Wildwood Soundworks is a small independent producer of electronic music devices. Our current products include Lightning and Express. Both products offer a digital sampler, sequencer and synthesizer with color LCD display, capacitive touch sensors and many other features.

Lightning and Express are currently available for sale at Etsy.

Wildwood Lightning

September 1st, 2024: Wildwood Soundworks is pleased to announce Lightning, a new product that will join Express in the Wildwood Soundworks product family.

Lightning features a unique note wheel interface (patent pending) that makes it possible to play across multiple octaves with just seven capacitive touch sensors. It shares its firmware with Express and includes the same features, as well as a larger touch screen, all in a smaller and lower cost form factor. For more information, click here,

Wildwood Express

Express version 3 was released on December 21st, 2023. It has a capacitive touch sensor based interface featuring a one octave keyboard (eight octave range) plus chord and strum sensors. For more information on Express click here.

September 1st, 2024: A major new firmware release is available for Express. This update includes Global ADSR Override, Key Signatures, MIDI Networking and a builtin Metronome. Existing Express users can upgrade to the new firmware using the WIFI-based over-the-air update feature.

Features

Lightning and Express are compact audio systems that provide everything you need to record, play and edit your own music as well as standard MIDI music files:

• Sampler - record your own samples or use standard WAVE files.
• Sequencer - compose on up to 16 channels with channel mute and solo.
• Synthesizer - produce polyphonic audio with a sample based synthesizer.
• Touch Pads - play notes, select chord and drum patterns and strum with touch sensitive pads.
• Function Keys* - select octave, channel, view, menu and playback with tactile push buttons.
• Rotary Encoder* - navigate through songs and menus using a velocity sensitive knob with button.
• Display - view notes and channels or navigate menus to select from numerous features.
• Multiple Views - create and update your songs using piano roll, song or step views.
• Multiple Menus - discover features and create or edit your song with 14 menus.
• Touch Display+ - pinnable popup touch menu to use in place of tactile function keys.
• Note Wheel+ - strum chords across octaves by moving finger around touch sensors.
• MIDI Network - Create multiple connectionless networks to play and record across collections of devices.
• MIDI Files - read and write to internal flash, or external USB flash drives and Micro SD cards.
• USB MIDI In - connect a MIDI keyboard to the device to use it as a sequencer and synthesizer.
• USB MIDI Out - connect the device to a computer to use it as a touch input device or sequencer.
• USB Audio - Record and play USB UAC 1.0 audio streams (e.g. USB audio headset).
• Playlists - create lists of songs or parts of songs to shuffle or play in sequence.
• Profiles - organize settings into profiles in flash memory for easy setup of new songs.
• Firmware Updates - install firmware updates over the internet for new features and bug fixes.
• Browser Interface - view a large version of the device screen on your favorite browser.
• Pattern Generator - play drum grooves and fills as well as chord arpeggios and strums.
• Reverb Filter - simulate acoustic characteristics of different types of spaces.
• Demo Songs - get started with over 65 Creative Commons CC0 licensed (Public Domain) MIDI files.
• Metronome - configure the sound, volume and rate of the builtin metronome.
• Articulation Menu - control the amplitude, pitch and timbre to produce more expressive sounds.
• Sample Management - Set loop points, clip samples, assign to touch sensors.
• Key Signature - Set the key of the song and forget about sharps and flats.

Asterisk (*) denotes a feature available in Express. Plus (+) denotes a feature available in Lightning.

Lightning and Express include metal touch pads, a hand-stained hardwood base and protective rubber feet.

The synthesizer works with both custom samples created using the sampler feature as well as a builtin general MIDI sample set of 128 instrument and 56 drum/percussion sounds.

Please note that only one USB feature can be used at a time.

Documentation

For information on how to use Lightning or Express, click here.

For information on setting up and configuring Express, see our Express Quick Start Guide. For more information on using Express, see our Express Quick Reference Guide.

For information on setting up and configuring Lightning, see our Lightning Quick Start Guide. For more information on using Lightning, see our Lightning Quick Reference Guide.

Videos

For videos that show some of the key features of Wildwood Express, click here.

Note that these videos show Express version 2. Version 3 features a more compact form factor than version 2 and integrates a number of components onto the main board that were present as subassemblies in version 2, including digital audio, touch controllers, I/O expander, USB connectors and Micro SD card slot. It also includes LEDs for the strum pads and improvements to Micro SD card detection.

About Us

For more information on Wildwood Soundworks, click here.

Contact Us

To provide feedback or contact Wildwood Soundworks, click here.