ChoralRoot FM-1 designer
A visual editor for designing M-VAVE FM-1 panel states — the LEDs under the 27 keys and 14 buttons, what the 8 knobs do, and a faithful mock-up of the 240×240 screen — plus a JSON interchange format for sharing them with humans and LLMs. A sibling of the OMX-27 LED designer and the grid LED designer, adapted to the FM-1's mono LEDs, its encoders and its colour screen. Built to design the ChoralRoot FM-1 firmware (an Orchid-style chord instrument on Felucca's engines), useful for any FM-1 firmware.
No build, no dependencies — index.html is the whole app. Open it in a browser, or use it online at
https://quixotic7.github.io/MvaveFM1-Designer/ (GitHub Pages from this repo:
https://github.com/Quixotic7/MvaveFM1-Designer).
the hardware
The tool models the FM-1 as its open firmwares see it (Felucca's fm1_input.h / panel.c / seq.c):
- 27 keys F3–G5 (key index 0–26, MIDI note 53 + index), in their real capsule layout measured from the FM-1's own panel drawing, each with one white LED
- 12 function buttons (
FX SEL ENV LFO EDIT GLO/HOME SAVE ARP SEQ PLAY REC) and OCT−/OCT+, each with an LED — REC red, PLAY orange plus a separate green transport LED - 7 endless encoders (
SELECT PRESETS ALGORITHM KNOB1–4, no push switches) and the MASTER pot - the 1.54" 240×240 TFT
features
- paint LED levels — off / dim (the idle glow) / lit / blink — onto keys and buttons; drag to paint a run, right-drag turns them off; PLAY's green LED is a clickable dot
- relabel the controls: a design-wide "sticker" (what the firmware makes of each printed button and knob) and per-state labels for layers where keys and knobs change job
- annotate keys, buttons, knobs and the screen; notes show as numbered badges with a legend
- screen mock-ups composed from a structured description — an optional header, four knob cards and
footer in Felucca's layout, and a panel — with templates for a chord name filling the screen in the
Orchid notation, Orchid-style dial screens (a huge value with an inverted level fill), tall inverted
lists, a keyboard strip, a Geek Out view, layer tiles, a circular loop ring, an oscilloscope,
dense sound-editor pages (
edit8: 8 parameters under a wide envelope / filter / wave graphic;stack: up to 8 rows of four, e.g. oscillators or the mod matrix) and free text, in Felucca's eight palettes; edit the JSON in place with a live preview - multiple states (up to 24): pages, layers, moments; each renamable with its own notes and a per-state png checkbox
- png export of the faceplates at true proportions with legends, or of just the screens as a sheet
- JSON save/load in an LLM-friendly format (see below), drag-and-drop loading, copy-to-clipboard
- undo (⌘Z), P / L tools, 0–3 pick the LED level
scripted exports
tools/serve.py serves the folder and accepts POST /save, so a design can be rendered without a
download dialog (the browser needs http for ?design=):
python3 tools/serve.py --port 8765
http://localhost:8765/?design=examples/choralroot-fm1-mockups.json&export=screens&post=/save
http://localhost:8765/?design=examples/choralroot-fm1-mockups.json&export=plate&post=/save
writes docs/<design>-screens.png and docs/<design>.png (name= overrides).
the JSON format
Designs save as fm1-panel-design JSON, specified in FORMAT.md: per state, 27 key
levels, 14 button levels, the knob notes and a structured screen object. The format is built for
LLM round-tripping: paste a design's JSON (plus FORMAT.md) to your assistant and ask for changes,
then load its reply back into the editor — or ask it to generate a design from scratch and inspect the
result visually. See examples/choralroot-fm1-mockups.json, the
ChoralRoot FM-1 interface in twenty-four states.
related
- ChoralRoot FM-1 — the firmware this was built for
- Felucca — the open FM-1 firmware whose UI grammar the screen mock-ups follow
- OMX-27 LED designer, grid LED designer