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3rd January 2019 by Tim Cole

Wotja V19 Arrives!

The last few months have been a lot of work for us, but Wotja Version 19 is now here (see the Press Release).

We have gone all out to broaden our app range to appeal to pro and mid-range creators as well listeners. There is now something for everyone and a Wotja App for you!

App Range for 2019

Wotja V19 is our app for 2019: There are 4 different versions available:

• Wotja: Generative Music Creator, Lab & Player (Free / Free + Subscription App)
• Wotja Pro 19: Generative Music Creator, Lab & Player (Paid-for App)
• Wotja Box 19: Generative Music Maker (Paid-for App)
• Wotja Go 19: Generative Music Player (Paid-for App)

We have localisations for Chinese and Japanese, too, and those cater for what is needed in the Wotja Go and Wotja Box Feature Sets.

Wotja Use Case - Using Wotja as a Sleep Aid (updated)

I have been having a bit of trouble sleeping of late (I've had a lot on my mind frankly!). I thought that I might as well use Wotja on my iPhone and give its 'Flow Player' mode a spin and see if that helped me (UPDATE - check out this short Youtube video example).

I chose the new Flow Player mode as it is so simple to use (and is in all our Wotja apps). You just get it going and it creates a succession of automatically generated mixes based on the Randomization Scheme you choose. Once playing it continues doing its thing until either the Sleep Timer or Music Play Time Timeout kicks in.

What I found is that, for me at least, it really DOES seem to help ME get to sleep.

I think it's because what is generated is A) interesting enough to distract my mind, the music being either ambiences, drifting melodies or some combination (depending on Randomization Scheme); B) it sounds harmonious and relaxing and C) I know it's always fresh meaning I can either actively 'listen' to it or not, it's up to my mind what it wants to do. I find it a bit like 'listening' to waves on a beach in that there is a continous ebbing and flowing that is ever-changing; you know it is just there whether you tune in or zone out.

All I do is get Wotja playing on my iPhone, put it into Airplane mode so there it no WiFi/Cellular on, turn the phone volume right down and then put my phone under my pillow.

I tend to use it with the included 'Default' Randomization Scheme (RS) which generates melodies and ambiences. But, if you want just ambiences try the 'Ambient Mixes Box 1'. If you want melodies try 'TTM Piano Melodies' or 'TTM Bell Melodies' for pianos or bells respectively.

There is some degree of customization of RSs in all the apps (they are editable), but in the apps with Box and Pro Feature Sets you can also select the Templates and Sound/FX presets you want to be chosen for mix randomization. What is even cooler, is that in those apps you can edit and save your Randomization Schemes and even share them. That means that you, if you want, can share your 'recipes' for others to try out. I will do a video on that side of things in due course.

Sleep aids tend to work differently for different people so it is impossible to generalise as to effectiveness. That being so, I would be interested to hear the experience of others who might try this out. It would be good to know if it is effective for you, too.

What Lies Ahead

Now that we have got both the first release and first bug fix release out (19.0.7), we need to stand back, let the dust settle for a bit and then take stock of where we are. The last few months has been a whirlwind of activity and we need to take a bit of a breather!

We will of course be doing some more videos and encourage you to have a go yourselves!

We hope you like where we are taking Wotja. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please do get in touch via our Contact form.

Best wishes

Tim and Pete