GammaWave-style HUD · Hearth macros · Wraith ribbon · VOWEL & SCREAM filters · 49-genre song generator (incl. Trap ATL, UK Drill, Dark Trap, Rage Trap) · Web Studio — the open-source hardware & browser companion to the GammaWave desktop synthesizer.
Like the sound and workflow? The full GammaWave desktop synth is a dual-oscillator hybrid (subtractive, FM, granular) with the Hearth saturation engine, a 7-engine filter, 3-layer granular FX, 32-voice polyphony and full DAW automation — VST3 and Standalone on Windows, macOS and Linux, plus AU on macOS.
- Buy the desktop plugin: https://shadowtune.itch.io/gammawave
- Official website: https://gammawaveaudio.com/
- Try the firmware in your browser (emulator): https://fvalente.github.io/GammaWave-FM1/
- Web Studio (editor, demo songs, tape lanes): https://fvalente.github.io/GammaWave-FM1/webapp/editor/
- USB web installer: https://fvalente.github.io/GammaWave-FM1/webapp/installer/
Real 240×240 RGB565 frames from Pocket GammaWave (v1.0-GW). Top row: HOME (filter curve over an audio-reactive spectrum, the Hearth sun with its orbiting moon, tracks T1–T6), EDIT 1 of ANALOG (two live scopes over the Wraith ribbon) and EDIT 1 of the VOICE engine (the vowel ribbon OO · OH · AH · EH · EE). Bottom row: the SLICER page (drawn as four tape lanes), FX > MASTER (CLIP / PUNCH / DUCK and the FX rack) and the DRUM kit page (8 pads, A/B morph).
Real frames of the GEN screen, rendered by the firmware's own drawing code in the GAMMA palette (docs/gw1-generator.png). Top row: three of the generator's five settings pages, turned with SELECT — 1/5 genre, seed, energy, form; 4/5 SONG (tempo, key, scale, length); 5/5 FEEL (space for a voice, fills, wet, grit; the knob last turned is lit). Bottom row: PRESETS opens the reel on NOW, the piece playing: its card says it is EDITED (or which take it is) and where it came from (FROM TAKE 4: SOUNDS), the genre and its trap flavour (or the tracks and the form), the seed, tempo, key and scale, the first two bars of each live track (one row a track, coloured by its part) and the song's sections as blocks (trap: Intro, Hook, Verse, Pre-hook) with the playhead. Then the takes you saved (SAVE), numbered (TAKE 3 OF 4), each with its own ID; scrolled while playing, a take plays on the next bar. On the reel the knobs are TEMPO, KEY, ENERGY, SECTION.
The TAKES reel as a songwriting tool (docs/gw1-takes.png, real frames). 1 NOW after a change: EDITED, from take 2, what changed (FROM TAKE 2: LEAD SND) — no take was made. 2 OCT+ held: the whole screen maps the keys, each in its part's colour, the parts' names under them; the key down said in full (G3 BASS: NEW NOTES WHEN LET GO); the right half mirrors the left: the same parts dropped while held; C#5 ORIG back to the take, D#5 JAM, F#5 the code. 3 OCT− held: the white keys play takes 1–16 on the next bar, like clips. 4 SAVE: NOW kept as take 3, said in the band at the foot of the screen. 5 The SET: takes in a row, each for its bars, recorded with REC from the takes you play; while it plays KNOB 1 jumps to an entry. 6 F#5 shows a take's share code (OCT+ held + SAVE types one in: the same firmware makes the same piece).
- GammaWave HUD on the FM-1's 240×240 screen, in the GAMMA palette (default), plus THERMAL and WRAITH palettes:
- HOME: the selected track's filter response curve drawn over a 28-bar audio-reactive spectrum display, the Hearth sun with an orbiting moon, and the T1–T6 track strip.
- EDIT pages: two live scope traces above the Wraith ribbon — six zones (
FLU·WHI·VOX·CHR·BEL·SCR) whose needle follows the filter cutoff (and the filter LFO). With the VOWEL or SCREAM filter, or the VOICE engine, the ribbon shows the vowelsOO·OH·AH·EH·EEinstead. - Boot splash with the Hearth sun and
POCKET GAMMAWAVE // GW-1; the ABOUT page carries a QR code to gammawaveaudio.com.
