I recently tried Playstation VR and was mightily impressed by how convincingly a new 'reality' is represented. PS VR is still a bit lo-res gfx wise, and spatially has relatively low granularity, so it feels a little floaty and cartoony. But that only makes it all the more surprising how completely the brain accepts a properly represented, stereo image as being "real". It's not too dissimilar to LSD, where a physical queasiness accompanies a completely 'impossible' perceived reality (which can be wholly convincing.)

Anyway, it got me thinking of musical applications, amongst others (but we were all musicians, so....)

First off, spaces (for reverbs and atomosphere) and live venues. You could have your real guitar and your VR headset, and be onstage as the curtains opened to a crazy audience at......Wembley Stadium.....Knebworth.....Woodstock......Sydney Opera House...The Cavern Club.....

You could join Floyd in Venice, Jimi at Monterey, The Cure in Orange, The Ramones in Brixton, whatever.

And for reverbs you could flick through Notre Dame or St Peter's, Sunset Sound Studio, the Grand Canyon......

And you'd actually "be there"....with your own guitar, keyboard, or even Guitar Hero game-thing.

VSTs of vintage equipment would be "the real thing". Well, kind of.

If you need a reggae vibe you could switch your reality to a Jamaican beach bar.....or a Paris Jazz club.....

You don't even need a real audience these days. That might be enough for most of to satisfy our yearning to be musicians/stars.

And with 360 cameras you could broadcast gigs where viewers could be onstage with the band, or up in the lighting rig, or in the front row...... [Excellent for sports events imo]

And imagine growing up in a world where all this stuff is "normal" and has always been there? The mind (and MIDI) boggles.

 

I bet Slate is already working on a Raven VR, lol

 

It'd be cool if we could import a MIDI file to specify instruments and progressions and then quasi-remix with dedicated gestures; lift left palm up/down to bring in/take out sections, tick baton left, right increase speed for tempo, point furiously at timpani for improvised hits.
Hold baton directly up then swing for Skyward Strike + Spin Attack.


I'd also like to see a VR X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.

 

When I was a kid they had something like that at Epcot World of Imagination. Electronic Philharmonic. Its since been torn down and reappropriated. It worked with light sensors though. You could bring certain parts of an orchestra in and out by raising and lowering your hands over the colored lights that represented the different sections.

 

Last edited: Jan 2, 2017

At the Vienna Concert Hall! Nice.

And yeah, virtual instruments using motion sensors could be cool, if gimmicky. Always thought it'd be nice if the music changed to how I danced - rather than me struggle the other way around. :D

 

I had a couple of Rift & Vive experiences, I'm a total fan - but waiting for a higher res 2nd generation device before buying myself. I'm also discovering the possibilities as a sounddesigner for VR. On the audio-tech side, it's not mature as well. We're still lacking audioquality, manipulation of high quality reverbs, and, simple creative tools.. But things are moving fast, give it two years max.

All great ideas! I wouldn't mind to hit some drums on the Pompei gig, or what about using gestures to manipulate filters when flying around in a synth, or compose a musical piece with virtual musicians.. Exciting times ahead!

 

This would be awesome as an educational tool. Maybe not for you pro guys/gals that have it down but seeing DSP in action, visual representation of an audio signal being transformed in color and shape, being affected going through the different sections of your favorite synth, also known as how to keep your kids off drugs.

 

posted 5 years ago motion sensing filter changes with ableton

 

SYNAPSE

Only up to Model 1414 Kinect
Only up to Windows 7

 

More from his chanel

Cool stuff

 

I have a leap motion controller. I never thought about using it for midi input because the actual leap apps werent so good. But I bet theres a MAX device that has implemented it better.

Found it
http://www.lska.org/leap-modulation/

 

It's certainly not threatening the Top40, or traditional studios and instruments in the "serious" stakes. :D But the avenues it opens up for non-technical and non musical folks is exciting.

Education and visualisation stand to make some interesting applications. Wavetables in proper stereo 3D - maybe mixing and eq'ing 3D audio waves rather than a 2d meter. Sculpting 3D filters? Or making 3D IRs in virtual space?

The thing that got me about it was how convincing the virtual reality was - how solid and 3 dimensional the space was, how objects had depth, and real size. SIZE. They're REAL size. Or whatever. It wouldn't be just a picture of a grand piano, say, it's full size in your perception. As would be the Notre Dame vaulted ceiling above you.

It did make me queasy, esp with a few beers, but it is so captivating......it's quite a marvel. It's so convincing and compelling I couldn't help but be hugely stimulated - this is going to take off and it's going to be crazy. A flat screen is very, very flat afterwards.

Obviously gaming (and porn) is probably the main application, but where gaming meets music there's huge potential - in paid work for audio folks if nothing else. ;)

 

I can see the attraction for air guitar champs. In my case, playing VR air bodhran in public would have me instantly thrown out by the security goons standing behind me.

 

2 words: surround music.

Now that VR is here & prevalent, there's another avenue for surround music delivery.

But that doesn't make it easy for us. There's the fuma vs ACN, and you can't just export a 1oA & upload to YT (like a ssimple checkbox for 3D video). You need to download this 'injector app' and futz with that.

 

I felt a familiar croon at around the 17-18 sec mark but was too focused on the hand control. Then I hit the 37 sec mark and was like "Hey. I know who that is." Then I looked at the file name in Granulator.
That's an interesting device.

 

I was part of their funding campaign (Leap motion) on kickstarter. I prepaid 60 dollars for mine years ago. It didn't work so well with my 2 previous setups, too much latency. But now with 8 cores its a lot better

 

i know you cant wait to fiddle at your vr harrison consol and switch with 1 click to your virtual waves mixroom with a ssl console. Press control + A -> Welcome to abbey road studios ;D

But ... AMD did some research what is needed to replace a monitor with vr ...

"Der sensibelste Teil der Netzhaut, die Netzhautgrube sieht etwa 60 PPD (Pixel pro Grad), was mit dem Sichtfeld von 120° horizontal und 135° vertikal und der Multiplikation mit zwei (da wir zwei Augen haben) auf einen Wert von insgesamt 116 Megapixel kommt. Diese Auflösung kann demnach mit zwei 16K Displays erreicht werden."

for all that dont speak german ...

A AMD study says you need 2 16k dispalys (1 per eye) to replace the feeling of using a monitor in aplications.
So we have to wait a view more years.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 31, 2016

Not easy? Jesus, what does all that even mean? lol

The present resolution on PS is 1920x1080 split across two eyes. Nobody is going to mistake the visuals for reality. ;)

The real whizz of it is in the ease of the brain accepting even cartoony 3D objects are really there - 3D virtual objects have substance, dimension and SCALE that is completely absent on any regular screen. The relationship to information/data changes in a quite amazing and inspiring way.

I recommend everyone to try if they haven't already. It's quite a deal. But take care - my mate threw up. :D

 

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6395969?hl=en&ref_topic=2888648