SQRL-1Start

Getting started

SQRL-1 installs from a web page over USB, with no extra hardware or drivers. The same page puts the FM-1's official firmware back. Installing is at your own risk.

Install

The installer, databurn.org/sqrl/install, talks to the FM-1 over USB MIDI, so it needs Chrome or Edge: Firefox and Safari have no Web MIDI.

  1. Connect the FM-1 straight to the computer with a USB data cable (no hub). Close other programs that use MIDI.
  2. Open the installer and allow MIDI with SysEx when the browser asks.
  3. Check that the version on the page is the build you mean to install, then press Install. Leave the cable alone until the page says it is done.

If the page can't find the FM-1 or gets no reply, close Bitwig or any other DAW or app using the FM-1's MIDI port, or restart the browser: a DAW, or a stale tab, can hold the port. If something goes wrong, Copy log puts the installer's log on the clipboard for a bug report. An interrupted install is built to resume when you press Install again, and an FM-1 that no longer starts at all can be recovered with FM-1-transporter. Neither has been tried on a device yet.

To go back, download official V15, FM-1.fwsc, from M-VAVE's download page (FM-1, "PC Firmware"), open the same page and use Return to official V15. It checks that the file is V15, saves a complete backup of your music and sounds to the computer, then installs it. M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE, does not see an FM-1 running SQRL-1, so use Return to official V15 first; after that M-UPGRADE works as on stock. On Windows, close Chrome or Edge before you run M-UPGRADE: only one program can hold the FM-1's port. Projects and sounds saved under SQRL-1 stay in the FM-1's flash, but the official firmware does not read them.

If the FM-1 runs M-VAVE's FM1 Open, the installer stops: FM1 Open keeps its projects and samples where SQRL-1's code goes. Back up your projects and samples and return to official V15 with M-VAVE's workbench first, then install SQRL-1.

The panel

┌────────────────────┬────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│ MASTER   SELECT    │        │ KNOB 1  KNOB 2  KNOB 3  KNOB 4 │
│ PRESETS  ALGORITHM │ screen │                                │
│                    │        │ FX   SCL  ENV  LFO  EDIT  GLO  │
│ OCT-  OCT+         │        │ HOME SAVE ARP  SEQ  PLAY  REC  │
├────────────────────┴────────┴────────────────────────────────┤
│ keys F3 to G5; C4 is the fifth white key                     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

MASTER is the volume. SELECT walks pages, PRESETS walks sounds, ALGORITHM turns the setting that changes a nut's character most, and KNOB 1 to 4 set the four values at the bottom of the screen.

The first five minutes

The FM-1 starts on the squirrel, SQRL-1's mark. The first time, it then opens FM6 with KEYS: six-operator FM, played straight from the keys, with BEAT and LINE empty for you to fill. After that it opens the pair you played last, with the music you left.

The splash at power-on. Any control skips it.
The splash at power-on. Any control skips it.
  1. Play a few keys. Turn PRESETS to walk FM6's factory sounds; its name shows for a moment and the knobs at the bottom show the new sound's values.
  2. Turn ALGORITHM. In FM6 it picks the algorithm, the way the six operators are wired.
  3. Hold HOME. The wheel appears: the white keys from C4 to C5 hold SOUND nuts, the black keys between them hold NOTE engines. They light up while you hold HOME, the pair in front brightest. Press the black key D#4 for CHORD, then let go of HOME.
  4. Play one key at a time from D4 up: each key is now a chord in the scale. The nine keys below D4 set the chord's quality and make no sound on their own. Tap SCL (scale) to change the key and the scale every nut shares, and tap SCL again to come back.
  5. Hold REC and press PLAY: the click counts in one bar, then play a few bars. Tap REC to close the take. The loop is the bars you played, rounded to whole bars (64 steps at most), and it plays on. Tap REC again to record over it: what you play adds to the loop and never erases it. To swap chords instead, hold REC and turn SELECT to REPLACE.
  6. Press PLAY to stop if the loop is still playing: the FM-1 saves only while stopped. Tap SAVE, then OCT+, to keep the sound you are on. Tap GLO three times for PROJECTS, choose a slot with KNOB 1, and press OCT+ twice to save the music with its pairs for good. The music you leave also comes back by itself after a power cycle, on the pair you were playing: it is kept once the FM-1 has been stopped and quiet for ten seconds. Your saved sounds follow the factory ones in PRESETS.
  7. Hold GLO and tap any button to see what it does.

To choose with knobs instead of keys, hold HOME and tap GLO: the PAIR page picks the SOUND, the NOTE engine and the preset.

To get back to plain keys, hold HOME, press the black key C#4 (KEYS on the default wheel) and let go: the SOUND stays and the keys play as they are. Holding GLO and pressing C#4 does the same without the wheel, and tapping HOME twice quickly goes back to the pair you played before.

The shell covers the buttons, pages and knobs, and The wheel covers pairs and the slot picker for the black keys.

When something goes wrong

Most silent or stuck states come from a setting, and each has a short way out.

Version, changes and bugs

The version shows in the square at power-on, before the squirrel, and on ABOUT (the fourth tap of GLO); the console's status prints it too. What changed in each release is in CHANGELOG.md in the repository.

Report bugs at github.com/hed0rah/sqrl-1/issues and name the version. For an install problem attach the installer's log (Copy log); for a crash, the output of status, stack and crash from the serial console (Connections).

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