Gnomad

Your pocket synth, made friendly.

Pick a sound by its picture and play. Make a loop. When you want more, the deep end is one switch away.

  • In development, launching 2026
  • For everyone, all ages

Gnomad Synth V1 is a stable, open-source firmware build for the M-VAVE FM-1. Gnomad Synth is its iPhone and iPad app: a free download, with a one-time unlock for the deep end.

The FM-1 screen in Easy: the Gnome sound is picked, the Gnome is drawn singing, with Tone, Motion, Echo and Space bars beside him. The FM-1 screen picking a sound: a row of pictures, Piano, Drums, Gnome, Organ and Bells, with the Gnome in the middle. The FM-1 screen showing a loop: four coloured lanes with notes, a playhead line running through them, Bars, Swing, Snap and Volume across the top. The FM-1 screen for drums: eight coloured pads, Kick, Snare, Clap, Closed hat, Open hat, Low tom, Mid tom and High tom, with banks A and B for sixteen pads on the white keys.

Play. Pick the Gnome and he sings along as you play.

Pick. Sounds are pictures. Turn a knob to choose one.

Loop. Record a loop and watch the playhead go round.

Drums. Sixteen drums on the white keys.

What it does today, on the synth.

Easy is the FM-1's own screen, redrawn by us: big pictures, big letters, and four colours that match its four knobs. No phone needed.

  1. Easy on the FM-1: the Piano picture with four bars, Tone, Motion, Echo and Space.

    Pick a picture.

    Gnome, organ, bells, laser, whale, choir, cloud, piano, drums. Each picture is a sound.

  2. Easy on the FM-1: the Whale picture, with Tone, Motion, Echo and Space bars set by the four knobs.

    Make it yours.

    Four knobs, four colours: tone, motion, echo, space. It always stays in key.

  3. The FM-1 Grooves page: Head Nod, Floor Filler, Rainy Desk, Night Bus and Sky Garden, with Head Nod playing.

    Jam on a groove.

    Five grooves to play over: Head Nod, Floor Filler, Rainy Desk, Night Bus and Sky Garden.

  4. The FM-1 step page for a drum kit while recording, with the metronome click turned on.

    Record a loop.

    Press REC and play, or tap steps on the keys. The click keeps you in time.

  5. The FM-1 tempo screen: 124 in big numbers, with Turn Select, a beat a click.

    Set the beat.

    Turn one knob for the tempo. The metronome counts it out.

  6. The FM-1 screen after saving: the Gnome cheers beside the words Saved, safe to unplug.

    Walk away.

    It saves by itself. Unplug it, pocket it, pick it up tomorrow where you left off.

Every screen on this page is real, straight from the synth or the app. Nothing here is a mock-up.

Meet the Gnome.

He lives in the FM-1. Pick his picture and he sings along as you play: A, E, I, O, U, never words.

  • A
  • E
  • I
  • O
  • U

He is also a teacher. The Gnome shows you how synths work: what a knob really does, how keys and scales fit together, one small step at a time on your own FM-1. Learn · coming

Kids pick it up by playing. Grown-ups finally get the bit the manual never explained.

Then all the way down.

Flip from Easy to Deep and nothing is hidden: the real numbers on the synth, and an editor in the app that draws every setting instead of listing it.

Our own sound engines Coming in V1.6

FM
Glassy keys, bells and hard basses.
Analog
Warm oscillators through a filter.
The Gnome
A singing vowel voice.
Drums
Kits laid out on the white keys.
Samples
Your own short sounds, played from the keys.
The FM-1 in the V1.6 build: the Bells picture playing Glass Bell, with Tone, Motion, Echo and Space bars.
V1.6 build. Glass Bell, from our FM engine.
The FM-1 Deep page: Tone, Motion, Echo and Space with their exact values.
On the synth. Deep pages show the real numbers.
The Gnomad Synth app in Advanced: an envelope drawn as a shape, with Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release dials below.
In the app. Every setting, drawn.
The Gnomad Synth app showing a singing voice: a vowel chart with coloured handles and Vowel, Buzz, Breath and Talk dials.
In the app. Turn a knob on the synth and the app follows.

Gnomad Synth, for iPhone and iPad.

Plug the FM-1 into your phone or tablet and the app takes it from there: the same pictures and colours as the synth, on a big screen, with a library to keep every sound and room to go deeper.

  • The app's first screen: This FM-1 runs Gnomad.

    It knows your synth.

    Plug in and the app says hello: this FM-1 runs Gnomad.

  • The app's sound picker: nine coloured tiles, Gnome, Organ, Bells, Laser, Whale, Choir, Cloud, Piano and Drums.

    Sounds by picture.

    Nine pictures, nine sounds. No reading needed.

  • The app in Easy: the Gnome says Touch a key, four coloured knobs, and tall coloured keys in C major pentatonic.

    Play from the screen.

    Big keys in a scale that always sounds good, and four knobs that match the synth.

  • The app's Easy drums: sixteen coloured pads with drawings, Claves, Woodblock, High block, Crash and more.

    Drums by picture.

    Sixteen pads, each one a drawing.

  • The app's loop editor: 32 steps of notes in rows, with Length, Division, Swing and Gate dials.

    A loop editor.

    Every step and chord on one page, with a playhead.

Scroll sideways for more screens.

Easy is free. The deep end is a one-time unlock.

A free download. Pay once to open Advanced, if you ever want it. No subscription, no account, no ads.

Where it is going.

A synth this small should be a whole setup: get ideas down fast, play it live, and sit happily beside your other music apps and MIDI controllers.

  • Simulator mode

    Your iPhone or iPad becomes an FM-1.

    Coming

  • Live mode

    Play our engines from any MIDI keyboard. Keytar-friendly.

    Coming

  • Learn

    The Gnome teaches synths, keys and scales, one short lesson at a time.

    Coming

Ours, open, and it collects nothing.

Gnomad Synth V1 is a stable, open-source firmware build for the M-VAVE FM-1 (GPL-3); source on GitHub at launch.

No account, no ads, no tracking: not in the app, and not on this site. This site collects nothing.

You need
An M-VAVE FM-1 pocket synth.
For the app
An iPhone or iPad.
When
In development, launching 2026.
The FM-1 start-up screen: the Gnome above four coloured dots and the word GNOMAD, on blue.
Switch it on and the Gnome says hello.

In development. Launching 2026.

Nothing to sign up for and nothing to buy yet. Come back to gnomad.cc and see how far the Gnome has got.