alt Hacker NewsReverse Engineering of the M-VAVE FM-1 Pocket Synthesizer Firmware
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This really feels like full circle for me. Back around 2012, I started "music synthesizer for Android" and put an app on the Play Store. This was a 20% project for me – I was on Google Fonts at the time, but I really wanted to play with Android. I decided to emulate DX7 because I had really wanted one as a teen (I did have a CX5M, so I was familiar with FM synthesis).
I set myself the goal of putting a DX7 in the hands of a million people. My little app only got a fraction of that, but now that the engine is in Dexed and now the M-VAVE, it seems like that might well happen.
I wonder if they'd send me one. But for $60 I can just get one :)
Disclaimer: I have worked in the music technology business for decades, building toys like this - my opinion is formulated in the fire pits of NAMM and Frankfurt Musik Messe and Superbooth.
The M-VAVE is the hottest music technology device on the market today, with few exceptions.
It is CHEAP! $60!
It is VERSATILE: new firmwares are released almost every week now.
It is HACKABLE: yes kids, music technology should always be hackable. Custom firmwares are one thing: a device which allows musicians to extend their horizons is another thing, entirely. Big Music Tech: PAY ATTENTION.
(Korg: you get a pass. Eurorack hackers: you get passes. Everyone else: FAIL!)
I am sitting in a room full of synths right now, and the only thing I really want to jam with is the N-VAVE FM1, which is now not just an FM synth but a jack of all trades.
But, did you know that this is just the tip of the iceberg for hacking music toys? Almost everything, from the Yamaha DX7 to the Synthstrom Deluge is getting hacked - in great, positive, delightful ways!
There is no better time to get into music technology if you're looking to find something fun and intriguing to hack on. It is so rewarding to crack open the box on a (formerly) locked down DSP cash-cow from some German entity or two, and find out ways to do even more, crazier things with it.
Your cocktail noise/bloop machine has a Motorola 56K DSP in it? There's an emulator for that: https://theusualsuspects.io
It is so, so fun to watch the M-VAVE revolution kicking off. The music technology business has had this level of whimsy in its sights for decades, a few have crashed and burned along the way but now its really happening: the kids are bending things in truly great ways.
Whats next, hackers? Teenage Engineering's OP1 gets a badly needed retrofit, perhaps .. Access Virus C synths get a new SYSEX update with badass features .. Yamaha's A-samplers get faster disk I/O, somehow .. Korgs machines get JUCE'd??!?!!?
And, it just has to be said .. For everything else, there's monome. And Zynthian. Leading the pack for innovative music technology that has some serious weight in the future-proofing department.
Music Tech Doesn't Want Your Locked-In Firmware, Manufacturers! Give us the SDK's already, why don't, ya .. standardly!!!
:)
yeah, this escalated quickly.
i hope to see fm-1.5 with sd card soon to make it sampler. or is it time for hardware mod?..
For context, this is a $65-$80 synthesizer that's been pretty popular for its cheap price tag, and there have been a bunch of third party firmwares being released to make it even more friendly and feature-packed than it already is out of the box. There's quite a bit of discussion in the subreddit:
I started collecting all the links on an “awesome list” since this exploded https://github.com/cicloid/awesome-fm-1
The interesting question is how much of the fizz from these efforts will disappear if SOTA models start moving away from moral gray areas or because of security concerns the guardrails disable this type of work.
I know this will not be a popular take, but surely I am not the only one who is super tired of endless control surfaces for the same FM and Karplus-Strong algos.
I'm a weirdo, but I love the sound of acoustic and/or sampled instruments - especially drums - over the metallic plonks that supposedly sound like "flute" any day of the week.
Don't get me wrong: the M-VAVE is looking like the Flipper Zero of music hacking, and the price is a steal. But at the end of the day, these sounds only really work for certain genres of music and even then there's only so many wavetable shapes before the same-ness has to set in.
Myself and a couple friends bought this device a few weeks ago and with the firmware being released, its an amazing device.
I love the idea of cheaper Chinese music hardware with the ability for open source firmware and apps to be loaded into them. I hope the success of this sees a sampler from M-Wave - I'd love a Chinese 404 or MPC...
I just got one of these, the ecosystem is so exciting right now. I just loaded the sloop firmware on it (super painless webusb) and it's crazy. From another DX7 machine to a simple little groove box with samples and sequences and a really quite lovely UX. So fun
I don't get the hype. A processor 10'000x less powerful than a 2021 M1 iPad, sound quality of late 90s to early 2000s VA. It's cheap and sounds the part.
You CAN get an STM32 to sound beautiful and fun (shout out MI Braids), but in 2026 that's available in VCV Rack for free.
I bought one a few months ago as a cheap DX7 clone. It's great just as that. So then all these new firmwares coming out have just been incredible. It's like a poor man's OP1 now.
Every firmware on the planet is under attack right now.
Finally all these devices with great hardware and less-than-perfect software can have their wrongs put right.
This synth is fucking crazy, synths have never approached this price point before ever. You have european firms like teenage engineering making similar products for 1500+ euro. hoping for more like it
For those that haven't been following along, a TON of custom firmwares have shown up for the M-VAVE FM-1, a roughly ~$70 synth.
BaudGirl's VA is probably the biggest right now: https://baudgirl.com/work/FM-1+VA
But there's also https://github.com/hugelton/Felucca, https://github.com/charlesvestal/fm1-x0x, https://www.groove-os.com, https://isod89.github.io/sloop-fm1/webapp/installer/, and https://github.com/charlesvestal/fm1-fomni
AFAIK, all of them are vibecoded, but that doesn't mean they're not super fun.
Edit: Someone made a good firmware list: https://fm1-editor.com/firmware/