Manual

Everything the FM-1 does under Bigorna. New here? Start with The panel; to install, see Install.

The panel

While a knob turns, the screen shows its value as a large dial for a second.

Tracks, machines and voices

Six tracks, each with its own machine, sound, octave, level, pan, steps and loops. Each track keeps a sound for each of the four machines, so turning PRESETS back finds the sound it had.

Twelve voices are shared by the tracks: a track takes as many as its notes need. When all twelve sound, a new note takes the quietest one fading out. The FM-1's second processor core renders half the voices and the send effects; should it ever fault, it is stopped and the first core carries on alone until the FM-1 is switched off (the screen says 1 CORE).

DRUM tracks choke: each hit fades the track's previous one, as on a drum machine.

Sounds

HOME draws a new sound for the track from a recipe of its machine — a family such as TIGHT KICK, METAL HAT, FM BASS or SWARM DRONE — its values drawn within the recipe's ranges, leaning each time towards industrial, IDM or abstract. SHIFT + HOME draws again from the same family. SHIFT + PRESETS moves to the family before or after. The screen shows the machine and the family. 56 families: 29 for DRUM, 9 for 4-OP, 10 for WAVY, 8 for HIVE. The drone, pad and texture families and FM LEAD set LFOs as SynthSeeder's recipes do (those on PAN left out); the other families, kicks aside, may get a sample-and-hold LFO on the filter's FREQ.

The sound's pages (EDIT)

EDIT shows the sound's pages: SYN 1 to 4 (the machine's), FLTR 1, FLTR 2, AMP, FX and MANGLE. Each page has eight parameters: KNOB 1 to 4 set A to D; PRESETS turned right shows E to H (left: back). OCT− and OCT+ move between the pages. EDIT again leaves.

4-OP

Four-operator FM after the Digitone II's FM TONE: operator C and the modulators A, B1 and B2.

• SYN 1: ALGO (eight algorithms), RATIO C, RATIO A, RATIO B, HARM, DETUNE, FEEDBACK, MIX
• SYN 2: the A and B envelopes — ATK, DEC, END, LEV for each
• SYN 3: DELAY, TRIG and RESET for A and for B, PHASE RST
• SYN 4: OFS C, OFS A, OFS B1, OFS B2 (fine offsets), KEYTRK A, KEYTRK B1, KEYTRK B2

DRUM

Three-operator FM percussion after FM DRUM.

• SYN 1: TUNE, SWP TIME, SWP DEPTH (the pitch sweep), ALGO (seven), OP C WAVE, OP AB WAVE, FEEDBACK, FOLD
• SYN 2: RATIO, DEC, END and MOD for A and for B
• SYN 3: HOLD, DECAY (the body), PHASE C, LEVEL, NOISE RST, NOISE RM
• SYN 4: NS HOLD, NS DECAY, TRANS (the transient's kind), TRANS LEV, NS BASE, NS WIDTH, NS GRAIN, NS LEVEL

WAVY

Two wavetable oscillators with phase distortion, and a noise generator.

• SYN 1: TUNE, WAVE, PD and LEVEL for each oscillator
• SYN 2: OFS 1, TABLE 1, MOD (OFF, RING, RING FIX, SYNC), RESET, OFS 2, TABLE 2, DRIFT
• SYN 3: NS ATK, NS HOLD, NS DECAY, NS LEVEL, NS BASE, NS WIDTH, NS TYPE (GRAIN, TUNED, S+H), NS CHAR

HIVE

A swarm of six detuned oscillators and a main oscillator.

