Wotja® Music | FREE Generative Music System

Wotja is a FREE Generative Music System with a long and distinguished history of continuous development.

'Wotja Music' AKA 'Generative music' (sometimes referred to as algorithmic music, stochastic music or aleatoric music) relies a lot on the 'magic fluidity' of chance. It is akin to cleansing musical rain, which makes it great for relaxation, meditiation, contemplation etc.

It is generated live and it is YOUR MIND that contextualises and interprets it. It is also where any 'emergent' behaviour is experienced (your creative mind is incredibly good at finding connections between things).

Wotja can also generate melodic seeds from text (text-to-music) and so Wotja Music can also be considered as 'Reflective Music'.

Wotja can also use note patterns and lets you add some underpinning structure, but it is primarily a system to let you embrace and explore chance in music.

'Generative AI' music is something altogether different.

IMPORTANT: Wotja does NOT use 'Generative AI' to mine and repurpose or repackage human-derived knowledge and preferences, meaning it does not appropriate a musical 'style'. That said, you could of course use Generative AI to e.g. generate audio samples, note patterns or images that you then use in a Wotja mix.

That Wotja doesn't use Generative AI does not make Wotja Music uninteresting at all, far from it. The Wotja Music Engine instead relies on chance, heuristics and sometimes patterns to locally generate totally 'fresh' live music (rendered via the Wotja Audio Engine). It is YOUR MIND that brings meaning and relevance to the music as you experience and reflect upon it.

Consider using or exploring Wotja as like a meditation on sound. Your goal is to immerse yourself in the 'magic fluidity' of chance. As you can edit anything you want in Wotja you can customise what it generates according to your own skill, judgement and taste. That's why we say "It's personal. Make your own generative music".

NB: If you ask someone else to meditate for you then it defeats the whole point of doing it in the first place! :)

You can of course create the simplest form of generative music from random shuffling of pre-composed/pre-recorded elements, but most people think of it as some form of live-generated music.

This is why today we also use a number of alternative terms to describe what it does: InMo Music, Reflective Music, Text-to-Music, Mindful Music etc.

Wotja Music Engine

Assuming you want to get a bit more interesting and granular, you need to use a music engine to real-time compose & generate the musical notes used. Such an engine will use a range of musical parameters to compose its live (generally MIDI) notes, meaning that if you change the parameters the ensuing composition will change, too.

In the case of Wotja, this engine is called the Wotja Music Engine (WME), and it uses a combination of AI techniques & heuristics crafted and honed over 30+ years. At the core of its operation are a key set of Rules.

Wotja Audio Engine

There is another important factor for composed Generative Music however, and that is that the notes need to be turned into sound via some kind of audio/sound generator. There are many, many sound units and FX units that can be driven by MIDI.

In the case of Wotja, it has an (optional) integral audio/sound engine, the Wotja Audio Engine (WAE), with a range of sound generators and FX.

Why Generative Music?

Many people find generative music systems to be incredibly interesting. Musicians to academics enjoy using them, and creating with them. They can generate some completely unexpected, but wonderful, results.

You might think that generative music, being generated by a system, would always sound formulaic and impersonal.

What you find, instead, is that artists using their skill and judgment with parameter configurations, sound design and other choices can impose their own personality on the output, providing rich rewards for listeners through unique and live experiences.

How to make Generative Music?

It's simple, and you can be making it, for free, in seconds.

Download Wotja (it's free!) for your platform, e.g. for iOS, macOS, Windows, Android and install it as necessary.
See the Play a Flow tutorial, or:
- Launch the app, select the Flows tab (one of 4 main tabs in the Documents Screen) and then tap on any of the Flow thumbnails.
- Wotja will then start creating a succession of automatically generated generative music mixes for you to enjoy - it really is that easy to get going.

In 1995 whilst working with SSEYO Koan Pro, Brian Eno coined the term "Generative Music" to describe any music that is ever-different & changing, created by a system. See "Brian Eno's Generative Music 1 - with SSEYO Koan".

