README from GitHub, MPL-2.0
NOCT FM
MIDI controller firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1, made for FL Studio, Ableton Live and mobile apps — over USB and Bluetooth.
Keys, one-finger chords, a phrase generator, an arpeggiator, mixer knobs and DAW transport — on one fixed MIDI preset. The FM-1's built-in synth is switched off: your DAW makes the sound.
Install from the browser · Русская версия · Changelog · Emulator
Experimental firmware. Keep the official M-UPGRADE tool and the recovery steps for your FM-1 at hand before installing (see Safety and recovery).
Contents
- What it does
- Install
- Connect your DAW
- Bluetooth and apps (Android, Koala Sampler)
- Controls
- The generator
- Lights and screen
- Safety and recovery
- Development
- Credits and licences
What it does
| Keyboard | 27 keys (F3–G5), ±3 octaves, fixed velocity or key-sensed, optional lock to a scale |
| Chords | One key plays a chord: 11 types including in key and a learned memory chord; inversions, open, drop 2, strum |
| Generator | 4-bar phrases: melody, chords, bass or all three; 8 scales, 24 progressions + AUTO, 13 melody characters; 1000 variations per seed on the ALGORITHM dial |
| Arpeggiator | 7 orders, 1/4 … 1/32, 1–3 octaves, gate, swing, latch |
| DAW control | Mixer knobs, play / stop / record, FX, master, tap tempo; BPM and transport sync both ways |
| MIDI | USB and Bluetooth LE MIDI at the same time (plus TRS in); notes on channel 1 (generator can split to 1/2/3), controls on channel 16; MIDI Clock in or out |
Install
- Open https://joolo09.github.io/noct-fm/ in Chrome or Edge on a computer.
- Close your DAW, connect the FM-1 with a USB data cable and press Connect.
- Press Load (or choose a downloaded
.fwsc), tick the checkbox and press Install.
The installer checks the SHA-256, the size, the device model and, after the restart, the firmware identity. It only accepts the NOCT build published with it. Settings from older NOCT versions are migrated automatically.
Connect your DAW
Download the scripts from the site (or use integrations/). They pass tempo, transport, record
and FX state; notes need no script.
FL Studio — copy integrations/FL Studio/NOCT to Settings/Hardware/ in your User data folder, restart FL,
pick NOCT FM-1 → Controller type NOCT FM, and give its input and output the same Port number. For clock sync
enable Send master sync on the output. Two-way tempo needs FL MIDI scripting API 38+.
Ableton Live 11/12 — copy integrations/Ableton Live/NOCT to Remote Scripts/ in your User Library,
restart Live, choose Control Surface NOCT with Input/Output NOCT FM-1, and enable Track on the input and
Sync on the output.
| Knob (DAW page) | FL Studio | Ableton Live |
|---|---|---|
| K1 · CC20 | Mixer track volume | Track volume |
| K2 · CC21 | Mixer track pan | Track pan |
| K3 · CC22 | Stereo separation | Send A |
| K4 · CC23 | Channel volume | Send B |
Hold HOME for 0.6 s for MIDI MAP: K1–K4 then send CC24–27 for your own mappings (FL Link to controller, Live MIDI Map).
Three instruments from the generator — on the SYNC page set K4 to SPLIT: melody on channel 1, chords on 2, bass on 3. In FL give three channels MIDI input channels 1, 2, 3; in Live make three MIDI tracks with input NOCT FM-1 and Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3. The keyboard always plays on channel 1.
Bluetooth and apps (Android, Koala Sampler)
The firmware sends and receives MIDI on USB and Bluetooth at the same time. Bluetooth starts at power-on and advertises as "FM-1"; switch it on or off on the LINK page (K1) and SAVE to keep the choice.
On the FM-1 (LINK page) for apps without the DAW scripts:
- K2 HOST → APPS: PLAY sends MIDI Start / Stop instead of the script controls.
- K3 CLOCK OUT → SEND: the FM-1 becomes the tempo master and sends MIDI Clock (it then ignores incoming clock and Start, but always obeys an incoming Stop).
- K4 KNOB CH → CH 1 if the app learns controllers on the notes' channel.