- Two new filter types and four new drive types on every track: filter
VOWELandSCREAM(afterLP,HP,BP,COMB), driveHEARTH,BLAST,PLASMAandFLUX. - 49-genre song generator (GEN) — open it with
[OCT−] + [PLAY], or turn SELECT on HOME. Page 1: KNOB 1 genre, KNOB 2 seed, KNOB 3 energy, KNOB 4 form (LOOP / PARTS / SONG); SELECT turns the five pages (drums, bass, chords, arp; lead, complexity, swing, humanize; SONG: tempo, key, scale, length; FEEL: space, fills, wet, grit); ALGORITHM gives the piece new instruments (the notes kept); OCT+ makes the piece, PLAY auditions it, HOME closes. The piece playing is NOW: every change shapes NOW (on the next bar while playing) and SAVE keeps it as a take — the TAKES reel (PRESETS) holds only the takes you saved (32, kept over power-off): scroll it (round) and the take under the cursor plays on the next bar (OCT+ or PLAY when stopped); there KNOB 1–3 are the tempo, key and energy, KNOB 4 picks a section, EDIT deletes, OCT− goes back. GLO + G4 / A4 step NOW back and forward. Hold OCT+ and the whole screen maps the keys: remake one part, one sound, one section, the harmony, the mix, drop a part while held, C#5 back to the original take, D#5 JAM (NOW changed by itself every few bars), F#5 the share code (OCT+ + SAVE types one in). Hold OCT− and the white keys play takes 1–16 on the next bar; REC records them as a SET. What a control did shows in a band at the foot of the screen. Genres include:TRAP ATL(136–150 BPM, half-time bounce, 808 sub, hi-hat rolls and triplets, bell / flute / key melodies)UK DRILL(140–145 BPM, 3-3-2 hi-hat gallop, late snare, sliding 808, dark strings and choirs)DARK TRAP(130–148 BPM, Memphis-style cowbell, clipped 808, phrygian bells)RAGE TRAP(140–160 BPM, Whole Lotta Red or MUSIC flavour: square video-game leads or wobbling stabs, a crushed 808)- plus
GAMMAWAVE,WRAITHWAVE, house, techno, trance, electro, EBM, synth pop, darkwave, post punk, motorik, funk, disco, boom bap, UK garage, dubstep, breaks, drum & bass, dub, jazz, bossa, afrobeat, ambient, neo-classical, soundtrack, IDM and more. - Pieces are 32 or 64 steps (2 or 4 bars per section) depending on the genre's chord rhythm.
- One-press MUTATE —
[OCT−] + [ENV]jumps to SEQ > MUTATE. If MUTATE was off on the track it switches it on with SOUND every 2 bars, PATTERN every 4 bars and AMOUNT ≈ 50 %:ORBIT(the default) mutates notes and timbre while pulling back toward the original pattern;DRIFTkeeps wandering. Intervals: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 bars.- On the MUTATE page OCT− freezes the current mutation and OCT+ keeps it as the new pattern.
- Hearth macros —
[OCT−] + [ARP]steps through six drive/filter macros (1/6 HEARTH GRAVITY…6/6 SOLAR ECLIPSE!); macros 4–6 switch the filter to SCREAM or VOWEL, and 6 also raises the master DUCK and PUNCH.[OCT−] + [GLO]takes a macro back. - Hidden visualizer —
[OCT−] + [HOME](or MENU > ABOUT, then OCT+): four animated scenes,1/4 SUPERNOVA,2/4 WRAITH 3D,3/4 WARP TUNNEL,4/4 MATRIX FFT, which pulse while the sequencer plays. OCT+ (or PRESETS / ALGORITHM) changes scene, OCT− leaves. - Web Studio (browser, webapp/editor) — edits the FM-1 live over Web MIDI, or runs on its own in simulator mode:
- four instant demo songs and its own 49-genre generator (the same genre list; its patterns are generated in the browser and won't match the device's for the same seed);
- 4 tape lanes (T1–T4): DUMP a track's pattern into a lane, layer and bounce lanes, mute and clear them — they hold note patterns, not recorded audio;
- EXPORT .WAV: renders the current song and the tape lanes to a 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo WAV for your DAW;
- the Wraith bar (six zone buttons, a 0–127 slider, or drag on the LCD) and SEQ MUTATE (MUTATE NOW, ORBIT, DRIFT, AMOUNT, FREEZE, KEEP ANCHOR).
Hold [OCT−] on its own first, then press the second button. (A plain OCT− tap still lowers the octave; the octave is put back when a shortcut fires.) The deck works from HOME and the parameter pages — not inside menus or dialogs, and not on pages where OCT− has its own job (on MUTATE it is FREEZE).
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
[OCT−] + [ARP] |
Next of the 6 Hearth macros (drive type and amount, cutoff, resonance, filter type) on the selected track |
[OCT−] + [PLAY] (or [REC]) |
Open the 49-genre generator (GEN) |
[OCT−] + [ENV] (or [SCL]) |
Jump to SEQ > MUTATE (switches MUTATE on if it was off) |
[OCT−] + [HOME] (or [SAVE]) |
Open the visualizer |
[OCT−] + [SEQ] |
Dice the selected track's sequence |
[OCT−] + [EDIT] |
Dice the selected track's sound |
[OCT−] + [FX] / [OCT−] + [LFO] |
Dice the track's FX / LFO |
[OCT−] + [GLO] (or GLO + G4) |
Undo; again: redo |
The editing actions ask you to stop the song chain first (STOP TO EDIT), as their GLO-layer versions do.
Selecting tracks: turn ALGORITHM to select T1–T6 from any page. Tap EDIT repeatedly to step through the engine's pages: EDIT 1 → EDIT 2 → (MORPH, RETRIG or the FM6 operator pages, depending on the engine) → FILTER → VOICE.
| Controls & shift deck | Sound · filter · FX · mod |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Every knob, button, held keymap layer (FX, GLO, SAVE, EDIT, LFO, SCL, SEQ, REC, and the TAKES layer: OCT+ held on the reel) and page knob assignment. PDF |
The synthesis engines, filter types, the MOD matrix, MSEQ, MUTATE and master FX. PDF |
Full user manual: English (docs/MANUAL.md) · Español (docs/MANUAL.es.md). Chapter 17 of the manual gathers the GW-1 additions (the shift deck, the Hearth macros, GEN, the new filter and drive types, the screens and the visualizer).
