# Firmware 1.5 **URL:** \ **Category:** Releases\ **Created:** [February 9, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431 "2021-02-09T19:03:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/1 "2021-02-09T19:03:33Z")
The firmware 1.5 is available for download. This version brings a major change to how Electra works internally. Preset storage in RAM has been optimized. It is safe to load very large presets now. The MIDI message reading and forwarding has been reworked. It is now controlled with the hardware based timer. This means improved latency in general. The latency is not affected by the user actions any more. These two changes really touched almost everything inside the Electra. We have tested the firmware a lot but still, there could be glitches - if you notice anything strange or if you experience any freeze, please report it to us. The firmware is available on the [Downloads page](https://docs.electra.one/downloads/firmware.html). **Changelog:** - Reworked MIDI messaging and routing. Hardware based timer is used now. - Optimized RAM storage. Very large presets can be handled now. - LCD rendering made more efficient. There should be no flicker or glitches when overlapping graphics shown (detail windows) - Added proof-of-concept of Snapshot saving / loading (there will be an extra post about this feature) - Changed visual representation of the faders with overlay items - Add support for virtual parameters. These can be referenced in sysex messages. - Fixed freeze when switching Electra off - Fixed issue of lists that had text and image items. Texts were not displayed correctly. ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/2 "2021-02-09T19:04:08Z")
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**Author:** ![akira](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/akira/32/799_2.png) [@akira](https://forum.electra.one/u/akira)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/3 "2021-02-09T19:45:56Z")
Amazing update! > [@martin](#): > > Add support for virual parameters. These can be referenced i sysex messages. As I understand it, this one opens up insane possibilities – can you please give a quick summary of how to make and refer to virtual params? Is there anywhere I can read about it? ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/4 "2021-02-09T19:48:08Z")
will provide info very soon. Currently they can be referenced in sysex and patch request messages. We are planning to add support for them to all types of MIDI messages. ---
**Author:** ![thetechnobear](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/thetechnobear/32/134_2.png) [@thetechnobear](https://forum.electra.one/u/thetechnobear)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 8:03pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/5 "2021-02-09T20:03:12Z")
love the snaps , and also the ability to resend the current midi ! this is so, so useful, when you’ve not got bi-directional midi perhaps we could reorder the menu page to: snaps, pages, presets (from pages, presets, snaps) the reasoning is… the first menu item is selected on entry. pages was very useful before, but now we have a shortcut for that. so perhaps snaps is more useful. presets feels the least likely to be switching. perhaps an alternative is to remember last ‘page’ used, so if you are on snaps, next time you hit menu , you go back to snaps. (Im thinking mainly here about quickly switching between snaps 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/6 "2021-02-09T20:41:53Z")
@thetechnobear points taken. Please consider it to be the very first version. We just wanted to make a kick off and hear back from all of you. We discussed that with @tomas - we will have to - most likely - redo the Menu window and button assigments. New features and possibility to customize stuff call for it. Just posted a bit of info on how to use it: > [@Snapshots - saving control values](https://forum.electra.one/t/snapshots-saving-control-values/433): > > This is a feature we always wanted to have in Electra. The version 1.5 brings the very first proof-of-concept implementation of that. A snapshot is a saved collection of all control values of a particular preset. A snapshot can ve saved, loaded, and sent to the devices. Each preset has its own set of snapshots. ie. if you save a snapshot of preset A it will not be available for other presets. We will work on this in near future. It feels that a whole new section for the snapshot management wil… ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/7 "2021-02-09T21:04:11Z")
> [@akira](#): > > As I understand it, this one opens up insane possibilities – can you please give a quick summary of how to make and refer to virtual params? Is there anywhere I can read about it? for now see it in action in Korg DSS-1 preset: [https://app.electra.one/preset/GQcOjljbxFZnVylCCT6A](https://app.electra.one/preset/GQcOjljbxFZnVylCCT6A) ![virtual](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/electraone/original/1X/a7f48235974f74e0173c43f8430530899dde119b.png) The Program list is a virtual paramater supplying data for the Switch pad. ---
