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Trail 1 - A gentle meander

This text-only "guided tour" is a gentle meander through some things in Wotja. It is less structured than the 'How To' tutorials and is not meant to be all encompassing. However, it may be of interest/use for those who are already familiar with the operation of Wotja provided in the tutorials (which you can check out at any time).

1. Play with Flows
   1. Hopefully you like what you hear!
2. Explore Mixes and Templates
   1. create a new empty mix, and open it
   2. make sure it is playing!
   3. tap top-left cell in the top row, browse for templates.
   4. Have a listen! Change until you find something you like.
   5. tap left-most cell in the second row, browse for templates.
   6. Have a listen! Change until you find something you like.
   7. You are now mixing two templates together!
3. Play with sound Presets...
   1. Create a new empty mix, and open it
   2. make sure it is playing!
   3. tap top-left cell in the top row, browse for templates.
   4. Have a listen! Change until you find something you like.
   5. tap the Synth button in the main mixer view.
   6. You can see the Synth network design - this makes the sounds for what you’re hearing.
   7. Press the Presets button, and make a selection. Listen to how it sounds!
   8. Keep on making Presets selection, until you find something you like, then press OK to apply your change (or just Cancel out)
4. Play with Mix-level FX
   1. the the mix from 2 or 3 above
   2. tap the Mix FX cell, you’ll see an empty FX editor appear.
   3. change the FX from the list of presets, until you find one you like - press OK
   4. you’re now hearing the Synth sound you chose, passed through some additional “Mix Level” FX
   5. add a template of your choice to another cell in a different row
   6. you’ll hear the Synth sounds for each cell, passed through the same Mix FX (edited)
5. Generators
   1. Play with Generator Types
      1. create a new empty mix, and open it
      2. make sure it is playing!
      3. top left cell - browse for the template called “IME Generator Types” > Ambient
      4. you now have a single cell, populated with a single Ambient Generator - which is a generator that plays long notes, and is often used for drones
      5. add a new generator: double-tap (or right-click) your “Ambient” generator *OR* tap the “Menu” button in in the Generator Network view (this is above your Ambient generator);
      6. select “Add Generator of Type...” - and select Rhythmic; this plays notes much more often.
      7. you now have two generators playing in your cell; one is Ambient and one is Rhythmic
   2. Set your generator sounds
      1. take the output from 5a
      2. you’ll see that your Ambient generator is attached to MIDI channel 1;
      3. tap the Synth button to the right of MIDI channel 1.
      4. this shows the “MIDI 1 Synth” screen, where you can edit the sounds used for your Ambient generator
      5. press the Presets button, and find a sound you like! Then press OK...
      6. you’ll see that your Rhythmic generator is attached to MIDI channel 2;
      7. tap the Synth button to the right of MIDI channel 2.
      8. this shows the “MIDI 1 Synth” screen, where you can edit the sounds used for your Rhythmic generator
      9. press the Presets button, and find a sound you like! Then press OK...
6. Following Generators; this tutorial will create a network of Generators that respond to each other, and configure their sounds
   1. add a Generator
      1. create a new empty mix, and open it
      2. make sure it is playing!
      3. top left cell - browse for the template called “IME Generator Types” > Ambient
      4. you now have a single cell, populated with a single Ambient Generator - which is a generator that plays long notes, and is often used for drones
      5. add a new generator *by copying*: double-tap (or right-click) your “Ambient” generator, then:
      6. select Copy
      7. select Paste
      8. you now have two generators playing in your cell; both are Ambient
      9. tap on your second Ambient generator, and drag it onto your first generator;
      10. your Generator becomes a Follower generator; which will compose notes that “Follows” notes composed by your first generator
      11. change the new generator’s name...
          1. select the new generator, and then (in the right-hand parameters panel...)
          2. look for the “Generator” section and then “Generator Name” parameter within it;
          3. select this, and use the alert to call it “Follower 1"
   2. adding some more generators!
      1. take the output from 6a
      2. change your Follower generator to compose notes 50% of the time;
      3. select the Follower generator, and then (in the right-hand parameters panel...)
      4. look for the “Following” second and then “Percent” parameter within it;
      5. set the slider to 50%
      6. your follower will now play a note 50% of the time that your Ambient generator composes for
      7. copy and paste your follower, creating your third generator;
      8. configure it to follow the second generator (which is your first follower!), by dragging from the third generator to the second generator
      9. create a fourth follower by copying the third generator, and configuring it to follow the third generator by dragging.
      10. you now have: one ambient generator, followed by a follower, which is followed by another follower, which is followed by one more follower; the net result is a Mix that generates chords; sometimes the chords are thicker than others.
      11. finally, set-up the sounds for all generators: each of your generators has been connected to a different MIDI channnel; for every generator’s MIDI channel:
   3. set the sounds
      1. tap the Synth button to the right of ecah of your four attached MIDI channels;
      2. this shows the “MIDI ... Synth” screen, where you can edit the sounds used for your generator’s MIDI channel;
      3. press the Presets button, and find a sound you like! Then press OK...