ANALOG: dual virtual-analog oscillators (SAW,SQR,TRI,SIN,PWM,SYNC,RING,SAW3, and the dirty sinesTUBE— GammaWave's Hearth tube curve — andFOLD— WRAITH's Blast wavefolder — whose amount is MORPH plus ENV/LFO → SHAPE) with interval (INT ±24 st), detune, oscillator mix and noise, through the track filter (CUT,RES,DRIVE).FM6: 6-operator DX7-style FM (DX7.syxvoices load through the Web Studio), the 32 algorithms drawn on screen, per-operator editing on the device (OPERATOR,OP ENV,OPERATOR 2) and a 32-voice user bank (B1–B32).PHASE: CZ-style phase distortion with feedback (FB), from warm brass to digital growl.LOFI: 1-bit, 4-bit and 8-bit chip voices plus 32-formula Bytebeat (BYTE) and Floatbeat (FLOAT) engines tuned to the keyboard scale.VOICE: formant voice (VOWEL,VOWEL2,TALK,SHIFT,BUZZ,BREATH) — its EDIT page shows the vowel ribbon.WHEEL: tonewheel drawbar organ with rotary speaker, key click and harmonic percussion.NOISE: tuned and free-running resonant / metallic noise for risers, snares and industrial textures.DRUM(the DRUM-X kits): 8 synthesized pads (BD,SD,CP,CH,OH,TM,RS,CB) with A/B kit morphing (MORPH), wavefolder (FOLD),FM ENV, an 808 long pitch-drop mode (PMOD LONG) and tempo-syncedX-MOD.
Every track's filter offers LP, HP, BP, COMB, VOWEL (a state-variable filter blending low-pass, band-pass and a saturated notch for a vocal colour) and SCREAM (a state-variable filter with a saturated integrator, for screaming resonance). The Wraith ribbon labels the cutoff range with six zones (FLU · WHI · VOX · CHR · BEL · SCR); turning CUT sweeps the needle across it.
- Playable punch-in FX (
FXheld + keys): quantized performance effects (REPEAT 1/8 · 1/16 · 1/32,LPF,HPF,OCT-/+,1/2 TEMPO,DEC-/+,STUTTER 1/8 · 1/16,ATK+,ARP,RANDOM), recordable into a 4-bar automation lane per section. - 5 reverb models:
ROOM,SPRING,SHIMR(octave-up shimmer),RESO(4 scale-tuned sympathetic strings) andCLOUD(pitch-granulated freeze wash). - Master bus (
FX > MASTER):CLIP(level-compensated soft clipper),PUNCH(drum transient saturator),DUCK(kick-triggered sidechain pump) and an always-on 2:1 auto-leveler.
Some synth tracks run on the FM-1's second core, with per-block checksums and a watchdog. If the second core ever faults, the firmware shows a notice and stays on one core until power-off. Hold REC at power-on to force single-core mode.
- Open the USB web installer in Chrome, Edge or Opera (it needs Web MIDI): https://fvalente.github.io/GammaWave-FM1/webapp/installer/
- Connect the M-VAVE FM-1 with a USB data cable and switch it on.
- Coming from another custom firmware (Felucca, baudgirl, etc.)? Click Return to official V15 first (which also backs up your flash), then click Install.
- Coming from official V15, JIANT, or an earlier Pocket GammaWave build? Click Install directly. Don't unplug the cable until flashing completes.
Pocket GammaWave uses the FM-1's user sample flash (USR1–3) to store 8 multi-section songs and the 32-voice FM6 user bank. Back up any custom WAV samples from stock firmware before flashing.
You can also download the package from the Releases page (felucca-1.0-GW.fwsc — the build tooling keeps Felucca's file name).
See BUILDING.md for the toolchain (JieLi clang, the AC79 SDK files) and the options:
./build.sh # build/felucca.fwsc (needs JIELI_TOOLCHAIN and AC79_SDK)
sh web/emu/build.sh # the WebAssembly emulator in build/emu (needs emcc)
python3 web/make_site.py build/felucca.fwsc v1.0-GW build/site # the Web Studio + USB installerOn Windows, tools/build_windows.py drives the same build inside WSL2 Ubuntu (edit its toolchain paths first).
