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

[impete]

Thank you very much! It is greatly appreciated. I will stay tuned...

Without honest feedback from both existing and prospective customers, it is *very* hard for us to get things right! So, we truly appreciate your telling us!

Best wishes, Pete

[ZincT]

@impete I have now purchased Pro; agree with zzz00m re "supporting the mission".

One thing I have noticed is that, when I Quit Wotja standalone, it seemed to just sit there doing nothing. In fact it was popping up a dialog box prompting whether I want to save the document, but the dialog was behind the Wotja window. To find it I had to Alt-Tab to get to the dialog box and quit. This seems to happen every time i.e. the dialog is hidden.

[TIMT]

Don't hate them, but i think their analog modelling tech in plugins is incredibly overrated..especially their pre models, or anything that involves a nonlinearity(filter models etc). swear by their Minibrute and Microfreak though

[zzz00m]

Don't hate them, but i think their analog modelling tech in plugins is incredibly overrated..especially their pre models, or anything that involves a nonlinearity(filter models etc). swear by their Minibrute and Microfreak though

Oops! Looks like you replied to the wrong thread. Assume that this was Arturia related?

[impete]

@impete I have now purchased Pro; agree with zzz00m re "supporting the mission".

One thing I have noticed is that, when I Quit Wotja standalone, it seemed to just sit there doing nothing. In fact it was popping up a dialog box prompting whether I want to save the document, but the dialog was behind the Wotja window. To find it I had to Alt-Tab to get to the dialog box and quit. This seems to happen every time i.e. the dialog is hidden.

Thanks! I've definitely seen that myself - I think it must be a JUCE bug...

I've made a note to investigate in the next week or 2!

Best wishes, Pete

[impete]

I guess it is now fair to describe Wotja 22 as a Generative DAW.

Probably the first and only

Pete

[ZincT]

I guess it is now fair to describe Wotja 22 as a Generative DAW.

Probably the first and only

Pete

Yes indeed and even on IPadOS!

I have also been trying the IPadOS version which seems to work fine and picked up all my plugins. I did do a double take when it started talking to me though

[impete]

I guess it is now fair to describe Wotja 22 as a Generative DAW.

Probably the first and only

Pete

Yes indeed and even on IPadOS!

I have also been trying the IPadOS version which seems to work fine and picked up all my plugins. I did do a double take when it started talking to me though

Haha - watch out for the Text to Speech option (available in iOS and macOs)

Tim is pretty certain that we're actually the only free Audio Plug-in Host for any of iOS, macOS, Windows *app stores* (at least, in terms of our looking in the App Stores). I'd hope that'd be of interest to those who just want to play with free plug-ins for free, without having to go outside of the App Stores.

Best wishes, Pete

[impete]

FWIW, I've been told that the following VST plug-ins currently cause Wotja to crash while scanning:

IKM AmpliTube 4
Soundspot Union

if anybody knows of any more, do please let me know.

Pete

[zzz00m]

Fyi, in my testing, the VST3 plugin produces sound if the DAW audio is set at 44.1KHz. At 48KHz, nothing!

I used Kontakt as the sound generator using the NI "Ethereal Earth" instrument. Atmospheric!

EDIT: The Flows perform well, but if I switch to the Mixes tab "V22 Play Me", then the plugin becomes possessed (unresponsive), as was previously mentioned, and I lose control of the GUI and DAW, and have to exit the DAW though the Windows GUI.

This is just a follow-up to my post yesterday. Two items to update, and one note to add (went down the rabbit hole today):

1. I confirmed the Wotja 22 VST3 plugin 44.1KHz sample rate limitation using a few other DAWs, so that appears to be true across the board, at least on Windows.
2. The Wotja 22 VST3 plugin unresponsiveness that I experienced is limited to Cakewalk by BandLab. Reaper, Ableton, and Studio One ran it just fine.

Note: I found that the Wotja 22 VST3 plugin will generate sound regardless of the host transport status. For me the play button in Wotja operated independently of the host. So far, I'm unable to tempo sync with the host. I probably just need to read the manual! Ha!

Otherwise, all is good here! Loving it!

[gondii]

I had no problem loading Amplitube 4 though.

Note: I found that the Wotja 22 VST3 plugin will generate sound regardless of the host transport status. For me the play button in Wotja operated independently of the host. So far, I'm unable to tempo sync with the host. I probably just need to read the manual! Ha!

Yes, I'm having trouble with that as well. And sometimes it's generating midi from some preset even though my project is completely empty. Cannot stop or start.If I delete the track and load a new instance of Wotja, it seems to work mostly, incl. the transport control/sync to host. But it's definitely annoying.

[ZincT]

@impete and @zzz00m

I was just about to post this when I saw zzz00m's results which are different to mine. Anyway, maybe some other things at play here. @zzz00m did you have the Wotja UI open for all of these tests? Also, I was able to get tempo/transport sync to work as mentioned below apart from in Studio One and Mixcraft...

I have now tried the plugin a bit more in Cakewalk bB, Cubase 11 Pro, Studio One 5 Pro, Reaper and Mixcraft Pro (all latest versions).