Android over USB: connect with a USB-C / OTG adapter; in the app's MIDI settings enable the FM-1 input (and the output for clock and lights). Android over Bluetooth: do not pair in the system Bluetooth settings — a Bluetooth MIDI device must be opened by a MIDI app. Use the app's own Bluetooth MIDI search if it has one; if not, connect once with a Bluetooth MIDI connector app, after which the FM-1 shows up in every MIDI app. In Koala Sampler, turn on its MIDI input for the FM-1 and, with CLOCK OUT on, its external MIDI clock sync.
If Bluetooth shows WAITING although the phone says it is connected: the FM-1 has no link at all — the phone is holding an old pairing (often from the stock firmware, which also has Bluetooth MIDI) or a connection from the system settings. The LINK page explains the newest disconnect (e.g. OLD PAIRING: FORGET FM-1 ON PHONE) and shows the log line; the site can also read the log over USB (Bluetooth diagnostics, read-only). Usually this fixes it:
- On the phone: Bluetooth settings → FM-1 → Forget / Unpair.
- On the FM-1: LINK, turn K1 to OFF and back to ON (it advertises again).
- Connect from the MIDI app (or a Bluetooth MIDI connector app), not from the Bluetooth settings. The LINK page should change to LINKING and then CONNECTED.
Bluetooth MIDI has more latency than USB; for tight timing prefer USB. Android and Koala behaviour depends on the phone and app version and has not been tested on hardware by this project.
Controls
The screen shows a page; the four knobs edit what that page shows. PRESET flips pages, HOME returns the knobs to the DAW. Nothing on a settings page sends CC.
| Page | K1 | K2 | K3 | K4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAW | CC20 volume | CC21 pan | CC22 | CC23 |
| CHORDS | Type (11) | Voicing | Strum 6–70 ms | Keys: chromatic / in scale |
| COMPOSE | Mode: melody, chords, both, bass, full | Scale (8) | Root | Progression (24) or AUTO |
| RHYTHM | Notes per bar 0–16 | Note length | Swing | Human (velocity accents) |
| STYLE | Chords: hold, pulse, offbeat, broken | Colour: triads, 7ths, add9, sus2, mixed | Range 1–3 oct | Melody character (AUTO + 13) |
| ARP | Rate | Order (7) | Octaves | Gate |
| SYNC | Clock: auto, internal, external | BPM | Velocity; below 1 = sensed | Generator out: ch 1 / split |
| LINK | Bluetooth on / off | Host: DAW / apps | Clock out | Knob channel: 16 / 1 |
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| HOME | DAW page; hold 0.6 s: mixer / MIDI map |
| PRESET (dial) | Next / previous page |
| ALGORITHM (dial) | Browse generator phrases #000–999, on any page |
| SELECT (dial) | BPM ±1 |
| SEL | Chords on; again on the CHORDS page: off |
| SEL + 2–5 keys | Learn a MEMORY chord |
| SEQ | Generator start / stop |
| SEQ + key | Set the generator root |
| EDIT | New seed (1000 new phrases); hold 0.6 s: also a new progression |
| SEQ + EDIT | Undo, up to 8 steps |
| ARP | Arpeggiator on / off (always off after power-on) |
| ARP + ENV | Latch |
| GLO | SYNC page (PRESET → LINK); on the SYNC page: tap tempo |
| PLAY / REC | DAW transport; PLAY also stops a local generator preview |
| FX | FX of the selected FL mixer track / Live device on |
| ENV | Sustain while held |
| LFO | Mod wheel (CC1) up while held |
| OCT− / OCT+ | Octave −3 … +3 |
| SAVE | Save settings (only while nothing is playing) |
| FX + REC | Panic: all notes off |
| MASTER | DAW master volume (CC7) |
There is no autosave: an orange square in the screen header means unsaved changes.
The generator
Press SEQ to play a looping 4-bar phrase. With the DAW stopped it previews locally; with the DAW playing it
starts on the next bar and follows MIDI Clock. Changes apply from the next bar (NEXT BAR on screen).
- Phrase. Motif, answer, contrast and a cadence that ends on the tonic. Each variation picks a form (AABA, ABAB, AAAB, ABAC, ABBA), answers the motif as it is, inverted or backwards, and shapes the line as an arch, rise, fall or wave. Strong beats land on chord tones; nothing is out of key.
