GIO-1 for the M-VAVE FM-1

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GIO-1 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a generative electronic disco machine, after Giorgio Moroder's Munich sound. It plays itself from the moment it's switched on: an analog-style bass sequence (or FM) out in front, its repeats on the other side; strings, a choir or detuned saws through a phaser; a synth lead (ten voices) that writes its own phrases, which you can play from the white keys and which answers you; four on the floor with claps, open hats and syndrum fills. Each song is a form (intro, verse, chorus, break) with its own chord changes, and it loops for ever, changing as it goes: a section repeated, a layer let out for a while, the whole song moved up a key for a cycle. You steer it: pick a song, a key, a bass pattern, hold a section, push it on to the next.

Status: alpha, tested on two FM-1s. The latest release, 0.3.1-alpha, has been installed on two separate FM-1s and works on both, with m-bootloader installed on both too. With 0.3-alpha, other firmware was installed over GIO-1 on each and GIO-1 put back again, so moving between GIO-1 and other firmware has been tried too. Installing it is at your own risk: unofficial firmware could brick an FM-1. See BUILDING.md for the toolchain.

The presets

Nine presets, each with its own tempo, key, chord changes and arrangement. The lines are GIO-1's own, written as it plays.

#	Preset	BPM	Key	The form
1	Feel	126	C	Intro (bass, hats) · Verse (C) · Chorus (C–E♭–F–G) · Shift (on B♭) · Verse · Chorus · Break
2	Gio	113	A minor	Click (hats on the beat) · Arpeggio · Disco (Am–Em) · Strings (Am–F) · Fills · House
3	Mutant	123	F minor	Dawn (the pad alone) · Sequence · Groove · Theme (Fm–D♭) · Bridge (B♭m–Fm) · Theme
4	Heaven	130	A♭	Slow ×2 (half time, A♭–E♭–Fm11–E♭) · Lift · Fast (A♭–E♭–B♭–A♭) · Vamp (Fm11) · Fast
5	TickTock	126	C, then E♭	Intro · Verse (G–F) · Pre (Am–Dm–G–C) · Chorus (G–Em7–G) · Turn (C–E♭) · the same a minor third up · Outro
6	Energy	123	C minor	Intro · Groove (Cm) · Lift (A♭–B♭) · Groove (Cm–B♭) · Break · Build
7	Fly	126	A minor	Liftoff · Theme (Am–F–G) · Drift (Am–Dm) · Theme · Space
8	Lover	130	C minor	Intro · Verse (Cm–B♭) · Hook (A♭–B♭–Cm) · Robot · Hook
9	Express	128	D minor	Intro (the bass alone) · Drive · Strings · Theme (Dm–B♭–C) · Pursuit · Theme · Run

All of it is a table in app/dsp/gio.c (SONGS), easy to change.

In short

White keys	The lead, in the song's scale (the chord's notes lit); a call of three notes and a pause, and the lead answers and takes it as its theme
Black keys	Eleven drop-in effects, each while held
FX	The FX pages, one a press: Bass FX, Pad FX, Lead FX, Drums FX (each: Echo, Reverb, and the one echo's Time and Feedback), then Space; on each, the sixteen effects on the white keys (REC held: the same, on any page)
PLAY · REC · SEL	Play / stop · a tap holds the section · the next section, on the next bar
EDIT	The edit pages, one a press: the Bassline (the bass pattern as a piano roll; each step's note, accent and length), the Chords (the section's chord changes), the Drum grid (each drum's steps and levels); on the Bassline and Drum grid the white keys are the bar's sixteen steps
HOME · ENV · ARP · LFO · SEQ · FX · GLO	The pages: Song (again: Mixer, the four levels), Bass (again: Bass FM, the Analog or FM voice), Lead (again: Lead 2), Pad, Drums, FX (the four FX pages, then Space), Setup (again: MIDI, then Mirror: the screen mirror on or off); KNOB 1–4 set their values
SELECT	The previous or next page; with HOME held, the tempo (80–150)
ALGORITHM · PRESETS	The bass pattern · the song
OCT− / OCT+	The bass's octave
SAVE	Saves; held, puts the song back to its recipe

Hold any button for a second and a card says what it does. The manual has the rest.

Building and testing

GIO-1 is an app on fm1-base (base/, a git submodule); clone with --recursive. The toolchain and prerequisites are in BUILDING.md:

sh tests/run_tests.sh                                  # the instrument, the app in the simulator
./build.sh --host                                      # the simulator: app/build/host/gio_host
./build.sh                                             # app/build/gio.fwsc (needs JieLi's toolchain and SDK)
python3 base/tools/fm1_install.py app/build/gio.fwsc   # install it over USB

app/build/host/gio_host SCRIPT OUTDIR runs the whole app on a computer from a script (tests/scenarios/*.gio), with audio and screenshots coming out. tests/host/gio_render.c renders one song's engine alone to a WAV, with its sections, levels and the engine's time:

cc -O2 -ffp-contract=off -DEN_HOST -Iapp/dsp -Ibase/include -o gio_render tests/host/gio_render.c app/dsp/gio.c -lm
./gio_render 3 180 heaven.wav          # song 4, three minutes
CHORDS=1 ./gio_render 4 120 clock.wav  # with every chord change printed

Credits

A fork of AMB-1 by Charles Vestal, whose platform, panel, plate reverb and tape echo it keeps. The idea of a song form that loops and changes is DUB-1's and NACHTFAHRT's (no code from either). Built on fm1-base and felucca-bsp, from Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments). MPL-2.0; see LICENSING.md.

M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. GIO-1 is not affiliated with M-VAVE, Giorgio Moroder, any artist named here, or Hügelton Instruments.