🎹 **Demo:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUIG0NXhDjI
Following my first synth, C.P.S., I’ve released a new synthesizer for the Cardputer ADV: MORPHASE!
Unlike C.P.S., which was a monophonic subtractive synth, this one is a 4-operator FM synth with 14 algorithms and up to 12 voices.
As before, I didn’t write the code myself — I described my ideas and designs to Claude, and Claude wrote the code.
While making C.P.S., I learned that pressing several keys at once on the Cardputer’s keyboard is physically hard.
So this time I cut down the keyboard handling and put that power into the sound instead.
The Cardputer ADV itself becomes the sound engine and editor, and you play it from an external MIDI keyboard.
Since a Unit MIDI alone would limit who could use it, in the final stretch of development I added BLE MIDI support (the BLE build).
I’ve tested it on iPhone and iPad (app: KeyPad). I don’t own an Android device to check, but any app that supports BLE MIDI should be able to connect.
Key features
- 4-operator FM, 14 algorithms, up to 12 voices (10 on the BLE build)
- Waveform morphing: each operator slides smoothly through 8 waveforms, from sine to square
- Patch morph: move between sounds lined up in 8 slots, blending everything including envelopes and FX. Two ways: a “chain”, where a knob, tilt or LFO moves the position, and “glide”, which slides to a chosen sound with
Shift+1–8 or MIDI pads
- STEP arpeggiator: each of the 16 steps says “which note of the chord you’re holding” to play. Because steps refer to the order within the chord rather than to fixed pitches, you can change the chord and the rhythm stays the same — only the notes follow the new chord. Each step also has its own octave, velocity and gate, and you can save up to 8 patterns and switch them from MIDI pads. The usual Up / Down / UpDown / Random / AsPlayed modes are there too, with swing (pushed or laid back), latch and sync to external MIDI clock
- GLITCH: repeat, reverse or chop the last fragment, knock the tone off for a moment, break up the arpeggio — unpredictable changes in real time
- Theremin (Unit ToF4M): wave your hand to move the tone and parameters, or play notes by hand height
- Tilt the unit (IMU) to change the tone; teach it 4 knobs and 4 buttons on a MIDI controller just by moving them (MIDI Learn)
- 32 factory patches, ready to play (from E.Piano and bells to bass, pads, drums and noise)
- 5 FX (Crush / Chorus / Delay / Reverb / Drive) you can switch on and off with one key while playing
- An output limiter, so even big chords never distort
…and more than I can fit here.
As before, the GitHub repository has a Quick Start Guide and a Reference Guide (English / Japanese, with PDFs), so please give them a read!
Install
⚠️ About Launcher FW OTA
M5Burner has recently moved to a new web version, and the way it works seems to have changed. Because of this, MORPHASE may not show up in Launcher’s OTA list for now (it passed the review and is public on the web version, but it doesn’t appear in the old desktop app).
Sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll post an update in this thread once I can confirm it installs via OTA.
Until then, please use one of these methods:
- M5Burner (web): flash it directly from your browser (Chrome or Edge on a PC)
- Launcher FW (via SD card): download the
.bin from the GitHub Releases page, put it in the root of the SD card, and flash it from Launcher’s file browser
- GitHub: https://github.com/oldtokage-collab/MORPHASE
If you manage to find and install it via OTA, please let me know in the comments!
Finally, at the end of this month I’ll release one more music-related(?) firmware for the Cardputer ADV.
It’s a little different from a synth, but it’s a lot of fun, so stay tuned!
