BEETLE
Six-lane tracker for the FM-1: five synth lanes and a fourteen-piece digital drum lane, with song mode, a live mixer, punch-in effects and master EQ, compressor and reverb.
by SikkenWorks
Brick risk. Flashing this carries a known, documented risk of damaging the device.
- Distribution
- Browser installer (WebMIDI / WebUSB)
- License notes
- Inherited from Felucca (CREDITS-AND-LICENSES.md). The README says the reSID and Nes_Snd_Emu libraries are credited but not copied, compiled or linked.
- Source
- github.com https://github.com/SikkenWorks/BEETLE
- Homepage
- sikkenworks.github.io https://sikkenworks.github.io/BEETLE/
- tracker
- sequencer
- drums
- synth-engine
- mixer
- fx
- emulator
Description
Patterns of up to 16 steps are entered in a note, instrument, chord and effect grid, and 48 patterns can be chained in song mode. The synth lanes share eight voices and offer twelve instrument types, including SID-style and NES-style oscillators written from scratch. The drum lane plays a sample-ROM kit with editable pitch and envelope per voice. The firmware also has copy and paste, undo and redo, mute and solo, mute groups, performance snapshots and twelve project slots. A browser simulator and a browser project manager are published on the project site. The code builds on SikkenWorks' ETCH and on Felucca, and the README says the storage-enabled build can overwrite user data and that its flash handling is still experimental.
Install notes
Web installer in Chrome or Edge over Web MIDI, or flash the .fwsc from a release. The README says the installer makes no full backup and that a verified transfer does not guarantee the new firmware boots or that USB recovery stays available. The installer accepts an official M-VAVE V15 file you supply, checked by hash only.
Version history
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.01d RC | 2026-10-16 | Release candidate. |
| 1.01c RC | 2026-10-16 | Release candidate; compatible with the Project Manager. |
| 1.01 RC | 2026-10-15 | Release candidate; adds the song-mode live mixer and punch-in changes. |
| 0.63 | 2026-10-14 | Beta. |
| 0.56 | 2026-10-14 | Beta. |
| 0.54 | 2026-10-14 | Beta. |