AISLING 0.5.1

AISLING 0.5.1, the fifth test version with one fix: newer FM-1s can now save and update. AISLING is a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes over a held drone, and a flute, a fiddle or a voice leading, in the old modes, with the weather of the west coast behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, each opening on an old air, and the white keys play the Lead, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.5.1.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

New in 0.5.1

• Newer FM-1s can save and update. FM-1s sold since autumn 2026 carry a different flash chip (a UC25HQ80, ID 0xB36014) in place of the first one (a P25Q80, 0x856014). AISLING now accepts both, so on a newer unit pieces survive switching off and updates start. tools/fm1_rescue.py accepts both too.
• Nothing else changes. The sound, the controls, the editor and the way pieces are saved are as in 0.5, whose notes still apply, known dropouts included.

On a newer FM-1 with an earlier AISLING? Those versions show NOT SAVED / FLASH ERROR and won't start an update, so reaching this one takes the chip's own download mode, once. Hold OCT− and OCT+ for 5 seconds, then use M-Flasher to save a backup and install this package. Leave out M-Flasher's own bootloader, m-bootloader: its maker warns that it isn't tested on this chip, and one such FM-1 didn't start after it. The manual has the steps, and The Firmware Hub's rescue page lists the other tools.

About this release

• Not tried on a newer FM-1. We have only the first chip. The same check has worked on newer units in other firmwares built on the same flash code: an owner reported saves surviving power-off and an install on Felucca's beta, and OberVave's fix saved on one too. If you try this on a newer unit, please say how it went in the issues.
• Compared with 0.5's build, the one function that starts the firmware grew by 18 bytes. Every other function kept its size, and the version text changes.
• Tried on an FM-1 with the first chip: installed over 0.5 and over itself, it starts and plays. tools/fm1_link.py test passed all 54 checks, saving and reading back included, and the saved pieces came back byte for byte.
• tools/fm1_link.py gets a fix of its own: its screen checks could fail on a good FM-1. The firmware isn't affected.
• Package identity FM-1_353000501; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Saved pieces: 0.5.1 saves in the same format as 0.2 to 0.5. AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

Thanks to The Firmware Hub for its notes on the chip, and to Felucca and OberVave, whose fixes came first.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.5.1 tag. Installing is at your own risk.

AISLING 0.5

AISLING 0.5, the fifth test version: a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes over a held drone, and a flute, a fiddle or a voice leading, in the old modes, with the weather of the west coast behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, each opening on an old air, and the white keys play the Lead, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.5.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

New in 0.5

• The editor. A web page with every setting of a piece on one panel, a Play page and a Library of the eight pieces. With no FM-1 it plays by itself in the browser. Press Connect (Chrome or Edge) and it works the FM-1 over USB, through a new link that says nothing until a page connects. If the page goes away, the FM-1 shows EDITOR GONE, lets go of any key the page held and plays on.
• Undo. Hold HOME and tap OCT- to undo, OCT+ to redo: 16 steps, covering nudges, shakes and knobs. OCT- and OCT+ light while HOME is held if there's something to undo or redo. Another piece clears it, and it isn't saved.
• Hold SAVE to save, as GLO already did. SAVE held no longer nudges the Atmosphere; Evolve and HOME's shake still move it.
• SEL leaves PERFORM, back to the page you came from.
• Where you are: a dot for each of the layer's pages on the screen, and the page's name large for a moment when you press a button.
• A gentler MASTER: more room at the quiet end. The level that sat at 15% of the knob is now near 28%; full volume is the same.
• USB audio comes before MASTER, so recording works at any volume, without taking your headphones off first. The computer's volume sets what you hear over USB. The analogue output is unchanged.

