FRASIL, home

Guide 00 / 16

The guide

FRASIL turns the M-VAVE FM-1 into an instrument for ambient drones and textures. The drones are the notes you light, and they never change; GLINT’s arpeggiator plays the keys you hold, GLINT’s and the bass’s sequencers the steps you write, and chance comes in only where you let it: CHANCE, RANDOM and DRIFT, SPARKLE.

A tap latches a drone, and pressing makes it swell. The timbre drifts and ebbs slowly on its own; the drones’ notes never change. Everything flows into a large reverb with shimmer and freeze. Above the drones, GLINT plays small icy FM bells, by hand, through an arpeggiator or a 32-step sequencer. Under them, BASS holds one deep note.

The panel at a glanceLink to this section

The FM-1 under FRASIL: what each control does Left: MASTER is the volume; SELECT, PRESETS and ALGORITHM are the hands A, B, C: KEYS, the drone preset, BODY; OCT minus and plus set the octave. Centre: the screen. Right: K1 to K4 turn the four settings of the page on screen. Row one: FX effects (held: FREEZE), SEL harmony (held with a key: one note), ENV the drone shape (held: swell), LFO motion and the LFOs (held with K1 to K4: route to an LFO), EDIT the drone and its layers (held: compare), GLO global (held with a MIDI CC: learn). Row two: HOME the play page (held: help), SAVE the scenes (held with REC: store; with a white key: load), ARP GLINT (held: latch), SEQ BASS, PLAY start and stop (held: release all), REC record (held: the metronome). Below: the keys; with SAVE held, the 16 white keys are the 16 scenes. MASTER VOLUME SELECT A KEYS PRESETS B PRESET ALGORITHM C BODY THE HANDS, ON EVERY PAGE OCT − OCT + OCTAVE −3 … +2 · BOTH: −1 K1 1 K2 2 K3 3 K4 4 THE PAGE’S FOUR SETTINGS FX EFFECTS FREEZE SEL HARMONY + KEY: 1 NOTE ENV SHAPE SWELL LFO MOTION + K: ROUTE EDIT LAYERS COMPARE GLO GLOBAL + CC: LEARN HOME SOUND HELP SAVE SCENES + REC: STORE + KEY: LOAD ARP GLINT LATCH SEQ BASS PLAY START·STOP RELEASE ALL REC RECORD METRONOME 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 KEYS · TAP: LIGHT A DRONE · AGAIN: LET IT GO · PRESS: SWELL SELECT (OR ARP, SEQ) TURNS THEM TO GLINT OR BASS SAVE HELD: THE 16 WHITE KEYS ARE THE 16 SCENES
Under each button, what a tap does; in amber, what it does held (a +: held, with what follows). The orange discs A, B and C are the three hands, the same on every page; the ice discs 1 to 4, K1 to K4, the page’s own. See the buttons for each one tapped and held. Click the panel to see it full screen.

The chaptersLink to this section

  1. 01InstallTry it in the browser, put it on the FM-1, and go back.
  2. 02How FRASIL worksVoices, three layers each, 24 drone presets, and where the sound goes.
  3. 03The screenThe river at night, the badges, the header, the mixer, the logo, the help.
  4. 04Playing dronesTap, tap again, press, SWELL, the octave, FREEZE; what each button does, tapped and held.
  5. 05HarmonyA key set once: scales, chords, voicings.
  6. 06The layers’ second pagesCHOIR II, PARTIALS II, BREATH II.
  7. 07The LFOsThree of them, seven shapes, free or on the beat, four targets each.
  8. 08GLINTIcy FM bells and leads, the arpeggiator, the sequencer and REC, the delay.
  9. 09BASSOne deep held note, eight models.
  10. 10GENERATIVE FX & CLOUDSWELL, SPARKLE, BLUR, SINK; the reverb, its shimmer, and holding it still.
  11. 11Mixer · Pump · MasteringFour faders, a duck on the beat, a compressor.
  12. 12Pages referenceEvery page and every knob, in one table.
  13. 13ScenesSixteen slots, eight factory scenes; store, name, load, MORPH, LOAD, COMPARE.
  14. 14MIDIA channel for each track, pressure, CCs and MIDI learn, Program Change, clock.
  15. 15LightsWhat each light on the panel means.
  16. 16TroubleshootingNo sound, crackles, the installer, an FM-1 that won’t start.

The controls at a glanceLink to this section

ControlWhat it does
KeysTap: light a drone (it rises slowly and stays). Tap it again: it fades. Hold and press: it swells and opens
SELECT · PRESETS · ALGORITHMThe same on every page: KEYS, what the keys play (DRONE, GLINT, BASS); the drone’s preset (CUSTOM, then 24); its BODY
K1–K4The four settings of the page on screen
RECInto GLINT’s sequencer, recording LIVE (with the keys on BASS, into the bass’s); again: RECORD off, the keys back to what they played before REC. It flashes on the beat while a sequencer records, with a metronome; held: the metronome off or on
ARPGLINT’s pages (tap again for the next): GLINT I, II, ADSR, GLINT DELAY, then the arpeggiator’s or the sequencer’s as GLINT I’s SEQ has it. Hold: arpeggio LATCH (turned on, SEQ on ARP too)
SEQBASS’s pages (tap again for the next: BASS, II, ADSR, then BASS SEQ, BASS SEQ II)
SELHARMONY: root, scale, chord, voicing. Hold SEL and tap a key: a single note over a chord
EDIT, ENV, LFO, FX, GLODRONE, LAYERS (×7: DRONE PARAMS, then each layer and its second page), DRONE SHAPE, DRONE MOTION (×7: then LFO 1, LFO 2 and LFO 3, each with its targets), GENERATIVE FX, then CLOUD (×3) and PUMP, GLOBAL, MIDI and MASTERING. Held: ENV, SWELL (every drone voice swells together); EDIT, COMPARE (the scene as saved); FX, FREEZE; LFO and K1–K4 turned, that setting onto an LFO; GLO and a CC from a controller, MIDI learn
HOMEThe play page; again: the MIXER; again: the living logo screen. Hold: on-screen help (5 pages, turn SELECT)
SAVESCENES: K1 the slot, MORPH, LOAD; again: back. Hold SAVE and press REC: STORE. Hold SAVE and press a white key: load that scene
PLAYThe transport: GLINT’s sequence and the bass’s stop together, or start together from their first steps; the arpeggio waits, or goes on. On SCENES: load. Hold: release everything; hold again: RESTORE
FREEZE (hold FX)The cloud holds what is in it, nothing more goes in (FX bright meanwhile). Also CLOUD’s K4
OCT− · OCT+Octave, −3 to +2 (both: back to −1). They blink on the beat

A press shows, a hold acts: each button does its job when you let it go (OCT− and OCT+ at once), and held, its other thing. See the buttons.

All of it on one page, to print and keep by the FM-1: the cheat sheet (PDF, A4). The full manual is also in the repository: app/docs/MANUAL.md.