Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Muso-VR, NOT JUST A GAME, IT'S A TOOL
As part virtual reality game, part musical tool, MUSO VR will be designed to bring its players a new and heightened way to explore all the elements of the orchestra. To accomplish this, the game will employ three modes: Conductor Mode, Player Mode, and Observer Mode.
CONDUCTOR MODE:
Imagine standing on the podium and looking into the eyes of over 100 virtual musicians and singers, each poised and ready to follow your every gesture.
You’ve studied the instructional videos which have taught you the basic beat patterns, how to start the orchestra, how to keep time… You even know a bit about how to cue the different players and give indication of dynamics.
You perform your practiced upbeat and begin conducting. The virtual musicians follow your gestures, performing your favorite orchestral composition.
Look to your right, to your cello section, and the cellos become more prominent in your audio mix. Look to your left, the violins take over. Everything in the audio is reflective of the virtual world and what you see.
Your gestures grow in ferocity and the sound, volume, and texture of the orchestra grows in intensity. You accelerate the beat pattern and the orchestra follows; likewise, when you slow down.
At the more difficult levels of play, if you don’t cue the brass for a key entrance, they just don’t play. Cue them early or late, and they play in the wrong place.
Mess up too many times and the musicians throw down their instruments in disgust and walk off the stage.
Yes, it’s just like real life!
PLAYER MODE: The Ultimate “Music Minus One”
As Eimear explains: “For many a musician like myself, who grew up outside of big cities, playing along with ‘music minus one’ records was how I got to experience the orchestra and practice my instrument.”
As Eimear continues: “ MUSO-VR will be designed to take this 'music minus one' experience 10 steps deeper. Instead of just playing along to a static recording, in MUSO-VR, you actually experience the act of sitting at your spot in the orchestra and following a real conductor – you become a part of the performance.”
“Visually, you can see the conductor and players around you. Turn your head and the sound and visual fields shift to reflect the motion. The virtual musicians interact with you: Play your part well and the musicians tap their bows in approval. Miss your solo entrance and the players turn up their noses at you! The game even listens/records what you play and points are granted based on your actual performance."
OBSERVER MODE: A New Way to Experience the Orchestra (or any concert)!
Observer mode is one of the most exciting elements to the game, designed specifically to appeal to fans of all music – not just to gamers or fans of game music; for in developing MUSO-VR, Twelve O’clock Arts is creating a brand new way to experience the orchestra – as an omniscient observer.
Using the display and audio engine developed for the game (patented), Twelve O’clock Arts will be able to give the non-gaming music fan an intoxicating aural and visual musical experience – where with the move of a joystick, the end user can virtually walk through the orchestra while the orchestra is playing.
SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION
youtube.com/watch?v=NGnHx4jcrDU
Our crowd created "Malach," as performed at the
Dublin International Game Music Festival
One of the most exciting aspects of MUSO-VR is that it will also be a social media platform for musicians - where they can share and synchronize their individual performances with fellow performers world-wide.
This idea was born from our work at The Dublin International Game Music Festival. For our 2015 Dublin International Game Music Festival, a crowd created orchestra joined 134 musicians on stage to perform Eimear Noone's "Malach, Angel Messenger" from "World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor."
Just as it will be in MUSO-VR, musicians from all over the globe recorded themselves performing their individual part in the orchestra. They then they sent us their videos to assemble one master performance. We received 128 in all.
Eimear Noone then synchronized the resulting video montage with the orchestra and singers on stage at the Dublin Convention Center in one glorious performance. You can see the result here.
Built into MUSO-VR will be an automated system for musicians to execute what took us months to create manually for "Malach." It will be a system where musicians can share and synchronize their performances with fellow players; create virtual concerts, virtual orchestras. The possibilities for collaboration are endless.
For more information: craig@idigmusicfest.com
Muso-VR, NOT JUST A GAME, IT'S A TOOL
As part virtual reality game, part musical tool, MUSO VR will be designed to bring its players a new and heightened way to explore all the elements of the orchestra. To accomplish this, the game will employ three modes: Conductor Mode, Player Mode, and Observer Mode.
CONDUCTOR MODE:
Imagine standing on the podium and looking into the eyes of over 100 virtual musicians and singers, each poised and ready to follow your every gesture.
You’ve studied the instructional videos which have taught you the basic beat patterns, how to start the orchestra, how to keep time… You even know a bit about how to cue the different players and give indication of dynamics.
You perform your practiced upbeat and begin conducting. The virtual musicians follow your gestures, performing your favorite orchestral composition.
Look to your right, to your cello section, and the cellos become more prominent in your audio mix. Look to your left, the violins take over. Everything in the audio is reflective of the virtual world and what you see.
Your gestures grow in ferocity and the sound, volume, and texture of the orchestra grows in intensity. You accelerate the beat pattern and the orchestra follows; likewise, when you slow down.
At the more difficult levels of play, if you don’t cue the brass for a key entrance, they just don’t play. Cue them early or late, and they play in the wrong place.
Mess up too many times and the musicians throw down their instruments in disgust and walk off the stage.
Yes, it’s just like real life!
PLAYER MODE: The Ultimate “Music Minus One”
As Eimear explains: “For many a musician like myself, who grew up outside of big cities, playing along with ‘music minus one’ records was how I got to experience the orchestra and practice my instrument.”
As Eimear continues: “ MUSO-VR will be designed to take this 'music minus one' experience 10 steps deeper. Instead of just playing along to a static recording, in MUSO-VR, you actually experience the act of sitting at your spot in the orchestra and following a real conductor – you become a part of the performance.”
“Visually, you can see the conductor and players around you. Turn your head and the sound and visual fields shift to reflect the motion. The virtual musicians interact with you: Play your part well and the musicians tap their bows in approval. Miss your solo entrance and the players turn up their noses at you! The game even listens/records what you play and points are granted based on your actual performance."
OBSERVER MODE: A New Way to Experience the Orchestra (or any concert)!
Observer mode is one of the most exciting elements to the game, designed specifically to appeal to fans of all music – not just to gamers or fans of game music; for in developing MUSO-VR, Twelve O’clock Arts is creating a brand new way to experience the orchestra – as an omniscient observer.
Using the display and audio engine developed for the game (patented), Twelve O’clock Arts will be able to give the non-gaming music fan an intoxicating aural and visual musical experience – where with the move of a joystick, the end user can virtually walk through the orchestra while the orchestra is playing.
SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION
youtube.com/watch?v=NGnHx4jcrDU
Our crowd created "Malach," as performed at the
Dublin International Game Music Festival
One of the most exciting aspects of MUSO-VR is that it will also be a social media platform for musicians - where they can share and synchronize their individual performances with fellow performers world-wide.
This idea was born from our work at The Dublin International Game Music Festival. For our 2015 Dublin International Game Music Festival, a crowd created orchestra joined 134 musicians on stage to perform Eimear Noone's "Malach, Angel Messenger" from "World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor."
Just as it will be in MUSO-VR, musicians from all over the globe recorded themselves performing their individual part in the orchestra. They then they sent us their videos to assemble one master performance. We received 128 in all.
Eimear Noone then synchronized the resulting video montage with the orchestra and singers on stage at the Dublin Convention Center in one glorious performance. You can see the result here.
Built into MUSO-VR will be an automated system for musicians to execute what took us months to create manually for "Malach." It will be a system where musicians can share and synchronize their performances with fellow players; create virtual concerts, virtual orchestras. The possibilities for collaboration are endless.
For more information: craig@idigmusicfest.com
