Eight Bells V3 · V3-stage
Beats and melodies for the M-VAVE FM-1 and its custom firmwares, built from 28 engines, from Euclidean rhythms to world cycles, chaos and Markov chains. Up to 8 tracks depending on the firmware, up to 64 steps each. It can play the pattern on the FM-1 itself over USB MIDI.
Before you start
Eight Bells makes patterns for an M-VAVE FM-1 running custom firmware, or the official M-VAVE firmware. Pick yours in Play on the FM-1 SMC-PAD so the track layout, channels and notes match. If your FM-1 still has the stock firmware, install a custom one first. Slipway is a Windows app that lists custom FM-1 firmware and installs it for you, and a few firmwares have their own web flasher instead. Close Slipway, the firmware's web editor and the M-VAVE workbench before you connect here, because only one app can use the FM-1's MIDI port at a time.
- Slipway on GitHub, the app that installs FM-1 firmware
- FM-1 firmware catalogue, the list Slipway reads
- The Firmware Hub, another list of FM-1 firmware
- Felucca on GitHub, the firmware and installer that Slipway uses
iPhone and iPad: Safari cannot talk to MIDI devices, so install the free Web MIDI Browser app from the App Store and open this page inside it. Plug the FM-1 in with a USB adapter, then tap Connect MIDI in Play on the FM-1. This has been tested on an iPhone, and the FM-1 played the pattern.
Every firmware's card in Play on the FM-1 SMC-PAD links to its own release page. Installing firmware is at your own risk. Save the stock firmware with Slipway before you change anything, so you can put it back.
Play on the FM-1 SMC-PAD
MIDI is not connected. Plug in the FM-1 with a USB data cable, switch it on, then tap Connect.
Browse all firmwares
The same community catalogue that Slipway reads. Pick one to apply its MIDI settings. Install firmware with Slipway, or with the flasher on the firmware's own page where it has one. The people who made each firmware are credited on its card. The Firmware Hub lists most of them as open source under GPL-3.0 and FM-1+VA as not open source, so check each project's own licence.
Sound check (for troubleshooting)
MIDI monitor: does your FM-1 send notes?
Tap Connect MIDI, choose the FM-1 as the input and tap Listen. Then start a pattern on the FM-1, or play its keys. If notes appear here, the firmware is sending them over USB. On Sloop, the sequencer only sends its notes when GLO, then MIDI 2, then OUT is set to SEQ. Otherwise only the keys you press are sent.
Not listening. Choose the FM-1 as the input, then tap Listen and start the pattern on the FM-1.
Turns a loop on the FM-1 into tracks here, which you can edit and share as an exact pattern code. On Sloop, first set GLO, then MIDI 2, then OUT to SEQ so the sequencer sends its notes. Without a clock, so the app treats the first note it hears as step 1. Set the app tempo (under Generate) to exactly the FM-1 tempo first, and pick the same number of bars as the loop. Each capture only replaces the tracks it hears, so you can capture a track at a time.
Not capturing. Tap Capture a loop, then press Play on the FM-1.
The .mid file holds all four tracks with swing and velocity, ready for a DAW or a MIDI player.
Engine
Genres
Preview sounds approximate
These are the sounds you hear in the browser when no FM-1 is connected. They are approximations of the kinds of instrument the firmwares offer, not the real FM-1 sounds. With an FM-1 connected, it plays its own sounds and everything here stays silent.
Drum kit
Instrument for each kind of track
Each melodic track plays as one of these four roles, depending on the genre, so with more than four melodic tracks some share an instrument. Drum tracks use the drum kit above, and the sample track uses its own sounds.
Your own sounds
Add audio files from your device (WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC and so on, any length). They stay on this device. They play in the browser preview only: the FM-1 can only play sounds that are already installed on it.
Play the selected sound from the keys
Give a track or drum lane one of your sounds
Seed and share
SeedEach generate has a seed. Type one in and tap a genre to get the same pattern again. Paste a share code, exact pattern code or song code here to load it.
My seeds and songs (save, recall and use in Auto song)
Save this pattern keeps exactly what is on screen now (the lit pattern: intro, build up, drop and so on), with every step you edited. Save this song keeps the whole song you are building: every section, its loops and what each one holds.
Auto song
Tracks you lock stay exactly as they are while Auto song plays. Everything else keeps changing around them, in the same key.
Tempo, feel and key
Song patterns
In the order you would build a track
Song builder
Tap patterns to line them up into a song, then play it. Each pattern remembers what you make in it: pick a pattern, shape the tracks, move to another and come back, and it is still there. A dot marks sections that have something saved. To share or save the whole song, use Seed and share and My seeds on the left. Tap the lit section again to start it afresh, and Generate while a section is lit remakes only that section. A section you have not visited yet is built from the pattern you started from. Tracks you lock stay as they are, and your own pattern comes back when it ends.
Loops per pattern
Tap to add to the song
Your song (tap a pattern to remove it)
Punch effects over the top (hold a button, Sloop with MIDI connected)
Changes between patterns
Solo
Tap tracks to hear only those, or tap All tracks
Punch effects
With no FM-1 connected, hold a button to hear an approximation of the effect on the browser preview (loops and stutters repeat the last moment you heard).
Sloop plays its 27 punch effects from MIDI on notes F3 to G5. On the FM-1, go to GLO, then MIDI 3, and set FX CH to a free channel, for example 11. Tap Connect MIDI in Play on the FM-1 SMC-PAD first. Choose the same channel here, then hold a button to run that effect on the whole mix. Other firmwares don't publish this, so the panel is hidden for them.
White keys (names from Sloop's guide)
Black keys (names from Sloop's wiki, key order assumed)
Connect MIDI first, then hold a button.
Sound controls
Sends MIDI controllers to the FM-1 while it plays, so you can shape each track without touching the knobs. Only sliders you move are sent. Filter: below the middle is low-pass, above is high-pass.
Tap a step to edit
Tap a step to add or remove a hit, or switch to Velocity and tap a hit to cycle soft, medium and loud. The bar in each step shows how hard it plays. Lock a track to keep it while the rest regenerate. Hits, Steps and Rotate rebuild a track as a Euclidean pattern. If the Sloop editor shows notes an octave off, flip Middle C.
Track colours
Tracks 1 to 4 start in the same colours as the Sloop screen: blue, green, yellow and orange. Tap a swatch to change any track's colour, including the sample track. Your choices are remembered in this browser.