Bass Something 2

Bass Something 2 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a monosynth inspired by the Novation Bass Station II. It has two oscillators and a sub, a ring modulator and noise. The filter is Classic (low, band or high pass at 24 or 12 dB) or Acid (a diode ladder), with drive and distortion. It has a mod envelope, an amp envelope, two LFOs, the Bass Station II's 32 arp rhythms with its 32-step sequencer (four sequences) and 32 patches. Patches go to and from a Bass Station II editor as SysEx. Everything shows on the FM-1's screen as a small Bass Station II front panel, and MIDI goes in and out over USB, Bluetooth and TRS.

1Install

Try it first: the emulator runs the same code in the browser, with sound. Play it with the mouse, a touch screen or the computer keyboard.

Install from the browser: in Chrome or Edge, connect the FM-1 by USB, open the installer and press Install. The browser asks once to allow MIDI: allow it. Don't unplug the cable while it writes.

Install from a terminal: python3 tools/fm1_install.py bass-something-2-VERSION.fwsc.

On an iPhone or iPad, in RemoteFM1: download bass_something_2-VERSION.rfm1 from the release and put it in RemoteFM1's firmware folder. It's the same firmware, running in the app as an instrument or an AUv3, with the panel, the screen, sound and MIDI. There's no Bluetooth or USB host there, and the app keeps the saved patches and settings.

Back to the stock firmware: the installer's last section writes M-VAVE's own firmware back. An FM-1 that doesn't start can be recovered too. For details, see felucca-bsp's tools/fm1_rescue.sh.

At power-on the screen shows BASS SOMETHING 2 in cyan, "Inspired by the Bass Station 2" under it, and an oscilloscope whose wave morphs from sine to triangle to saw to a sweeping pulse. The firmware's version (such as v0.2) is in the bottom right corner. Then the panel opens on the patch you last saved. The emulator shows the same splash when you switch it on.

2The screen

The screen is a small Bass Station II front panel. Every page is drawn as one of its sections (MASTER, OSCILLATORS, MIX FX, FILTERS, ENVELOPES, PORTA, LFOS, EFFECTS, ARPEGGIATOR, the sequencer, GLOBAL, and the mods): its cyan bar with the section's name, its knobs, switches and red LEDs, the print white. The panel starts right under the tabs, and a knob shows its value, in cyan, in place of its name while it turns.

The pages

Each section button opens its section's page. Press it again for its next page, where it has more.

The knobs speed up as you turn them faster: a slow turn moves a value one step a click, for fine setting, and a quick spin takes it from one end to the other in a turn or two. Switches and short lists always move one position a click. GLOBAL SYSTEM's KNOBS sets how much they speed up, from FINE to COARSE.

The buttons' lights: SAVE is lit while there's something to save, ARP while the arp is on, SEQ while recording, and PLAY while the sequencer plays. The other buttons glow dimly, so they can be found in the dark.

The keys light while their notes are held, whether you're playing them or they come in over MIDI. A note held below the keys' reach lights OCT-, one above lights OCT+.

3Playing

The keys sense how hard they're played, with no change to the FM-1. The 20 lowest keys (F3 to C5) give velocity and pressure; the top seven give velocity only. GLO SYS's VELOCITY sets how the keys answer: SOFT (louder for a light touch), NORMAL or HARD.

A random sound

Press REC and let go: the oscillators' waves, oscillator 2's tuning, the sync, the pitches' and pulse widths' modulation, the widths, the filter (its type, frequency, resonance, overdrive and depths), the glide, the ring and the noise, both envelopes and both LFOs are set at random. The filter is kept a little open and the attack under a second, so the result is heard at once. The screen says SOUND RANDOMIZED. Oscillator 1's tuning and the ranges, the mixer's other levels, the arp and the sequencer are left as they were. Press REC again for another, or SAVE to keep it.