- GammaWave HUD (
ui_being.c,ui_tech.c): HOME with the filter curve over a 28-bar audio-reactive spectrum, the Hearth sun and moon, and the T1–T6 strip; EDIT pages with two scopes and the Wraith ribbon; the SLICER drawn as tape lanes; GAMMA (default), THERMAL and WRAITH palettes; a GammaWave boot splash and an ABOUT page with a gammawaveaudio.com QR code. - New filter types
VOWELandSCREAM, and drive typesHEARTH,BLAST,PLASMA,FLUX. - 49-genre generator (
gen.c,gen_tables.c): addsGAMMAWAVE,WRAITHWAVE,TRAP ATL,UK DRILL(3-3-2 hat bounce),DARK TRAP(808 cowbells) andRAGE TRAP, with 808 glide bass and hi-hat rolls. [OCT−]shift deck (ui_input.c): Hearth macros, GEN, the MUTATE jump, the visualizer, track dice and undo — see the table above.- Web Studio (
web/editor.html): demo songs, its own 49-genre generator, 4 tape lanes with WAV export, the Wraith bar and SEQ MUTATE.
[OCT−] + [HOME]now keeps the visualizer open (letting go of HOME closed it at once).- Pressing a page button and OCT− at the same moment is the page's own gesture again (FX + OCT− no longer dices FX).
- The Hearth macros only touch ANALOG's E4/E5 cutoff/resonance on ANALOG tracks (on other engines those slots are other parameters), reset the filter type for macros 1–3, and can be undone; the deck's undo shows
UNDONE (AGAIN: REDO)and respectsSTOP TO EDIT. - The MUTATE jump enters the page properly (sequencer mode and page state follow).
- Generated DRUM kits are tuned around their own pitch again (TUNE was set about an octave flat).
- ABOUT: the QR code no longer covers the license line.
GEN: NOW, and takes you choose — reported: every ALGORITHM turn, KEY and ENERGY turn, OCT+ press and take key made a new take, and the reel filled with near-copies (the oldest falling off past 32); the pop-up covered the take's card. The GEN screen now works like this:
- NOW is the piece playing. ALGORITHM, KNOB 2 KEY, KNOB 3 ENERGY, OCT+ (a new piece), the OCT+ keys and JAM all change NOW, on the next bar while playing. None of them makes a take.
- SAVE keeps NOW as a take (the next number, its own ID, made from the take NOW came from and what changed). Takes are only the ones you saved: none ever falls off; at 32 SAVE says the reel is full (EDIT deletes one). KEEP is gone (every take is kept).
- The reel starts on NOW, then takes 1 … n (PRESETS round). NOW's card says whether it is a take as saved
(
TAKE 2) orEDITED, and from which take (FROM TAKE 1: ENERGY). PLAY on a take's card plays that take. When a change lands, the card shows NOW again. - Undo for NOW: GLO + G4 steps NOW back (its last 8 states), GLO + A4 forward; at NOW's first state, GLO + G4 is the device's UNDO again (the music before GEN). C#5 (OCT+ held) is ORIG: NOW back to the take it came from, all at once (one undo step).
- OCT+ held: the whole screen is the keys' map — every key in its part's colour, the parts' names under them in the same colours, the key down said in full ("G3 BASS: NEW NOTES WHEN LET GO") and what a key just did. The map is mirrored: the left half (F3 … F4) remakes a part (white: its notes, black: its sound; E4 every sound, F4 the harmony), the right half drops the same parts in the same places while held (G4 A4 B4 C5 D5 E5), F5 the mix, G5 VARY; G#4 / A#4 the arrangement, C#5 ORIG, D#5 JAM, F#5 the share code. (MIX moved from B4 to F5; the chords, arp, lead and texture drops moved one white key left.) The arp's colour is the palette's accent now (it was a yellow next to the drums').
- OCT− held: the takes' keys — the white keys play takes 1 … 16 on the next bar (stopped: at once), like clips; the screen shows them (the one playing lit, the next outlined, empty keys dark) and the take touched. REC while playing records the takes you play into a SET.
- What a control did shows in a band at the foot of the screen, over the footer only: the card, the song map and the settings stay in sight (the maps say it in their own lines).
- The SET page while a SET plays: the playhead and the cursor move with the bars (they stood still), and turning KNOB 1 / PRESETS to an entry plays it from the next bar.
Fixes found on the way
- Holding OCT+ to read the keys and letting go made a new piece (or loaded a take); holding OCT− and letting go went back a page. Held 0.4 s or more, letting go now does nothing (a take cued with PRESETS while OCT+ is held still loads).
- A one-bar SET entry never played: the SET armed the next entry on the same bar, before the entry's own take was loaded. The bar's take loads first now.
- K1 TEMPO changed the saved take's tempo behind your back; it changes NOW's (SAVE keeps it).
- GEN forgot that OCT+ or OCT− were still down when it closed, so after reopening a quick OCT− tap could be ignored.
- If the music changed outside GEN (a project loaded, the song edited), GEN still offered NOW's history; it now starts afresh and GLO + G4 is the device's UNDO.
GEN: the screen no longer flashes or cycles — reported: on the device, every ALGORITHM turn, PRESETS turn, knob turn, OCT+ press and take key showed the takes page again, then what had changed (a BPM step: the whole page, then the pop-up), as if the screen were cycling through it. Three causes, all in how the GEN screen was drawn:
- The whole screen was cleared and drawn again on every redraw. The check meant to clear it only on entering compared the header's signature with a value the header always overwrote, so it was always true. On the panel every write shows, so each detent blanked the page and drew it back. It is now cleared only on entering and between its pages.
