Tessera 2.0.1

Tessera 2.0.1 is a small update to Tessera 2.0: a crisper screen, a fix on MORPH, and an
installer and simulator that are easier to live with. Projects, presets and settings carry over from 2.0 as they are.

🖥️ The screen

• MENU > PANEL GAMMA: the screen's contrast curve. The new default, TUNED+VCOM, gives the panel the contrast
  the pictures in the manual have; 2.0 left it at the chip's flatter default. TUNED and the chip's own G2.2, G1.8,
  G2.5 and G1.0 are there too. The screen goes black for a moment as it changes. Saved with your settings.

🔧 Fixes

• MORPH lights the bars at the playhead, as the other generators do (2.0 lit only a thin line under them).

🌐 Installer, simulator and site

• The simulator starts with KOTO GARDEN loaded (STILL TIDE is in slot B), and listens to MIDI only when
  you tick MIDI in: an FM-1 or a DAW left plugged in no longer plays it behind your back.
• The installer and the editor have the project page's look.
• The installer counts finished installs of the released builds at GoatCounter: the version and the build only,
  no cookies or personal data. Local test files are never counted. Open the installer once with #nocount at the
  end of its address to leave your browser out.
• A new demo video (four minutes): the two demos, then the pages that shape any generator (EVOLVE, FORM, TWEAK,
  TWEAK 2, LENGTH and TIMING), then the other modes.

🏷️ Good to know

• Tessera now has its own package identity, FM-1_8377 and the version (FM-1_83772001 for 2.0.1), so tools
  such as the Firmware Hub can tell it from upstream Melodee. Nothing changes for you: install as before. The
  installer still accepts the 2.0 packages.

📦 Installation

Open rastapopolix.github.io/tessera in Chrome or Edge, connect the
FM-1 by USB and press Install. The installer can also put the official M-VAVE firmware back. Or take
tessera-2.0.1.fwsc (dual core) or tessera-2.0.1-1core.fwsc from this release.

Tessera 2.0

Tessera 2.0 is a generative firmware for the M-Vave FM-1. It is the next release of Melodee (Tess), now under its
own name: a fork of Melodee by keremimo, itself built on Felucca by Leo
Kuroshita / Hügelton Instruments (GPL-3.0-only). The manual covers every page and the
recipes show ways in.

Two demo projects come with it (demos/): an ambient piece and a koto garden.
Put them on your FM-1 to hear what 2.0 does before you build your own.

⚠️ Before you install

• Projects have a new format. Projects saved by Melodee (Tess) 1.x do not load in 2.0: their slots show
  OLD FORMAT, and the first save writes over them. There is no converter. To keep a 1.x project, keep it on 1.x,
  or print the parts you like to STEP and write them down.
• Back up first. In the web editor, Complete backup > Save backup saves the music, slots A to D, the
  sound banks and the settings. A 1.x backup restores on 1.x only.
• The CZ-1 and Prophet sound banks are gone (their flash now holds the projects). FM6's banks and your user presets
  stay.
• The FM-1 now shows up on your computer as Tessera (MIDI port Tessera, audio Tessera Out and Tessera In;
  it was Melodee). A DAW that remembered the Melodee port needs the Tessera one picked once. During an update it
  still shows up as Melodee Update, briefly.

🎹 Synth engines

2.0 plays three engines, each tuned for generative music.

Engine	What it is	New in 2.0
FM6	Six-operator FM in the manner of the DX7: 32 algorithms, operator envelopes and scaling, pitch EG, LFO, the function settings; ENGINE picks MODERN, MARK I or OPL. The main melodic voice.	Back as the main voice. 15 new presets after INIT VOICE (25 to 39), from ZEN-1 and FuMi-1: SOFT PAD, SOFT SWELL, DEEP PAD, DROP, MALLET, ZEN BELL, RIN, BAMBOO, FURIN, HYOSHIGI, MOKUGYO, KOTO PLUCK, KOTO RING, KOTO WARM, KUGO HARP. The factory presets' releases ring out, so short sequenced notes are not cut off. LFO opens MODS first, as on every engine.
TRIO	Three oscillators (WAVE, INT2, INT3, DETUNE) into a filter: basses, leads and pads.	Back, with a warm set of 11 presets for what FM does not do: WARM PAD, STRING MACH, HOLLOW PAD, SOFT PAD, SUB BASS, SOFT LEAD, BREATH FLUTE, WIND, ANALOG BRASS, FIFTH DRONE, SWEEP PAD.
DRUM	Eight lanes (BD, SD, CP, CH, OH, TM, RS, CB) on three kits: the 808, the 909 and the SID KIT (every drum on a C64 chip).	The 808 has six tom pitches. ATLAS plays a fourth part on the toms or another lane (below).