AFX mode

Hold REC and press OCT+ to switch AFX mode on. The screen says AFX ON, and AFX stays lit at the bottom right. Each key then plays the sound with its own changes: oscillator 1's wave, the filter's cutoff, the decay of both envelopes and the noise. For example, the lowest F is a dark, short sine, like a kick, and some keys add noise for snares and hi-hats. Each key keeps its changes in any octave, and MIDI notes in play the key they'd be on the keyboard. The patch itself doesn't change: switch AFX off (REC + OCT+ again) and the keys all play it as before. AFX is off each time the FM-1 starts.

4The sound

The signal goes: oscillators 1 and 2, the sub and noise → the mixer (or the ring modulator) → the filter, with its drive in front (oscillator 2 moving its cutoff with Osc Filter Mod) → distortion → the amp envelope (the VCA) → the limiter → MASTER. The mod envelope moves the pitches, the cutoff and the pulse widths; LFO 1 the pitches, LFO 2 the cutoff and the pulse widths, as on a Bass Station II. Everything on these pages belongs to the patch, and SAVE keeps it (but not the panels' switches that only pick what a knob sets: Osc Select, the pulse width's switch, the mixer's).

The envelopes' times are the Bass Station II's: the attack from at once (0) through about 250 ms (64) to 5.5 s (127), the decay through about 150 ms at the middle to 4.3 s, the release through about 360 ms at the middle to 10.5 s. A depth of ±63 on an envelope or an LFO moves the cutoff over its whole range, or the pitch by 12 semitones.

Like an analog synth, the engine is never quite still. These behaviours are always on and have no controls:

• Drift: each oscillator's pitch wanders slowly by a cent or two, separately from the other one. Even at FINE 0 the two oscillators beat gently against each other.
• Free-running oscillators: a new note doesn't restart the oscillators. Each attack begins somewhere different in the wave, so repeated notes vary a little, as they do on the Bass Station II.
• Supply sag: loud notes squash slightly, by about 1.5 dB at full velocity. Soft notes are unaffected.
• Envelope curves: attacks rise like a charging capacitor, fast at first and then easing into the top, so short attacks snap. Decays and releases fall the same way. The times on the knobs are unchanged.
• Mixer warmth: the oscillators, sub and noise are summed into a gentle, slightly lopsided saturation before the filter, even with DRIVE at 0. Loud peaks round off and stacked waves add a little grit and even harmonics.
• Filter tolerance and heat: like two analog units, every FM-1's cutoff sits slightly off the dial, by up to 1 %. A note held loud warms the filter over about half a minute, more with high resonance, and its cutoff drifts down by up to 2 %. It cools again over a minute or so once you stop.

OSCILLATORS (EDIT)

The Bass Station II's Oscillators section, with its five knobs, the Range and Waveform LEDs, Osc Select, Sync 1-2 and the pulse width's switch. The sub oscillator, beside them on a Bass Station II, is on MIX FX. The section has two views, EDIT and EDIT again: the pitch's and the pulse width's. Each shows the whole section, the controls the encoders don't set in that view dimmed.

SEL is Osc Select: it switches every knob, the Range and the Waveform between oscillator 1 and oscillator 2.

#### The pulse width's view (EDIT again)

FILTERS (FX)

The Bass Station II's Filters section: the Type, Slope and Shape switches (Slope and Shape belong to the Classic filter: the line from Classic joins them), Overdrive and Resonance, the Mod Env and LFO 2 depths bracketed to the big Frequency knob. Two views: the filter's (FX) and LFO 2's on it (FX again). Key tracking, a setting on a Bass Station II, is on the group's mods (FX a fourth time).

#### LFO 2's view (FX again)

The mods

What Bass Something 2 has that a Bass Station II's panel doesn't, a setting there (its Function and On-Key settings) or nothing at all, is on its own page: a plate screwed onto the panel, as a modification to a real one would be, brushed metal with Dymo-tape labels. Each group has its mods as its last page, a press of its button after the others. Its knobs are K1 on.

