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SoonFirmware for M-Vave FM-1

OCTOPOP

Custom firmware for the M-Vave FM-1: a full 4-operator FM synth in the spirit of the FB-01, with sequencer, arpeggiator and dual SPX-style effects.

Coming soon

The real firmware, running in your browser. Play with the mouse, your computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard (Chrome or Edge).
What you change stays in this browser.

What it is

A whole FM studio in an FM-1

OCTOPOP turns the M-Vave FM-1 into a multitimbral 4-operator FM synth: eight instruments, sixteen voices, two effect racks, a step sequencer and an arpeggiator, all shaped on the unit's own screen.

The panel above is the firmware itself, running in your browser.

Eight at once

Eight instruments, sixteen voices, one small box. Every part keeps its own channel, range, tuning and effect sends.

Every algorithm

All eight FM algorithms drawn as you change them, plus Random and Morph for sounds you would never program by hand.

Four operators

Level, ratio, detune and scaling side by side. The one you touch steps forward.

Shape it

Each operator's envelope, drawn live as you turn the knobs.

Make it move

Four waves for pitch and level, under the wheel, aftertouch, breath or foot.

Two racks

Thirty classic studio effects on two sends: halls, plates, echoes, flangers, pitch and more.

Step, lock, chain

A step sequencer with chance, ratchets, nudge and per-step locks, chained into songs.

Fifteen ways up

An arpeggiator with fifteen patterns, from straight up to a random walk.

Twelve looks

A screen style for every FM-1 colour, and a few more.

Eight at once

Eight instruments, sixteen voices, one small box. Every part keeps its own channel, range, tuning and effect sends.

Every algorithm

All eight FM algorithms drawn as you change them, plus Random and Morph for sounds you would never program by hand.

Four operators

Level, ratio, detune and scaling side by side. The one you touch steps forward.

Shape it

Each operator's envelope, drawn live as you turn the knobs.

Get it

Free. Yours to keep.

Download it for nothing, or pay what it is worth to you. It installs from your browser over USB in about a minute, no app and no account, and the FM-1's own firmware goes back on just as easily.

Pay what you want
Coming soon

Every bit keeps OCTOPOP growing. Thank you.

Tell me when it's out. Only OCTOPOP news and new tools, no spam.

The story · 1986

It started
long before
the FM-1.

My first synth was an FB-01 from 1986, a gift from a friend. A small black box with a serious FM engine inside, and almost no way to reach it: a tiny screen, a few buttons, menus inside menus.

So I set out to give it the editor it never had, to open the whole engine up and finally play that little beast the way it deserves.

Then the FM-1 came out and the pieces fell into place: the same kind of sound, in a box anyone can buy today. So OCTOPOP went FM-1 first, and the FB-01 editor comes along with it. Both free.

I'm a graphic designer, musician and producer, from the old school. Coding with AI simply let me build the tools I had been sketching for years. Every screen here was made by hand, with care.

Say thanks

Keep the operators running.

Already playing it? OCTOPOP is made by one person, late at night. A coffee keeps the next update coming.

Buy me a coffee