In all of them I can get the internal Wotja sounds to play from the DAW and, apart from Cubase and Studio One, I am able to route the MIDI output from Wotja to other VSTis. The common issue seems to be when the Wotja UI is open; all of the DAW UIs becomes laggy/unresponsive until the Wotja UI is closed (which can take a while after pressing the close window control a few times). Also, Studio One and Mixcraft transports do not sync with Wotja but seem to operate independently.

Reaper - current position cursor is not updated when Wotja UI is open. Closing Wotja UI closes it immediately. Seems the most responsive with Wotja loaded.

Cakewalk - current position cursor update becomes jerky when Wotja UI is open. Takes a few clicks to close the Wotja UI.

Cubase Pro 11 - current position cursor is not updated when Wotja UI is open. Closing Wotja UI closes it immediately. I don't seem to be able to route Wotja MIDI to another VSTi. I can route it but I don't hear any output from the instrument.

Studio One 5 - Does not sync with Wotja i.e. transport controls do not control Wotja mix start/top. You can open Wotja UI and play a mix within Wotja UI but Studio One controls and UI are locked out until you close the Wotja UI. Takes a few clicks to close the Wotja UI. I don't seem to be able to route Wotja MIDI to another VSTi. I can route it but I don't hear any output from the instrument.

Mixcraft 9 Pro - Does not sync with Wotja i.e. transport controls do not control Wotja mix start/top. You can open Wotja UI and play a mix within Wotja UI but Mixcraft controls and UI are locked out until you close the Wotja UI. The only way I can find to route MIDI from Wotja to another instrument is to load Wotja onto the instrument track and then move it to be on top of the other instrument.

[tatanka]

@impete and @zzz00m

I was just about to post this when I saw zzz00m's results which are different to mine. Anyway, maybe some other things at play here. @zzz00m did you have the Wotja UI open for all of these tests? Also, I was able to get tempo/transport sync to work as mentioned below apart from in Studio One and Mixcraft...

I have now tried the plugin a bit more in Cakewalk bB, Cubase 11 Pro, Studio One 5 Pro, Reaper and Mixcraft Pro (all latest versions).

In all of them I can get the internal Wotja sounds to play from the DAW and, apart from Cubase and Studio One, I am able to route the MIDI output from Wotja to other VSTis. The common issue seems to be when the Wotja UI is open; all of the DAW UIs becomes laggy/unresponsive until the Wotja UI is closed (which can take a while after pressing the close window control a few times). Also, Studio One and Mixcraft transports do not sync with Wotja but seem to operate independently.

Reaper - current position cursor is not updated when Wotja UI is open. Closing Wotja UI closes it immediately. Seems the most responsive with Wotja loaded.

Cakewalk - current position cursor update becomes jerky when Wotja UI is open. Takes a few clicks to close the Wotja UI.

Cubase Pro 11 - current position cursor is not updated when Wotja UI is open. Closing Wotja UI closes it immediately. I don't seem to be able to route Wotja MIDI to another VSTi. I can route it but I don't hear any output from the instrument.

Studio One 5 - Does not sync with Wotja i.e. transport controls do not control Wotja mix start/top. You can open Wotja UI and play a mix within Wotja UI but Studio One controls and UI are locked out until you close the Wotja UI. Takes a few clicks to close the Wotja UI. I don't seem to be able to route Wotja MIDI to another VSTi. I can route it but I don't hear any output from the instrument.

Mixcraft 9 Pro - Does not sync with Wotja i.e. transport controls do not control Wotja mix start/top. You can open Wotja UI and play a mix within Wotja UI but Mixcraft controls and UI are locked out until you close the Wotja UI. The only way I can find to route MIDI from Wotja to another instrument is to load Wotja onto the instrument track and then move it to be on top of the other instrument.

Thanks a lot for your detailed info, can confirm your Mixcraft Pro 9 experience, transport bar is definitely not working. I have not tested that in detail with closing windows and just playing inside Wotja "on top" window cause it does not really makes sense for me if I cant control from the Mixcraft transport bar (as I would like to copy the midi to other tracks and play on other tracks with other midi apps involved for example).

So this (for me) is really one of the things that need to be fixed as soon as possible to make it useable inside Mixcraft at all.

[ZincT]

FWIW, I've been told that the following VST plug-ins currently cause Wotja to crash while scanning:

IKM AmpliTube 4
Soundspot Union

if anybody knows of any more, do please let me know.

Pete

Antares Harmony Engine crashes Wotja every time.

Waves plugins cause it to stop scanning and prompt for a folder location for every Waveshell (approx 5 times, one for each Waveshell).

[impete]

Antares Harmony Engine crashes Wotja every time.

Many thanks!

Waves plugins cause it to stop scanning and prompt for a folder location for every Waveshell (approx 5 times, one for each Waveshell).

Thanks for that too. I've had to report some weird crashes caught by our crash reporter system, with Waves plug-ins on macOS. They're doing something *really* weird with WebKit and JavaScript (that leads to a crash...).

That said, I've got some Waves plug-ins, which haven't caused problems on Windows 10 or 11.

All very peculiar!

Thanks again, Pete