Gone from the device build: SID as a melodic engine (DRUM's SID KIT stays), PHYS, CZ-1 and
Prophet, to free flash, RAM and CPU for the generators. A track saved with SID loads FM6's INIT VOICE; one with
PHYS loads FM6's first voice.

The four sounds a new project starts with are an ambient set: GLASS PAD, STRINGS and BELLS on FM6, the
808 KIT on DRUM.

🎼 Scales

Seven Japanese and Okinawan scales after SIKAH in SCL: IN, YO, HIRA (Hirajoshi), IWATO, KUMOI,
RYUKYU and MINYO (Min'yo, the folk-song scale), as 12-tone pitches.

✨ Generators and pages

• CHORD generator: a progression's chords in the track's scale (POP, 50S, 2-5-1, CIRCLE, TWO, DRONE, WALK, or
  your own with USER), held, on the beat or on every step. On other tracks, SCL > QNT CHRD snaps their notes to
  the chord playing now.
• BREATH on CHORD (hold OCT+ on GEN, KNOB 4): a held chord's voices each swell and fade on slow cycles of their
  own (11 to 19 s), one now and then sitting out.
• ENERGY page (SEQ, after TIMING), the project's slow shape after Zen-1's conductor: ARC swings the
  generators between full and sparse over 3 to 6 minutes; RESTS lets them fall silent for 8 to 18 s now and then,
  while a CHORD drone holds. Both 0 by default. ENERGY is also a mod source.
• TIMING page (after LENGTH): RATCH x1 to x8 plays a generator's step 2 to 8 times, as often as CHANCE
  says; SHAPE places the hits: EVEN, ACCEL (a roll that speeds up) or DECEL (a bounce). On a STEP track TIMING
  holds SHAPE alone, for every step's Ratchet.
• Ratchet and Nudge per step on a STEP track: OCT+ on a note (or a drum hit) opens its sheet, where Ratchet
  plays the step x1 to x8 in equal parts and Nudge moves it up to 8/16 of a step early or 7/16 late.
• ANSWER generator (after Zen-1's call and response): play a phrase on the keys and it answers with variations
  that change a little more each time and fade (VARY, ECHO, FADE; OCT+: ORDER, SHIFT, SPACE, LEN).
• One key for the project: SCL > Key link (LINKED in a new project) sets ROOT on every melodic track at
  once, as the scale already was; OWN keeps a key per track. Saved with the project.
• MIDI OUT page (GLO, after SYSTEM): each track's notes on a MIDI channel of its own, 1 to 16, so each track can
  play its own instrument; AUTO works as before (ROUT, the DRUM channel), OFF sends nothing. Saved with the project.
• HUMAN (TWEAK) now moves timing too: a generator's step lands up to 20 ms behind the beat at 100, never early,
  the same each time the piece plays.
• STEP EVOLVE: on a STEP track, EVOLVE varies your written steps as they play; hold REC to keep the changes.
• Print: hold REC on a generator track to put its last bars into STEP and play on from there.
• ATLAS (was GRIDS): KICK, SNR and HAT each take their own share of DENSITY, and TOMS adds a fourth part from
  the hits the kick and snare just miss, on TOM, CLAP, OPEN HAT, RIM or BELL (a black key with OCT+ held).
• CONSTELLATION: straight SPEEDs, a loop LEN, FILL ARP and an OCT+ layer. MARKOV and MORPH loop over
  PATTERN's LEN.
• OCT+ layers on GEN for ATLAS, CHORD, QUAD and CONSTELLATION: hold OCT+ for a second set of knobs.
• FOLLOW draws the followed track in its own colour, and can follow STEP tracks.
• MENU > LIGHTS AUTO: the panel goes dark 30 s after the last touch and wakes on the first, for long ambient sets.
• LFO on an FM6 track opens MODS first, as on every engine; FM6's own FM LFO page comes after the others.
• Tessera on ABOUT, the installer and the editor; the power-on mosaic now holds a moment (a button skips it).
• Six TRIO presets (FAT BASS, SUB BASS, ARP LEAD, SOFT LEAD, ANALOG BRASS, BREATH FLUTE) release with a short fade
  instead of stopping dead on short steps.
• Tracks stay on the beat after a DIV or tempo change.

🎚️ Good to know

• Voices are shared. All tracks draw on one pool of voices (GLO > GLOBAL > BUDGET, 16). Two or more busy FM6
  tracks with long releases (for example TINE EP at full density, 1/16) are past what the FM-1 can render and start
  to crackle; thin one, shorten its notes, or lower BUDGET. The manual's "How many voices at once" has the details.

🏷️ New names

Other makers' product names are no longer used on screen; the credits still name the originals.

