Google Takes Viewers Inside Of Music Using VR

Google has introduced what it calls an 'interactive experiment,' one that uses virtual reality to take music lovers inside of songs, doing so in a way that is entirely new thanks to this budding technology. The new experiment has been done in conjunction with the podcast Song Explorer, and it uses audio from a variety of artists. All you need is a VR headset (Cardboard will work) to get started.

The name Inside Music refers to the nature of this experiment — it helps anyone with an interest to explore the parts of a song, something made possible in part using spatial audio. There are six different songs available in the experiment, including things like 'Ti Amo' by Phoenix and 'The Deep' by Clipping.

Users choose a song, at which point the system loads the song with all the layers isolated in their own 'bubbles'. Though they all play at the same time, you hear some layers louder than the others depending on which you're facing.

You can try this now with an ordinary web browser here. Rotate the screen to move in front of different bubbles, and the audio will change slightly to stress whatever category you're in front of — drums, bass, guitar, etc. Click on a bubble and you'll deactivate that layer, removing that element of music from the song.

Click all but one bubble and you'll hear just that component of the song. Slowly click on each after that, and you'll get to experience the gradual development of a fully composed song, hearing it in a way you probably can't when listening to the full track. This is most interesting when viewed with a VR headset, but the key part is putting in a pair of headphones so you can hear the subtle changes.

SOURCE: Google Blog