Today we are rolling out a massive update to the Soundscape Universe platform and our last official update of the year, Soundscape VR 2020. This massive update has a long list of features, but a couple of highlights include visual and performance improvements across all worlds, updates to the Sonic AI audio-reactivity engine, and so much more. Take a look at the highlight list below for more detailed information.
Don’t forget to join us on Discord, you’re feedback and enthusiasm drives this universe! Thank you & Happy Holidays to all of our users!
Visual overhaul and enhancement of all worlds
– All worlds have received new art assets and expansion of their core visual theme. Discover new spotlights, new planets, new trees, new foliage, new snow, new stage areas, and much more, as well as lighting and shadow upgrades to make each Soundscape more beautiful than ever before.
Performance improvements for all worlds
– All worlds have undergone significant optimizations improving performance. Higher framerates means a more immersive and comfortable experience for longer play sessions. Twilight Thicket is still our most advanced level and designed for users with advanced GPUs, but you can expect to see improvements of 30% or more on framerates, while at the same time improving overall visual quality.
Control upgrades supporting Vive/Index/Rift CV1/Rift S
– Enhanced haptics, controls, aim, and usability for all controller types, including new experimental WMR support.
SVR LIVE performance and gameplay upgrades
– A variety of visual and usability enhancements to our mixed reality stage and art installation mode.
Sonic AI v2 audio-reactivity improvements
– Improvements to beat detection, frequency detection, and visual reactivity to any genre of music, making the world of Soundscape more reactive and dynamic. Phase 2 improvements coming soon.
Real-Money transactions are now available for those who wish to support development
– All store items can be purchased for free with Harmonia you earn from playing. Want to help out another way? Leave a review for Soundscape on your platform(s) of choice and share your experience to help other music lovers find this free software!
Optical Hack unlocked for all players across all platforms
– 3 trippy effects available for free, expandable with up to 25 visual enhancements that you can use to glitch out your friends.
Lighting micro-controller to control and modify each world in tune with the music available for purchase and coming soon
– Includes free Enhanced Optical Hack effects!
Artist Link stage upgrades
– Improved and expanded with brand new enhancements to visualizations, models, and pyrotechnics
Menu and UI enhancements
– New world select screen, new gameplay modes added, and new instructions on how to play any music you want to hear
Bug Fixes
– A large number of reported bugs have been fixed enhancing every thing from solo to social play, UI, cosmetic items, music, and more.
Soundscape VR has been invited to join some of the top music, artistic, and tech talent from the Denver area at the second annual Far Out Factory art experience. This year’s event takes place on October 11-12, 2019 from 6PM-2AM on both nights. This event is limited to adults aged 21 and up. Far Out Factory is being hosted at Major Studios – 3881 Steele Street.
Inspired by cannabis and perfected by dreamers, Far Out Factory transforms an old warehouse into a multisensory portal, enabling and encouraging a complete escape from reality and a glimpse into another dimension. This two-day makeshift museum-meets-music-festival promises to titillate your senses and expand your perceptions like you never thought possible. Please note, though cannabis-inspired, this is a strictly no-consumption event.
This year’s line-up includes Crooked Colours, Brasstracks, Will Clarke, Quantic, Ventus, Chrome Sparks, Retrofette, Motion Trap, and more!
Live concerts are a blast, but expensive tickets, bustling crowds, long bathroom lines and obstructed views can sometimes dampen the show.
One local startup wants to enhance the current live music experience, while also bringing virtual reality concerts into the comforts of your living room.
Soundscape VR CEO Eric Alexander admits that he wasn’t always focused on virtual reality. Prior to launching Soundscape in 2018, he was a food scientist with a degree in microbiology that had a side interest in tech, music and digital art.
Gradually that side interest grew to become his main one and his focus shifted exclusively to what would become Soundscape VR.
“It was just too much for me to resist,” he said with a laugh.
He launched Soundscape in Chicago, but after researching some of the best places to start a tech company he landed in Denver. Since arriving, the one-person team has ballooned to more than ten and Soundscape’s technology has garnered interest at festivals across the country.
Soundscape offers two main products, an at-home VR experience and a live, VR music stage.
The at-home experience is the company’s most robust offering, allowing users to explore virtual, social worlds with up to 244 other users, all while listening to music. The company has developed three worlds, all between 10 to 20 kilometers in size, for users to explore, interact with other users and experience a concert-like atmosphere.
Soundscape has partnered with Boulder artist Big Gigantic and Atlanta’s STS9 to upload concert sets to the platform. Users can also play their own music over the platform, creating a concert-like atmosphere with the music they want to hear. Within the world, Soundscape offers a series of character customization micro-transactions. Alexander said the platform, available for free download on Oculus Rift, has more than 40,000 users.
