How to turn the FM-1 AMB-1 into a drone
AMB-1 is a firmware that turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a self-playing ambient piece: a breathing pad, bells, a bass and a soft pulse, all from one chord in one scale. Its REC button freezes that chord and leaves the reverb ringing, while the bells and the pulse carry on over it. Turn those two down on their own pages and you are left with a drone.
Freeze the chord, then turn the pulse and bells down.
These steps are for AMB-1 version 1.2 on the FM-1, with the Garden piece playing. AMB-1 starts playing on its own when it is switched on, and Garden is the first of its eight pieces; if a different piece comes up, turn PRESETS until the top line of the screen names Garden. AMB-1 is not in Les's firmware switching table yet, and either firmware can write over the other's saved data. AMB-1 can't export its pieces, so write down the settings you want to keep before you switch firmware.
Three steps
Press REC to freeze the chord and its reverb. The bells and pulse play on.
0:08Press SEQ, then turn KNOB1 all the way down. That's the pulse's level.
0:15Press ARP, then turn KNOB1 all the way down. That's the bells' level.
0:22
Freeze the chord. Let it ring.
Good to know
Press REC again to let the chord go: the piece goes on to new chords again. The pulse and bells stay down after that, because AMB-1 keeps what you change with the piece and stores it in memory by itself while the piece is at rest. To bring them back, press SEQ and turn KNOB1 back up, then press ARP and turn KNOB1 back up. Or hold SAVE past its help card, about 1.5 seconds, to reset the piece to its recipe, the way it came; the reset is kept only once the piece is saved again. KNOB1 is the level on every layer's page, so the same turn works for the pad (ENV) and the bass (LFO). More on the FM-1 and its firmware: https://les.audio/guides/m-vave-fm-1. Les is independent and not affiliated with M-VAVE or with AMB-1's author, Charles Vestal.
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