Overview
The nanobox fireball is a small polyphonic wavetable synth from 1010music with eight-voice polyphony and a 2-inch touchscreen. Each sound uses three oscillators, two wavetable oscillators (WT1 and WT2) and one waveform oscillator, followed by filters, envelopes, LFOs and effects. Touchscreen X and Y controls can be mapped to parameters for morphing a sound by hand.
Each wavetable oscillator points at a WAV file on the microSD card. Position, from 0 to 255, sets which cycle of the table is looped, and it’s a modulation target, so an LFO or the X and Y modulators can sweep it while you play. The file choice itself isn’t a modulation target. Each oscillator also has Pitch (±24 semitones) and Level. The guide’s own walkthrough starts by clearing Position’s modulation slots and stepping through a factory table one cycle at a time, which is a good way to hear what a new table holds before you modulate it. It ships with 103 wavetables paired up into 121 presets, and presets and settings are saved to the card, which must be in the slot for the synth to start. MIDI comes in on a TRS jack; 1010music says it doesn’t support MIDI over USB.
Wavetables on the nanobox fireball
1010music states the format plainly: fireball is compatible with wavetables that contain 2048 samples per cycle and 256 cycles. Any WAV you add has to be built that way. A table with fewer frames, or a different frame size, won’t line up with what the synth expects. The guide doesn’t give a required bit depth or sample rate.
Tables go anywhere on the microSD card. The WAV file screen shows the card’s folders as a tree, so you can step into a folder and load a file into WT1 or WT2. Keeping your own tables in a folder of their own makes them easy to find next to the factory set.
WaveStack’s nanobox fireball target writes a mono WAV with 2048-sample frames and exactly 256 frames. Tables with a different frame size are resampled to 2048. Tables with fewer or more than 256 frames are stretched or squeezed to exactly 256, with each new frame placed evenly across the original and crossfaded from its neighbors, so a 64-frame table becomes a smooth 256-frame one. Because 1010music doesn’t document a bit depth, WaveStack writes 16-bit, which comes to about 1 MB per table.
Link the card under Save to and exports land at its top level, or in any folder on it you link instead. The linked folder lists files that don’t match 2048 × 256, and Convert all resamples them so they load correctly.
Specifications
| File type | WAV |
|---|---|
| Samples per frame | 2048 |
| Frames | 256 |
| Frame size detection | Fixed at 2048 |
| Storage | microSD card, any folder |
| Bit depth | Not documented by 1010music (WaveStack writes 16-bit) |
From WaveStack to the nanobox fireball
- Power down the fireball, push the microSD card to eject it, and put it in your computer’s card reader.
- In WaveStack, open Export (⌘E) and choose nanobox fireball. The summary shows the frame count changing to 256 if it needs to.
- Under Save to, click Link a folder and pick the card, or a folder on it for your own tables, then save.
- Put the card back and power up.
- Touch the WT1 or WT2 graph on the Dashboard, open the file screen, browse to your table and touch Load.
Frequently asked questions
What wavetable format does the nanobox fireball use?
WAV files with 2048 samples per cycle and 256 cycles, which 1010music gives as the compatible format in the fireball user guide. That’s the same layout as a full-length Serum table. Files built any other way, such as 64-frame tables or 256-sample WaveEdit banks, need converting first. WaveStack’s fireball target resamples any table to exactly 2048 × 256 and writes it as a mono WAV.
How do I add my own wavetables to the fireball?
Copy them to the microSD card. With the card in the synth, touch a wavetable oscillator’s graph on the Dashboard to open its screen, then open the WAV file screen, which shows the card as a folder tree. Turn a knob to scroll, touch Load to enter a folder or load the selected file into the oscillator, and save the preset to keep the change. Presets live on the card too, so back it up.
Why won’t my wavetable work on the fireball?
Check its shape. The fireball expects 256 cycles of 2048 samples; a table with 64 or 128 frames doesn’t match, and neither does one with a 256 or 1024-sample frame size. Many tables made for hardware are small for memory reasons and don’t match. Stretching the frame count in WaveStack, which crossfades between frames to fill the gaps, gives the fireball the full 256 it expects.
Can I use Serum wavetables on the nanobox fireball?
Full-length ones, yes. A Serum table with all 256 frames at 2048 samples matches the fireball’s format exactly. Many Serum tables have fewer frames, though, since Serum accepts anything up to 256, and those don’t match. Copying them over as they are won’t give the result you expect. Run them through WaveStack’s fireball target to bring them to exactly 256 frames before copying them to the card.