The M-VAVE FM-1

Regular readers will know I’ve had a long fascination for the Yamaha DX7–after all, besides getting a Reface DX quite some time ago, I also built a MiniDexed box and accumulated more software instruments than I have time to use, as well as an embarrassing amount of other physical gear that brands me as a victim of Gear Acquisition Syndrome. The FM-1 in DX7 livery, running Sloop firmware. I can only manage to dabble in music occasionally, but I’ve been interested in FM synthesis since the heady days of the 80s, so the M-VAVE FM-1 was like catnip to me because it was billed as a pocketable DX7: six operators, a little keyboard and a speaker packed into a battery-powered box, with both USB and Bluetooth MIDI. Disclaimer: M-VAVE provided me with an FM-1 review unit free of charge, and as usual this article follows my review policy. But you just know a synth is becoming a cultural phenomenon when it floods all your feeds–including your GitHub watch list. Like the Xteink X4, the FM-1 has…