- Melody characters (STYLE K4): flow, arpeggio, riff, sequence, pedal, leaps, call and response, runs, ostinato, hook, turns, octaves, echo — or AUTO, a different one per variation.
- Harmony. 8 scales (major, minor, minor pentatonic, dorian, harmonic minor, major pentatonic, mixolydian, phrygian), 24 progressions per scale family — some change chord at beat 3 — or AUTO. Chords are voiced close to the previous one, without crossed voices.
- Modes. MELODY, CHORDS, BOTH, BASS (a bass line with chromatic approach notes) and FULL (bass + chords + melody).
- Browsing. Turn ALGORITHM to step through 1000 variations of the current seed; turning back returns the same phrase. EDIT picks a new seed. The variation number and all settings are kept by SAVE.
For the widest variety: COMPOSE K4 → AUTO, STYLE K2 → MIXED, STYLE K4 → AUTO, then turn ALGORITHM.
Lights and screen
- Bright keys are notes actually sounding (keyboard, chords, generator, arp or MIDI coming in on channel 1). A key waiting for the next arp step glows dim. In in scale mode the scale glows dim.
- Buttons: steady bright = active, dim = available, a short pulse = the page you are on. PLAY is green while playing and red while recording.
- Screen: page tabs, BPM, a beat indicator, MIDI in/out, the transport state (STOP / LOCAL / PLAY / WAIT / ARMED) and an animated scene per page; COMPOSE shows the chord names of the phrase and a piano roll.
Safety and recovery
- The bootloader, USB, OTA and flash code from fm1-base are not modified; NOCT is an application on top.
- Flash is written only when you press SAVE. Unknown or invalid settings fall back to defaults.
- Bluetooth uses fm1-base's own radio code unchanged; if a Bluetooth start ever crashes, fm1-base keeps
Bluetooth off at the next boot, and two crashes while starting bring up a safe mode. A USB-only image is built
too (CI artifact
noct-usb-only) as a fallback. - Every release is built in CI with the device image checks (RAM, interrupt-safe code, register access) and the site publishes only a build that passed them.
- If the FM-1 does not start: hold OCT− and OCT+ for 5 seconds for update mode and restore the stock firmware with the official M-UPGRADE from M-VAVE. If even that is not reachable, see FM-1-transporter.
The firmware is tested in a simulator that runs the real C code (including 200 random fuzz sessions per build) and against mocked DAW APIs. That does not replace a test on a real FM-1 with a DAW.
Development
sh build.sh --host --no-ble # simulator build (Linux; Windows: tools/build-host.ps1 -NoBle)
for t in tests/test_*.py; do python3 "$t"; done # scenario tests on the real C app
firmware/app/build/host/noct-usb_host tests/noct.ctl test-output
node tests/installer.test.mjs
python tools/emulator.py --port 8766 # interactive emulator at http://127.0.0.1:8766/
sh build.sh --release 0.9.4 # device image, USB + Bluetooth (JieLi pi32v2 toolchain, AC79 SDK)
sh build.sh --no-ble --release 0.9.4 # USB-only image
- Firmware:
firmware/app—composer.c(generator),midi_engine.c(clock, arp),note_bus.c(note ownership, chords, scales),midi_ui.c(controls),afterglow.c/control_screen.c(screen),project.c(settings and migration). - Site and installer:
site/(English and Russian). DAW scripts:integrations/. - Improving the firmware:
docs/IMPROVE_PROMPT.md— no-brick rules, an audit checklist and a definition of done. - Hardware facts and their sources:
docs/HARDWARE_FACTS.md. - MIDI protocol on channel 16: CC7 master; CC20–23 knobs (CC24–27 in MIDI map); CC110/111/112 play/stop/record; CC113 FX; CC114 + CC115 BPM×10 (14-bit, always as a pair); CC116/117 playing/recording feedback; CC119 value 2 preset handshake.
Credits and licences
Built on CTL-1 by Charles Vestal, fm1-base and felucca-bsp (Felucca by
Leo Kuroshita, Hügelton Instruments). The application and its changes are MPL-2.0 (LICENSE); see
upstream/LICENSING.md and upstream/LICENSES for the base. Terminus font: SIL OFL. Sonivox EAS stays in the
sources under Apache-2.0 but is not linked into the MIDI build.
NOCT is independent of M-VAVE, Image-Line and Ableton; their names identify compatible products.