• SYN 1: TUNE, SWRM WAVE, DETUNE, MIX, MAIN OCT (−2, −1, 0), MAIN WAVE, ANIMATION, NOISE MOD

FLTR 1, FLTR 2

• FLTR 1: the filter's envelope (ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN, RELEASE), FREQ, RESONANCE, the filter's own parameter, ENV DEPTH
• FLTR 2: FLT DELAY, KEYTRACK, BASE and WIDTH (the base-width filter), BW ROUTE (before or after), ENV RESET, FILTER: MULTI (multimode), LP4 (4-pole low-pass), LEGACY (low- or high-pass), COMB−, COMB+, EQ

AMP and FX

• AMP: ATTACK, HOLD, DECAY, SUSTAIN, RELEASE, RESET, MODE (AHD or ADSR), VOLUME
• FX: BIT REDUCE, OVERDRIVE, SRR (sample-rate reduction), the DELAY, REVERB and CHORUS sends, OD ROUTE

MANGLE

Per track, on the track's sound before its level:

• DESTROY and DST MODE: digital destruction — WRAP (the sample wraps round), XOR, FLIP (a bit flipped), DROP (samples dropped)
• SLICE, SLICE RATE, SLC DEPTH, SLC EDGE, SLC SHIFT: a slicer gate synced to the tempo — sixteen patterns at 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 or 1/16 triplets, how deep, how soft its edges, shifted in steps

Playing

The white keys play the track in the scale chosen: the first key is the root, each the next degree. The scale and root are set on the session's page (SAVE): CHROMATIC (the black keys play too, but for the first three), MAJOR, MINOR NATURAL, MINOR HARMONIC, DORIAN, PHRYGIAN, MINOR PENTA, MAJOR PENTA, WHOLE TONE, IN. OCT− and OCT+ move the track's octave. USB MIDI notes play the chosen track as the keys do.

CHORD mode

In the track's view, the step view off, the 1st black key turns CHORD mode on or off for the track (lit while on, dim off). Each white key then plays a triad from its note, in the scale: TRIAD, INV 1, INV 2, SUS2, SUS4, OPEN or FOURTHS (in CHROMATIC, the same shapes in semitones). SHIFT and the key choose the next form. The form shows at the top left. A step put in takes the chord last played; REC records chords into the steps; the looper records their notes. DRUM tracks play no chords.

MUTE mode

In the track's view, the step view off, the 2nd black key turns MUTE mode on or off (lit while on; the name band reads MUTE MODE). The track buttons then mute instead of choosing: lit, a track plays; dim, it is muted. A button let go soon mutes its track or plays it again. Held 1 s, its track is soloed, every other muted; held 1 s again, the mutes come back as they were. MUTE mode off, the mutes stay, and the buttons choose tracks again. A muted track fades out over ~9 ms, its sends with it; its steps keep playing silently. The chosen track's number is dark grey while it is muted. Mutes are kept with the session.

BREAK

While the sequencer plays, holding the 3rd black key (the step view off) breaks up the chosen track's pattern; SHIFT and the key, every track at once. Nothing is written into the steps: each track's position keeps running underneath, and when the key is let go the pattern carries on from where it would have been; ratchets and echoes the break had started stop at once. The key is lit while held.

The break stays on the pattern's beat. A track goes into it on its next beat (its next half bar for REPEAT 8) and plays as written until then. Each press draws a way of playing the steps, shown in the name band; held two bars, a new one is drawn on the next bar line (never the same twice running). Every way keeps what is on a beat on a beat:

Over the way, some of these are drawn too:

• ratchets (2 to 6 hits a step), faster the longer the key is held; not on a step that has its own ratchet;
• flams on the drums;
• octave leaps, up or down, on the melodic tracks;
• a gap: every track but the kick silent for the last 2 or 4 steps of each bar;
• accents: the steps on the beat full, the ones between softer.

The role of each track's sound (as the phrase generator reads it) keeps the result coherent: a kick keeps the bar's first step and takes no leaps, no gap and few ratchets; a drone (HIVE's pads and drones, dark washes) is left alone. The looper's loops are not broken up: they play on as recorded, and the pattern falls back in with them when the key is let go.

The effects (SEQ)

SEQ shows CHORUS, COMP, DELAY, REVERB, then the chosen track's LFO 1, LFO 2 and LFO 3 in turn, then goes back (OCT− and OCT+ move between them; a track's button goes back to the track's view). KNOB 1 to 4 set the first four rows; PRESETS turned right shows the next four.