New patches start with the amp's velocity at +63 and the mod's at 0, as the FM-1 always played. A Bass Station II patch brings its own.

The ARP group's mods (SEQ RETRIG and SWING) are with the arpeggiator, in section 5.

ENVELOPES (ENV)

The Bass Station II's Envelopes section: Env Select and the four faders. Env Select picks which envelope the faders set, as on a Bass Station II: Amp Env, Mod Env, or Amp+Mod Env, where a fader sets both envelopes to the same place (and shows the amp's). It only picks what they set: the envelopes play as they are. It's on each of the section's pages (the triggering and the mods set the envelope it picks too), SELECT moving it; ENV leaves it as it is, going on to the section's other pages.

Each stage moves on from where the last one got to, so a quick retrigger or an early release doesn't click. The velocities, the retriggering and the fixed sustain are on the group's mods (ENV a third time). The mod envelope's depths are where a Bass Station II has them: on the pitches on the OSCILLATORS, on the pulse widths on their view, on the cutoff on the FILTERS.

#### TRIGGERING (ENV again)

The Bass Station II's Triggering switch, for the envelope Env Select picks (each envelope has its own, kept with the patch; Amp+Mod sets both):

The arp's and the sequencer's notes each start the envelopes as their own notes (the sequencer's legato steps don't).

PORTA and LFOS (LFO)

The Bass Station II's Porta and LFOs sections, side by side as on its panel. Each LFO has its wave button (four LEDs: triangle, falling saw, square, sample and hold; the lit one blinks with the LFO) and one knob, which the Delay/Speed switch sets: its speed or its delay. Under each knob is what it sets now.

Synced, an LFO follows the tempo, or MIDI clock when it's followed (GLOBAL SYSTEM's SYNC). A note played on its own starts the delay's fade-in and, with keysync, the wave from its start; a note played legato doesn't. New patches start as the Bass Station II's INIT PATCH: LFO 1 at 75 (7.9 Hz), LFO 2 at 52 (3 Hz) with keysync.

As on a Bass Station II, where each LFO goes is fixed, and its depths are set where it goes: LFO 1 moves the oscillators' pitches (the OSCILLATORS' LFO 1 depth, one for each oscillator), LFO 2 the cutoff (the FILTERS' LFO 2 depth) and the pulse widths (the pulse width's switch at LFO 2).

Patches saved before this version had each LFO on a destination of its own. They're converted: an LFO 1 on the pitch is on both oscillators, one on oscillator 2 on that one, and an LFO 2 on the cutoff is on the filter. An LFO 1 on the cutoff, or an LFO 2 on the pitch, has no place on a Bass Station II and is set to 0. A sine LFO (Bass Station II LFOs have none) becomes a triangle.

MIX FX (HOME again)

The page is laid out as that part of the Bass Station II's panel: the end of the oscillators' section, the Sub Osc with its octave and wave switches (a red LED at what each is set to), then the MIXER, its four knobs with the switch that picks what the fourth one sets. It starts right under the tabs, with no row for the page's name, so a knob's name changes to its value, in cyan, while it turns.

EFFECTS (FX a third time)

The Bass Station II's Effects section.

5The arpeggiator and the sequencer

As on the Bass Station II, the sequencer is part of the arpeggiator. The arp's MODE has the Bass Station II's eight positions: six arp modes, then PLAY and REC for the sequencer. Both play in the arp's RHYTHM, at its TEMPO and SWING, or to MIDI clock when it comes in (see GLO SYS's SYNC).

ARP

Press ARP to open its page. As on the Bass Station II's panel, the arp has its On and Latch buttons: turn SELECT up to switch it on (the LED beside ON lights, and so does ARP), down to switch it off. While it's on, the notes you hold are played one at a time over the octaves you set and in the rhythm you pick. It holds up to 16 notes, from the keys and from MIDI in.

