Manual

CTL-1 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a MIDI controller. The keys play notes, in any scale with its chords under the black keys; the knobs send controllers in four banks; an arpeggiator and a four-track Euclidean drum sequencer run on its clock. Everything goes out over USB, MIDI from the TRS jack is passed along, and the FM-1 plays it all on its own General MIDI sounds too, so it works with nothing connected.

1Install

Try it first: the CTL-1 emulator runs the same code in the browser, with sound, played with the mouse, a touch screen or the computer keyboard. In Chrome or Edge it can send to your MIDI ports, too.

Install: open the web installer in Chrome or Edge, connect the FM-1 with a USB data cable and press Install. Don't unplug it while it's writing; when it finishes, the FM-1 restarts into CTL-1.

Go back: "Back to the stock firmware", at the bottom of the same page, puts M-VAVE's firmware back (download the FM-1 V15 file from the link there, choose it, press the button). M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE, works too.

python3 tools/fm1_install.py ctl-usb-0.9.fwsc

2Getting started

1. Connect. Plug the FM-1 into a computer with a USB data cable. It shows up as a MIDI device named "CTL-1 FM-1" (a Mac that knew the FM-1 with other firmware may keep the old name until you remove it in Audio MIDI Setup).
2. Play. The keys play notes from F3, and the FM-1 plays them too, on a piano. OCT− and OCT+ move the keys an octave.
3. Turn KNOB 1–4. On the Play page they send four controllers: cutoff, resonance, modulation and volume. Press FX for the next of four banks.
4. Pick a sound. Turn PRESETS: a program change goes out, and the FM-1's own sound follows it. ALGORITHM sets the MIDI channel.
5. Choose a scale. Press SEL, then turn KNOB 2. Now the white keys play the scale and the black keys its chords.
6. Arpeggiate. Press ARP and turn KNOB 1 to On; hold a chord.
7. Add drums. Press SEQ and PLAY: four Euclidean drum tracks on channel 10. KNOB 1–4 shape the selected track.

CTL-1 saves your settings by itself a few seconds after a change.

3Controls

The drawing at the top shows them all; here they are in more detail.

Each page has its own button, and that button lights while you're on the page.

4The screen

• Top bar: the page's name (on Play, the knob bank's letter in a chip), the MIDI channel in the middle, and the tempo with a play triangle on the right. The triangle is dark while playing and flashes on each beat; "EXT" replaces the tempo when the clock comes from outside. A dot at the far right means there are unsaved changes. Messages, such as "KNOB BANK B" or "SAVED", fill the bar for about a second.
• The page: what it's about (each page below).
• Status line: the lowest key's note; "ARP" or "LATCH" while the arpeggiator is on, "SUSTAIN" (or "SUS LOCK") and "MOD"; and on the right the program, by name.
• Knob row: on its rule, a tag says what the knobs edit ("BANK A", "KEYS", "TRACK 2"…), with dots for the four banks on Play and the four tracks on the Sequencer. Under it, KNOB 1–4: each one's name, a dial (a row of pips for a setting with a few positions) and its value. The one you turned last stands out for a moment.
• Footer: what the page's buttons and keys do.

The lights: the current page's button is bright, as are LFO while the mod wheel is up, ENV while sustain is on, and OCT− or OCT+ while the octave is shifted. PLAY flashes green on each beat while playing. The keys light while you hold them and when a note arrives over MIDI. Every other button glows dimly so its label can be read in the dark (Setup, Glow); with a scale, so do the root keys.

5Playing

The 27 keys play notes from F3 to G5 at octave 0. OCT− and OCT+ move them an octave at a time; the status line says which note is the lowest key. A note already held ends correctly even if you change the octave before letting go.