• CHORUS: DEPTH, SPEED, HPF, WIDTH, DELAY (its send to the delay), REVERB, VOLUME
• DELAY: TIME (synced to the tempo), PING PONG, WIDTH, FEEDBACK, HPF, LPF, REVERB, VOLUME
• REVERB: PRE, DECAY, FREQ, GAIN (the high shelf), HPF, LPF, VOLUME
• COMP: the master compressor — THRESHOLD, ATTACK, RELEASE, RATIO, MAKEUP, MIX — then the chosen track's SC SOURCE and SC LEVEL

Sidechain

Any track can be ducked under another's hits: SC SOURCE chooses the track whose notes duck it (OFF: none), SC LEVEL how deep, 0 to 100 — at 100 the track is all but gated on each hit. The duck follows the source's level and lets go at the compressor's RELEASE; the track's delay, reverb and chorus returns duck with it. The two rows show in the chosen track's colour; SHIFT and a track's button choose another track while staying on the page.

LFOs

Each track's sound has three LFOs, on the pages LFO 1, LFO 2 and LFO 3 after REVERB, shown in the track's colour (SHIFT and a track's button choose another track while staying on the page). They are part of the sound: each machine's sound on a track has its own, saved with the session. An LFO runs once for the track, and all the track's voices follow it (the Digitone II runs one per voice).

• SPEED: −64 to +63; negative runs the wave backwards. One cycle takes 2048 / (|SPEED| × MULT) 16ths: SPEED +32 with MULT x4 is one bar.
• MULT: x1 to x2048 follow the tempo; .1 to .2048 run as at 120 BPM whatever the tempo.
• FADE: 0 none; negative fades the LFO in, positive fades it out, over |FADE| 16ths from each note.
• DEST: NONE, or a parameter of the sound's pages, named with its page (S1 to S4 the machine's SYN pages, F1, F2, AMP, FX, MNG; the page left out where the name would not fit). LFO 2 can also move LFO 1's SPEED or DEPTH, and LFO 3 those of LFO 1 or LFO 2. Parameters the machine does not have are skipped.
• WAVE: TRI, SINE, SQR, SAW, EXP, RAMP, RND (a new random value each cycle).
• START: where the wave starts on a note (TRIG, ONE, HALF), 0 to 127 a whole cycle. For RND: how slowly it moves to each new value (below 48 it jumps).
• MODE: FREE runs on; TRIG starts again at START on each note; HOLD runs on, but its value is held from each note to the next; ONE runs one cycle from each note and stops; HALF half a cycle.
• DEPTH: −64 to +63, the swing each way as a share of the destination's range (+32: half the range); negative turns the wave upside down; 0 off.

The LFOs are worked out every 2.9 ms. The track's sound is then made anew with the LFOs' values, one sound at a time in turn: with LFOs on several tracks (and voices with step locks), each moves in steps of 2.9 ms times their number. The LFOs' parameters cannot be step-locked.

The sequencer

Each track has 16 steps, its own length (1 to 16), clock (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1X, 2X, 4X the tempo's sixteenths) and direction. PLAY starts and stops it.

The step view

STEP turns the step view on or off. The white keys are the track's 16 steps (lit: a note; dim: empty; the step playing shows the other way round; past the track's length, dark):

• a key on an empty step puts the track's last note (or chord) there
• a key on a step with a note, let go soon and nothing changed, empties it
• a step held: the knobs lock what they set in the track's view (FREQ, RESO, the sends; SHIFT: chorus, overdrive), SELECT locks the level, ALGORITHM the pan
• a step held with the EDIT pages up: the knobs lock any parameter of the sound on the page; up to eight locks a step, shown in the track's colour
• SHIFT and a step held 0.8 s: copied (COPY and its number blink); SHIFT and another held 0.8 s: pasted there, on this track or another

The black keys, lit dimly, do this in the step view:

A step's own pages

TRIG: KNOB 1 the step's note (in the scale), 2 its velocity, 3 its length, 4 its trig condition; PRESETS right, KNOB 1 its RATCHET (the step played 2 to 8 times). The conditions, as the Digitone II's: PRE and !PRE (as the last condition was met or not), NEI and !NEI (as the track before met its condition), 1ST and !1ST (the first time through), probabilities, and A:B (the A-th time of every B).

