FM1-TRAX

Custom firmware that turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis music tracker. It emulates the console's two sound chips, the Yamaha YM2612 (six FM channels) and the SN76489 PSG (three square waves and noise), and gives you a pattern tracker in the style of Deflemask and Furnace, played from the FM-1's own keys and knobs. (FM1-TRAX was called FM1-DRIVE until October 2026.)

Status: in development, tested on a real FM-1. Everything runs and is tested in the host simulator (tests/run_tests.sh), and the firmware has been tested on a real FM-1. The firmware comes with no warranty: see No warranty before you install it.

Try it in your browser

The FM1-TRAX website is at jartificer.github.io/fm1-trax. Nothing to install, and you don't need an FM-1 to try it:

• Emulator and installer: the real firmware running in the page on a drawing of the FM-1's panel, played with the mouse or the computer keyboard. With an FM-1 connected over USB, the same page installs the latest release on it (Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer).
• Editor: a desktop tracker on the same engine, which also imports Mega Drive VGMs and exports VGM and WAV.

See Emulator and editor for more.

What it does

• The real chips, limits included. 6 FM channels with 4 operators each, the 8 algorithms, feedback, SSG-EG, the global LFO, FM3's extended mode (four independent operator pitches), and the DAC on FM6 for samples. 3 PSG tone channels and the noise channel, with periodic and white noise. The YM2612's 9-bit DAC ladder, the low-pass filter of the model 1 or model 2 console, and NTSC or PAL timing.
• A tracker. Up to 256 patterns per channel and 256 order positions, 1 to 256 rows, two speeds (shuffle), row highlights, and Deflemask's Genesis effects (arpeggio, portamento, vibrato, volume slide, pan, retrigger, operator levels, LFO, note cut and delay, and more).
• Instruments. 128 FM presets in 16 groups, 32 PSG presets and a 48-sample drum kit. Load any of them into a song and tweak it, or build your own. 256 user FM and 128 user PSG slots in the library.
• Lots of songs. 256 song slots sharing about 258 KB of flash. Songs are compressed, so the demo song, a 2-minute piece, takes about 4.6 KB. Saves are power-safe: a song is replaced only once its new copy is complete, and the flash wear is spread evenly.
• Fun to look at. A boot intro with a star field, a chrome logo and a sine scroller; CRT scanlines, copper bars and screen wipes; a stage view with scopes, a piano roll and a heat map of the YM2612's registers. Six colour themes, including high-contrast and colour-blind-safe ones.
• Export. VGM 1.71 export (to play in any VGM player, or on real hardware), and the songs and library moved to and from a computer over USB MIDI SysEx.

No warranty

FM1-TRAX is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Installing custom firmware can leave a device unable to start ("bricked") and may void its warranty. You install it at your own risk: the author is not responsible for a bricked or damaged device, lost songs or data, or any other harm that comes from using it. This is the same disclaimer as sections 15 and 16 of the GPL-3.0, which governs. Know the recovery steps before you install.

Installing

Get fm1trax.fwsc from the releases (it is also kept in web/, or build it yourself: see BUILDING.md). Then, with the FM-1 connected over USB:

pip install mido python-rtmidi
python3 tools/fm1_install.py fm1trax.fwsc

python-rtmidi comes ready-built for Python 3.8 to 3.12 on Windows, macOS and Linux. With a newer Python, pip has to compile it, which needs a C++ compiler (and on Linux the ALSA headers, libasound2-dev); installing Python 3.12 alongside is simpler. INSTALL.md has the steps for Windows, macOS and Linux, and tools/make_bundle.sh packs it with the firmware and the installer into one zip.

This works from the stock firmware or any Felucca-based firmware (FM1-GM, X0X, FoMni). To go back, install M-VAVE's stock package the same way, or with M-VAVE's updater.

FM1-TRAX keeps its songs and instruments in its own format. It cannot read the projects, patterns, presets or samples of other firmwares (the stock firmware or other custom firmwares), and its song store may overwrite data another firmware left in the flash, so back up anything you want to keep before you install it. Likewise, other firmwares cannot read FM1-TRAX's songs: back them up from the web editor (as .fm1d files or VGM) before you install something else.

Or from the browser, with nothing to install: open jartificer.github.io/fm1-trax in Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer, connect the FM-1, press Connect MIDI and then Install. It installs the latest release over Web MIDI (the same update as fm1_install.py).

Holding OCT- and OCT+ for 5 seconds puts FM1-TRAX into update mode, for an installer that cannot reach it otherwise.

Recovery

After two failed starts in a row the firmware comes up in a safe mode with USB on and no audio, so an installer can reach it; PLAY tries the firmware again. After four, it enters the chip's own update mode, the last resort: tools/fm1_rescue.py writes the stock firmware back through it (see the script's header and FM-1-transporter).

Emulator and editor

The website at jartificer.github.io/fm1-trax is built from the web/ folder (published from the gh-pages branch):

• Emulator: the firmware compiled to WebAssembly, on a drawing of the FM-1's panel, played with the mouse or the computer keyboard. Songs saved there stay in the browser.
• Installer: installs the latest release on an FM-1 over USB MIDI (Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer).
• Editor: a desktop tracker on the same engine, with Furnace-style keys: patterns, orders, instruments (FM operators with envelope graphs, macros drawn with the mouse, DAC samples), presets, undo, copy and paste, transpose. It opens and saves .fm1d songs and .fm1i instruments, imports Mega Drive VGMs (.vgm / .vgz, as logged by Deflemask, Furnace or an emulator) as songs to edit, exports VGM and WAV, and reads and writes the songs and the library of an FM-1 over USB (or of the emulator in another tab).

The demo song is "Sunset Beach Galaxy" by Tobikomi, from the YM2017 cart (GPL-3.0), imported from its VGM (see assets/songs/README.md).

Controls

The four knobs always edit four things side by side. In the pattern they are the cell's note, instrument, volume and effect. In the FM editor they are the same parameter on the four operators, like faders on a mixer.

Button
HOME	Pattern view; again: the stage view
SEQ	Order list; again: song settings
EDIT	Instrument editor (the instrument under the cursor); its SEL: the library
GLO	Songs (load, save, new, FX: the demo song, LFO held twice: delete); again: setup
PLAY	Play and stop; held: play from the top
REC	Edit mode: the keys write notes (and record live while playing)
SAVE	Save the song
ARP	Undo; again: redo
PRESETS	The instrument the keys play
SELECT / ALGORITHM	Row / channel in the pattern
FX	The knobs switch to the effect columns
SEL	Hold and turn SELECT or ALGORITHM to mark a block. Tap: copy. Hold 1 s: paste
ENV	Key-off; with a block marked: clear it
LFO	Mute the channel; held: solo

The full control map, view by view, is in docs/DESIGN.md.

Building

See BUILDING.md.

Credits and licence

FM1-TRAX is GPL-3.0-only (see LICENSE). It is built on FM1-GM's platform, which comes from Felucca, X0X and FoMni: the hardware layer, the update loader, the USB stack and the installer. The chip emulation, the tracker, the presets, the drum samples (synthesised by tools/gen_drums.py), the song store and the screens are new.

The tests compare the YM2612 emulation with Nuked-OPN2 (LGPL-2.1), which is downloaded for the tests only and is not part of the firmware.

M-VAVE, Sega, Mega Drive and Genesis are trademarks of their owners. This project is not affiliated with them.