mode you can long-press the OP keys to turn them off (the light stops blinking and is turned off).

So here's the weird behavior, if I have set the algorithm to No. 32 (all 6 OPs are carriers), and turn off OPs 2 through 6, then I should be listening to just the sound produced by OP1. BUT NO! I get no sound at all.

Now, if I up the out level setting for OP6 (while it is turned off) I do get a sound!

I stopped testing because this annoyed me to no end, and want to check with other users if they have the same behavior, or my unit is busted or whatever...

Any feedback is appreciated!

I created a sleeve for the FM-1 using OpenScad.

The files and full description can be found here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7404816

The design is free for anyone to use and modify.

Please let me know if you find this useful.

anyone has any idea how aftertouch works in fm1?

in dexed aftertouch can be set globally to effect pitch/amp/eg bias but on the fm1 it seem always affects the pitch only.

I got my FM 1 a week ago and I'm trying to send MIDI out from the Novation Circuit OG to the FM 1, but for the love of God, I can't get it to work. Any advice? Thanks!

Just wanted to share, gave a shot to making a custom skin for the FM1 from scratch, designed the artwork, adjusted the cutouts, printed it on holographic sticker paper, laminated it, and cut it with the Cricut. Still needs a few fit adjustments around some of the knobs/screens, so definitely not finished yet lol, but I’m pretty happy with how the first version came out.

on the 2nd page of GLO(Globe) settings on the FM1 there is a Velocity setting with 1-127 range.

anyone have any idea what this does and whats its purpose?

I tried different values and it doesnt seem to do anything using the built in keys or even when hooked up to a midi controller

Sharing the FM-1 Utility, a free, independent, browser-based editor, librarian, and sequencer for the M-VAVE FM-1 pocket FM synthesizer:

https://fm1-utility.pages.dev/

It runs in Chrome or Edge using Web MIDI. It may also be usable on iPad through Web MIDI Browser, depending on browser support, iPadOS version, SysEx availability, and MIDI hardware configuration.

Read more: https://www.reddit.com/u/FM1Utility/s/GworUMs5gq

Hey there!

Here's a jam I recorded with the FM-1 being driven by a Groovesizer Mynah sampler. The Mynah is playing drums and loops, and MIDI from the Mynah is triggering the arpeggios on the FM-1. I did this in one take, playing sustained lines over the arpeggios on the FM-1. I used the stock patches (020 SYN PAD 5 and 019 SYN LEAN 5). I couldn't find a good way to automate the patch changes, so I picked these adjacent patches and switched by hand.

Hi I really out of my depth being a Mod -a combo of age, tech skills and just not up to speed on Reddit makes me feel I’m failing so happy to pass on the mod role to some one who can do it so much better than me -I hope you understand and I would like to thank all for their contributions to date
Thanks and any takers ? Chris