MusicWonk is essentially the same program as ArtWonk, but without the animation graphics components. The MIDI and general algorithmic functionality of both programs are identical, and file formats are compatible between the two programs.
MusicWonk produces MIDI music based on algorithmic processes in real time. You compose by connecting "modules" - graphical objects that represent functions and processes - adjusting the parameters and instantly hearing the results as you go.
"Interconnecting the modules is a drag and drop operation. Making edits is as easy as you'd want it to be. You can't connect signals that are incompatible. I've seen lots of graphical programming environments, such as MAX and KYMA. This program has no peer in this area of graphical interactive program development."
MusicWonk will drive MIDI synthesizers, soft synths and sound cards directly, effectively "playing" them in real time or optionally responding to user or environmental parameters; it will also record directly to a standard MIDI file that can play your synth or card directly or can be imported into your notation based sequencer.
If you use a modular soft synth you will instantly feel at home with MusicWonk because its modular design and interactive, real time feedback working loop is similar.
But MusicWonk is not a soft synth that creates the audio; it is a MIDI generating program that drives your soft synth, sound card or MIDI sound module as if you were playing it from a keyboard.
What makes MusicWonk different from most MIDI music creation software is that it is always active, always live. When you make a change in MusicWonk, you hear it instantly.
So the program feels more like a hardware synthesizer than a notation based MIDI sequencer. In fact, MusicWonk was designed to work alongside softsynths, hardware synths, and sound cards as an extension of their real time control.
So creating the flow of music and selecting the sounds on your synth becomes a fluid interactive process where you are always hearing each change you make when you make it.
Requirements:
· CPU speed 500 MHz or faster
· sound card
· 1024x768 High Color (16-bit) or True Color
· 32 MB RAM
Limitations:
· save commands unavailable
