Songverse: a digital musical instrument based on Virtual Reality

Willams de Lima Costa; Daniel Filgueira; Luca Ananias; Ricardo Barioni; Lucas Silva Figueiredo; Veronica Teichrieb

doi:10.5753/jis.2020.749

Authors

Willams de Lima Costa Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7493-4880
Daniel Filgueira Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6697-9256
Luca Ananias Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2182-9208
Ricardo Barioni Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3254-2459
Lucas Silva Figueiredo Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9848-5883
Veronica Teichrieb Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4685-3634

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/jis.2020.749

Keywords:

virtual reality, computer-generated music, musical instrument digital interfaces, human-computer interaction

Abstract

We can define Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) as hardware-software solutions that are interactive and crafted to output sound according to users' input. DMIs are well known to unleash users' creativity but also to allow different and innovative experiences for the creation process, for example, smoothing the learning curve towards musical concepts such as rhythm and composition. On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) allows users to explore spatial interfaces in a natural and limitless way, which shows potential synergy towards the rise of new DMIs. In this paper, we introduce Songverse, an immersive DMI placed in a Virtual Reality scenario that allows users to create music by interacting with an environment designed to resemble the outer space. By adding systems, planets, and satellites to the virtual environment, the user can shape the produced sound through interactions that were extensively tested during the development phase. We then evaluated the instrument with musicians and non-musicians by interviewing and applying the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess the easiness for people to create music using Songverse. As a result, users reported the use of the DMI as intuitive and easy to use, also highlighting the produced song as enjoyable.

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