Press ARP again for the group's mods, two Bass Station II settings that aren't on its panel, and once more to come back.

SEQ

The sequencer plays a recorded sequence of up to 32 steps. Each step is a note or a rest, and a note can be legato. The steps have no length of their own: the arp's rhythm gives the timing. Each note in the rhythm plays the next step, its held 16ths hold the step on, and its rests are silent. The same sequence sounds different on every rhythm, and SWING swings it.

Four sequences are kept, as on the Bass Station II. OCTAVES picks one in PLAY and REC (SEQ on this page does the same). Each patch also holds a copy of the one it was saved with, so a patch brings its sequence back with it.

Playing it: with the arp on and in PLAY, hold a key. The sequence plays transposed from its first note, so the key of that note plays it as it was recorded and each key above or below moves it by that many semitones. With LATCH it plays on after you let go, and a new key transposes it. PLAY does this in one press: it switches the arp on in PLAY and plays the sequence at its own key, and PLAY again stops it (and switches the arp off). A key pressed while it plays transposes it.

The length and the rhythm: a sequence is as long as the number of steps recorded, and a rhythm is 8 to 32 notes long, so they often differ. With SEQ RETRIG ON, the sequence starts again from its first step every two bars, even if it hasn't finished. With SEQ RETRIG OFF, it plays all the way through and wraps around the rhythm. An 8-step sequence on a 16-note rhythm plays twice in the two bars. That's how a short sequence fills a longer pattern, as on the Bass Station II: the sequencer has no empty steps to fill.

Recording: on the SEQ page, press SEQ again (MODE goes to REC, and SEQ and REC light). The first note you play starts a new sequence from step 1. Each key, or each note from MIDI in, is the next step, and the screen shows it (STEP 3 G3). The keys play the voice as you go.

Recording stops at 32 steps (SEQ FULL). Press SEQ again to stop: MODE goes to PLAY. Leaving REC before playing a note keeps the sequence as it was.

The plate's display shows the rhythm as a row of lights over the 32 steps: a lit light is a 16th that plays a note. Under it each step is a bar, its height the note's pitch, a legato note joined to the next. A mark under the bars shows the step playing, and the cursor's step is white. Steps past the length are dark.

The sequences are kept by themselves: two seconds after you last change one, once the FM-1 is quiet, the four sequences and the patch's copy are written to memory (with which of the four it plays, the gate, the tempo and the swing), so they're still there after power-off without SAVE. Turning PRESET to another patch keeps them first. The rest of the sound still needs SAVE.

Writing to the FM-1's memory stops the sound for a moment, so it waits for silence: the sequencer stopped, the arp with no notes, no key held and the last note faded out, for half a second. Change TEMPO while the sequence plays and it's kept when you stop it. Switch off while it's still playing and those changes are lost: stop first. SAVE and turning PRESET write at once, so pressing SAVE mid-performance gives a short gap.

6Patches and saving

Bass Something 2 holds 32 patches, P01 to P32. Each patch is a complete sound: the settings of every control described in section 4, plus the arp and the sequence.

A new Bass Something 2 starts with 32 factory patches, GHOST MACHINE I in P01 to DATA RAIN in P32. They are the first 32 of the ULTIMATE PATCHES Volume 2 bank for the Bass Station II (see Credits), each with the default sequence. Updating the firmware keeps the patches you have. To get the factory ones back, send the factory bank, bs2/presets/factory.syx in the source (see SysEx).

The MASTER page (HOME) is the Bass Station II's Master section, and the page Bass Something 2 starts on: the Volume (the FM-1's MASTER knob, as it's set), the display with the patch in red, its dot lit while there are changes not saved, the Org. Value arrows, the Save button and the Patch buttons.

