OrBeat is an augmented reality sequencer built for fun and collaborative music composition. Choose your sounds, place them in space, and listen back to your tracks in real-time!
We have been experimenting with spatial sound for a long time and we have previously released an app, Our app Aero One was already a musical playground in augmented reality. With OrBeat we wanted to take the concept further and enable collaborative music-making. As usual, we added a sprinkle of surprise and magic!
To come up with a distinct look for our world of sound, we made several iterations as 3D pre-visualizations before settling on the final design. One of the main design challenges was to give each instrument its own distinct visual identity and behavior so that users could remember them, while at the same time keeping the shapes abstract to create a sense of discovery and playfulness.
We always like to share our experiments with the larger public, so that we can collectively reimagine the interactions between humans and emerging technologies.
Orbeat was first presented at the Retune Digital Arts Lab as part of the Hub.Berlin conference in 2019 where it was a real crowd-pleaser.
And now you can try it yourself! You can download Orbeat for iOS or Android. If you notice any bugs or glitches, please let us know at hello@neu.io.
