LCD-4 for the M-VAVE FM-1

LCD-4 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a four-track pocket groovebox: a drum machine and three synths in 16-step patterns you chain together, with chords the synths follow and sixteen punch-in effects, after the little synths that live in a calculator's body. Each sound has its own little LCD game on the screen, in the manner of the old handheld games, and it moves with the music.

LCD-4 on the FM-1's screen: the drummer, the lab, the sunset, the platform game, the monster, the rocket, the submarine


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 in ten steps, then every control, sound and page.
Download	The firmware file (`lcd4-X.Y.Z.fwsc`) of every release, and its source.

What's in it

Drums (track 1): four kits of eleven parts: an 808, a 909, an arcade console's (pulse kicks, noise snares, blips, zaps, a coin) and a rhythm box (a CR-78 and a 606). The black keys pick the part and play it; the white keys are its 16 steps, as on X0X.

Synths (tracks 2–4): sixteen sounds, each modelled on its original's circuit, no samples:

Basses	Keys	Leads
Acid (TB-303), Mono (SH-101), Fat (Minimoog), Boom (808 sub), FM bass (DX7), Reese	Poly (Juno-60), Brass (Prophet-5 / OB-Xa), E.Piano (DX7), Organ (M1), Strings (Solina), Bells (DX / PPG)	Sync, Scream (MS-20), Arcade (NES / Game Boy), Arp (chip arpeggios)

The way a pocket operator works: sixteen patterns and chains of up to 64; writing live or step by step; a step held for its note, length and two locked knobs; slides, ratchets, accents and swing; sixteen effects held or written onto the steps; chords and chains of chords that the synth tracks follow.
Four demo songs (Pocket, Arcade, House, Lo-fi), MIDI in and out, MIDI clock.

The 808 kit The Acid sound's lab The Arcade sound's platform game

In short


ALGORITHM · PRESETS	The track (1 drums, 2–4 synths) · its sound or kit
Keys	Drums: black keys the parts, white keys their steps · synths: a keyboard
PLAY · REC	Play / stop · write (live while playing, step by step stopped)
HOME · SEQ · LFO · ENV · ARP · SEL · FX · GLO	The pages: Patterns, Steps, Sound, Track, Chords, Mixer, FX, Setup
HOME / ARP / FX held	The white keys are patterns, chords, effects (pressed in order: a chain)
A step held + knobs	Its note, length, locks; OCT− a slide, OCT+ a ratchet
ENV · EDIT held + a key	An accent · cleared
OCT− · OCT+	The keyboard's octave (drums: the part)
SAVE	Saves (and by itself, stopped); held + a pattern: a copy

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 lcd4-X.Y.Z.fwsc from the latest release, then pip3 install mido python-rtmidi and python3 tools/fm1_install.py lcd4-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 LCD-4 as it would over the stock one.
Your saved work: LCD-4 keeps its settings where several other FM-1 firmwares keep theirs (IND-1, AMB-1, X0X and others built on Felucca). Installing it starts it with the first demo song, and its first save replaces what one of those had saved there.

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

LCD-4 is young (0.x). It has been built, installed and run on an FM-1, and measured there: the first demo song takes about a quarter of the FM-1's time, and the heaviest thing it can be asked to do (three tracks of four-note chords with every drum on every step) stays under four fifths, with a governor that thins the chords if it ever gets closer. How the sounds and the scenes come across on the FM-1's own speaker and screen 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).

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/lcd4.fwsc (see BUILDING.md)
python3 tools/fm1_install.py build/lcd4.fwsc     # install it over USB

Credits

LCD-4 is built on IND-1, itself built on AMB-1 by Charles Vestal: the 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 platform (hardware layer, USB, update loader, storage, installer) is Felucca's by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments), by way of X0X, FoMni, AMB-1 and IND-1; X0X showed how the black keys pick the drums. 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, as are the instruments' names. LCD-4 is not affiliated with M-VAVE, Teenage Engineering, Nintendo, the instruments' makers, Charles Vestal or Hügelton Instruments; its sounds, scenes and characters are its own.