Intrigued by the possibilities of Backstage, we asked Martin Dawe, CEO of Hit ‘n’ Mix, to expand on the new offering.
FutureMusic Considering the slow adoption of Vision Pro, is Backstage more of a proof of concept, a way to be one of the first to market, both, or something else?
Martin Dawe It has always been at the back of my mind that the ideal interface for RipX and the Rip Audio format would be three-dimensional, to clearly display all of the pitch/time information with instruments separated by space. I have also held a long-term belief that augmented reality will be the successor to phones and laptops, since it is essentially hands-free and massive in visual scope.
When the Apple Vision Pro was announced I felt that, whilst it does have several comprises on what I would consider the ideal solution, the workarounds were well thought through and I could see that Apple has a solid long-term goal developing a suitable operating system and they understood the importance of being aware of one’s surroundings, and not having the requirement of lifting arms to interact with UI elements.
As such I immediately wanted to start experimenting with the possibilities, and one thing led to the next quite naturally, until I’d worked out how it was possible to use creative software in a spatial environment. It seems obvious now when you use Backstage, but it certainly wasn’t to begin with!
FutureMusic Considering the music market’s strength in tactile, physical interaction with musical instruments, what do you feel will be the most compelling aspect of VR music making that will push users from reality to virtual?
Martin Dawe I believe physical instruments will always be important – they are fun and it’s nice to feel them. With Backstage, and with wider spread use of AR devices, we are providing the option to use virtual instruments, singing/humming/whistling to record any instrument, dictation of FX, and eye/hand-gesture tracking to create in a virtual large space wherever you are.
But there are benefits directly related to working in an AR environment: Working on a computer can feel crammed and restricted and having the freedom to display the different parts in a 3D space is inherently less cluttered and easier to digest and interact with. Critically, it lets you view multiple parts simultaneously in a way a flat screen – no matter how large – simply cannot.
It is important to note that Backstage is not just for music making, but a new way of enjoying existing music. The surround sound experience in Backstage is quite unlike anything else, Dolby Atmos for example, simply because you can walk up to and around the different instrument sources and move them where you want. Even the different pitches have their own spatial positions, which adds an additional clarity never seen before. Users of Backstage say they discover elements of their favourite songs they never knew existed, which is pretty cool to hear. It’s a bit like having a live concert in your living room or being backstage with the artists. There is a lot of potential to add more elements to make this experience even more exciting and real.
Furthermore, as Backstage displays the individual notes of any song being played on the virtual instruments, you can follow along on keyboard, guitar, bass or drums to learn the parts, and even accompany and record your own creations.
FutureMusic Since RipX could benefit from true AI from within, instead of third party integration, why would you divert resources to a product with a very limited market?
Martin Dawe We are continuing to work on RipX DAW features (and most of these automatically end up in Backstage) and have a clear path of where we are heading with this. In fact, the resources we’ve applied to Backstage have been minimal so far. Unlike with conventional waveforms and MIDI, it is a particular beauty of the Rip Audio format that it’s easy to extend and develop for, in pretty much any way imaginable, and this continues to surprise me.
