26 thoughts on “Virtual Reality Beat Making With Oculus Rift

  1. It gives great demo, but can you imagine using it for an hour like that?
    Your arm will fall off.
    I’m not convinced from this concept.

  2. what a waste of time ! seriously why would you even bother ? I cant even see where this would be useful? go back to playing your nintendo wi losers!

    1. Why not?

      Of course this doesn’t seem like a practical application and it doesn’t really bring any new features to the table but I’m sure that the creator had fun making this and probably also learned a lot in the process. Ultimately this isn’t a product to be critiqued and scrutinized but something cool that someone with an Oculus hacked together in their free time.

      And who knows? Perhaps there are some really interesting musical uses for VR which go much deeper than operating a 2D step sequencer in a virtual space, but we won’t really know until we get in there and start experimenting. Projects such as this one can be stepping stones for people to do just that.

  3. A 2d sequence grid in a 3d space. This is like using an entire monome to emulate a single knob. There are good ways to do this, but this isn’t one. If we get a responsive 3d space to work in, I want to shape music like clay, not poke buttons. Use your imagination, instead of making something that is cheaper and better implemented many other places already.

  4. Stupid, why would I want to have a VR session just to sit in front of a virtual computer, I can do that already its called a touchscreen monitor or ipad morons!

    1. I don’t think this is stupid at all. This is a GREAT idea!
      I can think of several reasons to use VR to make music including:

      1 – your DAW screen could be several times larger than your hardware screen – this would be great for arranging.
      2 – the arrangement / production process could become much more intuitive if it used gesture controls, and accurately mapped your hand positions – think Minority Report 😉

      Cheers

      Andy

      1. first off, yes a VR-Environment is larger than a computer screen, but the display resolution of VR headsets is far weaker. Good look reading small text under a rift or vive. Secondly, wearing a VR headset is more uncomfortable than sitting in front of a monitor, you get more eye strains quicker.

        As a proof of concept for Leap Motion its ok, but gesture control isnt more natural and more easy than using a mouse, expecially when you want do control a mixer with lots of tiny buttons. There you need a small very precise device like a mouse cursor or a pen. Thats also why you dont get a full blown DAW on an ipad that you want to work with instead of live, logic or cubase, they are all striped down for touchscreen use.

        Making Music in VR should mimic making Music in real life, it needs a completely new interface and sound manipulation possibilities to make sense. think of something like tilt brush, only not for drawing but for music.

        1. I agree. It is like putting on a VR headset and being placed into an immersive lounge setting – if I do this gesture like this I can switch the virtual lights on in the room, and?

          I think this kind of thing is better suited to Augmented Virtuality, a more specific and under-addressed form of VR. So that you have a physical controller that is represented as Augmented Virtuality, and you can place any graphics onto that physical form that you can physically interactive with.

          Waving your arms around like a tit looks good in Sci-fi films, but have you tried it? It doesn’t hold up, hurts the arms for extended use, with no contact for feedback, useless to use at any pro level. Bad enough trying such rubbish on a glass touch screen without a physical reference point.

          These sort of experiments seem like an anti-advert for VR. It doesn’t seem like an improvement on anything, is the workflow quicker? Is the production better? Does it inspire? I don’t think it stands up on any level – other than a novelty.

          1. It’s nice that you’ve managed to regurgitate every anti-vr cliche ever. I’m surprised you didn’t add in that “VR is just a TV strapped to your head” or “VR failed in the 90’s and will fail again”.

            Tell me what’s under-addressed in AR? Given that massive development is being poured into VR and AR and that both technologies have their own uses. They are parallel technologies rather than competing.

            It’s a sad reflection on a society that regards any form of exercise as the worst possible nightmare. Yes I can wave my arms around and no they don’t hurt. I understand however that some people have medical conditions causing their arms to fail after a few moments of being airborne.

            It’s great that you speak for everyone including professionals who use VR motion controllers. Just a shame your anti-vr nonsense is so generic.

        2. As someone who uses VR on a daily basis you’re talking an absolute pile of crud. I use DCS world and Oculus DK2 resolution is sufficient to read the small HUD symbology on all but the A10. Having been in contact with the developer of DCS he assures me that Oculus CV1 and HTC Vive have sufficiently increased resolution to display the small HUD data clearly in the A10. Given that the HUD symbology is smaller than any VR music app would use – you’re talking pish.

          “Secondly, wearing a VR headset is more uncomfortable than sitting in front of a monitor, you get more eye strains quicker.” << Again with the false information. CV1 and Vive use fresnel lenses and they have a side-effect of allowing the eyes to relax due to a focal plane far behind the display surface. So long as the headset is calibrated for the user there is no issue. Weight is another matter… I read some nonsense from an ex soldier who'd never tried VR and said it would be too heavy for his head. He also complained bitterly about the weight of the army helmet he had to wear. Then he went on to complain about having to wear a hard hat when he went into the construction industry. I can use an DK2 for hours on end and I've never experienced any discomfort.

          Some people fall of their chairs and go into shock for any number of little reasons and all because of VR apparently.

  5. I’m always happy to embrace new technology that can enhance the experience of creating music.. but this.. sorry. I can’t see the point, it’s just an expensive gimmick.

  6. Someone’s inability to see the point does not mean there isn’t a point… It’s a lack of vision and imagination. As a VR user it’s a lot of fun entering other worlds. Nothing wrong with having VR based sound generators and if they could control real hardware that would be great.

    This particular demo is just testing the water really.

    “expensive gimmick” << People with lack of imagination dismiss anything they don't understand as a gimmick. No one is going to be buying HMD VR to use this music demo. For someone already using VR it's not expensive.

    http://www.roadtovr.com/first-look-thewave-lets-djs-drop-the-beat-in-vr/

  7. I’d like to see something similar with the Vive, so that I can overlay all my existing equipment on a virtual world of my choosing. A hybrid VR/real world system would be epic.

  8. This is amazing, I want to use an environment like this to make music! People calm down, it’s a stinkn prototype, a concept. I see alot of potential here. Now you can finally play those vaporware synths!

  9. This is a great start! The critics are hilarious and obviously don’t understand shit about development. If you want to play with music like clay, someone is going to have create you an interface first! It’s a lot of fuckkng work.

  10. Apps like this are important to any new technology. Look at the first sequencers out there, they kinda sucked. People would frown about making music on a computer, when you had perfectly good tape machines all over the place with 24 tracks! Then things started to pop, you had programs like Opcode’s Vision and Mark of the Unicorn’s Performer come out and things started to move, Then Studio Vision came along then Sound Tools and Pro Edit and Pro Mix and then eventually Pro Tools. Although what you see now look silly and ridiculous now, the ones who can imagine the future and see the potential are the one who’ll be working in 15 years and the rest will be the bitter non VR old timers who couldn’t keep up.
    Change is slow, clunky and sometimes just looks silly, ever see a picture of a laptop from the 80’s hello Osborne computer, we are on the edge on some new cutting edge stuff, don’t be a hater. embrace and stay relevant.

  11. I think this is a great idea.

    It opens up the possibility to audio software vendors to produce VR versions of their VSTis, AUs and DAWs. Imagine being immersed in a VR studio environment or all your favourite vintage synths instead of clicking a mouse to control them. Not to mention 360-degree 3-D VR immersions of gigs and live events.

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