IND-1 for the M-VAVE FM-1

IND-1 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a self-playing industrial machine, after the late-80s and 90s records of KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. It starts the moment it's switched on and arranges its own songs (intros, verses, builds, choruses, breakdowns, drops) out of six layers: distorted drums through a crusher, a Pro-1-style sequenced bass, two synthesized guitars, Xpander / Prophet VS-style FM stabs, metal percussion, and a bed of drone and static. You steer it, and when you like what it plays, you lock the song and write it yourself, step by step.

On the screen the song is a quest through a dark keep, on an LCD of the old handheld kind: near-black glass, ember segments and their ghosts. The wanderer at the gate, in the halls, up the stair, in battle, at the campfire, against the Warden, out into the dawn; the drums swing the sword, the bass walks, the guitars flare the torches, the synth circles magic, the metal strikes sparks.

IND-1 on the FM-1's screen: the halls, the campfire, the stair, the Warden, the battle, then the song and drums editors


Try it in the browser	The same code the FM-1 runs, with sound. No FM-1 needed.
Install it	From Chrome or Edge, with the FM-1 on USB. Nothing to install on the computer.
Read the manual	Getting started, then every control, page, editor and piece.
Download	The firmware file (`ind-X.Y.Z.fwsc`) of every release, and its source.

What's in it

A machine that writes songs: six layers, one root, one mode (Phrygian, Locrian, Phrygian dominant, harmonic minor and more), in songs it arranges itself, a new one after each outro. Builds roll the snare and open the filters; drops land with a crash and a boom; sections end in fills, or a stop.
Played live: a key moves the whole machine to its root on the next bar; REC throws in a breakdown, then the build, then the drop; EDIT moves on; OCT− fills, OCT+ mutates; any layer mutes.
Your songs: lock a piece's song and it's yours: its three parts (verse, chorus, breakdown) written step by step, each with its chords; its sections laid out, each with its length, its layers and its bed of noise; the metal's two Euclidean rings. Every edit is heard from the next time round, and every bar of a locked song plays the same way each time.
Eight pieces, each a recipe (Foundry, Rivethead, Neon Wound, Dead Air, Sledge, Cold Wire, Scrapyard, Klaxon), each remembering how you left it, and its song.
The space: a ping-pong delay, a gated plate, and the kick pumping the rest. MIDI in and out, MIDI clock.

The halls The song editor The bass editor, a step held

In short


Keys	The root: the machine moves to the key's note on the next bar
PLAY · REC · EDIT	Run / stop · breakdown, build, drop · the next section
OCT− · OCT+	A fill · mutate (new riffs and lines)
HOME · SEQ · LFO · ENV · ARP · SEL · FX · GLO	The pages: Machine, Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synth, Metal, Space, Setup
A page's button again	Its editor: the song, the drums, the bass, the guitar, the synth, the metal's rings
In an editor	White keys the steps (or the sections), black keys the drum, the note or the layer; a step held: its own knobs; ENV + a step an accent, EDIT + a step cleared; SELECT the part
EDIT + a page button	Mute / unmute that layer
ALGORITHM · PRESETS	The mode · the piece
SAVE	Saves; held, the piece back to its recipe and its song to the machine

Hold any button for a second and a card says what it does.

Installing, and going back

From the browser: the web installer (Chrome or Edge, a USB data cable).
From the command line: download ind-X.Y.Z.fwsc from the latest release, then pip3 install mido python-rtmidi and python3 tools/fm1_install.py ind-X.Y.Z.fwsc.
Going back: the installer's "Back to the stock firmware" puts M-VAVE's firmware back, as does M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. Any other FM-1 firmware installs over IND-1 as it would over the stock one.
Your saved work: IND-1 keeps its settings where several other FM-1 firmwares keep theirs (AMB-1, X0X, LCD-4 and others built on Felucca), and its songs where LCD-4 keeps its first eight patterns. Installing it starts it from its recipes, and its first save replaces what one of those had saved there. Settings from IND-1 0.1 carry over.

Installing other firmware is at your own risk, though it's hard to get stuck: an FM-1 that fails to start twice comes up in a safe mode the installer can reach, and the manual's Troubleshooting covers the rest.

Status

IND-1 is young (0.x). It has been built, installed and run on an FM-1, and measured there: a verse takes about a fifth of the FM-1's time, and the heaviest drop (every layer, the busiest piece) about half. How it sounds on the FM-1's own speaker and through a PA, and how the editors feel under the fingers, is where feedback helps most.

Ideas and problems

Something you'd like: a feature request.
Something wrong: a bug report (the version is at the bottom left of the Setup page, and on the start screen).

Make it your own

Fork it, change it, release your own: CONTRIBUTING.md says where things are, how to give your version its own name and identity, and how to send changes back. Every push is built and tested on GitHub; a tag vX.Y.Z makes a release, and the site (emulator, installer, manual) follows it.

tests/run_tests.sh                               # the tests, the app in a simulator
./build.sh                                       # build/ind.fwsc (see BUILDING.md)
python3 tools/fm1_install.py build/ind.fwsc      # install it over USB

Credits

IND-1 is built on AMB-1 by Charles Vestal, a generative ambient firmware for the FM-1: its engine's frame, screen, simulator and emulator. The reverb is Jon Dattorro's plate ("Effect Design, Part 1", JAES 1997), by way of FoMni-1 and AMB-1; the Euclidean rhythms are Godfried Toussaint's reading of Bjorklund's algorithm. The platform (hardware layer, USB, update loader, storage, installer) is Felucca's by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments), by way of X0X, FoMni and AMB-1. The idea of running FM-1 firmware in the browser comes from Groove OS. GPL-3.0-only; see LICENSING.md.

M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. IND-1 is not affiliated with M-VAVE, KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Charles Vestal or Hügelton Instruments. Its scenes and characters are its own.