- The page was drawn under the pop-up each time, then the pop-up over it: with a take waiting for the bar (a redraw every 100 ms) the page and the pop-up took turns. The pop-up's rows are now left alone while it shows: a BPM step changes the number in the pop-up and nothing else.
- A pop-up going, the keys' map coming or going, a page change cleared an area and then drew over it, a blink. The page is now drawn first and only what it does not paint is cleared after.
- The keys' help lines were drawn over the keys' last rows (painted twice on every redraw, a flicker); the keys' map is now the whole screen (above).
- The SET page's entry is one drawing (it was cleared and redrawn with every bar while a SET played).
A test now counts every pixel written twice in a frame that ends as it began (what the eye sees as a flash on the panel): BPM step by step, ALGORITHM, PRESETS and OCT+, KEY and ENERGY, OCT+ held with a part key and a drop, the settings and the SET page, stopped and playing — none, where there were up to 230,000 per action; and once a pop-up is gone the screen equals the page drawn afresh.
GEN: the controls, no conflicts — reported: OCT+ held and a key still played the note. The take layer was the reel's only; on the settings pages the key sounded, and letting go of OCT+ then made a new piece. Every control on the GEN screen was then checked against every other (tests press each key and check it while it is still down):
- OCT+ held makes the keys the take layer's on every GEN page (the settings and the reel): silent, the screen's last lines say what they do.
- OCT+ let go after its keys, ALGORITHM, a knob or a button does nothing more; it loaded the take under the cursor over what had just been made.
- EDIT held on the SET page asked, out of sight, to delete every take not kept, and the next OCT+ said yes: it does nothing there now.
- A delete question goes with its page (SELECT, HOME); a later OCT+ deleted takes.
- PRESETS on the SET page moves the SET's entries; it moved the reel's cursor behind the page and, the SET playing, loaded a take over it. ALGORITHM is refused there (it changed the music under the SET), and JAM waits while a SET plays.
- OCT+ on the settings while a SONG plays makes the piece as a take on the next bar (it did nothing).
- GLO held + G4 is UNDO on the GEN screen too, silent (layers are off in a dialog: it played the note G4).
- The browser emulator:
[and]are OCT− and OCT+ on any keyboard layout. They were read by position; on AZERTY they are AltGr + 5 and AltGr + °, so[held EDIT (and with AltGr reported as Ctrl + Alt, nothing).
PRESETS on the reel: it always moves — reported: PRESETS did not move the card at all. The reel opened on the newest take and turning on from there did nothing, with nothing said. Now:
- The reel goes round: past the newest take, the first; before the first, the newest (a pop-up says so).
- The title says where you are:
TAKES 2/3. - The turn that opens the reel moves too (from the settings pages): it opens on the take playing and steps from it.
GEN: one control model — the same buttons mean the same thing on every GEN page:
- SELECT turns a ring of seven pages: the five settings pages, the reel, the SET.
- OCT− goes back one page (the SET → the reel → the settings → closed); HOME closes from any page.
- OCT+ makes: the piece (on the settings), the take under the cursor (on the reel), adds the take playing (on the SET). Playing, a piece made on the settings pages drops in as a take on the next bar too (it replaced the music at once).
- SAVE on the reel keeps the take under the cursor (again: lets it go); OCT+ held + SAVE types a share code.
- REC while playing records a SET; stopped, it says to play first (SELECT has the SET page).
The reel's knobs — the values everyone reaches for, no key chord needed:
- KNOB 1 TEMPO, at once (no new take: the take playing keeps the tempo).
- KNOB 2 KEY and KNOB 3 ENERGY: a take once the knob rests, on the next bar while playing.
- KNOB 4 SECTION (trap: verse, intro, pre-hook; others B C D): the part keys then make that part there only.
Big pop-ups — every change says what it did in the middle of the screen (TEMPO 144 BPM, ON THE NEXT BAR BORROWED DRUMS, KEPT, LOCKED), in the large font, for about a second and a half; a take waiting for the next bar
shows a bar filling up. They replace the one-line notes at the top of the screen, which were hard to read while playing.
OCT+ held: the take layer, remapped — tempo, key and energy moved to the knobs, which frees six white keys:
- G4 A4 C5 D5 E5 F5 drop the DRUMS, BASS, CHORDS, ARP, LEAD, TEX while held (a momentary mute; let go, they are back, no take is made).
- D#5 JAM on / off; held half a second it cycles JAM's bars (4, 8, 16, 32).
- A part or sound key now acts when let go: a tap makes that part again, held half a second it locks it.
- The screen draws the keyboard while OCT+ is held: each key's letter, the part keys filled in their part's colour, their sounds (the black keys) in the same colour, the drops framed in it; a locked one dotted, a key down lit.
- The key LEDs show it on the hardware: every key with a job breathes; a key down, a locked part or sound, a dropped part and JAM on are lit.