The Org. Value arrows, right of the display, work as the Bass Station II's: after you change a control of the sound (a knob, or a control change from MIDI), the LED beside one arrow lights to show which way to turn that control to get back to the value saved in the patch. Neither lights when it's there, after SAVE, or after a patch change. They follow the control changed last, on whichever page. The display shows that control's value (0 to 127, or -63 to 63) for a moment and a half after the change, then the patch number again.

SAVE works on every page but GLOBAL RND (where it keeps a seed). It stores the sound into its patch and keeps the settings: the octave and the patch you're on (the FM-1 starts on it next time). While something isn't saved, SAVE is lit and the patch shows * at the bottom of the screen (P01*). The screen says SAVED and the patch's number when it's done.

Kept without SAVE, two seconds after a change once the FM-1 is quiet: the four sequences and the patch's (see SEQ), and every GLO setting (see Global settings). Not saved: AFX mode (off at each start) and whether the sequencer is playing.

7SysEx: a Bass Station II editor

Bass Something 2 reads and writes Novation Bass Station II patch dumps, so a Bass Station II editor or librarian can store its sounds, and Bass Station II patches (.syx files) can play on the FM-1. SysEx goes over the USB cable only.

The website's SysEx page does all of this from Chrome or Edge, with no other software: it gets the sound or all 32 patches and saves them as a .syx file, and sends .syx files to the FM-1 with the pause between messages set for you.

From the FM-1 to an editor:

• On GLOBAL DUMP (GLO three times), press SEL: the sound goes out as one dump, named Bass Smth 2 and its number (Bass Smth 2 01: a patch name holds 16 characters). The screen says SYSEX SENT.
• On GLOBAL DUMP (GLO three times), press FX: all 32 patches go out as a bank, Bass Smth 2 01 to Bass Smth 2 32, each addressed to its own patch number (0 to 31), as a Bass Station II bank file is. Record them into one .syx file and it's a backup: sent back, each patch returns to its own slot. The patch you're on goes as it sounds now, with changes not yet saved.
• A computer can ask for the sound: SysEx F0 7D 42 53 32 01 F7 sends the same dump as SEL on GLOBAL DUMP. F0 7D 42 53 32 03 F7 sends the whole bank, as FX on GLOBAL DUMP. F0 7D 42 53 32 02 F7 asks for the RND seed shown instead (see RND seeds).

From an editor to the FM-1: choose the FM-1 as the editor's MIDI output and send the patch (in an editor, it's usually called Send or Send to synth). Any Bass Station II patch dump works, with a name (firmware 2.5 and later) or without one. A dump sent as the current sound loads into the sound you're playing now, and the screen says SYSEX LOADED and the patch's name. Press SAVE to keep it in the patch you're on. To keep it in another patch, pick that patch on the MASTER page first.

A whole bank: a Bass Station II bank file (a .syx of up to 128 patches, each addressed to its patch number, as sound packs and librarians save them) loads straight into the FM-1's patches: patch 0 into P01, 1 into P02 and on to 31 into P32. The FM-1 has 32 patches, so the rest of a 128-patch bank is left out. The screen says BANK IN and the first one's name, and a second after the last one it saves the bank and says BANK LOADED and how many came in (32 IN, 96 LEFT for a whole Bass Station II bank). This replaces the patches it reaches, without SAVE: send GLOBAL DUMP's bank to the computer first if you want to keep them. Each patch keeps its own sequence, tempo and gate.

Send the file with a pause between messages: the FM-1 takes one SysEx message at a time and drops one that comes while it's still busy with the last. 20 ms is enough in testing; 50 ms leaves room. Most librarians (SysEx Librarian on macOS among them) have a setting for the delay between messages. If BANK LOADED counts fewer than were sent, send it again with a longer pause.