MOD: KNOB 1 MUTATE (the note moved −N to +N steps of the scale, or RND), 2 MUT EVERY (every so many times the step plays), 3 MIDI FX — ECHO, ECHO UP, ECHO DN, STUTTER, FLAM, LATE, GRACE, FIFTH, TRIAD, OCT UP, OCT DN, DROP — 4 FX EVERY.

Phrases

The 1st black key in the step view writes a new phrase for the track: steps, notes, velocities, lengths, conditions, ratchets and locks, from the role of the sound the track plays (KICK, SNARE, HAT, PERC, NOISE, BASS, LEAD, STAB, DRONE), with displaced accents, ghosts on probabilities and A:B variations. DENSITY and COMPLEXITY (the PHRASE page, 0 to 100) thin it out or fill it, and take locks away or add more.

Recording

REC records the keys into the chosen track's steps. Stopped: REC arms (it flashes, the metronome counts) and the first note played starts the sequencer on step 1. Playing: recording starts at once. Each note goes to the nearest step with its velocity and its length as held, until REC again. SHIFT + PLAY turns the metronome on or off.

The looper

SHIFT + REC arms a new loop on the chosen track; the first note played starts it (and the sequencer, if stopped). Every note played after goes into it, at the nearest step, with its velocity and length, until REC ends it. Its length is then the nearest whole number of bars (16 steps a bar; 1 bar at least, 32 at most), so it never drifts from the patterns: it plays round in that length over the track's steps, its first step where its first note was, carrying on from where it is (LOOP 1 4 BARS shows). Three loops a track, up to 256 notes each (a chord counts its three notes). A note can be held for the whole loop.

SHIFT + REC held shows the track's loops on the first three white keys (lit: playing; dim: muted): a key let go soon mutes its loop or plays it again; held 0.8 s, empties it. SHIFT + REC held 1.5 s with no key touched empties every loop of the track.

Tempo

PLAY held 0.8 s shows the TEMPO page: PRESETS sets the session's tempo (10 to 300 BPM). A track's button or another page takes it down.

Patterns (ARP)

A session has 16 patterns: every track's steps, lengths, clocks and directions. ARP shows the PATTERNS grid; the white keys are the 16 patterns (dim; the one playing brighter). A key let go soon loads its pattern — while the sequencer plays, at the end of the chosen track's steps. Held 0.8 s, copies it; another held 0.8 s pastes it there; SHIFT and held 0.8 s empties it. ARP held saves the pattern playing. A pattern keeps its edits when another is loaded, until the session is saved or loaded.

Sessions (SAVE)

16 sessions are kept in the FM-1's flash. SAVE shows the list; PRESETS moves through it, SAVE opens a session's page: BACK, LOAD, SAVE, COPY, DELETE, TEMPO, ROOT, SCALE (it opens on LOAD; SAVE on BACK goes back to the list). SAVE runs the row chosen, or moves the focus to its value (PRESETS changes it, SAVE sets it, SHIFT + SAVE leaves it). Loading over changes not saved, saving over another session, copying over one and deleting ask first (NO / YES on PRESETS).

SAVE held 0.8 s (or HOME held), outside the sessions' pages, saves the session playing into its slot at once. If it has never been saved, the first empty slot's page shows SAVE NEW? with YES chosen: SAVE saves it there and goes back to the track (PRESETS left: NO). With all 16 slots taken, NO FREE SLOT shows.

A session holds the whole state of the machine: every track's machine, sounds, octave, level, pan, chord mode and mutes, the track chosen, the effects, the tempo, the root and scale, its 16 patterns and the pattern playing, and every loop on every track (notes, length, mute). Loading a session gives all of it back; its loops start at the next bar if the sequencer is playing. A session saved by build 37 or earlier has no loops: loading it empties them.

The loops are kept in a loop store shared by the 16 sessions (31 sectors of flash, about 125 KB). A session takes what its loops need: up to 7 sectors with all 18 loops full (256 notes each). If the store has no room left, nothing is saved and NO ROOM FOR LOOPS shows; deleting a session, or saving one with fewer loops, frees room.

