Wotja 22 - Generative Music App & Plug-in Host (Free, Pro; AUv3 / VST3)

[ZincT]

@impete
More results with the same track setup in standalone Wotja as mentioned previously (1 - Ambient, 2- Generator&Repeater).

Spectrasonics OmniSphere (O2 hereonwards)
The O2 UI was unresponsive for a while so I left it, went back to Wotja mix screen and then back to O2. Then I was able to load a Multi into O2 but when I went back to the Wotja Music screen and pressed play it crashed. Tried this twice with the same result.

Synapse Dune 3
Loaded 2 instances and the UI worked fine. All worked as expected.

VPS Avenger (appears under Keilworth Audio/Vengeance Sound)
Loaded 2 instances and the UI worked fine. All worked as expected.

Tone2 Warlock (also need to install the beta VST3 of Icarus 2 and test this)
Loaded 2 instances and the UI worked fine. All worked as expected.

Arturia V Collection 8
I'm working my way through these but so far all ok.

Applied Acoustics
All seem to work (Chromaphone 3, Ultra Analog VA-3, Strum GS-2, LL EP-4 and AAS Player)

[ZincT]

@JamminFool
I do actually have Live Lite 11 in my Ableton account but not installed. I believe that @zzz00m has it installed and he is usually around late afternoon in the UK (he's in the USA I think) so hopefully will be able to advise.

[zzz00m]

does anyone know of a way to use wotja in Live and have the same instance of wotja run mutiple tracks in Live on different channels?

I have Live 11 Suite.

But since I have never gotten Wotja to sync with Live at all, haven't attempted to really use Wotja for anything else there yet. On the bright side, MIDI out works to another instrument track!

I even uninstalled/reinstalled Live last night. But no luck with sync yet.

Here's an example of Wotja sending MIDI output to one other track. Note that both of the boxes under "MIDI from" for track 2 must be selected. Plus make sure that any receiving tracks are "armed", or else you will not get any sound from them. After I took this screen grab, I added a 3rd track the same way, and had all 3 playing together.

So far I have only figured out how to get MIDI ch 1 to respond in Kontakt. There must be some way to control the MIDI ch being sent from Wotja, so if I have an instrument assigned to MIDI ch 2 it will play.

[zzz00m]

An update for the Surge Synth plugin.

I found that I had an older version (1.7) installed that was crashing Wotja's plugin scan.

Updated to the latest version on the website (1.9), and now Wotja is happy with it!
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

[JamminFool]

does anyone know of a way to use wotja in Live and have the same instance of wotja run mutiple tracks in Live on different channels?

I have Live 11 Suite.

But since I have never gotten Wotja to sync with Live at all, haven't attempted to really use Wotja for anything else there yet. On the bright side, MIDI out works to another instrument track!

I even uninstalled/reinstalled Live last night. But no luck yet.

Here's an example of Wotja sending MIDI output to one other track. Note that both of the boxes under "MIDI from" for track 2 must be selected.

Thanks for your help.

However, my problem occurs when I want to add output from the same instance of Wotja to a second track in Live. So in your setup, if you add another track inside Wotja
which sends MIDI on a different midi channel to another track inside Live. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this.

In other words, one instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel one to a track in Live and another track in the same instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel 2 to a different track in Live.

Wotja can correctly send the data on unique channels, but Live will only see the output from midi channel 1.

So I can't run all of the different generators to unique VSTi plugs in Live without them all receiving the output on midi channel 1.

EDIT: i am having trouble making myself clear here, but hopefully you see what i mean (i want each unique plugin track in Live to be fed by a unique generator from a single instance of Wotja).

[impete]

An update for the Surge Synth plugin.

I found that I had an older version (1.7) installed that was crashing Wotja's plugin scan.

Updated to the latest version on the website (1.9), and now Wotja is happy with it!
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Fabulous

Pete

[impete]

@UncleAge When the dialog box is opening behind the UI, can you use Alt-Tab so that you can then gain access to it?

