KARMA on the FM-1: the ACID track's screen

KARMA

Free, open-source firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1.
Four tracks, a drum synth, a 64-step sequencer, generators that keep writing while you play, and a cast of pixel characters.

Website · Try it in the browser · Install · Web editor · Guide · Report a bug

Status: 3.0.3, running on a real FM-1. Install it from the browser with the web installer (Chrome or Edge, a USB data cable); the same page puts the official firmware back. Never for sale, free forever.

What's inside

Track 1: ACID or JUNO. A TB-303 voice (from X0X) or a Juno-106 style polysynth (from FM-106).
Track 2: ELEMENTS. Physical modelling built on Mutable Instruments' open-source Elements code: strike, pluck, bow or blow a modal resonator; the Ominous Voice.
Track 3: PLAITS. 24 synthesis models built on Mutable Instruments' open-source Plaits code.
Drums: HEX. The drum voices of the open-source LXR-02 firmware by Erica Synths, ported: five kits and four of your own, synthesised (no samples but its short transient clicks).
Sequencer. 64 steps a track, chords of up to 4 notes, ratchets, accents, slides, chance, PLAY modes, a song arranger.
Generators. GEN writes every synth track's part on one KEY and chord PROGRESSION (SEQ > HARMONY): an acid bass, a voice-led line, a lead motif, evolving as they play. ACID GEN (TB-3PO), DRUM GEN (Grids maps, Euclid).
Effects. CLOUD granular send (built on Mutable Instruments' Clouds code), reverb, delay, punch-in effects.
USB. Shows up as FM-1 KARMA: a class-compliant audio interface (stereo, or six-channel STEMS: each track on its own plus the effects) and MIDI in and out. The sequencer can play out as MIDI (one channel a track) and follow a DAW's clock and play button.
Two cores. The FM-1's second processor core renders tracks alongside the first, balanced as they play, so dense patterns and heavy engines stay clean.
Screens. OP-1-inspired pixel art drawn for KARMA: every track has a character that reacts to the notes.

Install

Open the installer in Chrome or Edge, connect the FM-1 by USB (a data cable, straight into the computer), press Install and allow MIDI. Updating keeps your projects and settings. Everything else, every button and page: GUIDE.md.

Coming from another firmware, or leaving KARMA: back up first (the editor's Projects → Backup). KARMA reads projects saved by SLOOP up to 2.6 (where it grew from), not those of newer SLOOP releases; every FM-1 firmware keeps its work in the same flash in its own way, so another firmware may not read KARMA's projects, presets and samples, and may overwrite them (tested: after SLOOP 2.8, KARMA starts with an empty project). Restore your backup from the editor when you come back. The installer page puts M-VAVE's official V15 back; holding OCT− while switching on starts the USB rescue if an install was interrupted. KARMA's identity is FM-1_926.

Build

See BUILDING.md: the firmware (sh build.sh, JieLi clang in Docker), the host tests (sh tests/run_tests.sh), the browser simulator (sh web/emu/build.sh) and the website (sh tools/make_pages.sh, served from docs/).

Credits and licence

KARMA is by Ariel Muchnik. It is a fork of SLOOP by isod89, based on Felucca by Leo Kuroshita, Hügelton Instruments. It uses code from X0X (Charles Vestal), FM-106 (PatttF), the dual-core audio of Melodee (Kerem Kilic), Mutable Instruments' Plaits, Elements, Clouds and Grids (Émilie Gillet), the drum voices of the LXR-02 firmware (Erica Synths, GPL-3.0-only) and ideas and code from JIANT FM (Juan Jiant). Details: LICENSING.md.

KARMA is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 only (LICENSE). If you share KARMA or firmware made from it, share its complete source under the same licence.

KARMA is not affiliated with or endorsed by M-VAVE, Mutable Instruments, Erica Synths, Korg, Teenage Engineering, Hügelton Instruments or Juan Jiant. M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. The README of SLOOP, which KARMA grew from, is kept as SLOOP-README.md.