M-Vave FM1: The pocket synthesizer

Transcript

Hi, this is Steve, and I'll show you off my latest gadget that I've just bought. So this is the MVave FM1, it's what, FM, MVave like that. So this is basically a pocket-sized synthesizer based on the Yamaha DX7, which came out in about 1983, I think. So it uses a form of synthesis called FM synthesis. which can be somewhat difficult to programme, but people have made lots of patches and it was a very dominant sound on hits of the 80s. We heard the electric piano sound on many, many hits, lots of people used it. It was also one of the first synthesizers to use the MIDI communication system, which lets you link synthesizers together, so you can control one from another and use sequences and things. So this enhances that somewhat, so it has effects, which you can control with the things. It has a sequencer, so you can program in a little tune if you want. It's got an arpeggiator, so you'll play a chord, it will play the notes individually, and you can download the patches of the original DX7 onto this, so it's fully compatible in that respect. And this thing costs 60 pounds. 60 dollars, 60 euros about that. People generally seem to get it from places like Ali Express. I got mine on eBay, but it actually came from Hong Kong, so it took a few days, but it was just under 60 pounds. And it has really taken off. If you go on YouTube, you can find many, many videos showing it off, and people going, how is this possible? And, okay, it's old technology, and I think what they've done is taken a... general purpose processor and installed a version of a DX7 emulator, and added some features, and here you go. So what you've got, you've got a little screen there, you've got a keyboard, I'd say it's not the best keyboard, it's very squishy, but if you want to enter some notes, you can do that. It's also unusual that the sort of C to C bit is in the middle, the middle C is not in the middle, as you normally find a keyboard, which threw me a bit. but you've got two in a bit octaves there, as I say you've got the screen, got a little speaker on the back, so it has a battery in it, so it's totally portable, as I'll show you, and then on the back you've got power switch, USBC for charging and data, audio and MIDI, a MIDI connector, that's the old style one, use a mini jack adapter for that, and then there's a headphone, output as well for audio. It also does Bluetooth, which I haven't tried yet. So I'll show you what it does. So if I turn it on now, so you'll see, try and get the screen sharp, okay, that's the basic screen, this player note, you see waveform. So this is just on the internal speaker, I'll plug it in a minute, and you'll hear it a bit better. It's difficult to show you the screen all the time, but It doesn't do too much. If you go into, say, the Sequencer, you get a series of options, trying to get sharp properly, there you go, and by turning the little nods on the right, you can change these settings. So there's a whole series of menus to access all the options. So you've got these buttons here to access effects, arpeggiator, various... sound control actions like envelope and LFO, and then you've got the sequencer. It's a very basic sequencer, it can do up to 16 notes, but you can store several sequences and chain them together. So if I plug this in now. the basic sound, I'm going to home, so it has 128 presets on it, so that's the standard piano one, oops, change the preset button, why aren't you changing presets on me, please, I'm just going to turn off that one again, I've crashed it, okay, so you got They have organ sounds, you've got synth sounds. There's lots of these, variations on these. You're going to, lots of synths, lots of pianos, lots of all of those, and you've got guitar sounds, supposedly, distorty guitar. bass, and you can actually change the octave of the keyboard, so go down a couple octas, that's too low, and up as well, if you want to go up. Where are the sounds we got? So we've got some, somewhere in here there are some strange sounds, so there's lots of guitars and basses, but you can replace all these if you want, you've got woodwind sound. Sounds like a bit like a bassoon, brass. It's got a bit of a ring to it, strings. Voices. There are, I'll find some of the odd ones. Very odd, the sort of cutive sound. Something called Frog Bell. So if I take that one, say, and I want to put some effects on it, I can say, I can turn on the reverb. Let me select the reverb, turn it on. Then I can put some delay on it. So you've got those effects, you've got some other effects on there as well, which I won't get into it right now. Turn those off. It's a cowbell, because everyone needs more cowbell. That's very synthy sound. So they are quite good quality sounds to my ears, I mean, quite usable, but you can, as I say, you can download lots more sounds. Lots of those to play with. So, of course, playing this little keyboard is a bit fiddly, so if I get out my other keyboard, or one of my other keyboards, This is my kai that I did a video about a while ago. I plug a battery into that. I unplug you on that one. Midi cable, so that's the jack plug. on the other end so I can log that in. And then, that's not coming on. But now, but now, I go back to the... That gives me the pitch bend and modulation. You can even hit the drum pads and it makes sounds, but you could need to set appropriate channels for that. I'm not a great pianist, so I think the object. Yep, the octave buttons work off from that. And then I can use the arpegerator on here. So you've got the facilities of that. I'll just show you the sequencer. So I'm using pattern one, which is eight steps long. Let's try to just clear that. Basically, the buttons will light up, so if I hit record now, I want to step one, so I'll just do a... Let's save that, so we'll play that. Oh, it's picking up another one I put in earlier, they'd chain together, I thought I'd write it, but there you go. and each sequence can have a different sound. There's lots of fun to be had there. Now what's happened with this thing is, as I say, it's really taken off on the internet, and people are already producing alternative software for it that you can install different firmware. Some of those are just enhanced versions of what's on there with a more friendly interface. There's one that extends the sequences to 64 steps and gives you more controls. but there are others that give you other synthesizer types. So you can even get samples on it. And so there are lots of these different firmwares. And so it'd be tempting to get more of these so you could have a different set-up on each one. And they do come in different colours. I chose the green and black one. There's an all-black one. There's pink ones, orange ones. So that could be quite useful if you've got different software so you know which is which. But it is a cool device which I shall be exploring more. I'm going to try some of the alternative firmware soon and I'll let you know how I get on with it. Cheers.

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