Yes. And when I do the original dialogue box is still there where you name the template. The second dialogue box that pops-up just confirms that the new template was saved and has an OK button. Both were behind the main UI. I was a little surprised to see the first one still open.

Thanks for the tip

Hi folks!

In the next update: FIXED: Windows "file save" alert might be hidden behind Wotja

Many thanks for your feedback! This required a work-around to a weird JUCE bug.

Best wishes, Pete

[zzz00m]

Thanks for your help.

However, my problem occurs when I want to add output from the same instance of Wotja to a second track in Live. So in your setup, if you add another track inside Wotja
which sends MIDI on a different midi channel to another track inside Live. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this.

In other words, one instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel one to a track in Live and another track in the same instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel 2 to a different track in Live.

Wotja can correctly send the data on unique channels, but Live will only see the output from midi channel 1.

So I can't run all of the different generators to unique VSTi plugs in Live without them all receiving the output on midi channel 1.

EDIT: i am having trouble making myself clear here, but hopefully you see what i mean (i want each unique plugin track in Live to be fed by a unique generator from a single instance of Wotja).

I understand what you are saying, and it appears to be a limitation with Live 11. For reference, see Chapter 15 in the Live 11 Reference Manual, Routing and I/O, section 15.5.2, Several MIDI Tracks Playing the Same Instrument.

By adding a new MIDI only track as a go-between the instrument tracks, you can receive from a MIDI source and then send that input to any MIDI output, and in the case of a multi-timbral synth such as Kontakt, the 16 "send to" channels are available. This worked as far as only playing the Kontakt instrument assigned to MIDI ch 2.

But the catch here is that Live apparently only sees all MIDI output from Wotja as "Omni", or "ch1", so there is no way to split up the internal Wotja MIDI outputs in Live to allow you to pick and choose what to send where. So no matter what you do in Live, all Wotja channels are merged together, so all you can do is parallel them as "Omni" to other Live tracks.

I am going to check this in Reaper, as it has the best routing flexibility in a DAW.

[mcbpete]

Hi Impete - Is there a way of getting Wotja to not autoscan my VSTi3s on launch? It seems to hit issues just after it hits waves plugins, though I only really intend to use it for generating midi notes so am happy for it to not use any of my vsts...

[impete]

Hi Impete - Is there a way of getting Wotja to not autoscan my VSTi3s on launch? It seems to hit issues just after it hits waves plugins, though I only really intend to use it for generating midi notes so am happy for it to not use any of my vsts...

Hi!

Yes, this is changed in the next build, which I'm just finalising!

IMPROVED: Host Plug-in scanning:

Documents screen: rather than automatically starting a plug-in scan:
if you've not yet done a plug-in scan, you're prompted to do so
Title: "Scan for Hosted Plug-ins?"
Message: "You have not yet scanned for Hosted Plug-ins. Would you like to do this now?\n\nYou can scan at any time, by going to the Plug-ins screen, and press the top-left button to re-scan\n\nIf the plug-in scan closes Wotja, simply re-start Wotja; any failed plug-ins are listed in the Action menu on the Plug-ins screen."
Buttons: "Start Scan Now", "Ask Me Again Later", "Don't ask me again”

Plug-ins screen (tab): when top-left button pressed, we now display an alert before kicking-off the scan
Title: "Scan for Hosted Plug-ins?"
Message: "If the plug-in scan closes Wotja, simply re-start Wotja; any failed plug-ins are listed in the Action menu on this screen.";
Buttons: "Start Scan Now", “Cancel"

Plug-ins screen (tab): if you have failed plug-ins, you see two menu items at top of menu:
"Show Failed Plug-ins: 1 failed" (or whatever the number is)
shows alert "The following plug-ins have failed while scanning:"
"Reset Failed Plug-ins, and Re-scan"
... these aren't show if there are no failed plug-ins
Verified on Windows with my home-made VST3 failing plug-in

[impete]

Hi Impete - Is there a way of getting Wotja to not autoscan my VSTi3s on launch? It seems to hit issues just after it hits waves plugins, though I only really intend to use it for generating midi notes so am happy for it to not use any of my vsts...

