The alternate firmware for the M-Vave FM-1 is starting to be ported to the SMK-37, M-Vave’s 37-key MIDI controller and synthesizer.
The video, via genkiginko, demonstrates how the alternate firmware for the M-Vave FM-1 is starting to be ported to the SMK-37, M-Vave’s 37-key MIDI controller and synthesizer.
The M-Vave SMK-37 is an inexpensive synthesizer and MIDI controller. The SMK-37’s low cost makes it, like the FM-1, a relatively risk-free platform for experimenting with firmware mods.
Options include:
Makkuro37: A microtonal drone synth with 8 voices.
Snoop37: SLOOP by isod89 with the SMK’s extras: velocity keys and pads in the track colours, a pad sound picker, fader banks (level, filter, reverb, delay), pitch and mod wheels.
X0X37 and FoMni37: Charles Vestal’s fm1-x0x (909, 808, two 303s) and fm1-fomni (Omnichord-style, the pads are the strum plate).
Port kit: the SMK-37 board layer plus a step-by-step guide to port any FM-1 firmware, written so you can follow it with a coding assistant like Claude. The FM-1 build stays byte-identical, so the SMK target can live upstream. I’m sending the ports to their maintainers as pull requests.
Here’s a look at using AI to make patches for the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer.
The latest video from Jose’s Vintage Keys takes a look at using AI to make patches for the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer.
This works because the Yamaha CS-80 has been modified with the Mark Cox MIDI upgrade, and Anthropic’s Claude AI can be used to control MIDI gear.
For many synthesists, sound design and experimenting with sounds is one of the biggest pleasures of synthesis. For others, though, playing, performing or composing are higher priorities. For these users, presets have long been the tool to jump-start the creative process. It’s becoming hard to imaging that AI will not become an important tool for musicians who’d rather be playing than tweaking.
Watch the video and share your thoughts on it – and the idea of AI-enabled sound design – in the comments.
The explosion of alternative firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1 continues, with FoMni, a free chord harp firmware that’s inspired by the Suzuki Omnichord.
Pick a chord on the black keys, run a finger across the white keys, and it plays. Behind it are an organ-like chord, a bass, and the OM-84’s ten rhythms, which can play the bass and chord in time.
FoMni joins nearly a dozen FM-1 firmware options, each of which gives the inexpensive hardware synth new synthesis and performance capabilities. While the FM-1 is not officially an ‘open hardware design’, the platform has been reverse-engineered, so that any developer can create custom firmware.
FoMni is available now as a free, open source firmware option. You can also test it in your web browser.