Fixes
- A take's rest and its pop-up were cut short half the time: their timestamps were made with
fm1_ms | 1, one millisecond in the future on even milliseconds, so the wait read as already over. Now 0 alone is moved to 1. - A piece depended on the piece made before it (a long-standing bug: 206 of 400 test pieces in their sounds or settings, 4 in their notes). A track's sound parameters, its step length (read before it was set), the generator's scratch state and trap's statics carried over. The generator now starts each piece from a clean slate: 0 of 400. A take (and a share code) is now the same piece whatever came before. The reference runs, made one piece after another, change in 2 of 147 pieces (4 and 6 tracks) and 4 of 392 whole songs — those that had inherited from the piece before; from power-on, every piece is as before.
ui_test: the new GEN controls and GEN UX tests pass, and the old "UNDO (GLO + G4)" failure now passes too (14 failures from 15). The device build is within every loop's budget.
Published as v1.0-GW-0f3b9b0 — TAKES v2, the songwriter (PR #6; the emulator's build fixed in PR #7)
A take's own choices (the recipe: gen.c, gen_trap.c)
- Besides the seed and the settings, a take now holds a variation for each stream the generator draws from (the harmony, the drums, the bass, the chords, the arp, the lead, the texture, the form's ornaments, the mix), a sound variation for each role, a variation of each part in song sections B, C and D, up to four parts or sounds borrowed from other takes (their seed and variation), an arrangement number and locks. All at zero, a take is the piece the seed makes, exactly as before: every genre's whole song (its four sections and its rows; PARTS and SONG, 4 and 6 tracks: 392 songs) is bit-identical to the previous build.
- A part made again changes that part only (the bass follows a new kick, as it always did); a role's sound made again changes that sound only — every note the same (trap's melody keeps its register and holds) and always another sound where the role has more than one. The harmony made again keeps the genre, a RANDOM throw's genre, a hybrid and the trap flavour.
- Trap's pad had no draws of its own, so new chords changed nothing there: made again, it now plays the chords another way (struck each bar, dotted stabs, voiced higher, in halves). As made, it is unchanged.
- Four arrangements per form: trap — as made, hook first, two hooks each time, verse first; the club, arc and parts forms three variants each.
The reel
- Every take has an ID (#0001 … #FFFF, never one still on the reel), and remembers its parent and what
changed (
<0A3C LEAD SND): a family tree. A new seed starts a family. - EDIT deletes the take under the cursor (OCT+ yes, OCT− no; a kept take is refused), EDIT held every take not kept.
- ALGORITHM now gives the piece new instruments (the notes kept; locked sounds stay; turned back, the sounds before) — a take once it rests, playing or not. OCT+ still makes a new piece.
- Playing, every take drops in on the next bar (the title says NEXT BAR); a loop's new notes start from its top.
OCT+ held on the reel: the take layer — the keys are silent and make takes from the one playing:
- F3 G3 A3 B3 C4 D4: new DRUMS, BASS, CHORDS, ARP, LEAD, TEX (their notes); the black key next to each (F#4 for the ARP): its sound; E4 every sound; F4 the harmony; G4 / A4 energy down / up; B4 the mix; C5 / D5 the key down / up; E5 / F5 the tempo; G5 VARY (the ornaments: echoes, octaves, bends, the kit's drift); G#4 / A#4 the arrangement; C#5 back to the parent; D#5 JAM; F#5 the take's code.
- A part or sound key held half a second locks it: ALGORITHM, E4 and JAM leave it, and a new seed keeps it (pinned to the take's seed and variation).
- On another take's card (PRESETS turned with OCT+ held), a part or sound key borrows that take's into the one playing.
- PRESETS turned with OCT+ held only cues; letting go of OCT+ loads the cue on the next bar.
- KNOB 2 picks a song section (B C D: trap's verse, intro, pre-hook) — the part keys then make that part again there only, the hook and the other sections as they were.
JAM (D#5): a take by itself every 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 bars (KNOB 3), one thing made again from the take playing — a part's notes mostly, a sound, the ornaments, the mix — never a locked one; while the GEN screen is open.
The SET: REC on the reel while playing records the takes that become the music and the bars each played; REC stopped opens the SET page — KNOB 1 the entry, KNOB 2 its take, KNOB 3 its bars, OCT+ adds the take playing, EDIT deletes — and PLAY plays the takes in a row, each queued a bar before its turn.
Kept over power-off: the reel, its SET and JAM's bars are saved in their own flash object (OBJ_REEL, 0xDA000 / 0xDB000, the last two free sectors of the old sample area), the way the autosave is: once it has changed and stayed so for 10 s with the transport stopped and nothing sounding (an erase stops the audio ~40 ms), at most once a minute; read at power-on. When the sector is too small the oldest takes not kept are left out. A take made by another generator version says OLD GEN (it loads, it may sound different). Not yet in the web editor's backup.
Share codes: a take's recipe as a code — base 32 without I L O U (typed as 1 1 0 V), its last character a check that catches typos. A take as made is 7 characters; a rich one (parts, sounds, a section, a borrow, an arrangement) up to 28. F#5 (OCT+ held) shows it; SAVE on the reel opens the NAME screen for a code (28 characters, the field scrolls) and OCT+ makes its take. The same firmware makes the same piece; a code made on the other number of tracks says so (GLO > SYSTEM > TRACKS).