A dump carries what the two synths share, including both oscillators' tuning, the mod envelope's pulse width depths, the two velocities, the envelopes' triggering and retriggering, and the filter's key tracking (firmware 2.5's; a dump from before it tracks fully, as those Bass Station IIs did). It carries the LFOs' speed (all 8 bits), delay, slew, keysync and sync too, and Osc Filter Mod. It doesn't carry what the FM-1 lacks (paraphonic mode, the oscillator error), or what nobody has yet found the place of in a dump: the envelopes' retrigger count and fixed sustain (later firmware's), the VCA limiter and the external input's level. Those come in as a Bass Station II's initial patch has them. The arp's mode (PLAY and REC too), octaves, rhythm and swing come and go with it. The FM-1's own extras (the sequence, the tempo, the gate) stay as they were when one comes in. Settings the FM-1 doesn't have go out as a Bass Station II's initial patch has them. Values beyond what an FM-1 control can reach are brought to its nearest.

8RND seeds

For owners of Cyma Forma's RND Synth, Bass Something 2 can be its companion: it captures the RND Synth's seeds, keeps 32 of them, and sends one back when you want it again. A seed is the number, shown as eight digits (12345678), that the RND Synth makes its music from. Seeds don't change Bass Something 2's own sound; a new seed's tempo does become the FM-1's (see Tempo).

The seeds are kept in a table of their own, S01 to S32, through power-off. It's separate from the 32 patches, so saving a patch or loading a Bass Station II dump doesn't touch it.

Hold GLO and press OCT+ for GLOBAL RND. It's kept off GLO's own pages, as only RND Synth owners need it; press GLO to leave it. Its display shows the seed on eight red digits (dashes until there is one), and under it FROM THE RND SYNTH (its latest), FROM ITS SLOT (a kept one), or SAVED IN ITS SLOT when it's the one kept in the slot shown. The knob under it is PRESET, the slot; the Save and Send buttons are SAVE and FX.

Connecting: plug the RND Synth and the FM-1 into a computer by USB, and pass MIDI between them (a DAW, or a MIDI router that passes SysEx). From the RND Synth to the FM-1: its seeds and its notes. From the FM-1 to the RND Synth: the seeds it sends.

Capturing: each time the RND Synth makes a new seed, the FM-1 says RND SEED IN, the seed and its tempo (RND SEED IN 1A2B3C4D 132 BPM). Turn PRESET to an empty slot and press SAVE to keep it. The RND Synth repeats its seed often; only a new one is taken. Its other messages (the key and the scale, its tracks) are accepted and left alone.

Tempo: a new seed comes with the RND Synth's tempo for it, and the FM-1 takes it as its TEMPO (40 to 240 BPM). The arp, the sequencer and SEND CLK's clock follow at once, so when the RND Synth changes direction, the FM-1 moves with it. If the RND Synth changes its tempo without a new seed, the FM-1 follows that too (RND TEMPO 147 BPM). Between them TEMPO is yours to turn: the RND Synth repeating the same tempo doesn't set it back. Like any TEMPO change it's kept with the sequence after two seconds, once the FM-1 is quiet (see SEQ).

Sending one back: turn PRESET to the slot and press FX.

Playing its tracks: the RND Synth plays its four tracks on MIDI channels 1 to 4. Set GLOBAL MIDI's CHANNEL (K1) to one of them, and the FM-1 plays that track's notes with its own sound. On ALL, the four tracks share the FM-1's one voice, each new note cutting off the last.

The seed message is F0 6F 62 78 10 c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 F7: the seed in five 7-bit parts, lowest first. A computer can send it the same way, or ask for the seed shown with F0 7D 42 53 32 02 F7.

9MIDI and audio

MIDI comes in over USB, Bluetooth and the TRS jack. A note on GLO's channel plays the voice (or the arp, or transposes the sequencer). MIDI clock and start drive the arp and the sequencer (see SYNC). Control changes on GLO's CC CHAN turn the sound's knobs (see Control changes below). Other messages, such as pitch bend, are shown on the bottom line but change nothing.

The keys go out over USB and Bluetooth: their notes with velocity, and their pressure as poly aftertouch.

