UNVERIFIED: EXPERIMENTAL Firmware 0.5.0 has passed emulator testing. It has never run on a physical FM-1. Status
A generative drum machine hiding inside your FM-1.
Seven voices of authentic LXR drum synthesis. Generative kits, evolving rhythms, live recording and melodic percussion, running directly on the M-VAVE FM-1.
Synthesis running on the device, not sample playback. The LXR-02's open-source sound engine runs on the FM-1, compiled from the firmware's own DSP files. Seven drum tracks: DRUM 1, 2 and 3, SNARE, CYMBAL, CLOSED HAT and OPEN HAT. They are the LXR's seven triggers on its six voices, because the two hats share one.
Host tests match CLATTER's engine to within 3 steps of 16-bit audio.
Generate a complete kit, or a new sound for one instrument and leave the rest alone.
INIT and 16 factory kits, each a character the generator leans towards:
Generate patterns in CLATTER's 11 rhythmic styles, regenerate one track, or mutate what is already there so it stays related.
DRUM: each key plays an instrument, the same at every octave.
PITCH: the selected instrument chromatically. The patch does not change, so it returns exactly.
Record drum performances and pitched percussion straight into the sequencer. Playing, hits overdub onto the nearest step. Stopped, enter and remove steps one at a time.
16 steps, seven tracks, a note per track on each step.
12 user kits and 12 user patterns in user Flash, surviving a restart.
A save is checked before it counts, and writes only to sectors found blank or already its own.
Note-ons play and record like the keys, at their own velocity, with General MIDI drum notes in DRUM.
Input over DIN was run in the emulator; USB and Bluetooth have not been exercised. There is no MIDI output, no thru and no external clock.
The buttons do the same thing on every page, and the knobs follow the page. Pick a control to see what it does, then hold SAVE to see its second action. SELECT is an encoder with no push switch, so SAVE is the modifier.
| Control | Alone | With SAVE | Demo key |
|---|---|---|---|
| KEYS | Play. In DRUM each key is an instrument, the same at every octave. In PITCH every key plays the selected voice chromatically. | A W S E D F T G Y H U J K O L P ; ' | |
| SCL | Switch the keyboard: KEYS: DRUM or KEYS: PITCH. | 2 | |
| OCT− | PITCH: an octave down, to −3. DRUM: the keys hit softer: 40, 70, 100 or 127. | Undo the last change to the pattern. Again, redo. On a saved-kits or saved-patterns page: load the selected slot. | Z |
| OCT+ | PITCH: an octave up, to +3. DRUM: the keys hit harder. | Undo the last change of kit. Again, redo. | X |
| PLAY | Start or stop the sequencer. | Space | |
| REC | Recording on or off. Playing, a hit lands on the nearest step. Stopped, it lands on the selected step, and hitting it again removes it. | R | |
| ENV | A new kit, in the character PRESETS chose. | A new sound for the selected voice. The rest of the kit stays. | 3 |
| ARP | A new pattern, in the style ALGORITHM chose. | A new pattern for the selected track. The other six stay. | 9 |
| LFO | Mutate the pattern, at the strength set by MUTATE on GLOBAL. | Mutate the selected track only. | 4 |
| SAVE | Hold it to reach the second action of ENV, ARP, LFO, OCT−, OCT+, EDIT and SEQ. A tap locks or unlocks the selected track, so ARP and LFO leave it alone. | On a saved-kits or saved-patterns page, a tap stores to the selected slot. Only when stopped. | 8 |
| PRESETS | The kit: INIT, then 16 characters. Nothing is stored, so browsing never overwrites anything. | ↑ ↓ | |
| ALGORITHM | The pattern style, of 11: MACHINE, ELECTRO, BREAKS, JUNGLE, HALFTIME, BROKEN, GARAGE, INDUSTRIAL, GLITCH, POLYMETER, DUB. | , . | |
| SELECT | The selected voice: DRUM 1 to 3, SNARE, CYMBAL, CL HAT, OP HAT. SAVE is the modifier, not SELECT. | ← → | |