“At the initial level, it was just about letting people have that immersive experience at home. It’s a full field of view, immersive physical experience. You can drink beers out of your fridge, use your own bathroom and go any night of the week,” Alexander said.
The latest version of the company’s virtual reality music stage made its official debut at the recent Sonic Bloom music festival at Hummingbird Ranch, CO.
The stage allows users to put on a headset and go on a musically guided tour of a digital world that lasts between eight and 20 minutes.
“We’ve grown the stage to allow for more participants at the same time, increased visibility to 360 degrees so all spectators can experience what’s happening ‘in world’ and enhanced our state-of-the-art VR hardware to the most powerful in the world – when you couple all of that with the live music pumping through the new P.A. system, it’s a shared immersive audiovisual experience unlike anything ever seen before,” Alexander said.
The stage was first presented at Burning Man, and then Suwannee Hulaween.
As the company grows, Alexander said Soundscape is preparing to launch a Series A funding round and hopes to form more partnerships with musicians to build out the platform’s experiences.
He acknowledges that VR is unlikely to ever replace the live concert experience but hopes to be a supplement to it.
“Soundscape has to be at least as good or better than the live music experience to succeed,” he said.
As appears on https://www.americaninno.com/colorado/denver-startups/this-denver-startup-is-bringing-vr-concerts-to-your-living-room/
Soundscape VR, the world’s first virtual reality music stage, made its official debut at last week’s Sonic Bloom music festival at Hummingbird Ranch, CO. Groove Science Studios, creators of the Soundscape VR platform, offered festival attendees the opportunity to explore and interact with the company’s audio-reactive virtual reality worlds while onsite at the music festival. First presented at Burning Man, and then Suwannee Hulaween, Sonic Bloom marked the version 3 unveiling of the latest changes to the expanded stage
Soundscape VR is home to the most advanced visual arts and music experiences available in virtual reality. Users can fly, explore, play, create, and immersive themselves in massive surreal audio-reactive worlds with breathtaking visuals; alone, with friends, or other fans – Soundscape VR is a social, musical, metaverse without limits.
“We’ve grown the stage to allow for more participants at the same time, increased visibility to 360º so all spectators can experience what’s happening ‘in world,’ and enhanced our state-of-the-art VR hardware to the most powerful in the world – when you couple all of that with the live music pumping through the new P.A. system, it’s a shared immersive audiovisual experience unlike anything ever seen before,” remarked Eric Alexander, Founder and CEO of Groove Science Studios.
“Our intention has also been to bridge the gap between what’s capable live, on-stage, and what we can experience ‘in-world’ through virtual reality. said Alexander, “It’s incredibly satisfying to work with other artists who ‘get’ what’s happening with music and virtual reality, and it only emboldens Soundscape to push the boundaries of what we can do. After all, if it wasn’t for music, this wouldn’t exist at all!”
Soundscape VR is catching the eye of the industry. Earlier this year, the company announced the addition of three pre-loaded sets to the platform, including Big Gigantic’s Nocturnal album, STS9’s 2018 Hulaween set, and EOTO’s performance from Denver, CO in 2018.
“We’re working with artists who really love utilizing new technology and concepts to engage and interact with their fans. Soundscape offers a 24/7, enhanced festival environment where bands and fans can intermingle, experience music in new ways, and connect, regardless of location or time. It’s the next generation in social music,” commented Matt Hogan, Director of Artist Outreach, “And because we have the capability to build out custom environments, the artists we work with can curate their own ‘always-on’ venues and worlds.”
Soundscape VR can be found on Oculus Home and Steam, and downloaded for free for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the Valve Index. The platform has already seen a number of additions this year, including 244-player social interactivity, character upgrades and customization, and the addition of a third, brand-new 20 sq km fantasy world “Twilight Thicket.”
Groove Science Studios has announced new company directives aimed at maintaining an environmentally progressive mentality as the company continues to grow.
“Like many of the artists we work with, we too are heavily inspired by nature,” said Groove Science Studios CEO, Eric Alexander. “And it’s important that we protect and maintain those assets for future generations. The Soundscape VR platform already offers the ability to host a zero-carbon footprint music festival, but as a company, we want to make sure our impact in the real world is also zero. That includes everything from a remote workforce and being a 100% paperless company, to utilizing electric vehicles for our events and travel.”
In celebration of Earth Day 2020, Soundscape VR is affirming our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our methods, with regular view points. We will encourage our audience, suppliers, and stakeholders to also do the same. We will lead by example by making smart decisions to protect the environment and manage our environmental impact responsibly. We are committed to regulatory compliance as well as increasing employee awareness and training.