Screens: README's TAKES: the songwriter sheet (docs/gw1-takes.png); the generator sheet re-rendered.
Checks: device build (JieLi clang 4.0.1) image 504,880 B, RAM 91,956 → 92,260 of 98,304 B, pool spare 13,824 B (≥ 8 KiB), call reach 102,200 B to spare, every loop-cost budget ok; host ui_test's new GEN v2, layer, song-takes and store tests; storage_test's map with the reel.
GEN: the TAKES reel (gen_reel.c)
- Every piece the generator makes — OCT+, a take while playing, DICE ALL — goes on a reel as its recipe: the seed and every setting of the five pages (and the tracks it ran on). The generator is deterministic, so a recipe remakes the piece exactly (a fingerprint of all the tracks' steps and sounds checks it); DICE ALL's tempo nudge is kept with it. 96 bytes a take, 32 takes (3 KB of RAM, in the spare pool); the same recipe made again is not added twice, the cursor goes to it.
- PRESETS opens the reel and scrolls it. Each take is a card: the genre and its trap flavour (other genres: the tracks and LOOP / SONG), the seed, tempo, key and scale, a thumbnail of each live track's first two bars (a row a track, 4 or 6, coloured by part) and the song's rows as blocks (trap: Intro, Hook, Verse, Pre-hook), with a playhead on the take playing; the takes either side peek in.
- Playing, the take under the cursor becomes the music once PRESETS rests (~450 ms), the same way ALGORITHM's takes do (a PARTS / SONG song stops for it and starts again); a run of them keeps one UNDO point. Stopped, OCT+ loads the take under the cursor. KNOB 1 scrolls too, KNOB 4 keeps a take (right) or lets it go (left): when the reel is full the oldest take not kept drops off. NOW marks the take playing, KEEP a kept one.
- HOME or SELECT goes back to the settings; HOME again closes GEN. The reel lives in RAM until power off — it is a list of recipes, not recordings: edits made to a piece afterwards are not on it (SAVE keeps those; a USB-audio recording keeps the sound).
GEN controls (changed from the build below)
- SELECT turns the pages again, as in the first v1.0-GW builds (KNOB 1 already turns the genre on page 1, and SELECT jumping back to page 1 was more confusing than useful). ALGORITHM turns the seed from any page, page 1 shown, and makes takes while playing (unchanged). PRESETS opens TAKES (it turned the pages).
Screens: README's new The song generator and its TAKES reel sheet (docs/gw1-generator.png), real frames of
the GEN pages and the reel.
Song generator (GEN)
- Five pages (was three), turned with PRESETS:
- SONG (4/5) — TEMPO: AUTO (the genre's range, ENERGY placing it) or a fixed 60–200 BPM; turned up from AUTO it starts at the song's tempo; MENU > BPM LOCK still wins. KEY: AUTO or C–B. SCALE: AUTO, MIN, MAJ, DOR, PHRY, HARM, MIX, LYD (it also wins over the trap flavours' scales). LENGTH: AUTO, SHORT, LONG, EPIC — the song's rows ×½, ×2, ×3, in whole loops of each section (trap SONG: 64 bars → ~44, 128, 192).
- FEEL (5/5) — SPACE (OFF–100 %): room for a voice; the melody and the arp lose the end of every two bars and some off-beats, and the music sits lower under the drums (melody / arp −4 dB, pad −3 dB at 100 %). FILLS (AUTO, OFF, 10–100 %): OFF takes every roll away; 10–100 % puts snare rolls on a phrase's last beat (bar 4 always, bar 2 from 50 %, every bar from 80 %), 1/64 from 70 %; the club build and the trap pre-hook keep their own roll. WET (AUTO, 0–200 % of the genre's reverb and delay sends, 0 = DRY). GRIT (AUTO, 0–200 % of the genre's master clip, bass distortion / drive and drum drive, 0 = CLEAN; WRAITH's BLAST on an 808 stays a blend so the sub survives).
- All on AUTO / OFF, every piece is exactly as before (checked on all 49 genres, 4 and 6 tracks); 600 throws with random settings stay inside every parameter's range.
- Controls: PRESETS the pages, SELECT the genre, ALGORITHM the seed, from any page (page 1 comes up, the row lit). Takes: while the music plays, turning SELECT or ALGORITHM makes the piece by itself once the knob rests (~450 ms); a PARTS / SONG song stops for it (its sections are rewritten) and starts again. A run of takes keeps one UNDO point, the music from before the first take (OCT+ or reopening the screen starts a new run).
- TRACKS 4 keeps the melody: the three melodic tracks go to the bass, the genre's foreground part (its lead, or its arp where the genre weighs the arp above the lead) and the chords. Before, the lead was always the part left out (on the asleep fifth track) — 440 of 490 test pieces had no melody, now 12 (minimal tech / acid house throws with a sparse arp). TRACKS 6 pieces are unchanged.
- DICE ALL / a new seed never repeat one of the last 64 seeds (two throws in a session could land on the same piece), and a throw always moves the tempo (one BPM off the last when a throw lands on it, unless TEMPO is set).
- Fix: a LOOP piece made after a PARTS / SONG piece left the song mode on, so PLAY played the earlier piece's sections; a LOOP piece now plays as a loop.