Global settings (GLO)

GLO opens the global settings; press it again for the next page. They belong to the FM-1, not to a patch, and they save themselves: two seconds after you change one, once the FM-1 is quiet (see SEQ), it's kept through power-off, without SAVE (so a GLO change never writes over your patch), and SAVE doesn't light for them. Each page is a GLOBAL panel with its own bar (MIDI, System, SysEx Dump, RND Seed) and a red display: GLOBAL MIDI's shows the MIDI channel (ALL, OFF or the number), GLOBAL SYSTEM's the tempo (dashes while MIDI clock leads), with the knobs' response, the clock's state and the firmware's version (VERSION v0.2) beside it, GLOBAL DUMP's the patch. The on/off settings are slide switches.

On every GLO page, the right of the page's own bar shows the audio's load (for a moment after a change, what changed instead), for example CPU 34/41. The first number is the load now, as a percentage of the time the FM-1 has to make each block of sound. The second is the highest it reached in the last five seconds. If the sound ever misses its deadline (a dropout, heard as a click), a count follows in cyan, for example CPU 97/100 !2, and stays until the FM-1 is switched off. A click without the count going up came from something else. Every write to memory (SAVE, a patch change, and the sequence and GLO settings keeping themselves) also adds one, because the write holds up the sound for a moment. When those happen in silence, nothing is heard.

GLO + OCT+ (hold GLO, press OCT+) opens one more page, GLOBAL RND, for the RND Synth's seeds: see RND seeds.

Control changes

With CC CHAN set, a controller or a Bass Station II editor can turn the sound's knobs over MIDI. The FM-1 uses the Bass Station II's own CC numbers. Control changes on any other channel, and numbers not in the table, are ignored. A change marks the patch as edited (SAVE lights up), and it shows on the screen but isn't spoken.

Each value is spread across the knob's range. A knob that goes both ways (such as FINE or an envelope depth) is at zero at 64. A switch is on at any value above 0. The ranges (16' to 2') take 63 to 66, like a Bass Station II. Other choices take their number from 0: for example, SUBWAVE takes 0 for SINE, 1 for PULSE and 2 for SQUARE. Where the Bass Station II uses two CCs for one knob (cutoff 16 and 48, for example), the FM-1 reads the first.

The RND Synth: its notes come in on channels 1 to 4. Keep CC CHAN on another channel, or OFF, and its messages can't change the sound.

Bluetooth

Bass Something 2 advertises over Bluetooth as "FM-1" and four characters of its own, such as "FM-1 1F2D", so two FM-1s can be told apart. On a Mac, open Audio MIDI Setup, choose Window > Show MIDI Studio, click the Bluetooth button, then Connect next to the FM-1. On an iPad or iPhone, connect from a music app's Bluetooth MIDI settings. BLE at the bottom of the screen lights while connected.

To switch Bluetooth off, press GLO for GLOBAL MIDI and turn K4 (BLUETOOTH) to OFF: the FM-1 stops advertising and drops any connection. Turn it back to ON to switch it on again. It is kept for the next start.

To connect to a Bluetooth MIDI device, such as a keyboard or a controller, put the device in its pairing or advertising mode, then press GLO for GLOBAL MIDI and press REC: the screen says BLE SCANNING. Turn ALGO to pick the device by its name, and press REC again to connect. DEV at the bottom lights while it's connected, and the bottom line shows the last message it sent. Press REC once more (on GLOBAL MIDI) to disconnect.

USB audio

Over the USB cable the FM-1 is also a sound card. A computer can record what it plays (an input named "Bass Something 2 FM-1"), and can play through it: choose "Bass Something 2 FM-1" as the output, and its sound comes out of the FM-1's speaker and headphones, mixed with the FM-1's own, at MASTER's volume.