Today we are rolling out a massive update to the Soundscape Universe platform and our last official update of the year, Soundscape VR 2020. This massive update has a long list of features, but a couple of highlights include visual and performance improvements across all worlds, updates to the Sonic AI audio-reactivity engine, and so much more. Take a look at the highlight list below for more detailed information.
Don’t forget to join us on Discord, you’re feedback and enthusiasm drives this universe! Thank you & Happy Holidays to all of our users!
Visual overhaul and enhancement of all worlds
– All worlds have received new art assets and expansion of their core visual theme. Discover new spotlights, new planets, new trees, new foliage, new snow, new stage areas, and much more, as well as lighting and shadow upgrades to make each Soundscape more beautiful than ever before.
Performance improvements for all worlds
– All worlds have undergone significant optimizations improving performance. Higher framerates means a more immersive and comfortable experience for longer play sessions. Twilight Thicket is still our most advanced level and designed for users with advanced GPUs, but you can expect to see improvements of 30% or more on framerates, while at the same time improving overall visual quality.
Control upgrades supporting Vive/Index/Rift CV1/Rift S
– Enhanced haptics, controls, aim, and usability for all controller types, including new experimental WMR support.
SVR LIVE performance and gameplay upgrades
– A variety of visual and usability enhancements to our mixed reality stage and art installation mode.
Sonic AI v2 audio-reactivity improvements
– Improvements to beat detection, frequency detection, and visual reactivity to any genre of music, making the world of Soundscape more reactive and dynamic. Phase 2 improvements coming soon.
Real-Money transactions are now available for those who wish to support development
– All store items can be purchased for free with Harmonia you earn from playing. Want to help out another way? Leave a review for Soundscape on your platform(s) of choice and share your experience to help other music lovers find this free software!
Optical Hack unlocked for all players across all platforms
– 3 trippy effects available for free, expandable with up to 25 visual enhancements that you can use to glitch out your friends.
Lighting micro-controller to control and modify each world in tune with the music available for purchase and coming soon
– Includes free Enhanced Optical Hack effects!
Artist Link stage upgrades
– Improved and expanded with brand new enhancements to visualizations, models, and pyrotechnics
Menu and UI enhancements
– New world select screen, new gameplay modes added, and new instructions on how to play any music you want to hear
Bug Fixes
– A large number of reported bugs have been fixed enhancing every thing from solo to social play, UI, cosmetic items, music, and more.
Soundscape VR has been invited to join some of the top music, artistic, and tech talent from the Denver area at the second annual Far Out Factory art experience. This year’s event takes place on October 11-12, 2019 from 6PM-2AM on both nights. This event is limited to adults aged 21 and up. Far Out Factory is being hosted at Major Studios – 3881 Steele Street.
Inspired by cannabis and perfected by dreamers, Far Out Factory transforms an old warehouse into a multisensory portal, enabling and encouraging a complete escape from reality and a glimpse into another dimension. This two-day makeshift museum-meets-music-festival promises to titillate your senses and expand your perceptions like you never thought possible. Please note, though cannabis-inspired, this is a strictly no-consumption event.
This year’s line-up includes Crooked Colours, Brasstracks, Will Clarke, Quantic, Ventus, Chrome Sparks, Retrofette, Motion Trap, and more!
Live concerts are a blast, but expensive tickets, bustling crowds, long bathroom lines and obstructed views can sometimes dampen the show.
One local startup wants to enhance the current live music experience, while also bringing virtual reality concerts into the comforts of your living room.
Soundscape VR CEO Eric Alexander admits that he wasn’t always focused on virtual reality. Prior to launching Soundscape in 2018, he was a food scientist with a degree in microbiology that had a side interest in tech, music and digital art.
Gradually that side interest grew to become his main one and his focus shifted exclusively to what would become Soundscape VR.
“It was just too much for me to resist,” he said with a laugh.
He launched Soundscape in Chicago, but after researching some of the best places to start a tech company he landed in Denver. Since arriving, the one-person team has ballooned to more than ten and Soundscape’s technology has garnered interest at festivals across the country.
Soundscape offers two main products, an at-home VR experience and a live, VR music stage.
The at-home experience is the company’s most robust offering, allowing users to explore virtual, social worlds with up to 244 other users, all while listening to music. The company has developed three worlds, all between 10 to 20 kilometers in size, for users to explore, interact with other users and experience a concert-like atmosphere.
Soundscape has partnered with Boulder artist Big Gigantic and Atlanta’s STS9 to upload concert sets to the platform. Users can also play their own music over the platform, creating a concert-like atmosphere with the music they want to hear. Within the world, Soundscape offers a series of character customization micro-transactions. Alexander said the platform, available for free download on Oculus Rift, has more than 40,000 users.
