Google’s Inside Music Breaks Down Audio Components in Virtual Reality

Google has been experimenting with virtual reality technology for some time now. Through the Creative Labs arm, they have introduced some unique projects. Inside Music the latest venture which is based on WebVR. Through this app, users can see a song broken down into individual components. It is a pretty interesting experience, especially for music producers and artists. It also highlights how WebVR is an important technology, which shouldn’t be overlooked whatsoever.

Inside Music is a Beautiful VR Representation of Audio

Although most people wouldn’t necessarily expect to see music broken down in VR. Google Creative Labs thinks there is a demand for this tool. Whether or not they are in the right, remains to be determined. That said, this new creative project is quite beautiful in its own unique way. Users can access Inside Music through the web or a VR headset. The app breaks songs down into individual components, all of which are represented by spheres.

Clicking on such a sphere effectively removes it from the song. This gives valuable insights as to how different components create the tracks we have come to love over the years. There is a lot more to music productions than most people realize, that much is evident. Considering how this code is open source, it will be interesting to see which additional features third-party developers will bring to the table. It is not possible to import your own music just yet, though.

What is so exciting about Inside Music is how it works across all VR platforms. It will also be compatible with Windows Mixed Reality when those products come to market. The one notably absent headset on the list is the PlayStation VR. That is quite unfortunate, but it doesn’t mean the concept can’t be ported to this headset in the future. It may require some partnerships between Google and Sony before that can effectively happen, though.

Creative Labs’ Alexander Chen comments as follows:

“I love music, and making music more accessible for everyone is something I care deeply about,” said Chen in an email. “So that’s why I was drawn to experiment with music and code, to see if there are ways to help make it easier for everyone to explore music. I hope these kinds of projects inspire people to be curious about music and explore how it’s made.”

Virtual reality certainly has the potential to bridge the gap between the traditional audio experience and an immersive visual representation of said music.It will eventually transform the way we think about listening to music altogether. Going from a passive experience to a dynamic and a morphing trip into the soundwaves sounds pretty exciting, to say the least. Although it may not be the ultimate use case for VR, concepts like these should never be readily dismissed.

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