It’s on iOS. It’s on Mac. It’s on Nintendo Switch. And now KORG’s all-in-one studio of synth, drum machine, and production toys is coming to VR.
Virtual reality is likely to pick up this year – not least when people realize that vaccination is going to take all year (or worse, depending on where you live) and so it’ll be a while before we really get herd immunity and can leave our house. Plus, just as importantly, after a disastrous year in 2020 for actually shipping VR headsets, now production is looking better, including an updated Oculus offering from Facebook. (I also expect we’ll see some action with PlayStation 5.)
KORG Gadget already had these 3D mock-ups of virtual gear for Gadget. So now you actually get to arrange those into a virtual studio, and … watch as your creepy disembodied hands make gear float and play. It’s pretty wild; I’ll be curious to try this out to see what it’s like in practice.
I believe we have some footage here of the demo at Believe in Music Week:
Oh, sorry, that was Lawnmower Man. (NOOOOOOOO! Now to finish my mix! I must find a way out!! Maybe if I EQ the kicks!)
It’ll look more like this (via KORG’s preview demo).
Note that this is a preview video. It was made available as part of their NAMM preview, but it’s an in-development tool. I actually like some of the concepts here; it’s something different. I would not judge anything on there yet; this is not production software yet. But I think it’s still useful for illustrative purposes. (I have VR hardware here so when they’re ready to share this, I’m sure I can find out more.)
It’s a future product preview, so that’s all we know for now. But KORG has a great record moving across platforms in this way, so I’m intrigued.
Note the end credits – built in Unreal Engine, and developed by Detune (who also worked on KORG’s many mobile and gaming titles).
All part of KORG’s preview week:
https://korg-us.com/future-product-preview/
Oh yeah and while we wait – here’s VolcaNiced with a great KORG-centric Jamuary entry, featuring the NTS-1 (which now has a browser-based platform? whoa…)