NACHTFAHRT
NACHTFAHRT by Cranky Man: a generative 1970s Berlin School instrument for the M-VAVE FM-1. Listen for hours, or play the melody with it. Install from the browser.
- Custom firmware
- Alpha
- Medium brick risk
Source codeWebsite: fartypants.github.io
This project hasn't been claimed by its maintainer yet, so its details come from the community. Is it yours? Claim it
NACHTFAHRT by Cranky Man: a generative 1970s Berlin School instrument for the M-VAVE FM-1. Listen, and play.
A test version below 1.0. This one renews the Atmospheres and gives Phaedra its choir.
New in 0.9.4
- Wind gusts: pink noise in a band that drifts slowly, its level rising and falling with the band.
- Surf is darker: brown noise, its top opening as each wave breaks and closing as it draws back. Both are gentler on the FM-1's bright speaker (5–10 dB less above 4 kHz) and as loud as before at the pieces' levels.
- Rain, a new Atmosphere after Tape: soft drops over a quiet hush.
- Phaedra: the Drone sings with the formant Choir, at level 70.
Upgrading
Install over 0.9.3: your saved settings are kept (Rain is added at the end of the list, nothing moves). Because they're kept, a Phaedra you have saved keeps its old Drone: to hear the new Phaedra, hold GLO for 1.5 s on it (the piece back to its recipe).
The FM-1's CPU: on a computer the new Atmospheres cost the same as the old ones or less (Rain less than Space); not yet measured on the FM-1. The engine thins its sound for half a second above 75%; 0.9.1 peaked at 72%. If you hear a piece thin out, the Setup page's CPU will show it; please tell us.
Installing
- From the browser (Chrome or Edge, or Chrome on Android with a USB-OTG adapter): open the installer, connect the FM-1 by USB, allow MIDI, press Install. Nothing to install on the computer.
- From the command line: download
nachtfahrt-0.9.4.fwscbelow, and from a checkout of this repository runpython3 tools/fm1_install.py nachtfahrt-0.9.4.fwsc(needsmidoandpython-rtmidi). - Going back: 0.9.3 and earlier releases stay available; or the installer's "Back to the stock firmware" (M-VAVE's FM-1 V15), or M-VAVE's updater, M-UPGRADE, from m-vave.com/download. If NACHTFAHRT fails to start twice it starts in a safe mode, from which the installer still works.
Installing other firmware is at your own risk.
Try it first in the emulator: the same code, with sound, in the browser. The manual has the rest.
Credits
NACHTFAHRT is based on DUB-1 by sbegueria, itself based on AMB-1 by Charles Vestal; its granular cloud follows JIANT's; the platform is Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments). The Atmospheres' noise follows Skiff's NOISE engine; Shimmer's pitch shifter follows Felucca's and Skiff's; the Choir's vowel table is Felucca's (after Hillenbrand); Pluck's string follows pluck.c in M-VAVE's fm1_open (MIT, Electrosmith and Emilie Gillet). GPL-3.0. M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners; NACHTFAHRT is not affiliated with M-VAVE or Hügelton Instruments.
Before you start
- How hard is it?
- EasyCopy a file or use a web page. No extra software.
- What you need
- A USB or MIDI cable
- Comfort with the command line
- Can it break my device?
- Small chance of trouble, with a way to recover.
- Can I undo it?
- The project doesn't say. Assume you can't.
Did it work for you?
Did NACHTFAHRT v0.9.4 work on your M-VAVE FM-1?
No reports yet for v0.9.4.
One-tap reports from owners. Bricked reports are checked before they count.
Compatibility
Devices: M-VAVE FM-1.
No compatibility information yet.
Getting started
From the project's README ("NACHTFAHRT for the M-VAVE FM-1"):
Install (Chrome or Edge, also Chrome on Android; the FM-1 on USB) · Try it in the browser · Manual · Website
What? NACHTFAHRT turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into a generative Berlin School machine, after the 1970s music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Ashra: long, hypnotic pieces, repeating synthesizer sequences, slowly evolving textures, a strong sense of space. It plays itself from the moment it's switched on, and you can play with it: the white keys give you the melody, always in the piece's key. (It was called BERLIN while it was being built; the code keeps that name.)
VIDEO (click to play)
Why? Cranky Man loves this "Berlin School" thing, with all its repetition and echoing, evolving plucks and drones, because it puts him to sleep, and if there is one thing that a Cranky Man needs, it is sleep. Lots of it. Usually around 15 hours per week. And now it can put you to sleep, too!
The whole idea behind this music generator is that IF you are NOT put to sleep by the lead sound (which plays itself), then when you start playing, it will listen, and then respond to your musical "call" with its own version of the musical phrase.
What it does?
- a Sequence of up to 16 steps on a plucked analog-style voice (2600, Moog, Synthi, Pulse, Glass) or a plucked string (Pluck), its filter wandering slowly, its notes repeated at the echo's times (a dotted eighth by default, the classic Berlin School echo), so sparse notes fill in the spaces; …
Risk and recovery
- Brick risk
- Medium
- Requires opening the device
- No
Releases
| Version | Name | Released |
|---|---|---|
| v0.9.4 | NACHTFAHRT 0.9.4Latest | 29 October 2026 |
| v0.9.3 | NACHTFAHRT 0.9.3 | 29 October 2026 |
| v0.9.2 | NACHTFAHRT 0.9.2 | 29 October 2026 |
| v0.9.1 | NACHTFAHRT 0.9.1 | 28 October 2026 |
| v0.9.0 | NACHTFAHRT 0.9.0 | 28 October 2026 |
Credits, license and support
- License
- GPL-3.0