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FMEL-1, image 1 from its README
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Firmware

FMEL-1

Hype: warming · 60

Tape-replay keyboard emulation with lo-fi coloring, built on the Dinghy base.

forM-VAVE FM-1·by@AntonioAltea

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Download v1.0

mel-1.0.fwsc· 596 KB

GPL-3.0· AntonioAltea/fmel-1·downloads come from the creator’s GitHub releases

59 commits and 2 releases in the last year

FMEL-1

The choir tape The LOFI page: the cassette

This is a personal project to create a few sounds I'm interested in for the M-VAVE FM-1.

What is this?

This firmware, based on zvenson's dinghy, aims to reproduce Mellotron sounds and color them with some basic FX and lo-fi tape effects. It also lets you mix two different Mellotron sounds together.

Try it in your browser: the same code the FM-1 runs, in a simulator. To put it on your FM-1, use the web installer (Chrome or Edge) or download the newest release.

Disclaimer

This is a hobby project, not an official M-VAVE thing. Install at your own risk. If something goes wrong, the installer's "If something goes wrong" section shows how to get back to the official firmware.

The tapes

FMEL-1 plays real Mellotron tapes: the samples Bernie Kornowicz (Taijiguy) recorded from his 1973 Mellotron M400S, serial #500, with new tapes and frames, and shared on his site leisureland.us (via the Wayback Machine).

They are his work, not mine, and not under this repository's GPL licence. His terms, in his own words (KVR, 4 May 2021): "they are free to use, but cannot be used in any commercial, for profit software." FMEL-1 is free and not for profit, so it carries them: packed for the FM-1 (IMA ADPCM at 11025 Hz, a few seconds of each) in firmware/gen/mel_tapes.h, and so inside every build (mel.fwsc, the web version).

So: share FMEL-1 freely, but don't sell it, nor anything with these tapes in it. Thank you, Bernie.

The fifth sound, PIANO, is not a Mellotron tape: it is SLOOP's LOFI KEYS, its four keys of a Steinway B from Versilian Studios' VCSL (public domain, CC0) made and played as SLOOP makes and plays them (an octave up from the keys; 1 s of each at 22050 Hz, looped; a few bits off, a little drive, a gentle low-pass, a 2.5 s decay and a slow pitch wobble); about 44 KB.

To pack the tapes again (another selection, other lengths), fetch his originals (from his old site, via the Wayback Machine) and run the packer:

tools/get_tapes.sh                                  # into tapes/, which git ignores
tools/get_piano.sh                                  # the piano (SLOOP's), also into tapes/
tools/gen_tapes.py firmware/gen/mel_tapes.h

Credits

  • Drawings by my friend Javi
  • Dinghy by zvenson: the firmware FMEL-1 grew out of
  • Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments: the FM-1 platform underneath
  • SLOOP by isod89: its changes to that platform
  • FM-1-transporter by Leo Kuroshita: the rescue, if an update goes wrong
  • The Mellotron M400S tapes by Bernie Kornowicz (Taijiguy), from his site leisureland.us (via the Wayback Machine) (see above)
  • The browser version follows the emulators of X0X, Felucca and FoMni
  • The EQ: Felucca's SPEAKER EQ (FLAT, LOWCUT, BASS+), as it is there
  • The reverbs: HALL after Felucca's, PLATE Jon Dattorro's after FoMni's (Charles Vestal)
  • SELECT as the hand on the tape's reel: the idea is GHOULBOX's crank (jasonpersinger, ghoulbox-fm1-dungeon-synth)
  • Terminus by Dimitar Zhekov: the screen's font (SIL OFL 1.1)
  • JieLi AC79 SDK: the boot files a build is packaged with