Very good and compkete review with many sounds demo, also multipart.
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I’m less excited than I was about this - is it then the same that was included in their SMK midi keyboards? That’s widely available on Amazon.
Have both, hate SMK (terrible MIDI latency, both wireless and wired, awful FXs, etc.), and so far love FM-1 despite some shortcomings (hope it will be fixed in next updates).
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An awesome online tool for loading DX7 .syx banks and sending out individual patches to the FM-1:
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Are there any flaws in built quality? Should we wait for later batches?
So far so good, didn’t find any.
You have no choice - thre are no units for sale as of now. Therefore next batch suppose to be better.
Yeah no issues so far with my unit either. I’ve taken it apart and had a look inside and it seems nicely and simply put together. As others have mentioned the keyboard keys are the rubber dual contact type so that may or may not be an issue for you.
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Just as a PSA it seems at least a few vendors now have them listed as in stock on Aliexpress though none of them seem to be the official MVAVE store.
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I’ll buy another one for sure, but this time will buy a white one, for the labels to be seen clearly (or some other lighter color modification). On the black one it’s impossible to read those labels…
How does the Fm-1 compares to korg fm2 regarding the sound? Not functionality. Im looking for a portable FM synth.
It’s the same six operators’ FM synth, but has 12-note polyphony instead of 6-note in Volca. The sound is whatever you put there, all DX7 patches are compatible with it. If you love DX7 sounds, you’ll love FM-1 sound. Plus it has a bunch of FX, reverb, delay, phaser, chorus, distortion, filter, so you are more flexible with the sound’s ‘‘spicing’’. Listen for yourself:
Here you have it, with the convenience of the rechargeable built-in battery, and the audio- and MIDI-over-USB (plus a TRS 3.5mm MIDI) option. And the LCD screen is a tad better than Volca’s. And the keys, though not super playable, but are better than Volca’s PCB ones.
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Many thanks for your detailed reply. Also the price of the Fm-1 is attractive.
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Just ordered another one, $65 USD, with this color scheme:
This one gives much more label clarity than the total black. Also for this one I’ve ordered these knob caps from Old Blood Noise Endeavors:
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To be fair, hard to think of what sounds bad when put through Valhalla reverb. The onboard reverb sounds ok but not fantastic.
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Agreed, but to count other benefits and conveniences, this is a clear winner for me.
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Heres a short video showing how to connect a midi controller to the FM-1 and more importantly the MIDI CC implementation mapping thats missing from the user manual.
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Yes for sure, I’m quite impressed with my FM-1 too, only regret not waiting a bit longer to get my preferred colour way instead of the plain black.
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Too bad it doesn’t respond to the basic CCs such as #7 (Volume), #10 (Pan), or #11 (Expression) on Channel 1… But it responds to CC 1 (Modulation) and to the Pitch Band. Weird.
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Same here, the black/teal and orange colours look really nice from the images.
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BTW, I have one hint for making the sound of an FM-1 better. If you’re not mind to have one more little dongle in addition to your portable setup, here it is:
I already have one modified (a short cable with 3.5mm TS jack soldered instead of the built-in 6.5mm TS jack), so it does a couple of things:
- converts mono out signal to true stereo;
- adds FX to the output;
- there is a mobile app for it to tune it to your liking;
- has a built-in battery;
- small enough not to add any bulkiness to your setup.
Works for me, might work for you as well ))
I have the older version of it, an MP-1, it’s cheaper used online.