Wildwood Soundworks provides frequent firmware updates as new features and bug fixes become available.

Existing Lightning and Express users can upgrade to the latest firmware using the WIFI-based over-the-air update feature. For more information see Network Menu in the documentation.

February 12th, 2025

• Chord Voicing for Channel - Chord voicing is now an attribute of the channel instead of a global setting. This makes it easy to maintain separate chord voicings for different instruments.

February 9th, 2025

• Chord Voicing - Lightning and Express now support an alternate chord voicing for guitar. This means that in addition to the standard piano chord voicing (where the notes in the chord appear in the order of the notes on a piano keyboard) you can also select guitar chord voicing (where the notes in the chord appear in the order of the notes in guitar chord open fingering). This makes strumming chords in guitar voicing sound more like the way they sound on a guitar. Standard voicing is the default and the way it worked previously. You can change the voicing using the Settings menu, or as a directive in a Tablature File.
• Tablature Note Counts - The tablature view now includes the number of notes in the chord. Generally when you strum more notes than the number of notes in the chord, the additional notes repeat the chord an octave higher. With the new Tablature View and Guitar Chord Voicing you may instead want to stay within a single chord and use various strum patterns or arpeggios. For this, it helps to know how many notes are in the chord.

January 28th, 2025:

• Tablature View - This new view displays Wildwood Tablature (.tab) files containing lyrics and chords. As you play chords the current position advances automatically. You can create your own .tab files using a text editor like Notepad, TextEdit or vim. In addition Wildwood Soundworks is pursuing a licensing agreement to provide .tab files for a collection of popular songs. In the interim, you can try out this sample: House of the Rising Sun and use it as the basis for creating your own tab files.
• Softkeys for Lightning - The Lightning popup function keys have been replaced by softkeys that appear over the header and footer when you touch the display. This makes it easier to interact with views and menus without obscuring them. The top row of softkeys lets you select a category. The bottom row lets you select an action within that category.
• External MIDI Input Channel - In previous versions of the firmware, Lightning and Express set their current channel to the channel supplied in MIDI messages from external USB MIDI controllers. That remains the default behavior in this update, but you now also have the option of keeping the channels independent or mapping the external MIDI controller to a specific channel number. This lets you play and record notes from both the local device and the external controller at the same time, as well as making it easier to work with external MIDI controllers that send messages on multiple channels (e.g. sequencers).
• Improved USB Audio - Although you may not notice it, the USB audio stack has been extensively rewritten to provide better performance and reliability.
• Express Touch Sensitivity - This firmware update improves Express touch sensitivity and enables Express to work with a USB battery power bank.

September 1st, 2024

• Global ADSR Override - While the existing Articulation Menu lets you specify the articulation parameters, including ADSR envelope for any zone (combination of sample and note range), the ADSR Menu lets you globally override the ADSR envelope for all notes.
• Key Signatures - Set the current key. This simplifies playing sharps and flats. For example, recall that F Major is a scale with a single flat, B flat. If you set the key signature to F Major (1 flat) and press B, it will play B flat instead of B.
• MIDI Networking - Connectionless MIDI Networking allows you to send and receive notes you play with other Wildwood Soundworks devices. You can use this feature to configure multiple devices for your own use, or you to play with others. You can define your role, which specifies what you want to send or receive on the MIDI network. MIDI Networking supports up to 128 unique networks so that your network doesn't accidentally conflict with others.
• Metronome - Lightning and Express now provide a metronome feature. When you enable the metronome, it starts as soon as you press Record to enter Record Ready mode. Pressing a note begins recording. The existing Set Tempo menu item sets the metronome tempo. You can also specify the metronome sound and volume.

June 14th, 2024

• Log View - The Log View displays information on any errors or crashes that may occur. The information in the log view is useful for fixing bugs. Please take a photo of the screen (or copy the text) and send it to me, as described in the error message. Next, read the message to see if pertains to a crash or an error. Unfortunately, crashes are not recoverable and are displayed after the device reboots. Errors may be recoverable. If it's an error, save your work promptly and restart the device.
• Log View Control - You can scroll the Log View up and down using the rotary encoder. You can clear the Log View by pressing on the rotary encoder button. You can switch between the Log View and other views using the Next View and Previous View functions. The Log View is only available if something (e.g. error information) has been written to it.

March 25th, 2024

• Sampler - The sampler lets you create, view, zoom, select and save samples, set loop points and assign samples to the touch pads on the keyboard. You can set one or more samples per channel or instrument or even multiple samples per note. The pitch of any note that doesn't have an assigned sample is adjusted automatically based on the closest note that has a sample.
• Sample Handling - You can override the existing builtin samples or create totally new sample banks, and custom samples work just like the builtin samples so you can use them with the sequencer and synthesizer to create your own music.
• USB Audio - You can use the new USB audio support to record samples from a USB microphone, headset or audio adapter and play samples or synthesizer output on a USB speaker, headset or audio adapter. You'll need a USB UAC 1.0 compatible audio device and a USB-C to Type-A cable for the Express USB loopback configuration.
• WAVE Files - You can also create samples from standard WAVE files or the builtin instruments. There are some limitations on sample size and sample rate, so be sure to check out the limitations section below for complete details.
• Articulation - With this release, you can now control the amplitude, pitch, and timbre of your sample to produce more expressive musical notes using the new articulation menu. You can set a variety of parameters, including Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release (ADSR) as well as vibrato, modulation effects and more.
• Sample Groups - You can save your new samples and articulation parameters in a sample group file and then define startup sample groups in your profiles. This makes it easy to switch between sample groups based on the kind of music you want to make.
• More - Other new features include rotary encoder velocity to navigate large data sets more quickly, channel volume to highlight specific instruments, and instrument banks that allow you to group your new samples together and create multiple drum channels.