That output is also the FM-1's Ext input, as the Bass Station II's Ext In socket is: turn the mixer's Ext up (MIX FX, K3 to Ext, then K4) and the computer's sound goes through the synth instead, into the mixer with the oscillators, then the filter, the amp envelope and the distortion. Like the Bass Station II's, you hear it only while a note plays (the amp envelope opens it), so hold a key, use LATCH, or let the arp or the sequencer play the envelope. Its two sides are mixed into one, as the synth is mono. With Ext at 0 the computer's sound plays straight through, as above.

10The screen reader

Bass Something 2 tells a screen reader what's on its screen, through the FM-1 Screen Reader: the page, the patch and the settings when the reader starts listening, then each change as it happens (a knob's whole name and value, SAVED, SYSEX LOADED). The emulator does the same, with your own screen reader or with its built-in voice.

11Troubleshooting

No sound: turn MASTER up. Check the mixer's levels on MIX FX (HOME twice) and the Frequency on the FILTERS (FX); a random sound can be quiet. On GLOBAL MIDI, LOCAL must be ON for the keys to play.

A key plays the wrong sound, a different one on each key: AFX mode is on (AFX at the bottom right). Hold REC and press OCT+.

A note keeps sounding (stuck): another device sent its note-on but its note-off never arrived. The note's key is lit: press it and let go, and the note stops. If OCT- or OCT+ is lit instead, the note is out of the keys' reach: press the lit OCT button. Changing the octave lets every held note go.

The arp or the sequencer doesn't move: on GLOBAL MIDI, ARP CLOCK is EXT and no MIDI clock is coming in. Set it to AUTO.

My change is gone: picking another patch on the MASTER page drops what wasn't saved. Press SAVE before you move.

An editor doesn't receive or send dumps: SysEx goes over USB only. Choose the FM-1 as the editor's MIDI input to receive and as its MIDI output to send.

The installer doesn't find the FM-1: use Chrome or Edge, allow MIDI when asked, and close other programs that use the FM-1's MIDI port. If it still isn't found, the installer lists the computer's other MIDI ports to try: a Mac can show the FM-1 under another name.

The FM-1 doesn't start after an install: after two failed starts it waits in the chip's update mode. Put the stock firmware back, then install again. For details, see felucca-bsp's tools/fm1_rescue.sh.

12Credits

Bass Something 2 is by John Brown (@imijes), under MPL-2.0. It's built on the work of others:

• Charles Vestal (@charlesvestal): fm1-base, the template and platform this firmware is built on, and the platform layer of the FM-1 firmwares it comes from.
• Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic, Hügelton Instruments): Felucca, the firmware fm1-base grew from, and felucca-bsp, which it runs on. Used under MPL-2.0 with his permission.
• keremimo (@keremimo): MIDI clock and transport sync in felucca-bsp.
• Chris Farrell (@seajaysec): from fm-static, the web installer's finding of an FM-1 under any port name, and its package and update checks. Used under MPL-2.0 with his permission.
• Emozinaguitars: the factory patches, the first 32 of ULTIMATE PATCHES Volume 2 for the Bass Station II, shared free in the Bass Station II patch community.
• BS2-Web by François Georgy (francoisgeorgy/BS2-Web): where each setting sits in a Bass Station II patch dump, which the SysEx import and export follow.
• Tronstoner: the chart of the Bass Station II's arp rhythms (2013, CC BY-SA), the source for rhythms 31 and 32.
• Quixotic7 (@Quixotic7): RemoteFM1 for iOS and its .rfm1 format, which runs this firmware on an iPhone or iPad.
• Groove OS by Peter Gombos: the idea of running FM-1 firmware in the browser (no code from it).
• Fonts: Barlow by The Barlow Project Authors and Terminus by Dimitar Toshkov Zhekov (both SIL OFL 1.1).

The full list for the platform underneath is fm1-base's CREDITS.md and LICENSING.md.

Novation and Bass Station are trademarks of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd.; M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. Bass Something 2 is not affiliated with Novation or M-VAVE.