The M-VAVE FM-1 Frenzy Has Sound Designers Jumping Onboard! – Sounds and Presets
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The M-VAVE FM-1 is truly the synth of the moment right now, so it’s no surprise that sound designers are making hay while the sun shines!
There is such a buzz around the M-VAVE FM-1 right now that it’s difficult to see where it will end up, but it is certainly redefining what you can do with a full-on FM synth for £50! We’ve also got new sounds for Iridium and Arturia’s MiniFreak and PURE LoFi for good measure. Let’s dig in…
M-VAVE FM-1 Sounds and More!
Ambient & Dreams for M-VAVE FM-1 & FM Synthesizers by Natlife Sounds
If you’re in any way into synths, then you must have just arrived from Mars if you haven’t heard about the M-VAVE FM-1. In fact, it’s probably the biggest-selling synth on the red planet, it’s that popular! At first, it was because it was, to all intents and purposes, a DX7 in your pocket for anything between £50 and £80. That on its own is pretty cool.
But in the last week alone, the FM-1 has blown up out of all proportions as, at the time of my writing this article, there have been around half a dozen new, third-party firmwares released for it! And by the time you read this, I’d be amazed if there weren’t more! It turns out that the small SoC inside the FM-1 can do way more than run an iteration of DEXED. We’ve got VA synths, samplers, drum machines, sequencers and more. And they’re almost all free and open source.
Quite what M-VAVE are making of all of this is anyone’s guess, but it now seems that sound designers are jumping on the FM-1 wagon and releasing sound banks for it. In fact, I’m surprised it’s taken so long, given its complete DX7 compatibility, a synth with the most presets ever! Now, I may be wrong, but it looks like Natlife Sounds are the first to market an FM-1 sound bank.
Entitled Ambient & Dreams, the clue to the nature of these sounds is pretty obvious. The demo video has Igor (aka Natlife) out and about in the woods, making lovely ambient sounds with his FM-1 and a few FX pedals. Interestingly, one of the big improvements over the DX7 that inspired it, the FM-1 has some half decent FX built in, but hey, you can never have too many.
This bank contains 32 presets, 32 being the maximum bank number of the original DX7 and, by extension, the FM-1. But because there are so many reproductions of the DX7 out there, that read DX7 sysex, this bank of sounds has a life outside of the pocket rocket. These sounds can be used in DEXED, Plogue’s Chipsynth OPS7, Arturia’s DX7 V, KORG’s Volca FM/FM2 and opsix, NI’s FM8 and obviously Yamaha’s own FM hardware.
The bank is available now for €14.00.
Funky Pop for Arturia MiniFreak 5.0 by Skylark Sound Design
Arturia’s version 5 update for their brilliant MiniFreak hardware and software synth has gone down a storm, with users revelling in the fact that they can now import their own custom samples and wavetables. If the MiniFreak were a prizefighter, it would be the best pound for pound heavyweight in the game. It’s quite a staggering synthesizer and everyone should own one.
Wasting no time, Skylark Sound Design have leapt on the MiniFreak v5 train and released a new bank for it that fully embraces the new features, delivering 80 presets that are described as being ideal for electropop, k-pop, funk and synthpop and listening to the demo, they’re not wrong at all. There are some bangers here and this sound bank is a lot of fun!
The best bit is that, right now, this bank is 100% free of charge! Even when it’s not discounted, it’s a mere £7.00, but you can save that £7 for one of their other excellent banks and grab this one gratis before they change their mind. Nice work, Skylark Sound!
Arete – Trance Soundset for Waldorf Iridium Series by Kulshan Studios
Kulshan Studio’s Dave Andersson has been gassing for a Waldorf Iridium for some time now, so he tells me, and was super stoked to finally grab one, and the first fruit of that new union is Arete, a trance soundset for the Waldorf Iridium, Iridium Core and Quantum series of synths. Now, I’m no trance aficionado, but even I can tell that this bank is ticking all the boxes (Did I just say that in an Austrian accent?).
There are 101 great trance style presets in here, covering all the sound requirements of the genre from big synth stabs, crystaline plucks, thick basses and hand-lifting leads. This bank makes full use of the Iridium’s powerful VA and wavetable engines and those superb filters that make it stand out from the crowd.
The demo gives you a great idea of what you get for your money, and there are no external FX used in the demo, so what you hear is exactly what you get. The Arete bank is available now from the Kulshan Studios website for $35.00.
Memory Pulse for Arturia PURE LoFi by skendi
Arturia’s PURE LoFi has been one of my favourite Arturia plugins for some time now. I adore its scratchy, grainy qualities and how it makes use of samples and filters from other synths in its extensive catalogue of instruments. And am i wrong in admitting that I think it has a great visual aesthetic too? Easy on the eye and sounds great. A perfect combo!
Anyway, skendi has delivered a bank of new sounds for it, 50 to be precise, all of which play into PURE LoFi’s atmospheric vibe, but rather than pads that wash over you, this bank is all about rhythm and motion. Every patch is tempo-synced and makes use of custom LFO waveforms and the LoFi processor. As you would expect, the sounds in the bank make full use of the four macros in PURE LoFi, as well as the mod wheel, to deliver a good amount of expressive control.
Ideal for your chilled, downtempo, cinematic compositions, this bank gives you some really cool rhythmic starting points and embellishments and will find a home in all sorts of styles and genres. Available through the Anton Anru store, Memory Pulse will set you back $19.95 and is available now.
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