Producing music these days can be something of a flat experience, undertaken using powerful software running on a computer. With the sales launch of the Apple Vision Pro, DAW maker Hit'n'Mix is planning to immerse musicians in their creations.
Apple wasn't first to the mobile music game, but the iPod supercharged the market. Likewise with smartphones and tablets. With players like Meta and HTC already well established in the VR/AR headset space, Apple finally revealed its challenger in June of last year in the shape of the US$3,499 Vision Pro "spatial computer."
It only actually went on sale earlier this month though, and launched with hundreds of apps to immerse users in digitally augmented or virtual worlds – but there were a few notable omissions, including Netflix and YouTube. Reviews from users and tech mags have been mostly positive – though Mark Zuckerberg cheekily took to Insta last week with an unsurprising recommendation for folks to use the latest Quest instead.
Of course the headset can also be used as a virtual computer monitor, and some creators and musicians have started to serve up digital audio workstations (DAW) through the Vision Pro. But at the moment that essentially just replicates the kind of two-dimensional views you'd see on a laptop or computer screen. UK software company Hit'n'Mix has more immersive plans for its AI-powered RipX DAW.
"One of our aims in recent years has been to not only create an AI DAW that simplifies and de-clutters the music-making experience, but to also innovate within the fledgling virtual music-making space," said CEO Martin Dawe. "So, whilst we are delighted that RipX DAW is gaining recognition as the best and only AI DAW of its kind, we are excited to announce that soon, with Apple Vision Pro, RipX DAW will also offer a completely new, interactive, compositional experience, giving users much more freedom to view and create music in their chosen surroundings – all utilising our unique, note-based Rip audio format."
Details are pretty light, but the plan is to present MIDI and audio as editable notes, chords and unpitched sounds instead of waveforms – all accessible via hand gestures. Instruments are placed at different distances from the headset-wearing creator, with notes and layers color coded for clarity and ease of use. The tracks can be laid out in front, or exploded to fill the space so users can walk inside the melody as it plays, tweaking as they go.
The suite will reportedly include the world's first audio separation sampler, which will allow users to rip songs into layers, make modifications and "re-perform with a controller into a new or existing layer." Single-click effects are available, there's support for importing VST instruments, it will be able to import ideas from AI music generators for manipulation, note/chord recognition is cooked in to help musicians learn song parts, and a user's preferred background images can be loaded in "to set the mood."
As with any DAW, there's a lot to get your head around, but as you can see from the teaser video below, the possibilities look pretty wild. The availability window is currently given as "coming soon." Whether it's enough to tempt music pros away from Ableton, Cubase, PreSonus or Logic Pro remains to be seen.
Source: Hit'n'Mix
