Text-to-Music (TTM)
Text-to-Music or "Text to Music" (TTM) is a fast and powerful technique used in the WOTJA (wotja.com) generative music system.
Wotja Text to Music takes the text that you input and then uses it to generate a "melodic seed" (melody).
This parameter-adjustable melody can be considered to be "imbued with meaning" as it originates from your text!
It is that direct linkage that makes Wotja Text to Music a key aspect of Reflective Music.
You get try Wotja for free on: iOS, macOS, Windows & Android
Wotja is for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, Laptop, Tablet, Mobile | Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV
How to use Text to Music in Wotja
The quickest way to try out TTM in Wotja is to create a New Manual Mix (Documents Screen > Add New > Mix (Manual)).
Once created, open the mix, tap on the right side panel where it says "Tap here to browse Templates" and from the Templates list then select any of the templates in the TTM 1 Players or TTM 1 Players pak and tap "Load" to add it to the mix. Once you have done that you should see something like the following which shows the Generator Network panel with one Voice (shown in pink, the colour of a Patterns Voice):
For this Voice (or indeed any selected Patterns Voice) tap on the "Text to Music" Group in the right hand panel to select it and check that the TTM "Enabled?" setting is toggled on (it should be, as you have selected a TTM Template; any Patterns Voice can be converted to a TTM Voice with this toggle).
Tap the "TTM text" field where you can add your text, the characters of which are then used by the TTM generator to generate a seed melody. This melody, depending on the settings of the various "Text to Music" parameters (see below), can repeat forever or to play a certain number of times and then mutate. Experiment away!
Tip: If the mix is already playing then you should shortly hear the melody change; if not, just stop/start the mix.
Intermorphic Music Engine (IME)
The Intermorphic Music Engine (IME) parameters available to use in Wotja are as follows (details extracted from the IME section of the Wotja User Guide):
Voice - Text to Music (TTM)
Voice - Type Text to Music
Overview
"Text to Music" Voices are a sub type of the Patterns Voice Type. Text to Music Voices have their own special set of parameters and allow text in any language to generate a seed melody which, even though not visible, is in a Patterns syntax. Use English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, French - whatever language takes your fancy, you will always get a melody!
Operation
The "Text to Music" parameters govern how Text to Music Voices work.
Parameters
- Text: This is the text in any language used to generate your TTM seed melody. In general it takes 2 characters to generate a note. Note that if your text is < 6 characters (e.g. Hello, which is 5 characters), we turn it into HelloHello ... which makes it sufficiently long to make at least 3 notes (that actually generates a few more). In Wotja, tap on this field to go to the TTM Text Editor screen.
- Display?: The Display? toggle determines if your TTM text will display in Fullscreen mode.
- Enabled? (Notes): If ON, the "Enabled?" toggle converts a Patterns Voice into a TTM Voice and means the patterns used are generated via TTM (any existing pattern is left unchanged). The number notes your text has generated for use in the tune (or tune variations) is shown next to it. If this toggle is turned OFF then your Voice is changed back to a Patterns Voice.
- Repeats: The total number of times the original melody or a variation of it is played. This also applies to improvised melodies (see Improvise toggle).
- Repeat Range: Sets the range above the minimum. Also applies to improvised melodies (see Improvise toggle).
- Tune Start at Index: From the notes composed, set the first note you want your tune to start playing at. Maximum value is Notes - 1
- Tune Length Override: From the notes composed, set how many notes will play. Maximum value is Notes - Tune Start at Index
- Phrase Length: Defines the minimum number of notes there are in a "phrase" (and you can see in the indicator above how many notes your text has generated - all of these notes get put into phrases to make the "tune").
- Phrase Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
- Gaps: Defines the minimum number of rests between each phrase (allows a tune to breathe). Rests are measured in terms of 16th notes.
- Gaps Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
- Interval: Defines the minimum number of rests between each play of the tune (allows a tune to breathe). Rests are measured in terms of 16th notes.
- Interval Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
- Improvise after Tune: Turn this on to let Wotja continuously generate tune variations after the FIRST complete play (and repeats) of the tune. When this is on, Wotja can "noodle" for ever (well, until you turn it off or the Sleep Timer kicks in, if set!).
- Variation: Selects how much variation is applied to the previous melody when improvising.