| HOME | MAIN: transport, tempo, swing, style, hits, a row of the pattern, the kit. | 7 | |
| SEQ | PATTERN: the step grid, velocity, tempo, swing. | Saved patterns: 12 slots. | 0 |
| EDIT | SOUND: pitch, decay, filter and drive of the selected voice. | Saved kits: 12 slots. | 5 |
| FX | MIXER: level and pan of the selected voice. | 1 | |
| GLO | GLOBAL settings. Press again for SYSTEM: version, build, CPU, overruns, clipping, heap. | 6 | |
| KNOB 1 | PATTERN: the selected step's velocity. SOUND: pitch. MIXER: level. GLOBAL: row. | On a saved-kits or saved-patterns page: choose a slot. | mouse |
| KNOB 2 | PATTERN: tempo. SOUND: decay. MIXER: pan. GLOBAL: value. | mouse | |
| KNOB 3 | PATTERN: swing. SOUND: filter. | mouse | |
| KNOB 4 | PATTERN: the selected step. SOUND: drive. | mouse | |
| MASTER | Output level. | mouse |
From POCKET-CONTROLS.md and POCKET-STORAGE.md. Encoder positions come from the emulator, not a device.
In brackets, the key for the same control in the demo.
The full guide is POCKET-CONTROLS.md.
EXPERIMENTAL FIRMWARE
CLATTER Pocket has passed emulator testing but has not yet been verified on physical hardware.
Installing it replaces the FM-1’s stock instrument firmware. There is a risk of installation failure, loss of settings or requiring firmware recovery.
The FM-1 updates over USB-MIDI SysEx, not WebUSB. The installer runs M-VAVE's own update code, unchanged, in Chrome or Edge on a computer:
FIRST-HARDWARE-TEST.md is the procedure for the first installation.
None of these routes has been tried with CLATTER Pocket on a device.
An independent, open-source firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1 that makes it a generative drum machine. It brings CLATTER's kit and rhythm generation and the LXR-02's sound engine to the device's own keys, buttons and screen.
The M-VAVE FM-1 only. M-VAVE does not document hardware revisions, so whether every unit behaves the same is not known.
Yes. It replaces the instrument and keeps the platform underneath: USB, Bluetooth, audio, the panel and the update protocol. The stock synth, its sequencer and effects are not available while it is installed, and neither is the workbench's backup of projects, samples and voices.
That is the design: the FM-1 reports itself as fm1_open, so M-VAVE's official workbench should be able to install official Open or V15 over it. It has not been done on a device. Read Recovery.
No sample playback. Every hit is synthesised live, and a kit is a set of parameters. The LXR engine does use wavetables and twelve short transient tables, as part of its synthesis.
Note input, yes: notes over DIN, USB and Bluetooth take the same path as the keys. Only DIN has been exercised, in the emulator. There is no MIDI output, no thru and no external clock.
Yes: 12 of each, in the FM-1's user Flash. Tested on a model of the chip and in the emulator, not on a device. Back up anything you cannot afford to lose; there is no export. GLOBAL settings are not saved.
Yes. The demo runs the firmware in the FM-1 emulator, in your browser.
It is unproven. The firmware has never run on a physical FM-1, so its safety is unknown. The installer keeps M-VAVE's compatibility and integrity checks, but those cannot show how the firmware behaves on a device. Install it only if you accept that a firmware that does not start could need recovery tools, or M-VAVE's help.
| Build | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Emulator build | Firmware 0.5.0, commit f97fbf3. Tested in the emulator. For the demo only. | Runs in the demo |
| Experimental firmware | Firmware 0.5.0, commit f97fbf3. The same package as the emulator build. Unverified: it has passed emulator testing, not a device. | The installer |
| Hardware-verified release | A build tested on a device, end to end, with the way back tested too. | None yet |