• GRIDS → ATLAS (inspired by Émilie Gillet's Grids, Mutable Instruments; mod destinations AT X, AT Y, AT DENS,
  AT KICK, AT SNR, AT HAT, AT TOMS)
• SLOTH → TIDE (inspired by Nonlinear Circuits' Triple Sloth): TIDE 1, 2 and 3 by speed
• OCHD → SWARM (inspired by Instruō and DivKid's ochd): SWARM 1 to 8

Saved projects and mods keep working across the renames: only the names on screen changed.

🎨 The look

Tessera's own palette SMALTI (lapis and gold), square tiles, Elektron-style dials, the Chakra Petch typeface, a
mosaic splash, page tabs, a colour per track, bigger GEN pictures, and a help card for every knob that scrolls (hold ARP,
turn a knob). MARMO, VITRO, NIGHT and CONTRAST are in MENU > COLOR. Lists: KNOB 1 picks the row, KNOB 2 changes it.
MENU > TRACK KNOB sets which knob picks the track.

📦 Installation

Flash it with the web installer (Chrome or Edge), or
download a .fwsc from the assets below:

• tessera-2.0.fwsc: the standard (dual-core) build. Start here.
• tessera-2.0-1core.fwsc: single core, for FM-1s that crash with the standard build (red TESSERA CRASH
  screen, freezes, or restarts into update mode).

Do not unplug the FM-1 while it is writing. This is experimental firmware: use it at your own risk.

🙏 Credits

• Melodee by keremimo, and Felucca by Leo Kuroshita / Hügelton Instruments: the firmware Tessera is built on.
  TRIO comes from Felucca.
• Grids by Émilie Gillet / Mutable Instruments: ATLAS' drum map and the way it is read.
• ZEN-1 by aceyprime and FuMi-1 by cartesive: the 15 FM6 presets above (SOFT PAD to FURIN from ZEN-1;
  HYOSHIGI, MOKUGYO, the kotos and KUGO HARP from FuMi-1), and ZEN-1's ideas behind BREATH and ENERGY.
• norns scripts, as ideas restated in C: Awake (tehn), Fall (ambalek), Constellation
  (timothy-taylor), initenere (QUAD) and nørgård (SERIES).
• Turing Machine (Music Thing Modular), Triple Sloth (Nonlinear Circuits) and ochd (Instruō, DivKid).

Every third-party part and its licence is listed in LICENSING.md.

Melodee (Tess) v1.3.3

Melodee (Tess) v1.3.3 is an experimental generative sequencing fork of the M-Vave FM-1 alt-firmware Melodee (GPL-3.0-only). It is also listed on altstrument.org.

✨ What's New since v1.3.1

• TWEAK 2 page (after TWEAK, on generator tracks):
  • BRANCH sends hits to another track's sound. COIN tosses a coin for each hit, TOGGLE alternates and LATCH picks once per bar. In COIN mode the fork picture shades each arm by its share of the hits.
  • LOGIC combines this track's hits with another track's: AND, OR, XOR or NOT.
  • COND plays only on certain bars: 1:2, 2:2, 1:4 to 4:4, 1:8, 8:8, FIRST or !FIRST.
• SLOTH and OCHD, slow organic mod sources, one set per track:
  • SLOTH has three chaotic circuits: TORPOR (about 17 minutes a turn), APATHY (about 1 minute) and INERTIA (about 3 minutes).
  • OCHD has eight free-running LFOs, from 64 s down to 2.4 s a turn.
  • SPEED and RATE are on the new LFO > ORGANIC page, which shows them moving. PLAY restarts them from the track's SEED, so a piece replays the same way.
• Live mod feedback:
  • When a mod reaches a knob, its card shows a mark where the mods are moving it now.
  • Each MODS row has a moving mark.
  • The new MATRIX page shows which tracks modulate which, lit as the mods move. OCT+ opens a mod in MODS.
• Track 1 starts on PHYS DRONE STRING at power-on and on a new project.
• New projects start with no mods. Until now a new project, or power-on without a BOOT project, came with 8 DRIFT mods on each track's CUTOFF and FX SEND. Now all 16 slots start empty, so movement is only there if you patch it. Saved projects keep their own mods.
• BRANCH as a mod destination, and the 11 new mod sources described in the online parameter reference.

📦 Installation

Flash it with the web installer (Chrome or Edge), or download a .fwsc from the assets below:

• melodee-tess-1.3.3.fwsc: the standard (dual-core) build. Start here.
• melodee-tess-1.3.3-1core.fwsc: single core, for FM-1s that crash with the standard build (red MELODEE CRASH screen, freezes, or restarts into update mode).

Projects saved by earlier Tess versions still load and convert. The new settings start off, so old projects play as before. Do not unplug the FM-1 while it is writing. This is experimental firmware: use it at your own risk.

Melodee (Tess) v1.3.1

Melodee (Tess) v1.3.1 is an experimental generative sequencing fork of the M-Vave FM-1 alt-firmware Melodee (GPL-3.0-only). It is also listed on altstrument.org.

