Introducing Firmware 3.0

Firmware 3.0 is a watershed moment for the Woovebox. With this iteration, the device has now fully realized its intended "final form", potential and design goals. As of 2026, only subject to your workflow preference, it can now lay a credible claim to "most powerful handheld" for full song production - regardless of price.

The major focus for this release;

• Vastly improved synthesis
• Vastly improved mastering & FX
• Vastly improved connectivity and pseudo-DAW functionality

And, importantly, all without encumbering the UI or DSP performance/polyphony that you are already used to. As ever, the fast, 0-menu diving workflow remains 100% geared towards creating and finishing full songs in its powerful Song mode.

Highlights

• DNA synthesis system: dynamic patch cross-breeding per track = multi-timbrality on steroids; create and use 2 patches per track, which can be cross-bred per step manually, randomly, conditionally, via modulation per pattern up/down/updown, and per song fragment
• New wavetable synthesis algorithm: 2 oscs per voice, 64-waveform factory wave tables in factory sample kit (FS.01) slices 1-8, custom wavetable support/import, new wavetable preset category with new presets
• New reverb: lush, high-quality reverb with controllable feedback, pre-delay, damping and modulation ("haze"), plus early reflection simulation and tail noise shaping, without metallic artifacts or obvious repeats in tails
• New mastering compressors: Four new high quality, tri-band master compressor algorithms; upward, downward, up+down, and fully parametric over-the-top ("OTT" Ableton/Xfer/M8-style) compressor.
• Per-voice mastering tools: Per-voice 3-band parametric EQ, aural exciter tone shaping, as well as per-voice pre-send FX high pass filters to control and prevent "mud" build-up. New per-track compressors with upward & downward compression, finer control over ratio, and attack/release times in milliseconds (analog-style 90% completion times)
• Mid/side mastering processing: stereo widening & bass-monofy mastering controls.
• Revamped side chaining: attack and release times (90% completion) are now in milliseconds, and side chaining can now route to and from any combination of the four buses (not just one).
• Third oscillator upgrade: can now be sent to effects, act as a per-track "ethereal" FX shimmer, act as transient shaper ("click" generator) or act as mastering tone shaper ("hollow out" the fundamental).
• Improved audio quality: greatly improved oscillator and sample playback quality across the board, with full four-point interpolation, reduction (or elimination) of aliasing, including on sweeps, as well as greatly improved quality + smoother filter behavior for lower spectral resolutions (also making it more useful for vintage drum computer emulation).
• Latency improvement: reduced engine audio latency by 33% to 11.6ms.
• Bluetooth central/"host" mode: connect most Bluetooth MIDI controllers straight to your Woovebox without the need for an intervening host.
• Bluetooth HID peripheral "pseudo-DAW" support: connect most regular Bluetooth 4.0+ (Bluetooth Low Energy, aka Bluetooth Smart, Bluetooth LE or BLE) keyboard as a controller, with support for shortcuts (such as Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V), F1-F12 function keys, media keys, touchpad, scroll-wheel and AMIGA tracker-style keyboard note playing/mapping.
• Replicable randomization: new "take" mechanic allows for guided, replicable per-track randomization and generative synthesis when playing back fragments.
• Easy audio pass-through: switchable low-latency (analog) stereo direct line-in pass-through option
• Vintage emulation improvements: new "modern vintage" oscillator mode (90s ROMplers baked-in LFO/EG emulation) and better oscillator drift.
• Sampler improvements: recording quality, better slicing controls, big improvement to mic recording quality.
• Fragment behavior stacking: fragment track behaviors can now be stacked (combined) to combine fades with filters, gaters and pitch lifts/drops.
• More: New preset patches, new patch "vari" variation random generator mode, MIDI chord detector now detects octaves and inversions, the MIDI port behavior can now be specified per-song (including new omni-mode), many UI enhancements including tweaking of compressor and FX while song is playing, chord lock can now be engaged after ("post") fragment start, scene editing can now be locked to allow live jamming, and a 'select all' feature is now sub-option for the 'SLct' context menu item on the 'SEq' page, and more.

Upgrading from 2.0

Upgrading from older firmware versions should be uneventful, but there are some changes that will impact how your current songs sound, as well as some other things to be aware of.

Mic calibration procedure

If you have an unamplified microphone (for example the one included with the Woovebox Pro), insert it into the line-in port before doing the update. The 3.0 firmware will perform a mic-dependent calibration procedure to greatly enhance mic-recorded audio. You can perform this calibration later at any time as well (via 7/hh boot mode). If you do not have a mic, leave the line-in port empty while performing the update.

Reverb

The new reverb algorithm completely replaces the old reverb algorithm. It is a completely different design, and will sound markedly different (smoother). Unfortunately this also means that the reverb settings on the Song's FX page do not translate or carry over well. It is likely you will have to dial-in settings that are appropriate for your song.

Oscillator and sample playback quality

Due to the improved quality, oscillators and samples in songs may sound a bit different (clearer and smoother). You may have to use the various means at your disposal to degrade or "dirty" them up if they are too clean sounding.

Compressor default values

Default values for the new mastering compressor (set to up/down compression) will cause your songs to sound louder, more leveled out and more "produced" right out of the box.

Per-track compressor and side-chaining

The compression, side-chaining and gating algorithms have been replaced and may not sound or behave exactly the same. It is possible you may have to dial-in new settings for levels, depths and attack/release times to suit your songs.

Mid/side processing

Default values for the stereo widening and bass monofy are conservative, but will make your songs sound a little more widened.

MIDI port mode select

The physical MIDI port mode select is no longer a boot mode (this used to be the 9/A1 boot mode), but is instead now a per-song parameter (9/A1/Md.Pt on the Song's GLob page). On capable devices, you can now select between 'off', 'out' and 'in'. The 'in' option will not work on older OG hardware revisions (15, 15B, 15B1).