The FM-1 starts with the last session loaded or saved (SESSION n shows for a moment). Changes not saved before it was switched off are not kept.

GLOBAL SETUP (SHIFT + SAVE)

SHIFT + SAVE (outside the sessions' pages) opens GLOBAL SETUP: the settings of the machine rather than of a session. They are kept in the FM-1's flash and read at every start. PRESETS moves through a list and SAVE goes into the entry chosen; on a setting, SAVE moves the focus to its value, PRESETS changes it and SAVE sets it. SHIFT + SAVE leaves a value as it was, or goes back a level; from the top it leaves GLOBAL SETUP, as a track's button does. Every level below the top begins with BACK: SAVE on it goes back a level (a level opens on the entry below BACK). Changes are written to the flash as it is left.

MIDI

MIDI goes over the USB cable, both ways (the FM-1 shows up as FM-1 Bigorna), and comes in through the FM-1's 3.5 mm MIDI IN jack (TRS Type A: a Type A cable or adapter from the other device's 5-pin MIDI OUT; tested with a Roland TRS-to-DIN cable from a Digitone II). The settings follow the Model:Cycles' MIDI CONFIG:

Clock in. The sending device has to send its transport (start and stop) as well as its clock; on Elektron machines these are two settings, CLOCK SEND and TRANSPORT SEND. With CLK IN on and a clock arriving, the FM-1 follows it: the tempo is the average of the last 24 pulses (one beat), and the sequencer is held to the pulses themselves, so it never drifts from the master and the jitter of the cable does not add up. START starts the sequencer from step 1 on the next pulse; CONTINUE starts it from the song position last received (each track where it would be by then on its clock and length, the loops too); STOP stops it. PLAY on the FM-1 starts on the master's next pulse. The TEMPO page (PLAY held) shows EXT TEMPO and the master's. If no pulse comes for half a second, the FM-1 goes back to its own tempo.

Clock out. With CLK OUT on, the FM-1 sends 24 pulses a beat from its sequencer, stopped too, so a slave can lock to the tempo before it starts. PLAY sends a song position of 0, START and the first pulse together, as step 1 plays; stopping sends STOP. A pulse is placed to within one audio block (0.73 ms); USB then delivers it in its own 1 ms frames.

Notes. A note received on a track's IN channel plays that track; on the AUTO channel, the track chosen. Notes on the chosen track are recorded (REC, the looper) as the keys are. With SEND NOTES on, every note a track plays (its steps, ratchets and MIDI FX, its loops, the keys, notes received) is sent on its OUT channel with its velocity, and its note off when it ends. A muted track sends nothing; stopping the sequencer sends the note offs still due.

CCs. Received on a track's channel (or AUTO), and sent on its OUT channel with SEND CC as its knobs turn: the level is CC 7, the pan CC 10, the mute CC 94 (0 to 63 plays, 64 to 127 mutes), and each page's eight parameters (A to H, as the knobs show them) these CCs, whichever machine the track plays:

The CCs a keyboard or a DAW sends for other things are left out: 32, 38, 64 to 69 (pedals), 96 to 101. A value from 0 to 127 is spread over the parameter's whole range.

Program changes 0 to 15 choose the session's patterns 1 to 16, in time as the patterns' grid does.

Tested with

MIDI has been tested on the FM-1 with:

• Elektron Digitone II, into the TRS MIDI IN jack (a Roland TRS-to-DIN cable, Type A, from the Digitone II's 5-pin MIDI OUT): the FM-1 follows its clock, starts and stops with it, and its keyboard plays the FM-1's tracks by channel (track 6 on channel 6). The Digitone II needs, in SETTINGS > MIDI CONFIG: SYNC > CLOCK SEND and TRANSPORT SEND on; PORT CONFIG > OUTPUT TO MIDI (or MIDI+USB), TRIG KEY DEST INT + EXT, OUTPUT CH TRK CH (or AUTO CH, which the FM-1 takes on its AUTO channel). On the FM-1: GLOBAL SETUP > MIDI > SYNC > CLK IN on.
• A computer over USB (macOS): notes, CCs, and MIDI LEARN with CCs as the M-VAVE SMC Mixer sends them in MIDI mode.