⚠️ Sound engines changed

This release offers SID, TRIO, PHYS and DRUM. FM6, CZ-1 and Prophet are no longer in the build: a track saved with one of them loads SID INIT. Stay on v1.2.7 if you rely on those engines.

✨ What's New since v1.2.7

• Three new generators: BOUNCE (up to four balls bouncing in a box, a note where they hit the walls), AWAKE (two loops in the style of norns' Awake, with step entry from the keys) and POLY (four rhythms moving four notes, over up to 3 octaves).
• SEQ MODE menu: SEQ opens on GEN, where KNOB 1 picks the track's mode (STEP, ARP, or a generator), and SEQ then shows only that mode's pages. The ARP button switches the track to ARP.
• TWEAK picture: SHIFT, DROP, HUMAN and FOLLOW drawn on the page, instead of the audio scope.
• Mod shortcut: hold FX and turn a knob to set that parameter's cord amount.
• Boot screen: MELODEE / TESS.

📦 Installation

Flash it with the web installer (Chrome or Edge), or download a .fwsc from the assets below:

• melodee-tess-1.3.1.fwsc: the standard (dual-core) build. Start here.
• melodee-tess-1.3.1-1core.fwsc: single core, for FM-1s that crash with the standard build (red MELODEE CRASH screen, freezes, or restarts into update mode).

Projects saved by earlier Tess versions still load and convert. Do not unplug the FM-1 while it is writing; this is experimental firmware, use at your own risk.

Melodee (Tess) v1.2.7

Melodee (Tess) v1.2.7 is an experimental generative sequencing fork of the M-Vave FM-1 alt-firmware Melodee (GPL-3.0-only). It is also listed on altstrument.org.

✨ What's New since v1.1.0

• Grids: a fifth generator mode, Mutable Instruments Grids' drum map.
• GEN family: tap ARP for GEN, EVOLVE, FORM, TWEAK, then ARP and ARP 2. GEN owns the generator's knobs; SEQ's PATTERN page is upstream's again and FEEL is gone.
• Seeds and ROLL: each generator track has its own seed (1–128) and random stream. ROLL on EVOLVE steps through lines and comes back to the same one, note for note; while playing it waits for the track's next bar line.
• Cords and MODS: a modulation bus with 16 cords (room for 32) across 41 destinations, saved with the project. Generators are cord sources (their CV). MODS replaces MOD and shows every route with activity lights; new projects start with a default patch, including the slow DRIFT source.
• Help: hold ARP and turn a knob to see what it does. Every parameter now has a number, range and help text.
• Generator fixes: FOLLOW accepts STEP tracks as sources and shifts in scale degrees; mutation stays in bounds (Turing, Euclid, Markov); Markov DENSITY defaults to 70; stuck notes on stop fixed; autosave also saves generator-only changes; backups include the generators.
• From upstream Melodee: merges of 1.3.1 and 1.3.6 (boot protection, power and clock fixes), plus picks from 1.4.1: SID C64 models with C64 POLY chord arpeggios, SID KIT and SID DIGI drums, a shared voice BUDGET, faster DSP, and about 16 KB more RAM for audio.

📦 Installation

Flash it with the web installer (Chrome or Edge), or download a .fwsc from the assets below:

• melodee-tess-1.2.7.fwsc: the standard (dual-core) build. Start here.
• melodee-tess-1.2.7-1core.fwsc: single core, for FM-1s that crash with the standard build (red MELODEE CRASH screen, freezes, or restarts into update mode).

Projects saved by earlier Tess versions still load and convert. Stock Melodee projects load with Tessera off. Do not unplug the FM-1 while it is writing; this is experimental firmware, use at your own risk.

Melodee (Tess) v1.1.0

Melodee (Tess) v1.1.0 is an experimental generative sequencing fork of the M-Vave FM-1 alt-firmware Melodee (GPL-3.0-only).

✨ What's New

• Four Generative Engines: Adds Turing (looping shift register), Euclid (Euclidean rhythms with saved seeds), Markov (random walk over 8 scale degrees), and Morph (preset pattern blending).
• New Workflow Pages: Adds dedicated UI pages for FEEL (managing divide, swing, and gate while engines run), EVOLVE (mutation and deja-vu controls), FORM (song structure building), TWEAK (shift, drop, humanization, and follow), and FLOURISH (dynamic phrase-ending transitions).
• Dedicated Flash Storage: Stores Tessera state in its own flash object (OBJ_TESSERA at 0x9D000) with parent-project hash tagging and range validation to keep save files safe and compatible.
• Optimized Build: Fully adapted to strict hardware memory constraints, outputting melodee-tess.fwsc.

📦 Installation

Download melodee-tess.fwsc from the assets below and flash it to your M-Vave FM-1. Projects saved by stock Melodee load normally with Tessera off, and projects saved by this fork remain fully compatible.