The FM-1 is a dream come true for working class musicians everywhere. A cheap digital synth, with a simple and straightforward design, midi, bluetooth, headphone jack, speaker, 4cm colour display and a rechargeable battery all for around $80? The 27 squishy silicone keyboard is decent and very serviceable for such an ultra portable synth.
It comes pre loaded with a DX-7 clone, but it’s true beauty is in the ability to add your own custom firmware. This effectively allows you to turn this hardware into whatever kind of instrument you like with a shitload of coding hours.
And thankfully you don’t have to know anything about coding if you just want to load all kinds of cool, free and open source firmware onto this. The process can be as easy as plugging your FM-1 into your computer via usb-c and installing directly from the firmware’s website in a chrome based browser. No downloading nothing, no accounts or bullshit, just stream that sweet, succulent synth juice from space directly into your FM-1.
It’s a no brainer for anyone wanting to dip their their toes into Synthesizers . No other synth on the market has all these features with the ability to fully customize the firmware. The true beauty of the price is that it makes music creation so much more accessible to people. It’s no wonder the community around this thing has been blowing up the way it has.