MINI
MINI BASS 124 BPM + 88Four oscillators into a 24 dB ladder filter, with drive built in. Basses and leads that push back.
- FX
- Filter sweep
- Tape sat
- Punch comp
- Sidechain
- EQ
A synth firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1.
OG Synth turns the FM-1 into a deep, playable synthesizer, with as much sound as I could fit in it and controls you don't have to look up.
Your phone can already make beats. This one's for turning knobs. It doesn't try to be a whole studio, just a very good synth.
Made by Mike Johnson Beats, an instrumentalist and producer, for anyone who wants to play.
16 engines28 effects4 tracks at once0 song modes
01 / Engines
Sixteen engines
Each one is its own instrument with its own presets, and you find your way around all of them the same way. Press a screen to hear it.
Every clip is a factory preset through the firmware's own effects, rendered from its own code. Some clips layer a few presets of the same engine, like tracks in MULTI; the drums come from 88 or 99. Nothing added outside, levels matched.
Analog-style 6
SVF
SVF STRINGS 120 BPM + 99A soft 12 dB filter that sweeps from low-pass through notch to high-pass. Wide brass and strings.
- FX
- Filter sweep
- Chorus
- Hall
- Sidechain
VCO
PLUCK 100 BPM + 88Two oscillators, a sharp 24 dB filter, sync and poly mod. The classic polysynth, pointed and bright.
- FX
- Chorus
- Tape delay
- Plate
DCO
POLY BRASS 124 BPM + 88One steady oscillator with sub and noise, two models with their own feel, and the chorus inside the engine.
- FX
- Punch comp
- Plate
- EQ
ALPHA
HOOVER BASS 140 BPM + 99The late-eighties side of the same family: PWM saws and pitch envelopes. Hoovers and rave stabs.
- FX
- Tube drive
- OTT
- Flanger
- Hall
LPG
BONGO 104 BPMWest-coast style: FM and AM between two oscillators, a wavefolder and a low-pass gate. Plucks, wood, bells.
- FX
- Tape delay
- Hall
Digital 6
FM6
E.PIANO 82 BPM + 88Six-operator FM, the heart of the FM-1, kept and opened up. Reads classic six-operator .syx banks.
- FX
- Chorus
- Autopan
- Plate
- EQ
PHASE
OCTAVE ORGAN 132 BPM + 99Phase distortion with multi-stage envelopes. Glassy keys, reso basses and brass that cuts through.
- FX
- Punch comp
- Chorus
- Room
- Sidechain
- EQ
WAVE
SUPERSAW 150 BPM + 99A modern wavetable engine: two oscillators with warp modes, sub, noise, two filters, four LFOs and unison. Load your own tables as .wav.
- FX
- OTT
- Sidechain
- Hall
- EQ
8BIT
8-BIT LEAD 128 BPM + 88Chip waves, bit tricks and bytebeat. For glitches and consoles that sound slightly broken.
- FX
- Random stutter
- Digital delay
- Room
- Sidechain
- EQ
PHYS
MARIMBA 118 BPM + 88Physical modelling: plucked and struck strings, modal resonators. Nylon, harp, marimba, bells.
- FX
- Opto comp
- Ping-pong delay
- Chamber
- Sidechain
- EQ
FORMANT
CHOIR AAH 70 BPM + 88Voices and choirs, with formants on every note. Aahs, oohs, vox stabs and talking basses.
- FX
- Chorus
- OTT
- Cathedral
- EQ
Drums 4
88
ATLThe early-eighties analog drum machine, sixteen sounds on the white keys. Long kicks, crisp hats.
99
BIG ROOMIts punchier sibling: harder kicks, claps, crash and ride. House, techno and anything louder.
MORPH
ELECTRODrum synthesis where every sound moves between two settings. Metal, electro, industrial.
DUAL
MINIMALEight parts with two layers each, through a resonator. Small, odd, tuned percussion.
02 / Effects
Effects
A chain of eight, picked from twenty-eight, in any order.
Reverb, not a reverb
Ten algorithms: room, chamber, plate, hall, bright hall, cathedral, ambience, a chorus space, a dirty plate and a nonlinear one. Three eras of colour, seventies, eighties and now, with modulation, pre-delay, attack, diffusion, width and its own bass and filters.
Delay with a character
Seven of them: tape, hi-fi, bucket brigade, digital, ghost, pitch and reverse. Single, ping-pong or uneven left and right, free or in time, with diffusion that smears the echoes into space, tape wobble, ducking and filters.
Dynamics that hit
A compressor in seven styles, from clean to pump, with lookahead and a sidechain filter. A multiband that does OTT. A sidechain that ducks to the beat or to your notes.