SSEYO Koan was developed by us, the Cole Brothers, who now develop Wotja, its evolution.

Before 1995 we had been referring to the output of SSEYO Koan as 'Koan Music', but 'Generative Music' is a more generic term. We were therefore happy about Eno choosing that to be used as a descriptor for "Brian Eno's Generative Music 1 - with SSEYO Koan".

Anyhow, let's take a quick journey, and go back in time. Cast your mind way, way back to 1996. Remember that? Back then we would hear people say "the Internet is only a fad", and "it will never take off". At that time computers mostly had pretty low fidelity sound cards, and generative music was a niche area (as is even the case now). So, you can imagine how honored we felt when an artist of Eno's stature took up the gauntlet and used Koan for the above title.

What he then said about generative music was eloquent and well observed and is still relevant today, so read what he said about it on the back of that release.

See also the Sparks In Electric Jelly review of the Oramics exhibition at the British Science Museum with mentions of Generative Music 1 and SSEYO Koan Pro, and see the UK Science Museum Group copy!

At the core of SSEYO Koan was the SSEYO Koan Music Engine (SKME). It was developed by us, Tim Cole & Pete Cole of Intermorphic (see also Credits). The SKME later evolved into the Noatikl Music Engine 3 (NME 3) and then that, in turn, evolved into the Wotja Music Engine (WME), all developed by us.

So, going back in history, the SKME was our first real-time music generation system. We started work on it in 1990 and the first publicly released app to use it hit the market in 1994, this being SSEYO Koan Plus (but we had versions out with Beta testers as far back as 1992).

In 1995 Brian Eno (coiner of the term Generative Music) started working with SSEYO Koan Pro, work which led to the 1996 publication of his seminal title Generative Music 1 with SSEYO Koan Software.

Fast forwarding in time, in 2007 we then evolved SSEYO Koan into what became Intermorphic Noatikl (for more background on what happened between 1996 and 2007 see SSEYO History, SSEYO Before Tao, SSEYO after Tao).

In 2017 we evolved Noatikl (and Mixtikl, Liptikl & Tiklbox) into one consolidated app range called Wotja. For more on this and thinking behind it, read the in depth PalmSounds interview with Tim Cole.

Luckily for researchers, Eno's early relationship with SSEYO Koan and Intermorphic co-founder Tim Cole was captured and published in his 1995 diary "A Year with Swollen Appendices".

At Intermorphic, we can talk with experience about two generative music engines (actually, music AND sound engines):

Koan Music Engine
- Built by us whilst at SSEYO, the first company we founded
Wotja Music Engine (WME) [AKA IME] [previously Noatikl Music Engine 3 (NME 3)]
- Built by us at Intermorphic (our new company), as the evolution of the SSEYO Koan Music Engine
- Can also play re-purposed SSEYO Koan SKD pieces
- WME [AKA IME] included in:
  - Wotja
- NME 3 included in:
Wotja Audio Engine (WAE) [previously Partikl Sound Engine 3 (PSE 3)]

New: If you are an artist that uses Wotja and who would like to be listed or featured then get in touch.

Alphabetical list:

Below are recordings of mix files that were exported from the Flow Player and then recorded. The mix files are generally multi-cell so they evolve over time - that means a 3 min recording does not reall do them justice! There were no 3rd party plug-ins used and no post-recording FX applied.

Download the mix file and put it in your Wotja Folder. Then open it in the Documents > Mixes screen. Tip: If you want to, you can change the extension from .skm (for Web File sharing) to .wotja (see filetypes), but it will still load and play fine, even if you don't.

Heads Up: The best way to hear the results that Wotja can generate is simply to get Wotja (it's free). Once installed, just one tap on a Schema is all that is needed to start playing a 'Flow' in the Flow Player. See the tutorial for Play a 'Flow'.

