In celebration of the July 4th holiday a couple of weeks ago a unique event in cyberspace occured. A virtual concert, complete with live musicians, streaming the audio over the net.
Hosted by blaxxun in their Cybertown multiuser virtual world a number of musicians represented as avatars rocked away. A terrific summary page on the event is also hosted at the cybertown site.
The event was also a partial test for the upcoming WorldCon/AussieCon3 event
One long time VRML user and leader, but a chat virgin Len Bullard also a musician in his own right performed. (Len is also one of the key people behind the still-best-VRML-long-form-ever-done IrishSpace)Len had some amusing and insightful comments such as:
Anyway, the way it was set up, we filled out the form, picked a time, and got email of acceptance. Carole and Chris worked with me a bit because I was obviously floundering. The worlds were the regular CyberTown worlds. I ended up in the City Hall, others in the Cafe, etc. I don't know how all of that was chosen. Dennis had created some avs for a project we were doing last winter, and he volunteered these to the Cybertown project so serendipity, I got one that actually *is* my old band (eeeek!) and one that looks like me (double eeeeek!!!!).
The sessions ran for three hours. It was Pacific time, so one had to be careful. I chose the 8 to 11 slot then worked out it was PacTime and realized I would be doing the late shift gig. Since it was a 24 hour event around the world, that was OK. Cybertown never sleeps. It was a whole lotta fun, actually.
Pointing out a few of the more significant aspects Len points out:
IMHO:1. The important thing was showing how to do it. I had not seen or heard of an MU-VR music event before. If it was the first, it is noteworthy. If it is just the first big public event, it is still noteworthy.
2. Don Brutzman said to me something along the lines that hype may be the killer app for 3D. I understand that now. Simply being able to show up at such an online event, meet people, play my music, and never leave the house, is really quite a step forward. If you know what is involved in getting music played in any medium, much less getting it on a world stage, you know where this is going: it didn't cost me a dime!! Free RA G2 Producer and Player, Free Blaxxun Contact, free membership to Cybertown. Hooorah!!! (Sure, I had to have a digital studio, but folks, that I have to have anyway!).
Again, congratulations and thanks to the Blaxxun Cybertown crew for doing this and particularly, for holding an open invitation to us to participate. In any other part of the music industry, we would have had to beg for it and watch while the divas took the stage.
Congrats to everyone involved for all their hard work. Sure sounds to me like virtual concerts are realistically feasable, useful and fun. Any one know how to get the Stones to sign up ;-)
One Year Ago in Focus on Web3D (VRML) Getting Started with VRML
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