• Velocity is fixed, because the FM-1's keys don't sense how hard they're pressed. Set it on the Keys page (KNOB 3); it starts at 100.
• Sustain: hold ENV. It sends controller 64 on, and off when you let go. Tap ENV twice quickly to lock sustain on ("SUS LOCK"); press ENV again to unlock, and sustain ends when you let go. REC unlocks it too.
• Mod wheel: hold LFO. Controller 1 rises from 0 to 127 over a sixteenth note, and falls back just as fast when you let go. On the FM-1's sounds it adds vibrato.
• Channel: turn ALGORITHM. Held notes end first, on the channel they started on.
• Program change: turn PRESETS. Each step sends a program change, and the FM-1's sound follows.
• Panic: press REC. It ends every held note and sends sustain off and "all notes off" on the keyboard's channel and the sequencer's.

The Play page shows the last message you sent, the keys, and the two ports, each with a light for MIDI coming in and, for USB, one for MIDI going out.

6Knobs and banks

On the Play page, KNOB 1–4 send controllers: four banks of four, 16 in all. Press FX, or turn SELECT, for banks A, B, C and D. Each knob remembers its value in each bank, so it picks up where you left it.

Your own numbers: hold FX and turn KNOB 1–4. While FX is held they set the current bank's four controller numbers (0 to 119), and letting go doesn't change the bank. Tap FX to reach another bank first.

Turning a knob slowly moves one step a click; turning it quickly moves up to six.

7Scales and chords

Press SEL for the Keys page.

Chromatic is the default: the keys work like a normal keyboard. With any other scale:

• White keys play the scale's notes in order, from the root in octave 3. Every white key sounds right. The keys that play the root glow, so you can see where each octave starts.
• Black keys play chords: the triad on each step of the scale. In C major that's C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B°, then C an octave up.

Changing the root or scale ends any held notes.

8Sound

CTL-1 has the 128 General MIDI sounds and the drum kit (on channel 10), from Sonivox EAS. They play whatever CTL-1 plays (the keys, the arpeggiator, the sequencer) through the FM-1's speaker and headphone jack. PRESETS picks the sound on the keyboard's channel.

Press GLO for the Sound page. It shows the sound playing, how many voices sound and how busy the processor is.

MASTER has a fixed range, unlike KNOB 1–4, which turn endlessly. Set to Volume (the default), it's the volume of the FM-1's sounds. Given a controller number, it sends 0 to 127 across its travel, only when it moves, and the sounds play at full volume.

Up to 24 notes sound at once.

9Arpeggiator

Press ARP for the Arp page; KNOB 1 there turns the arpeggiator on. While it's on the keys don't sound directly: hold notes or a chord and it plays them one at a time, in tempo. With a scale, one black key is a whole chord to arpeggiate.

• On: it plays while you hold keys and stops when you let go.
• Latch: it keeps playing after you let go. The next chord, after letting go of everything, replaces the old one.

Each note lasts half a step. The arpeggiator follows the clock whether or not the sequencer is playing, on the same grid, so the two stay in time: a chord played between steps starts on the next one.

10Sequencer

Press SEQ for the Sequencer page: four drum tracks of sixteenth notes on the sequencer's channel, 10 by default. Each row on screen is one track.

KNOB 1–4 set the selected track:

The hits are spread as evenly as possible over the steps (a Euclidean rhythm). Tracks of different lengths drift against each other, which makes longer, shifting patterns.

By hand: on this page the keys edit instead of playing.

• White keys turn the selected track's 16 steps on or off.
• Black keys 1–4 select a track (so does SELECT).
• Black keys 5–8 mute or unmute tracks 1–4.

Turning Steps, Hits or Rotate rebuilds the pattern from those numbers, replacing steps set by hand: set the numbers first, then fine-tune with the keys. The lights show the pattern: steps that play bright, empty ones dim, the step playing now flipped.

PLAY starts and stops it, always from step 1. Velocity comes from the Keys page, spread by Humanize.

11Clock and transport

CTL-1 keeps a clock at 24 ticks a beat; the arpeggiator and sequencer run on it. Set the tempo (40 to 240 BPM) and the clock's source on the Setup page:

PLAY starts and stops the sequencer. With an internal clock it also sends MIDI start and stop, so a DAW or drum machine following the clock starts with it. With Ext, incoming start and stop drive the sequencer, the Tempo knob rests, and the screen shows "EXT".

12Setup

Press EDIT for the Setup page. It also shows the MIDI counted in and out of each port, and the version.