**Author:** ![akira](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/akira/32/799_2.png) [@akira](https://forum.electra.one/u/akira)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/8 "2021-02-09T23:07:05Z")
Got it, thanks Martin. Seems equivalent to a SysEx control with an empty message – I’ve been using those quite a bit – but virtual controls are much cleaner for the purpose. I misunderstood virtual controls to be opaque data buckets of arbitrary size – like we briefly discussed 1-to-1 a few weeks ago – that could be used for example to store the preset name as parsed from a patch response. ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 6:38am UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/9 "2021-02-10T06:38:30Z")
> [@akira](#): > > I misunderstood virtual controls to be opaque data buckets of arbitrary size – like we briefly discussed 1-to-1 a few weeks ago – that could be used for example to store the preset name as parsed from a patch response. yup, these are the reference parameters. I keep your idea in mind. Shall we open a separate topic on it? If you agree pls kick it off with the description of your idea. Thx! ---
**Author:** ![nuipb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4af34b/32.png) [@nuipb](https://forum.electra.one/u/nuipb)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/10 "2021-02-12T13:24:59Z")
Thanks for the great new developments, however ElectraOneConsole.app crashes when I try to update. Any suggestions ? ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/11 "2021-02-12T13:30:27Z")
@nuipb I will look at that later today. It works on my side but there is another user who had the same problem as you do. I received the output of the “crash window” from him so I think i should be able to replicate it. Just a side note, this application will be replaced with the next release of the firmware. The new app should be easier to install and work with. ---
**Author:** ![nuipb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4af34b/32.png) [@nuipb](https://forum.electra.one/u/nuipb)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/12 "2021-02-12T14:19:13Z")
> [@martin](#): > > I received the output of the “crash window” from him so I think i should be able to replicate it. Good to hear as I cannot even get a crash log as my app crashes instantly when selecting firmware-1.5.frm ---
**Author:** ![cashcooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@cashcooper](https://forum.electra.one/u/cashcooper)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/13 "2021-02-14T21:55:54Z")
Are you sure the Electra One did not update? Mine crashed right after I selected the update 1.5.frm, but it still did the update. It is really fast. osx 10.14.6 Great update!! Thank you 😀 ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 10:06pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/14 "2021-02-14T22:06:46Z")
A new application that will replace ElectraOneConsole is almost finished. Need to make sure it runs on Windows. Once it is done, it will be made available for the download. ETA is early next week. ![electraOne App](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/electraone/original/1X/bfc70588eb3ea2cbbcc2aa61c616f15a4f7c183b.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 7:51am UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/15 "2021-03-01T07:51:52Z")
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**Author:** ![nuipb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4af34b/32.png) [@nuipb](https://forum.electra.one/u/nuipb)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/16 "2021-04-12T12:34:29Z")
> [@martin](#): > > A new application that will replace ElectraOneConsole is almost finished Hi Martin, it’s been very quiet around here lately, any good news for us in April ? ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:45pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/17 "2021-04-12T12:45:45Z")
@nuipb I knew this question would come sooner or later 🙂 I am currently busy with assembling new Electras, the demand is high and it still occupies a great deal of my available time. In parallel to that there is a bigger scale upgrade coming up. As the changes are non-trivial I am releasing “beta” versions and I am in touch with number of users to make sure it will be well-tested, stable, and easy to upgrade when released. This new version will make it possible to implement many of the features that have been asked and discussed here on the forum. And it also greatly improves compatibility with other MIDI devices (routers, hosts, etc) ---
**Author:** ![nuipb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4af34b/32.png) [@nuipb](https://forum.electra.one/u/nuipb)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/18 "2021-04-12T13:35:02Z")
Sounds very promising, thanks for the update ! and glad the demand is high although not really surprising to me 😉 Any rough ETA for this next major upgrade ? ---
**Author:** ![martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/martin/32/145_2.png) [@martin](https://forum.electra.one/u/martin)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/19 "2021-04-12T15:07:25Z")
> [@nuipb](#): > > Any rough ETA for this next major upgrade ? Before the end of April for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Richard](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.electra.one/richard/32/383_2.png) [@Richard](https://forum.electra.one/u/Richard)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431/20 "2021-04-12T16:14:34Z")
Hi Martin, So i ordered E1, and while reading this and waiting for it to be delivered, i was wondering if i should wait for your next update to start create my templates, or will it be safe to start “programming” already? Thanx a lot Richard [Next page](https://forum.electra.one/t/firmware-1-5/431.md?page=2)