FoMni

FoMni is Vestal again, this time with no sequencer, no patterns and no hangups: a chord harp inspired by the Suzuki Omnichord. The 16 white keys are the strum plate — drag a finger across and the notes of the chord sound one after another — and the 11 black keys are chord buttons (F C G / Dm Am / Em G7 E7 / D7 Bb / A7). Sustained ENV gives minor, LFO gives seventh, both give m7: exactly the three rows of the original Omnichord. One screen, four knobs per page, and that’s it. It reuses the platform from X0X — and behind it, Felucca’s. It used to be called OMNI.

Workflow

Playing on your lap, accompanying songs, ambient strumming; with the OM-84 rhythms and the automatic bass, a one-finger band. Per-key chord remapping, ±6 transposition, sustain/width/space/reverb and CHORD HOLD. MIDI in on channel 1 (presses the nearest string) and 2 (keyboard → chord buttons), with clock; MIDI out on four channels: strings, chord, bass and drums (ch10). Autosave for everything.

Engines & what it emulates

The two harp voices of the Omnichord (Voice 1 “shimmering harp”, Voice 2 plain harp), an organ-style sustained chord with its own bass, and the ten rhythms of the OM-84 (waves, drums and envelopes from Jan125’s pb.chordian emulator, CC0) driving bass and chord on the beat. The strum plate reproduces the Omnichord’s real note layout: groups of three (root/3rd/5th) folded into F#–F, five groups going up, the root on top.

What sets it apart

• Deliberately small scope: one screen, four knobs per page, zero patterns.
• MIDI out on 4 channels: works as the chord engine for another setup.
• Browser emulator and installer right on the project page.

Status & caveats

Beta, active, five releases between October 6 and 8. The press took a liking to it: Synth Anatomy and MATRIXSYNTH (“New Firmware Turns the FM-1 Into an Omnichord”).