13MIDI

• USB: a class-compliant MIDI device, "CTL-1 FM-1": everything CTL-1 plays goes out here, and MIDI comes in.
• TRS jack: MIDI in only (the FM-1 has no MIDI out jack). What arrives is passed on to USB.
• MIDI in (from either) lights the keys, drives the clock when it's set to Ext, and plays the FM-1's sounds unless the Sound page says Ignored.

Bluetooth MIDI comes in a later version.

What CTL-1 sends, on the keyboard's channel unless noted:

CTL-1 passes on channel messages and real-time messages (clock, start, stop), not SysEx.

14Saving

CTL-1 saves by itself about four seconds after a change, once nothing is held and the sequencer is stopped: saving pauses the FM-1 for a moment, so it waits until you stop playing. A dot at the top right means there are unsaved changes. Press SAVE to save at once.

Everything on the pages is saved: the knob banks and their values, scale, sound, arpeggiator, sequencer tracks, channel, program, tempo, octave and Setup.

15Troubleshooting

Update mode: hold OCT− and OCT+ together for five seconds. A countdown appears; let go before it ends to cancel.

Calibration: if a button or knob does the wrong thing, hold OCT− and OCT+ while you switch the FM-1 on. The screen then asks you to press each button and turn each knob in turn.

After a crash: CTL-1 shows a red CRASH screen and restarts by itself a few seconds later. If you report the problem, include the numbers on that screen (a photo is easiest) and what you were doing.

Safe mode: if CTL-1 crashes twice in a row while starting, it starts in SAFE MODE instead. There's no sound, but USB works, so the web installer can reach it: reinstall CTL-1, or put the stock firmware back from the same page. Press PLAY to try starting CTL-1 normally again. If even safe mode fails twice, the FM-1 drops into the chip's own update mode, and only the rescue below can reach it.

The computer shows another name: a Mac that knew the FM-1 with other firmware may keep the old name. Remove the FM-1 in Audio MIDI Setup (Window > Show MIDI Studio) and plug it in again.

Recovering an FM-1 that won't start

An FM-1 in the chip's own update mode shows a blank screen, and neither the web installer nor M-VAVE's updater can see it. A script can put M-VAVE's firmware back, on a Mac, with the USB cable you already have.

Open Terminal, paste this line and press Return:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/charlesvestal/fm1-ctl/main/tools/fm1_rescue.sh)"

1. If a window asks to install the command line developer tools, click Install. When it has finished, paste the line again.
2. If it asks for a password, type your Mac password (nothing shows as you type) and press Return.
3. When it says it's waiting, plug the FM-1 in and switch it on. The script catches it, checks the chip, saves a backup of the FM-1's memory in the fm1-rescue folder in your home folder, and asks before it writes anything.
4. Type yes and press Return. Don't unplug anything until it says it's restarting the FM-1. The FM-1 then starts into its original firmware, and you can install CTL-1 again from there.

The script downloads M-VAVE's FM-1 V15 firmware and JieLi's flash loader, and checks both against known fingerprints. It writes only the firmware area of the memory, never the bootloader or the FM-1's own settings, and checks everything it writes. Running it again is always safe. If it fails, copy everything in the Terminal window and open an issue. If the FM-1 never shows up at all, Felucca's FM-1-transporter (a small RP2040 board wired to the USB lines) can still reach it.

16Parameters

17Credits

CTL-1 is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3. If you share the firmware, you must also share its source code.

• The platform (hardware layer, USB, update loader, installer and storage) is from Felucca by Leo Kuroshita, Hügelton Instruments, by way of X0X and FoMni-1. The top bar and knob row come from X0X.
• The General MIDI sounds are Sonivox EAS and its 200 KB sound set (Apache-2.0, Sonic Network and the Android Open Source Project).
• The Euclidean rhythms are Godfried Toussaint's reading of Bjorklund's algorithm.
• The idea of running FM-1 firmware in the browser comes from Groove OS.
• The fonts are Barlow Semi Condensed and Terminus (SIL Open Font License).

M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. CTL-1 is not connected with M-VAVE or Hügelton Instruments.