Trap family (TRAP, TRAP ATL, UK DRILL, DARK TRAP, RAGE TRAP: their own generator, gen_trap.c) — beats made for
a voice: the drums and the 808 loud, the music sparse and behind them, the middle left free.
- Flavours (the seed picks one; each set from what is documented about a reference record): TRAP ATL plays Atlanta (dark bells and keys), Pi'erre ("Magnolia": 156–166 BPM, major or mixolydian, flute, organ and chip-arp leads, long tails, swing, filtered drums, a lighter 808) or Metro ("Superhero", "Type Shit": a brass or string loop, choirs, a pummeling 808, 116–124 or 140–150 BPM); DARK TRAP plays Memphis (the cowbell) or Metro; RAGE TRAP plays Whole Lotta Red ("Sky": 140–150 BPM in major or lydian, square video-game leads, a crushed 808) or MUSIC ("EVIL J0RDAN": 150–160 BPM, minor, wobbling synth stabs, the most bass).
- Groove: the snare and clap on beat 3, the kick under the 808's notes (never on the snare), hats that are the groove (eighths or sixteenths, 1/32 and 1/64 rolls before the snare and at the bar's end, triplet bursts on a second DRUM track at 16T when TRACKS 6 is on, with shuffled percussion), a crash on the hook's downbeat, an open hat at a phrase's turn, drill's 3-3-2 gallop and late snare, dark trap's cowbell.
- 808: a pattern bank per style of spaced notes — two to six a bar, long and short with rests between, a slide or two into the notes that matter (drill the most) — on the chord's root, now and then the octave or the fifth; the verse gets another pattern. Its sound is one of ten recipes ported from GammaWave's factory 808s (Classic Thump, Clean, Crushed Venom, Deep Sub, Distorted, Glide King, Deep 808 Thump, Sub Glide 808) and WRAITH's (SLIDE 808, DIRTY 808), on ANALOG's TUBE / FOLD waves and the HEARTH, FLUX, CRUSH and (in parallel) BLAST drives: they decay instead of holding, start a little sharp and settle, click, glide 80–350 ms; each flavour picks its own.
- Sound: a short knocking kick, bright high-passed hats. The melody is a two-bar motif (a call, then a short answer whose end stays empty) about 10 dB under the drums with little reverb: bells, keys, a flute; strings and choirs in drill; a saw hook in rage. A low-passed pad under it; in the hook a counter melody (flute, voice, pluck) replies in the gap. Every sound has a measured level trim (a choir and a pluck at the same loudness). On TRACKS 4 the melody plays the counter's reply itself and the drum track carries the percussion.
- Song: SONG is the rap layout — intro 4 bars (the melody alone, its filter opening), hook 8, verse 16 (another kick and plainer hats, a softer instrument playing only the melody's calls, a darker pad, no counter; its last 4 bars a pre-hook where the drums and the 808 stop for a snare roll), hook, verse, hook, outro: 64 bars. PARTS stops after the second hook.
Sound engines
- ANALOG: two more waves, TUBE (a sine through GammaWave's Hearth tube curve: warm, even harmonics, its DC
taken off) and FOLD (WRAITH's Blast sine-of-sine fold with a quarter of the clean sine under it: a growl),
computed in the oscillator (no tables) before the filter, so a bass keeps its fundamental. How dirty: MORPH plus
ENV / LFO → SHAPE (with ENV → SHAPE a note is dirtiest on its hit). Their own render (
analog_dirty); every existing ANALOG preset renders bit-identically to before. The web editor and the MORPH screen know them.
Build
- The RAM code's ±4 MiB call reach is measured to the end of the code (
app.ld_ecode), not of code and constants (fonts, icons, tables, presets: ~123 KB that are never called). On this build: image 485,172 B of the 581,564 B slot, code 340,632 B + constants 123,128 B, reach 119,880 B to spare (≥ 8 KiB required); the old check would have failed it. The build prints the code / constants split. - The device's static loop-cost check (
tests/target_budget.txt) covers the newanalog_dirty.
Pocket GammaWave (GW-1) is free and open-source software released under GPL-3.0-only, created as the hardware & browser companion to the GammaWave desktop synth (buy on itch.io).
Built upon the work of:
- Felucca by Hügelton Instruments (Leo Kuroshita, @kurogedelic) — core FM-1 hardware abstraction, bootloader, engines, and the Fukiai icon font (MIT).
- JIANT FM — DRUM-X synthesis engine, dual-core audio scheduler, procedural generator foundation, and thermal font pipeline.
- SLOOP by isod89 — multi-section song arranger and live
SONG RECarchitecture. - Melodee (keremimo) & fm1-x0x (Charles Vestal) — AC791N second-core startup, memory-read guard, and WebAssembly browser emulator architecture.
- DSP & fonts:
msfa6-op FM from Dexed (Apache-2.0); formant synthesis after klattsch (MIT); Chakra Petch, IBM Plex Mono, Michroma, and DotGothic16 (SIL OFL 1.1).
M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their respective owners. Pocket GammaWave is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by M-VAVE or Hügelton Instruments.