Wotja 23 Schemas ('Flows') [Ambient]	Recording (3 min, MP3)	Mix File
Drones 2 - 1		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 2		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 3		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 4		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 5		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 6		Wotja 23 Mix
Drones 2 - 7		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 1		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 2		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 3		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 4		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 5		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 6		Wotja 23 Mix
Environments 1 - 7		Wotja 23 Mix
Wotja 22 Flows [Ambient]	Recording (5 Mb, MP3)	Mix File
Mixed 1 - 1		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixed 1 - 2		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixed 1 - 3		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixed 1 - 4		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixed 1 - 5		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixed 1 - 6		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 1		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 2		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 3		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 4		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 5		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Pads - 6		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Piano - 1		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Piano - 2		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Piano - 3		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Strings - 1		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Strings - 2		Wotja 22 Mix
Only Strings - 3		Wotja 22 Mix
Mixes [Other]	Recording (5 Mb, MP3)	Mix File
JADITO [robot chit chat] ['How To' Video]		Wotja Mix

See Open a Wotja file. See also the Web Play examples and the mix files for the Demo Recordings above.

Mix File	Details
V23 Play me!	Mix file illustrating some of the new things in Wotja 23.
colartz.com/wotjas	More example mixes.

Important: Always make sure you have the latest version of Wotja installed (updates are free)! If you have multiple versions of Wotja installed then first delete or archive the old ones.

All OS:
- Double tap on a Wotja file (once downloaded to your device, as relevant) to open it in Wotja!
- Wotja Web files:
  - See the examples.
  - Tip: Once downloaded you can change the extension from the web file extension to the usual Wotja extension e.g. from .skm to .wotja (see filetypes). The file will still load and play fine, even if you don't.
Alternative:
- iOS
  - A) Tap on the file attachment and from the pop-up action sheet select Wotja and it should then open in Wotja; or
  - B) Tap/hold the file and in pop up menu select Move > iCloud Drive > Wotja THEN open Wotja, Documents screen > Action > Refresh and tap file to open it.
- macOS:
  - Right click on it; Select "Open With..."; Choose Wotja.
- Other OS:
  - Save the file attachment to your Wotja Folder.
  - THEN open Wotja, Documents screen > Action > Refresh, select the segment for that filetype and tap the file to open it.

See also: Share as WJURL and Wotjafy a Webpage.

Import WJURL from Clipboard:

Select and copy the entire WJURL from text message, forum post, social media post (you can select the whole message etc. if that is easier).
Open Wotja and in Documents select, as relevant, the Mixes (& Templates) or Albums, or Flows (Schemas) Screen, tap on the relevant Add New button and "From Clipboard" option.
The WJURL will be imported into Wotja and auto-opened.

Direct Import of WJURL

Try with this webpage example.

Apple:

iOS: Tap on the download button () and in the pop-up message "Do you want to allow this page to open “Wotja.app”?" select "Allow"; File is imported into Wotja and auto-opens.
macOS: As above for iOS, OR right click on link (e.g. example above); Select "Copy Link"; Open Wotja; In Documents select, as relevant, the Mixes (& Templates), Albums or Flows (Schemas) Screen; tap on the Add New button and "From Clipboard" option.

Windows:

Right click on the download button (); Select "Copy Link Location" (Firefox) or "Copy Link Address" (Chrome); Open Wotja; In Documents select, as relevant, the Mixes (& Templates) or Albums Screen; tap on the Add New button and "From Clipboard" option.

Android:

Tap/hold on the download button (); Select "Copy Link Address"; Open Wotja; In Documents select, as relevant, the Mixes (& Templates) or Albums Screen; tap on the Add New button and "From Clipboard" option.

Important: Always make sure you have the latest version of Wotja installed (updates are free)! If you have multiple versions of Wotja installed then first delete or archive the old ones.

One of the most rewarding things about Wotja is sharing with others what you have done, be that recordings of Wotja or even your Wotja Mix, Album and Schema files.