About this release

• Package identity FM-1_353000500; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Tested on a real FM-1, on a test build with MASTER held at 0, whose code otherwise differs only in its version: 54 checks through the link (pages, SEL, hold SAVE, undo and redo, writing and reading back pieces, the page going away), and the saved pieces came back byte for byte. Connect was tried against the real FM-1, by script in headless Chrome and by hand in Chrome.
• USB level: with MASTER at 0, USB audio read about -24 dB mean and -3 dB peak on Samhain.
• This package itself was installed and played by ear.
• Dropouts, on one FM-1 and a test build, ten minutes a piece at each recipe with the USB link idle: Burren, Carolan, Connemara and Tir na nOg none; Samhain 29, Skellig 117, Aran 251, Blasket 374, in short stretches; on Skellig, Aran and Samhain their timing fits the drone's chord changes. This is known and not fixed yet. A saved Aran changed by hand reached about 6,600 in ten minutes. A saved Samhain had 115 in about seven minutes on a quiet 0.4 test build and 45 in about seven on 0.5's, so this isn't new in 0.5 on that piece, though that is one piece and one run each; the other pieces weren't measured on 0.4. A computer reading USB audio adds about 6 points of CPU.
• USB audio: as in 0.4, on macOS 26.6.2 the FM-1 appears as a sound device, 2 channels at 44.1 kHz; on macOS 13.7.8 (an Intel iMac), in a simple test, its MIDI appeared but no sound device did. macOS 14 and 15 haven't been tried.
• Saved pieces: AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. 0.5 saves in the same format as 0.2 to 0.4, and it kept the pieces saved by 0.4 on the FM-1 it was tested on. It doesn't read what 0.1 saved: it starts from its eight recipes. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.5 tag. Installing is at your own risk.

AISLING 0.4

AISLING 0.4, the fourth test version: a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes over a held drone, and a flute, a fiddle or a voice leading, in the old modes, with the weather of the west coast behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, each opening on an old air, and the white keys play the Lead, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.4.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

New in 0.4

• MIDI in plays the Lead. A note on any channel, over USB or the TRS jack, plays the Lead as a white key does, on whatever page you're on: the scale's nearest note, one at a time, the newest taking over. Velocity is ignored. After NACHTFAHRT, by FartyPants. Channel 1's scale toggle is gone: the scale is set on the Key page. If a computer sends the FM-1's own MIDI out straight back (a DAW's thru, say), every layer's notes play the Lead, so turn thru off, or MIDI out off on GLO's Setup page.
• TRS MIDI in now takes what it has received only on a receive event, after Felucca's #264.
• Density drifts in Carolan: the harps fill out and thin over a minute or two, a slow wander about the knob's value. Motion sets how far, and 0 holds it; so does a knob right up or right down. After NACHTFAHRT.
• USB audio now lists the audio streaming interface first, after Felucca's #67, for macOS 15 and earlier. It didn't bring USB audio to the one older Mac tried: see below.

About this release

• Package identity FM-1_353000400; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Tested on a real FM-1: installed over a test build of this firmware, and it boots and plays. The tests below were on that test build, whose code differs only in its version. The installer and the update code are unchanged since 0.3; only the order and version in the USB descriptor differ. The test build could be left for this release through the installer; this release itself hasn't been left yet.
• MIDI in: over TRS, slow notes, long notes, fast playing and an arp from a Korg nanoKEY Fold (Type A), and its tempo followed as clock, with EXT on the screen. Type B hasn't been tried. Over USB, from a MacBook on macOS 26.6.2: notes, and clock with EXT. MIDI Start, Continue and Stop weren't part of these tests.
• USB audio: on macOS 26.6.2 the FM-1 appears as a sound device, 2 channels at 44.1 kHz. On macOS 13.7.8 (an Intel iMac), in a simple test, its MIDI appeared but no sound device did, so expect no USB sound or recording there. macOS 14 and 15 haven't been tried.
• USB level: USB audio comes after MASTER, as in 0.3, so MASTER sets the recording's level, and a recording made at a comfortable headphone level comes out very quiet. The level was read only up to about 15% of MASTER, where it peaks near -41 dB.
• Still open: the Setup page's dropout counter (!n) can climb while it plays. It read 4 while Carolan played on the test build, with the load (now/peak) at 65/87, 57/77 and 76/81, and nothing wrong heard.
• Saved pieces: AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. 0.4 saves in the same format as 0.2 and 0.3, so it should read what they saved, though that hasn't been tried on a device. It doesn't read what 0.1 saved: it starts from its eight recipes. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.4 tag. Installing is at your own risk.

AISLING 0.3

AISLING 0.3, the third test version: a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes over a held drone, and a flute, a fiddle or a voice leading, in the old modes, with the weather of the west coast behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, each opening on an old air, and the white keys play the Lead, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.3.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

New in 0.3

• The Lead's Voice no longer jumps suddenly in level. The Lead's notes lie high and the Voice's resonances are narrow, so a glide or an ornament could move a harmonic onto a resonance while the level follower still had its gain up. Alone and dry over 300 s, the Voice's peak over its level falls from 18.4 to 8.6 dB in Blasket and from 11.8 to 8.7 dB in Samhain, the two pieces it sings in; the Flute reads 14.7 and 13.5.
• The visualiser (aisling.stephen8n.com): Sea is now the Atlantic from above, under a storm, Space is in a space telescope's colours, and the buttons are simpler.

