KAWA on the M-VAVE FM-1: the tracks, the FM sound, the live effects and the envelope screens

KAWA — Pocket Tracker for the M-VAVE FM-1

Made for chiptune and IDM: breakbeat slicing, rolls, stutter, glitch effects, FM and 4-bit waves, 6 tracks

A free tracker firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Write patterns on six tracks (FM, chiptune, drums, breaks, samples), chain them into a song, and play live effects. Beta, GPL-3.0.

BETA

Not yet tried on a real FM-1. This is an unofficial firmware: install it at your own risk. The official firmware can be put back with M-UPGRADE (see below).

Install KAWA

  1. Switch the FM-1 on and plug it into this computer with a USB data cable.
  2. Close every other program that uses MIDI.
  3. Click the button, and allow MIDI access with SysEx when the browser asks.

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The whole package is checked before anything is erased: a damaged package, or one for another model, is refused and the old firmware stays. The chip's bootloader is never written. If the cable is cut during the write, plug the FM-1 back in and click again: the install resumes.

Advanced

Browser support

The installer needs Web MIDI with SysEx: Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer. Firefox and Safari do not have it.

Another browser, or no luck? Use the INSTALL-Windows.bat, INSTALL-Mac.command or INSTALL-Linux.sh launcher of the repository (they need Python 3).

Back to the official firmware

Not for you? Put M-VAVE's firmware back with M-VAVE's own M-UPGRADE tool. Your KAWA projects will be lost. Read the steps first: README, Back to the official firmware. This page does not install the official firmware.

Samples

Convert your own sounds (WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC) and send up to four of them to KAWA's MY 1 to MY 4 slots over USB, from Chrome or Edge. Nothing is uploaded.

Open the sample importer

Source

The firmware, the tools and the tests. Free software, GPL-3.0.

Source on GitHub

Write KAWA to the FM-1?

Do not unplug the FM-1, do not close or reload this page, and do not let the computer sleep while it is writing. It takes a few minutes.

Beta firmware, not yet tried on a real FM-1: at your own risk.