7. The original Koan piece - deconstructed; Mythous is what I think of as the first piece we constructed way back in the days of Koan (which predates Wotja by many years!) - how does it work?
   1. import a mix, look at the generators, and play with the Rules
      1. start by importing the this URL text into Wotja (copy the URL to the clipboard, and then)
      2. press the main Wotja Documents screen + button, and select “Mix (from Clipboard)”
      3. what do you see? Four generators; the orange colour indicates that they’re all Rhyhmic, meaning that they compose notes where the note durations are governed by Rhythm Rules
      4. select each generator in turn; and look at the Group called “Generator” in the right-hand table; make sure you look at the “Pitch” slider
      5. you’ll see that each generator has a different Pitch value; each generator composes with that value as it’s minimum MIDI pitch, with a “Pitch Range” for each one set to 24 semitones (which is two octaves)
      6. because each generator has a different “Pitch” value, each generator is going to compose with rather different pitches, which makes the Mix sound more harmonious.
      7. apart from Pitch, MIDI channel, and name; each of the generators is identical
   2. play with the Scale rules
      1. start with the output from 7a
      2. make sure you start your Mix playing!
      3. select the Rules group
      4. select the “Scale Rule” parameter
      5. this shows the “Generator: Use Cell Scale Rule” screen
      6. in the table at the bottom, you’ll see the Scale Rules that are defined for this mix
      7. the item for “Cell Rules > Use Cell Rule” is defined; there is only one Scale rule set-up for your cell, and in this case your mix is composing your generator through the “Major (Hypolydian)” rule set-up for that cell
      8. select the Major... item, and change the slider values. Hear how the music changes!
      9. close this screen by pressing OK
   3. play with the Harmony rules
      1. start with the output from 7b
      2. make sure you start your Mix playing!
      3. select the Rules group
      4. select the “Harmony Rule” parameter
      5. this shows the “Generator: Use Cell Harmony Rule” screen
      6. in the table at the bottom, you’ll see the Harmony Rules that are defined for this mix
      7. the item for “Cell Rules > Use Cell Rule” is defined; there is only one Harmony rule set-up for your cell, and in this case your mix is composing your generator through the “Default Harmony Rule” rule set-up for that cell
      8. select the Default Harmony Rule item, and change the slider values. Hear how the music changes!
      9. close this screen by pressing OK
   4. play with the Rhythm rules
      1. start with the output from 7c
      2. make sure you start your Mix playing!
      3. select the Rules group
      4. select the “Rhythm Rule” parameter
      5. this shows the “Generator: Use Cell Rhythm Rule” screen
      6. in the table at the bottom, you’ll see the Rhythm Rules that are defined for this mix
      7. the item for “Cell Rules > Use Cell Rule” is defined; there is only one Rhythm rule set-up for your cell, and in this case your mix is composing your generator through the “Default Rhythm Rule” rule set-up for that cell
      8. select the Default Rhythm Rule item, and change the slider values. Hear how the note durations change!
      9. close this screen by pressing OK
8. Listening Voices - Micro-tutorial
   1. Getting started
      1. open Settings > MIDI Input, and make sure you’ve enabled a MIDI channel that you know will receive MIDI note on/off events from either a physical keyboard, a MIDI Generator app, or some other source.
      2. create a new empty mix, and open it
      3. make sure it is playing!
      4. top left cell - browse for the template called “IME Generator Types” > Listener
      5. you now have a single cell, populated with a single Listener Generator - which is a generator that can “listen” for incoming MIDI events. By default, this is attached to MIDI Channel 1 Note: Listener generators do not generate Notes directly - you need to Follow them, or use the Chording parameter.
   2. Using Chording
      1. take the output from 8a
      2. select the Chording Group in the right-hand parameters panel, and set the Depth to 4
      3. now, every time your Listening generator detects a note on event, it automatically generators a chord round it!
      4. change the sound by tapping the Synth button attached to the right of your Generator, and press “Preset” button to select a sound you like; then press OK
      5. now change the block chord you’re hearing, to an arpeggio: select the Chording Group in the right-hand parameters panel, and set the Delay slider to 5
      6. now, every time your listener detects a note on event, it’ll play a strummed chord automatically!
      7. you can now see/hear what happens when you play with the parameters in the Chording group.
   3. Attach a Follower
      1. take the output from 8b
      2. tap the Listener, select “Add Generator of Type...” and select Follower
      3. drag from the Follower generator you’ve just added, to the Listener generator
      4. now, when your Listener detects incoming MIDI note on/off events (on MIDI channel 1!), the Follower generator will respond, by playing notes in direct response.
      5. the notes selected for the Follower are chosen to harmonize with the Followed note
      6. you can now see/hear what happens when you play with the parameters in the Follower group.