There are 4 main types of Wotja files (filetypes: Mix, Template, Album and Schema):

All four can be shared as email attachments, web files or WJURLs (see: What is a WJURL?).
All except Templates can be webplayed in Safari.

We provide four different ways for you to share both Wotja Mixes, Albums, Schemas and Templates. This is so that you can let others can see, explore and play with what you have done. Maybe you want to share your Wotja Mixes for the purposes of collaboration? Maybe you want others to listen live to your Wotja Albums or Schemas [Flows].

Advanced: If your Wotja file or WJURL references content in an add-on Pak then, provided that Pak is located in the Wotja folder on your listener's device then it will play as expected.

Share as Email Attachment

Just attach the Wotja file to your email, as you would attach any file.

Share as Web File

Web File Examples: Mix file , Album file , Template file and Schema file

Wotja files can be shared via a web page download link provided they have first been manually renamed to have the required SSEYO Koan MIME Type (i.e. .SKM, .SKP, .SKD or .SKT), i.e. a Wotja Web file - see Wotja Web file extensions.

For the Wotja file you want to share as a web file simply manually change its file extension from e.g. mywotja.wotja to mywotja.skm.
- Tip: These renamed files can also be directly opened and resaved in Wotja, too.
Upload that .skm file to your website
Link to it in a webpage as e.g. <a href="mywotja.skm">Name of your file</a>.

Historical

The above MIME types were registered by SSEYO way back in 1996 which means they are supported as standard on pretty well any web server.
We still use them today because Wotja is the evolution of SSEYO Koan and it can directly open (and play!) SSEYO Koan .SKD and .SKT files (the SSEYO Koan .SKM and .SKP are now re-used for different Wotja file types as outlined in Filetypes). See also: SSEYO Koan FAQ) and this blog post from 2020.

Share as WJURL (Social)

See also: Import a WJURL and Wotjafy a Webpage

Wotja files can easily be shared as a WJURL which can be pasted into a social media post (if you are allow to post with enough characters), message, forum post etc. They can can also be easily embedded in a Webpage (see Wotjafy a Webpage).

Either:
- Export a Wotja File to WJURL (see the Tutorial "Export a Mix to Clipboard"), or;
- In a text editor open a Wotja Mix, Template, Schema or Album file and copy all the text to the clipboard.
Paste what is on the clipboard into e.g. a social media post, tweet, text message, forum post etc.

Wotjafy a Webpage

WJURL Weblink Examples: Album WJURL | Mix WJURL | Template WJURL | Schema URL

Wotjafying a webpage simply means embedding in it a Mix WJURL, Album or Template WJURL so as to allow your website visitor to:

A) Direct import a WJURL into Wotja; or
B) Web Play a Mix, Album or Schema WJURL (in Safari for iOS/macOS).
See Example 1 (Album with 1 mix) and Example 2 (Album with 6 mixes).

How to Wotjafy a webpage (it's easy!)

Export a WJURL:
- See the Tutorial "Export a Mix to Clipboard". This shows how to Mix Actions button to export a Wotja file to clipboard as a Wotja URL ('WJURL'). It is a similar process for Albums and Schemas using the relevant Actions Menu button.
Paste it somewhere:
- Paste the text into a message or paste it into a webpage weblink (<a href="paste-your-WJURL-here">Name of your file</a>); see the Web Play examples.
Webpage owner:
- Make it easy to Launch Wotja:
  - Reason: If Wotja is not already open, then the WJURL will not play!
  - Note: For the code below to work, the visitor must already have Wotja installed.
  - Add an embedded a href link wotja://command=launchapp to your webpage, BELOW any WJURL.
  - Use this code if you wish:
    - <a href="wotja://command=launchapp"><img src="https://wotja.com/ws/images/svg/wotja-launch.svg" style="width:26px; height:26px" alt="Wotja Launch Icon" title="Wotja not playing? Tap button; Select 'Open' or 'Allow'; Background Wotja; Refresh webpage"> Tap button</a>; Select 'Open' or 'Allow'; Background Wotja; <a href="">Refresh</a> webpage.
  - This will display the following:
    - Tap button; Select 'Open' or 'Allow'; Background Wotja; Refresh webpage.
- Make it easy to stop Wotja:
  - Wotja will stop playing when the browser tab opens another page (i.e. the user leaves the current page).
  - If the user instead, however, opens ANOTHER tab to go to another page on your site then you can include the text wotja://command=stop in any such webpage, such as this one, and it will stop the Wotja Safari Extension playing.
  - IMPORTANT: This must be the first WJURL in the page (if you have others) - it can even be hidden, as it is in this page
Tips:
- Wotja mix files that include a background image and that via the Mix Actions button you "Export with Image" will create large WJURLs. You might wish to share such files as web downloadable files rather than as embedded WJURLs.
- If you are not in Pro mode then see Share as email attachment.

