WOPR Puts ‘Artificial Life….In Service Of The Groove’

Omnivore Software has released WOPR – a polyphonic, stereo virtual analog synthesizer for iPad that features unique evolving modulation, driven by vintage 1970s cellular automata.

WOPR is a powerful virtual analog synthesizer, but what sets it apart is its modulation grid: you paint a pattern of cells into a grid, set the tempo, hit ‘run’ and let the cellular automata evolve your pattern. You can link areas of the grid to any of the synth’s parameters and your patches come to life, rhythmically pulsating as the patterns shift with each beat. You can constrain parameters to ranges for tight control over rhythmic modulation, or set them free to dynamically breed new patches.

Core synth engine:

  • 2 pannable oscillators with sine, saw, square and triangle waves. Each oscillator has an incredible range: 32′ to 1′, with +/- 500 cent detune (a perfect fourth either way). There’s also a white noise generator.
  • 3 ADSR envelopes, 2 assignable between osc 1 & 2 and the third dedicated to the noise source.
  • 2 resonant 24Db/octave low pass filters, assignable to osc 1 & 2 or to the left and right stereo channels.
  • 2 delays, a free-running delay with fine control over low intervals, and a tempo-synced delay running from 32nds to two whole beats. Delays are independent, or can be assigned to feed each other in any sequence.
  • 2 octave, full-width ribbon keyboard: play piano like a guitar, bending individual notes or entire chords.
  • 6 voice polyphony.
  • Modulation matrix: use this to link controls to the Game of Life, or simply use it to define a custom control panel for easy performance.

Note: WOPR is made for iPad 2 or later only. There’s no mention of MIDI support at this time.

WOPR is available now in the App Store.

If you’ve used WOPR, let us know what you think of it!

14 thoughts on “WOPR Puts ‘Artificial Life….In Service Of The Groove’

  1. Hi, developer here. Thanks for showing WOPR on Synthtopia and thanks to those who bought it too! I’ve had a few requests for MIDI for people who want to use it live, so this is definitely something I’ll be working on.

    I deliberately released it without audio copy or MIDI since I wanted to see which there was more demand for before committing resources: they’re both equally complicated and I want to pick the right one to do first. Smo, I hope you do click ‘buy’ soon: each release is going up in price by a dollar, so waiting will cost you! 🙂

    Cheers everyone, happy playing.

  2. Scrumper – thanks for the reply. As iOS artists, we love to know the developers are paying attention to our feedback.

    As far as your comment, I just don’t get it. I understand that there’s a limited amount of resources in a project like this. However, without Copy + Paste a musical app is not an instrument, it’s merely a toy.
    I hope that comment isn’t misinterpreted. I’m not knocking the quality of your app. I’m just saying that without C + P there’s no real way to use it as an instrument,

    1. Hi Jeremicci, I totally understand. I’m a musician too. I know that both audio copy and MIDI are essential, so it’s not a question of which one gets done, it’s just about which one gets done *first*. That’s all about making the biggest group of users happy first, then the next biggest and so on. For me to have delayed releasing by another month to implement audio copy only to find that nobody wanted it and everyone demanded MIDI instead, well, that’s a slap. So now it’s out at a toy price and I can listen to everyone who bought it and reviewed it and make decisions based on real data.

      Right now, the feedback I’ve received is that MIDI is more important so that’s what’ll be in the next release. I’ve had a bunch of people emailing asking for MIDI for live use, whereas nearly everyone who’s asked for audio copy has asked for MIDI as well. As it happens I’ve got simple MIDI working now (for USB keyboards and MIDI-over-wifi) and I’m just bug squashing before I submit another build to Apple.

      I certainly didn’t misinterpret your comment, I really, really appreciate the feedback and your interest in WOPR. Thanks again!

      Cheers

  3. A ton of potential here would love to see the midi and c&p added. I am such a sucker for game of life apps. This one sounds great too.

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