AI coding tools spark surge of custom firmware for music gear

Custom firmware, the internal control software of a device, is rapidly multiplying for music hardware, especially among synthesizer enthusiasts. The Verge reports that this has been made possible by increasingly capable "vibe coding" tools, meaning programming with the help of large language models. Before them, such projects were rare and demanded deep expertise and lots of time: even a simple feature could take weeks or months to add.

What has been modified

Several Elektron devices, including the Model:Cycles, Digitone, Octatrack and Digitakt, have gained new capabilities with Claude's help. Custom firmware has also appeared in the past month for the Roland SP-404 MKII, Ableton Push 3 and Move, Akai MPC Live and MPC One, Novation Circuit, Arturia MicroFreak and Zoom's 14-year-old Multistomp pedal line.

The standout is the $70 Yamaha DX-7 clone, the M-Vave FM-1. It now has dozens of custom firmwares, and several of them (Felucca, Sloop, x0x) list Claude as a contributor on GitHub. The device now supports various synth engines, multi-track sequencing and different interface designs.

Developers' experience

Roman Rusinov, who releases music as Farlow, turned the 2012 Zoom MS-70CDR pedal into a full amp modeler. Another developer, 18nelli, created Modded Cycles, which began with six-track audio over USB and grew into a community project. He said that not using language models would have meant spending a huge amount of time on a single feature.

Manufacturer response and risks

Unofficial firmware is often less thoroughly tested than the official version. Elektron has banned links to it on its forums, warning about the risk of bricking devices. M-Vave, by contrast, has announced FM1 Open, an open-source firmware, along with a development kit and a flashing tool.