Web Play Examples

How to Web Play WJURLs | How to 'Wotjafy' a web page

For more playable examples see colartz.com/wotjas.

Example 1 (tap to play)

WJURL (Album): See it as text!

Example 2 (tap to play)

WJURL (Album): Includes 6 Mixes

Example 3 (tap to play)

WJURL (Mix): In a weblink

Example 4 (tap to play)

WJURL (Schema): In a weblink

Example 5 (tap to play)

WJURL (Mix): Hosted plug-in

Example 6 (tap to play)

WJURL (Mix): With Robots!

Example 7 (tap to play)

WJURL (Mix): Add-on Pak

Example 8 (tap to play)

WJURL (Mix): 3 in a web circle

How to Web Play WJURLs

Web Play Examples | Webpage owner: How to 'Wotjafy' a web page

REQUIRED: Wotja Bundle for Apple which includes Wotja Safari Extension for iOS/macOS. See OS/Device Requirements.

Enable the Wotja Safari Extension & Edit Website Permissions:
- macOS:
  - Enable Extension: Safari > Settings (or Preferences in earlier Safari) > Extensions > enable Wotja Safari Extension.
  - Website Permissions: In right hand panel tap on "Edit Websites" and select the website(s) you require. Tap image below for full size.
- iOS:
  - Enable Extension: Go to iOS Settings > Safari & Extensions > enable Wotja Safari Extension.
  - Website Permissions: After doing the above, tap on the Wotja Safari Extension item and on next page select the website(s) you require. Tap image below for full size.
  - Alternate way to enable Extension: Safari URL bar > Extensions (icon looks a bit like this if no extensions enabled, or if other extensions enabled) > Manage Extensions > enable Wotja Safari Extension > tap Done. "Puzzle" type icon shows if did not already display before.
- Website Permissions:
  - If you want to hear the examples on wotja.com (which does not request or require ANY sensitive information such as passwords, phone numbers and credit cards etc.) then permission (above) must be given for the Wotja Safari Extension to work on wotja.com (e.g. "Allow for One Day" or "Always Allow").
    - Alt: If you do not give permission you can still download Wotja albums in Lite mode and also Schemas, Mixes and Template in Pro mode and then play the files directly in Wotja.
  - Tip: If the Wotja Safari Extension is enabled for a website its icon in the Safari toolbar (macOS) or Safari URL bar (iOS) will show blue to indicate that it is active on that website.
Launch Wotja:
- Tap the app icon on your iOS or macOS device to launch it in the usual manner; or
- Tap button; Select 'Open' or 'Allow'; Background Wotja; Refresh webpage.
Return to Safari:
- Visit a webpage with an embedded WJURL. See the Web Play Examples.
To stop Wotja playing:
- Leave the page (by loading a different Safari tab); or
- In the Wotja app itself, tap the bottom orange "Stop Safari Extension Player" button; or
- Tap the plugin icon in the Safari URL bar, tap the entry for the Wotja Safari Extension and in the popup menu tap the "Stop" button.

Wotja Music