“At the initial level, it was just about letting people have that immersive experience at home. It’s a full field of view, immersive physical experience. You can drink beers out of your fridge, use your own bathroom and go any night of the week,” Alexander said.
The latest version of the company’s virtual reality music stage made its official debut at the recent Sonic Bloom music festival at Hummingbird Ranch, CO.
The stage allows users to put on a headset and go on a musically guided tour of a digital world that lasts between eight and 20 minutes.
“We’ve grown the stage to allow for more participants at the same time, increased visibility to 360 degrees so all spectators can experience what’s happening ‘in world’ and enhanced our state-of-the-art VR hardware to the most powerful in the world – when you couple all of that with the live music pumping through the new P.A. system, it’s a shared immersive audiovisual experience unlike anything ever seen before,” Alexander said.
The stage was first presented at Burning Man, and then Suwannee Hulaween.
As the company grows, Alexander said Soundscape is preparing to launch a Series A funding round and hopes to form more partnerships with musicians to build out the platform’s experiences.
He acknowledges that VR is unlikely to ever replace the live concert experience but hopes to be a supplement to it.
“Soundscape has to be at least as good or better than the live music experience to succeed,” he said.
As appears on https://www.americaninno.com/colorado/denver-startups/this-denver-startup-is-bringing-vr-concerts-to-your-living-room/
Soundscape VR, the world’s first virtual reality music stage, made its official debut at last week’s Sonic Bloom music festival at Hummingbird Ranch, CO. Groove Science Studios, creators of the Soundscape VR platform, offered festival attendees the opportunity to explore and interact with the company’s audio-reactive virtual reality worlds while onsite at the music festival. First presented at Burning Man, and then Suwannee Hulaween, Sonic Bloom marked the version 3 unveiling of the latest changes to the expanded stage
Soundscape VR is home to the most advanced visual arts and music experiences available in virtual reality. Users can fly, explore, play, create, and immersive themselves in massive surreal audio-reactive worlds with breathtaking visuals; alone, with friends, or other fans – Soundscape VR is a social, musical, metaverse without limits.
“We’ve grown the stage to allow for more participants at the same time, increased visibility to 360º so all spectators can experience what’s happening ‘in world,’ and enhanced our state-of-the-art VR hardware to the most powerful in the world – when you couple all of that with the live music pumping through the new P.A. system, it’s a shared immersive audiovisual experience unlike anything ever seen before,” remarked Eric Alexander, Founder and CEO of Groove Science Studios.
“Our intention has also been to bridge the gap between what’s capable live, on-stage, and what we can experience ‘in-world’ through virtual reality. said Alexander, “It’s incredibly satisfying to work with other artists who ‘get’ what’s happening with music and virtual reality, and it only emboldens Soundscape to push the boundaries of what we can do. After all, if it wasn’t for music, this wouldn’t exist at all!”
Soundscape VR is catching the eye of the industry. Earlier this year, the company announced the addition of three pre-loaded sets to the platform, including Big Gigantic’s Nocturnal album, STS9’s 2018 Hulaween set, and EOTO’s performance from Denver, CO in 2018.
“We’re working with artists who really love utilizing new technology and concepts to engage and interact with their fans. Soundscape offers a 24/7, enhanced festival environment where bands and fans can intermingle, experience music in new ways, and connect, regardless of location or time. It’s the next generation in social music,” commented Matt Hogan, Director of Artist Outreach, “And because we have the capability to build out custom environments, the artists we work with can curate their own ‘always-on’ venues and worlds.”
Soundscape VR can be found on Oculus Home and Steam, and downloaded for free for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the Valve Index. The platform has already seen a number of additions this year, including 244-player social interactivity, character upgrades and customization, and the addition of a third, brand-new 20 sq km fantasy world “Twilight Thicket.”
Groove Science Studios has announced new company directives aimed at maintaining an environmentally progressive mentality as the company continues to grow.
“Like many of the artists we work with, we too are heavily inspired by nature,” said Groove Science Studios CEO, Eric Alexander. “And it’s important that we protect and maintain those assets for future generations. The Soundscape VR platform already offers the ability to host a zero-carbon footprint music festival, but as a company, we want to make sure our impact in the real world is also zero. That includes everything from a remote workforce and being a 100% paperless company, to utilizing electric vehicles for our events and travel.”
In celebration of Earth Day 2020, Soundscape VR is affirming our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our methods, with regular view points. We will encourage our audience, suppliers, and stakeholders to also do the same. We will lead by example by making smart decisions to protect the environment and manage our environmental impact responsibly. We are committed to regulatory compliance as well as increasing employee awareness and training.