NB if you could find the time to report the crashes to Waves via their feedback page, that'd be super helpful I think.

They're already investigating some crashes we've seen on macOS when scanning their AU V2.

Best wishes,

Pete

[JamminFool]

Thanks for your help.

However, my problem occurs when I want to add output from the same instance of Wotja to a second track in Live. So in your setup, if you add another track inside Wotja
which sends MIDI on a different midi channel to another track inside Live. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this.

In other words, one instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel one to a track in Live and another track in the same instance of Wotja sending midi output on midi channel 2 to a different track in Live.

Wotja can correctly send the data on unique channels, but Live will only see the output from midi channel 1.

So I can't run all of the different generators to unique VSTi plugs in Live without them all receiving the output on midi channel 1.

EDIT: i am having trouble making myself clear here, but hopefully you see what i mean (i want each unique plugin track in Live to be fed by a unique generator from a single instance of Wotja).

I understand what you are saying, and it appears to be a limitation with Live 11. For reference, see Chapter 15 in the Live 11 Reference Manual, Routing and I/O, section 15.5.2, Several MIDI Tracks Playing the Same Instrument.

By adding a new MIDI only track as a go-between the instrument tracks, you can receive from a MIDI source and then send that input to any MIDI output, and in the case of a multi-timbral synth such as Kontakt, the 16 "send to" channels are available. This worked as far as only playing the Kontakt instrument assigned to MIDI ch 2.

But the catch here is that Live apparently only sees all MIDI output from Wotja as "Omni", or "ch1", so there is no way to split up the internal Wotja MIDI outputs in Live to allow you to pick and choose what to send where. So no matter what you do in Live, all Wotja channels are merged together, so all you can do is parallel them as "Omni" to other Live tracks.

I am going to check this in Reaper, as it has the best routing flexibility in a DAW.

Thank you for spending your time confirming this for me. Bummer, since this is exactly what I want to do with the Wotja VST3.

[UncleAge]

Thank you for spending your time confirming this for me. Bummer, since this is exactly what I want to do with the Wotja VST3.

I asked for this in Live many years ago. I didn't see it come down the pike so I switched to Bitwig. And yes, Reaper can do this natively as well.

However, to get you going I am pretty sure a midi loop-back app like LoopBe can take care of this for you. Use LoopBe as your output on the Wotja track and input on any tracks that you want to work with. If I remember correctly each of the midi channels will be available to pick from. All you have to do really is assign each generator to a separate midi channel in Wotja. And if memory serves me correct LoopBe is free. I have no idea if this will work in your OS.

[zzz00m]

Thank you for spending your time confirming this for me. Bummer, since this is exactly what I want to do with the Wotja VST3.

I asked for this in Live many years ago. I didn't see it come down the pike so I switched to Bitwig. And yes, Reaper can do this natively as well.

However, to get you going I am pretty sure a midi loop-back app like LoopBe can take care of this for you. Use LoopBe as your output on the Wotja track and input on any tracks that you want to work with. If I remember correctly each of the midi channels will be available to pick from. All you have to do really is assign each generator to a separate midi channel in Wotja. And if memory serves me correct LoopBe is free. I have no idea if this will work in your OS.

At least Live finally added support for VST3, as of v10.1, LOL!

But that's a great idea for the midi loopback work around!

LoopBe1 is free, and works with Windows. https://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html

[impete]

Once Wotja 22.0.6 is pushed out, I'll get back to looking at issues reported around the Wotja VST3, as well as various VST3 hosting niggles.

Never a shortage of things to do

Pete