synthesthetic

• Four tracks give you three synths and a drum machine, with twelve synth engines including six-operator FM that loads DX7 patches.
• You get 153 sounds, 37 drum kits and 27 punch-in effects.
• The step sequencer has parameter locks and song sections, and closes a loop when you press REC on the first beat.
• Thirty-one visual modes are drawn from the sound, with nine palettes, color cycling and a short fade between modes.
• SELECT picks the mode, PRESETS the palette, ALGORITHM the autopilot, and knobs 1 to 4 set AMOUNT, RATE, TRAILS and COLOR.
• Over one USB cable the FM-1 appears as a camera sending 320 by 240 video at 30 frames per second.
• The same cable carries USB-MIDI and a 16-bit stereo audio input at 44.1 kHz.
• Projects, settings, presets, kits and samples survive power-off and updates, and the web editor edits them and makes full backups.

Its modes

TRACKS

The main playing page, where you record loops on the white keys and tap HOME to open the visualizer.

SYSTEM

A menu section whose ABOUT entry shows the version and confirms the second core is running.

The visualizer

Shows the picture on the FM-1 with its mode name and number above and the four knob values below.

SCREEN

Sends the FM-1's own display as the video, pixel for pixel, so you can stream a set or a tutorial.