About this release

• Package identity FM-1_353000300; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Tested on a real FM-1: installed over 0.2, and it boots and plays. The Voice is the only firmware change since 0.2, so the loader and the installer are unchanged. Leaving it and installing it again were tested on 0.2 and have not been repeated on 0.3.
• Still open: the Setup page's dropout counter (!n) can climb while it plays. It read 67 after one listening session on the test FM-1, with no clipping heard.
• Saved pieces: AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. 0.3 saves in 0.2's format, so it should read what 0.2 saved, though that hasn't been tried on a device. It doesn't read what 0.1 saved: it starts from its eight recipes. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.3 tag. Installing is at your own risk.

AISLING 0.2

AISLING 0.2, the second test version: a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes over a held drone, and a flute, a fiddle or a voice leading, in the old modes, with the weather of the west coast behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, each opening on an old air, and the white keys play the Lead, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.2.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

New in 0.2

• The airs: each piece's Lead opens on the first phrase of a public-domain air from O'Neill's Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903), played as written, and grows its own ideas from it. The manual lists the eight.
• The Lead's new voices: a fiddle, a chanter and a voice beside the flute. Burren's slow air is the fiddle's, Blasket's and Samhain's are sung, and Skellig, Aran and Connemara keep the flute (Connemara's low, in a long echo).
• Ornament: the Lead's notes are cut, tapped, rolled, slid and turned, as trad players do, each voice in its own way (the chanter's low notes cranned, the voice's turned).
• More voices: the Sequences' bouzouki, dulcimer and bodhrán; the Drone's pipes (a piper's chord over three drones) and harmonium; two new Atmospheres, a turf fire and a curlew.
• Macalla (the black key's echo) rings on and builds at any tempo; at AISLING's slow ones 0.1's was too quiet to hear.
• Lighter on the FM-1: the harmonium and the plucked strings cost less, so the busiest pieces play with room to spare.
• Two clicks fixed in NACHTFAHRT's engine: PERFORM Shut's filter coming in, and the widener reading past its end.
• The visualiser (aisling.stephen8n.com) paints the Atlantic under the Cliffs of Moher and deep space as well as the landscape, and its Demo plays a recording of Skellig.
• tools/fm1_rescue.sh handles V16's bootloader as well as V15's.

About this release

• Package identity FM-1_353000200; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Tested on a real FM-1: installed over a test build, left again for AISLING 0.1 and installed again. The loader and the installer are 0.1's unchanged, which was tested from the official V15 and V16 and from NACHTFAHRT 0.9.5.
• Saved pieces: AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. 0.2 doesn't read what 0.1 saved either: it starts from its eight recipes. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE. It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.2 tag. Installing is at your own risk.

AISLING 0.1

AISLING 0.1, the first test version: a generative Irish ambient firmware for the M-VAVE FM-1. Harps in a jig's threes and a flute over a held drone, in the old modes, with surf, wind and rain behind; eight pieces from Skellig to Tir na nOg play themselves for ever, and the white keys play the flute, which answers you.

Install: the web installer (Chrome or Edge; the FM-1 on USB), or python3 tools/fm1_install.py aisling-0.1.fwsc. Try it first in the browser emulator. The manual and the cheat sheet are on the site.

• Package identity FM-1_353000100; the USB MIDI port is named "DUB-1 FM-1", as in NACHTFAHRT and DUB-1.
• Tested on a real FM-1: installed from the official V15 and V16 and from NACHTFAHRT 0.9.5; left again for NACHTFAHRT 0.9.5; an install interrupted by pulling the USB cable while writing carries on when the cable goes back in.
• Saved pieces: AISLING saves in the same place as NACHTFAHRT, DUB-1 and AMB-1. It doesn't read what they saved, and its first save replaces it; they treat AISLING's the same way. No samples.
• Back to stock: M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE (tested). It shows AISLING as v14; that's expected.

A fork of NACHTFAHRT by FartyPants (itself from DUB-1 and Charles Vestal's AMB-1, on Leo Kuroshita's Felucca platform); the full credits are in the README. By CU_STE (www.stephen8n.com). GPL-3.0-only: this release's source is the v0.1 tag. Installing is at your own risk.