Perfect Partners: How to hook up your M-Vave FM-1 to Circuit Tracks

video upload by Guinan

You can find part 2 further below.

You can find the M-VAVE FM-1 on Amazon. See dealers on the right for Circuit Tracks.

"I bought an M-VAVE FM-1 to add to my Circuit Tracks.

I love Yamaha DX sounds (checkout my previous MiniDEXED build and songs to see how much) and I think they work well with the Circuit Tracks. Building an equivalent MiniDEXED (like this one) now has ballooned to over $100USD* so at around $60 or so this is a much cheaper and interesting option.

Better screen
Bluetooth MIDI
Rubber keyboard
Easier interface
NO DIY

The numerous daily new firmwares adding new features and the very tempting price on the FM-1 was too much to resist so - here we are.

So, box open – plugged in, updated to a Baudgirl v27 firmware to start off and I’m going to hook it up to my Tracks. Great as the sequencer might be, editing on a tiny screen is not my idea of fun.

What we need are two things,
1) A cable to connect the audio from the FM-1 to the Tracks INPUTS (I used a 3.5mm stereo to 2 x 6.3mm jacks)
2) A MIDI cable – I’d recommend a 5-pin DIN to 3.5mm MIDI.

Even though the FM1 does have MIDI via the USB-C, connecting a USB-C cable between this and the tracks directly because both are USB MIDI SLAVE rather than MASTER devices. They are expecting to link to a computer or USB HOST. It’ll work if you have the MIDI interface (or even connecting to an IPad) but not directly.

The safer way therefore is to use a direct MIDI connection from the MIDI out of the tracks to the 3.5mm MIDI in of the FM1.
The other GOTCHA here is getting the RIGHT type of MIDI 5-pin to 3.5mm, In their infinite wisdom different manufacturers used different polarities for the 3.5mm connector. This is the Roland or TYPE-A type and you need to make sure you buy the right cable.
I’ll put some non-affiliate links below to the USA Amazon as an example.

Having connected both you need to make sure your Tracks is sending MIDI (Shift and Setup) The 2nd green light should be lit.

Your MIDI 1 & 2 are setup to send on channel 3 and 4 respectively.
Press the Global button on your FM1 (it will look different depending on the firmware you have installed). But on Baudgirl you can see that I have set it up to receive on MIDI channel 3.

If I now go to MIDI 1 I can play the FM1 directly and sequence from there. How about I play you some music so you can hear how it sits with the Tracks.

Don’t forget that with the external inputs you can use the MIXER, adjust volume and panning and even add effects just like you would with internal synths.

I'll be testing out ALL of the firmwares for myself over the coming days and will let you know which I think make good partners for the Circuit Tracks. There is also the tiny matter of the modified firmware for the Tracks ( https://github.com/tracelistener/trac... ) and I'll be giving that a whirl soon."

Pt: 2: Circuit Tracks & FM-1 - Perfect partners?

video upload by Guinan

0:00 Intro
1:45 Choosing a firmware?
3:30 Firmware features for FM-1 to work well with Tracks
5:20 Baud Girl
6:28 Felluca
7:32 Melodee
9:48 Sloop
11:40 SLOOP editor
16:58 Use panning to seperate your intruments and add different FX
20:10 What's coming for Part 3...

In this one I’m going to tell you how I’ve gone with trying out various firmwares with the idea of finding a good one to pair with the Circuit Tracks.

I’ll also try and share with you some of the quick hints I’ve discovered along the way to make this combination of Circuit Tracks and M-Vave FM-1 a winning one.

FIRMWARE
Let’s start with firmware. 20+ so far I think (and that’s not including the Fart Machine – seriously, it’s out there).
Lots to choose from and all with strengths and weaknesses. I tried out the likeliest candidates and I’ll try and give a run through the ones I tried.
It’s going to be a very personal choice. A lot of it is your choice of features vs tolerance for risk (of bricking your device). Some are definitely a bit buggy and pushing the boundaries of what the hardware is capable of.

Also, someone in the comments of the last video suggested someone could produce a custom firmware just for Tracks users and this could be a fantastic idea.

Till then we have some basic wishes,
2 synths for MIDI 1 and MIDI 2
Ideally with a choice of synth engines to compliment the Tracks synths
Able to sit on different MIDI channels (ideally 3 & 4)
To be able to mute or change the MIDI channel for any drums (as the Tracks will send MIDI notes on whatever drum channel is chosen).

I spent about an hour with each today trying to figure out which was my own initial favourite for this purpose. This is NOT a detailed review"