A controller cannot be plugged straight into the FM-1's USB-C port: both are USB devices, and USB needs a computer (a host) between them. A controller with a 5-pin MIDI OUT goes into the TRS jack.

This list grows as more gear is tried.

MIDI LEARN

The 4th black key (the step view off) turns MIDI LEARN on or off; it is lit while on, and MIDI LEARN shows in the name band. With it on, the EDIT pages and the effects' pages (SEQ) show CC instead of the page count, and in each row, where the value goes, the CC learned for it in amber, or — if none. PRESETS moves through the page's rows, A to H (the half shown follows); OCT− and OCT+ turn the pages as before.

• SAVE: the chosen row waits for a CC (WAIT). The next CC to come in, from USB or the jack, on any channel, is learned for it, and its number shows. SAVE again stops waiting.
• SHIFT + SAVE: the chosen row's CC forgotten.

A CC learned for a sound's parameter turns it on the track it was learned on; one learned for an effect's turns it for all (COMP's SC SOURCE and SC LEVEL, and the LFOs' rows: on the track it was learned on; an LFO's DEST cannot be learned). A CC and channel are learned for one parameter at a time, and a parameter has one CC: learning again moves it. A learned CC comes before the CC map above, on its channel; it needs RECEIVE CC on. Up to 64 are kept, in the flash with GLOBAL SETUP, written when MIDI LEARN is turned off.

The jack takes notes, CCs, program changes, the clock, START, CONTINUE, STOP and the song position, as USB does (not SysEx). With both inputs on, the two are merged; a clock should come from one of them only.

USB audio

The FM-1 is also a USB audio device: plugged into a computer, a phone or a tablet, it shows up as an audio input named FM-1 Bigorna, carrying its master output in stereo, 16-bit, at 44.1 kHz — the rate it is made at, sent as it is. Record it or monitor it like any class-compliant audio interface; nothing to install. Its MIDI stays as it was, on the same cable. The FM-1's own output (the headphone jack) plays on as usual. The USB stream does not follow the MASTER knob: the knob sets the jack's level only, so a recording keeps its level whatever the headphones are set to.

The host has to be the USB host: a computer, or a phone or tablet that takes USB audio devices (on Android, most do through USB-C). The FM-1 offers 44.1 kHz only; a host or app that works at 48 kHz converts it (Android, macOS and Windows do). Streaming takes about 2 % of the FM-1's processing time.

Tested with

• POCO X7 Pro (HyperOS), over a USB-C cable: the phone's own camera app records video with the FM-1's sound as its audio, as it plays. The phone needs OTG switched on before the FM-1 is plugged in: Settings > Additional settings > OTG. The switch is greyed out while anything is plugged into the phone's USB-C port (a charger too): unplug, switch it on, then connect the FM-1. HyperOS turns it off again after 10 minutes with no device.
• MacBook Air M5 (macOS), over a USB-C cable: the FM-1 shows up as FM-1 Bigorna, 2 input channels, 44,100 Hz, next to its MIDI port. Measured with a test tone in place of the music: the FM-1 sends a packet every 1 ms USB frame, every frame in order (none repeated, none dropped), under six tracks playing eighth notes; streaming costs 1.8 % of the FM-1's processing time. Music recorded from it peaked at -3 dBFS, the MASTER knob not changing it.

The FM-1's own MIDI goes on alongside the audio on the same cable.

The screen

Few words, very large type, high contrast, and a colour for each track. The track's view shows the track's number, its machine and its sound's family; at the top left the pattern playing (orange with changes not saved) and the chord form; at the top right the octave and, while recording, REC or LOOP.

Rescue

Hold OCT− while switching the FM-1 on: the rescue screen, from which the installer can run again. Two failed starts in a row also enter it. If the FM-1 starts but no longer answers over USB, hold OCT− and OCT+ for 5 seconds while it runs: the chip's own update mode, from which a firmware can be restored with Melodee's recovery tool.