Freakier Firmware Lab · Asheville NC
Taking the electronic instruments we love and bringing them to their full potential: custom firmware, free tools and playable 3D simulators.
Try it opens a playable model in your browser, with nothing anywhere near your hardware.
Most instruments leave the factory with more in them than their firmware lets out. We open them up and add the features their makers left on the table.
Every feature is playable on a 3D model in your browser first, with a hands-on lesson. You know exactly what you get before anything touches your gear.
We never host firmware: you bring the official file and our tools check it before changing a byte. Every build is flashed on our own unit and has a rehearsed way back.
Arturia · Hybrid synthesizer · 25 touch keys
Where the lab started. Play a 3D MicroFreak in your browser with stock and SuperFreaker firmware, and learn every new feature hands-on before it goes anywhere near your synth.
SuperFreaker V1Releasing soon
Drive, Lo-Fi, a tape echo, a separate Release, Legato Glide, a metronome, transpose, Shift latch and a stack of shortcuts. V1 is built and in final testing.
Take the MicroFreak apart, learn it and play it on its hub →
Roland · Sampler · 16 pads × 10 banks
A playable 3D sampler with ten genre banks, bus effects, resampling and patterns, plus a Screen Loader that puts your own art on the real unit's display today.
Side PieceReleasing soon
A custom OS layer for the SP-404MKII. The first build is in final testing; the lessons marked Preview show where it's going.
Take the SP-404MKII apart, learn it and play it on its hub →
Arturia · Step sequencer · 2 melodic + 1 drum track
A playable 3D BeatStep Pro with working controls and interactive lessons. A firmware mod is on the bench.
Custom firmwareOn the bench
A pentatonic drum map for playing pitched synths from the drum track, built and tested in an emulator. The name is still on the whiteboard.
Take the BeatStep Pro apart, learn it and play it on its hub →
Tools for your instruments that run right in the browser. Nothing you give them is uploaded.
Turn your own pictures or an animated GIF into the SP-404MKII's power-on images and screen saver. Download the SD-card folder as a ZIP, or write it straight to the card in Chrome or Edge.
Uses Roland's own opening-screen feature. No firmware involved.
Roll new MicroFreak sounds that use every knob and every mod-matrix route, Original or SuperFreaker. Hear them on the 3D model, play them from a MIDI keyboard, and send them straight into your synth's preset slots over USB.
Writing to the synth needs Chrome or Edge on a desktop. Back up a slot first; the tool does it for you.
Draw your own MicroFreak start-up screen, pixel by pixel.
Each build ships when it has passed its launch gates: flashed and played on our own unit, recovery rehearsed end to end, and a legal review. Sign up and we'll tell you when.
Arturia MicroFreak
Drive, Lo-Fi, a tape echo, a separate Release, Legato Glide, a metronome, transpose, Shift latch and a stack of shortcuts. V1 is built and in final testing.
Releasing soonRoland SP-404MKII
A custom OS layer for the SP-404MKII. The first build is in final testing; the lessons marked Preview show where it's going.
Releasing soonArturia BeatStep Pro
A pentatonic drum map for playing pitched synths from the drum track, built and tested in an emulator. The name is still on the whiteboard.
On the bench