In today’s music industry, new technologies like virtual reality (VR) and spatial computing are changing how music is made. In a recent interview with Martin Dawe, CEO of Hit’n’Mix Ltd, we at Magnetic Magazine introduced the RipX Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for Apple Vision Pro. This tool offers a fresh way for music creators to work, using VR to create an immersive and easy-to-use experience.
Dawe’s insights on the RipX DAW show how it lets producers work in a virtual 3D space, making the creative process clearer, more accessible, and flexible. By allowing users to interact with music hands-on, this tool goes beyond traditional methods, creating a closer bond with the music. It’s not just for making music but also for learning and collaborating, showing its wide range of uses.
Learn More About RipX DAW Here
The launch of RipX DAW for Apple Vision Pro is a big step in developing music production tools. This release promises a new level of creativity and expression, offering more immersive musical experiences. As we look forward to its release, the connection between technology and creativity grows, shaping a future where music production is not just about sound but also about the environment it’s created in.
And learn how other artists, outlets, and YOU can start using the powerfulsoftware in your music right now!
How does making music in a virtual, 3D space enhance a producer’s connection to the music?
The first thing one notices is the clarity with which notes and pitches of different instruments interact. Especially when the music is exploding around you, you get a sense of knowing the audio much more intimately than possible.
There is also a sense of accessibility – peeking around notes to view and manipulate what is behind and being able to just look at them and tap your fingers to select and play feels effortless.
Plus, it is essential to remember that you can stay connected to your music wherever you feel most inspired and relaxed – a hotel room, the park, even traveling – and all on a giant 3D screen.
Is making music in a 3D space accessible to the average music producer? Is it only something the top 1% should consider, or is it for everyone?
Like most innovations we now take for granted, the Apple Vision Pro will become more portable and easier to use, and prices will come right down to meet the mass consumer market. The Apple Vision Pro will eventually replace smartphones and even laptop computers.
Sure, making music in a 3D space is expensive right now, but scientific breakthroughs and mass production will change all this, and judging by the rate of technological advancements these days, sooner than you might think.
One of our key goals over the past few years has been to make RipX DAW simple to use, reducing reliance on keyboard shortcuts and hidden clickable elements. RipX DAW is perfectly placed to take advantage of spatial computing. It is approachable and intuitive, and it will appeal to a wide range of music producers of all ages and talents.
When does working with audio virtually like this have the most impact? During the idea generation stage or the more technical mixing process, when should we do it?
Its usefulness isn’t limited to any particular stage of the musical process.
Being able to work wherever you feel most comfortable on a large 3D screen is stimulating both in terms of its connection to the creator and how the music can be perceived and edited in fundamentally new ways.
Enlarging your creation all around you, walking within it, touching and moving different sounds and samples, and hearing them distinctly isn’t just fun. Still, it opens a new way to understand, experience, and interact with your music.
In education, analyzing and learning parts of songs at this level of clarity and detail will be inspiring and exciting, with the possibility of projecting played audio onto virtual or perhaps real instruments.
From a more technical angle, visualizing how sounds from different instruments distinctly interact in time, pitch, and timbre will help to identify gaps and overloaded spaces in the audio. If you prefer, adding a wireless touchpad to your set-up enables a more tactile method of interactivity, enabling a more productivity-heavy workflow with all the editing power that RipX DAW already offers at your fingertips.
What common misconceptions do people have about using virtual reality as a creative space to make music in?
Not being able to play physical instruments: Vision Pro can connect to Bluetooth devices for fully tactile performances.
Being restricted to listening to audio through the device headphones: While the Vision Pro offers excellent spatial sound positioning, to get the most out of your audio experience, it is good to know that it supports AirPlay 2, which can produce lossless audio to send to AirPlay 2 enabled speakers, headphones, and receivers (for connecting to existing systems).
Motion sickness: Watching music animate in your space is no different from watching moving people or vehicles in real life. You are not being shifted unknowingly around your musical world, which I could well imagine causing an onset of nausea!
Being cut off from other people: Virtual reality generally describes a closed-in world. However, with RipX DAW and Apple Vision Pro, the screens and music are placed in your physical world, and you can see and communicate with people around you. One day, you might even be able to introduce a colleague from the other side of the world to work on a masterpiece with you.
What key indicators prove to you that this mode of music-making is the industry’s future and not just a passing trend?
In the not-too-distant future, I see us living in a world where we interact with apps and people, even at great distances, by wearing light-weight glasses, lenses, and perhaps one day, but perhaps not for the faint-hearted, implants.
Apple Vision Pro stands out to me as the first device that offers an authentic glimpse of this future – that really, this could mean the end of smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
And suppose you’re always wearing such a device to stay in touch with your friends, surf the web, watch videos, provide information about your surroundings, and so on. In that case, you are more likely to want to keep them on and do productivity tasks like music-making without taking them off.
Regarding RipX DAW, the 3D element adds an extra dimension of clarity and control that 2D apps cannot provide, and blowing up your music around you really is something special to experience!
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