- Drive
- Distortion, Saturation, Bitcrusher, Lo-fi
- Dynamics
- Compressor, Multiband, EQ, Sidechain, Transient
- Filter
- Filter, Auto wah, Vowel, Comb
- Mod
- Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Ring mod, Hyper/dim, Freq shift
- Pitch
- Octaver, Tone shift, Sub
- Time
- Delay, Stutter, Grain
- Space
- Reverb, Shimmer
In MULTI every track has its own chain, with sends to a shared reverb and delay. Hold FX there and the keys play the whole mix: repeats, gates, tape stops, filter sweeps.
- OTT
- Sidechain
- Hall
- EQ
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty
The chain behind the WAVE clip: four slots used, four still free.
03 / Playing it
Playing it
Four knobs, one screen, the same layout in every engine. Learn one and you know them all.
Three buttons, every engine
EDIT for the sound, ENV for envelopes, LFO for movement. Each page puts four values on the four knobs and draws what they do underneath.
The screen tells you
The bottom line always says what the buttons do right now. Hold SEL and it shows where the keys take you. Hold LFO or ENV and press an OP key to send that source anywhere.
Four tracks when you want them
Hold HOME for MULTI: drums and three engines at once, a mixer on the knobs and scenes to switch between.
A sequencer, not a song mode
A step grid for drums and a piano roll for notes, with chance, ratchets and nudge. Patterns to jam with, nothing to arrange.
Notes you can see
NOTES draws the pattern like a piano roll: chords, lengths and velocity, step by step. Press a key on an empty step and it's written; turn a knob and it changes. Undo is there when you need it.
04 / At a glance
In numbers
- 16Engines
- 28Effects
- 8Effects in one chain
- 4Tracks at once
- 128Slots for your presets
- 0Song modes
- Your presets keep their effects.
- Step grid, piano roll and arpeggiator.
- MIDI over USB, clock in and out.
- Reads six-operator and CZ .syx banks.
- Your own wavetables as .wav.
- Back to the stock firmware any time.
Sequencer
- Patterns
- 16, each holds all four tracks
- Length
- 1 to 256 steps (16 bars of 16ths)
- Notes
- 448 per pattern, every chord note counts
- Tempo
- 40 to 300 BPM
- Timing
- 96 ticks per beat, nudge ±11 ticks
- Per step
- Ratchet 1 to 8, chance 0 to 100 %
Sounds
- Your presets
- 128 slots, shared by all engines
- Effects
- 8 per preset, saved with it
- .syx banks
- 8 places, 32 sounds each
- Wavetables
- 3 of your own, up to 63 frames
MULTI
- Tracks
- 4, any of them can be drums
- Held notes
- 12 shared by tracks 2 to 4
- Scenes
- 8
- Shared
- One reverb and one delay
05 / Install
Install
Straight from the browser, in Chrome, Edge or Opera, over the USB cable. Nothing to download or set up.
- Connect the FM-1 to the computer by USB, directly.
- Back up your presets. The install page links to the backup.
- Press Install and allow MIDI when the browser asks.
The same page takes you back to the stock firmware whenever you like.
Your own sounds go over the same cable with the Manager: six-operator and CZ .syx banks, and wavetables for WAVE.
What changed in each version, and how two versions compare.
mikejohnsonbeatsMike Johnson Beats
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06 / Questions
Questions
Can I go back to the stock firmware?
Yes. The install page takes you back to it whenever you like.
What happens to my presets?
Back them up before you install. The install page links to the backup.
Does it work with my DAW?
Over USB the FM-1 is a MIDI device: notes in and out, MIDI clock in and out. It doesn't show up as an audio interface. The sound comes out of the FM-1 itself.
Can I load my own sounds?
Yes, with the Manager: six-operator and CZ .syx banks, and your own wavetables for WAVE as .wav.
What do I need?
An FM-1, a USB cable and a computer with Chrome, Edge or Opera.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It's free.
07 / Who made it
Who made it
Mike Johnson Beats, an instrumentalist and producer. OG Synth is the most powerful synth I know how to make, and the simplest to play.
It's free. If it earns a place in your setup, there's a tip jar on Ko-fi.
Credits
- Built on fm1-base and felucca-bsp, from Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments) and Charles Vestal, MPL-2.0.
- Kick, snare and hi-hat models in 88 and 99 from Plaits by Émilie Gillet (Mutable Instruments), MIT.
- The FM-1's original sounds, by M-VAVE, Apache-2.0.
- Fonts: Sedgwick Ave Display, Archivo, JetBrains Mono and Barlow, SIL OFL 1.1.