SEQ-4
SEQ-4 turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into four MIDI sequencers for the instruments around it.
- Custom firmware
- Alpha
- Medium brick risk
- Reversible
This project hasn't been claimed by its maintainer yet, so its details come from the community. Is it yours? Claim it
The first release.
- Four MIDI sequencers, each on its own channel and USB port (four ports, A–D: 64 channels), up to 128 steps in eight pages, sixteen patterns each, all running together from one clock (its own, or USB or TRS MIDI clock).
- Six modes: Mono, Poly (seven notes a step, pick and place), Chord (types in two banks, voicings, spread, strum, bass, its own arpeggiator), Multitrack (eight drum tracks, each its own note, channel, length and division), Stochastic and Matriceal.
- Steps: velocity, gate up to tie and legato, octave, glide, timing offset, repeats or skip, and conditions (chance, A:B, previous, first, fill, fixed, locked and their opposites); ties by holding two steps; any division from four bars to 1/64, six directions, loops, swing.
- On the panel: the screen is the grid (lit pads in each sequencer's colour); the white keys are the steps, the black keys the rows (Multitrack: its tracks), the page keys and MUTE; the knobs a step's values or every step's; menus on the knobs; a card for each button when held.
- The keyboard: notes, the chord keyboard, drum pads; pitch bend, mod wheel, a roller.
- Recording live (count-in, metronome click, quantize, overdub, loop / one shot / extend), step by step, and MIDI capture.
- Generators: random perform, a random generator (with humanize, shuffle, invert), Euclid, and a drum generator on Grids' map.
- Modulation: two LFOs a sequencer, mod lanes (a CC, bend, pressure or program a step), MIDI mappings with learn; a harmonizer that follows another sequencer's chords; 31 scales.
- Live: mutes and solos, fills, snapshots, tap tempo, nudge and time bend; songs of patterns (ten, four lanes of fifteen slots); program changes and transport CCs both ways.
- Saving: a log in the FM-1's flash for the project, 64 patterns and the songs; saves while playing, tidies up while stopped; undo and redo.
- Measured on an FM-1: the engine ticks every 0.73 ms; all four sequencers at their busiest take at most 545 µs of a tick; sixteenths at 120 BPM arrive within 0.4 ms (standard deviation) of each other.
- In the browser: the same code, playing your synths through Web MIDI.
- Fixed before release: changing patterns on sequencers 2 and 4, or giving back a snapshot, crashed the FM-1 (a word copy of a sequencer that was not word aligned); and after a crash in the audio interrupt, safe mode's USB never came up. The tests now also run every scenario under the address and undefined-behaviour sanitizers.
Install
- From the browser (Chrome or Edge, the FM-1 on USB): the web installer. Or try it in the browser first.
- From the command line:
python3 tools/fm1_install.py seq4-0.1.0.fwsc(Python 3 withpip3 install mido python-rtmidi). - Going back: the installer's "Back to the stock firmware", or M-VAVE's M-UPGRADE.
The firmware is seq4-0.1.0.fwsc below; its source is this tag. Installing other firmware is at your own risk; see the manual's Troubleshooting.
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
- A computer
- Can it break my device?
- Small chance of trouble, with a way to recover.
- Can I undo it?
- Yes. You can go back to the official software.
Did it work for you?
Did SEQ-4 v0.1.0 work on your M-VAVE FM-1?
No reports yet for v0.1.0.
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 ("Installing, and going back"):
- From the browser: the web installer (Chrome or Edge, a USB data cable).
- From the command line: download seq4-X.Y.Z.fwsc from the latest release, then pip3 install mido python-rtmidi and python3 tools/fm1install.py seq4-X.Y.Z.fwsc.
- Going back: the installer's "Back to the stock firmware" puts M-VAVE's firmware back, as does M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. Any other FM-1 firmware installs over SEQ-4 as it would over the stock one.
- Your saved work, and other firmwares': SEQ-4 keeps its project, its 64 patterns and its songs in the FM-1's main store, where some firmwares keep their samples or songs. Its first save replaces what another firmware had saved there.
Installing other firmware is at your own risk, though it's hard to get stuck: an FM-1 that fails to start twice comes up in a safe mode the installer can reach, and the manual's Troubleshooting covers the rest.
Risk and recovery
- Brick risk
- Medium
- Reversible
- Yes
- Requires opening the device
- No
From the project's README ("Installing, and going back"):
- From the browser: the web installer (Chrome or Edge, a USB data cable).
- From the command line: download seq4-X.Y.Z.fwsc from the latest release, then pip3 install mido python-rtmidi and python3 tools/fm1install.py seq4-X.Y.Z.fwsc.
- Going back: the installer's "Back to the stock firmware" puts M-VAVE's firmware back, as does M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. Any other FM-1 firmware installs over SEQ-4 as it would over the stock one.
- Your saved work, and other firmwares': SEQ-4 keeps its project, its 64 patterns and its songs in the FM-1's main store, where some firmwares keep their samples or songs. Its first save replaces what another firmware had saved there.
Installing other firmware is at your own risk, though it's hard to get stuck: an FM-1 that fails to start twice comes up in a safe mode the installer can reach, and the manual's Troubleshooting covers the rest.
Releases
| Version | Name | Released |
|---|---|---|
| v0.1.0 | SEQ-4 0.1.0Latest | 16 October 2026 |
Credits, license and support
- License
- GPL-3.0