Virtuoso enters the VR market in an area I feel the medium is lacking, and that is a music creation tool. With enjoying the EJ series as a teenager, it’s something I would love to see be a success in VR. I have now been trying to make up my own hit, but has it be a success?
Gameplay
As mentioned Virtuoso is all about creating music within VR, and the team at Really Interactive AB have provided a range of unique instruments created for VR to make this possible.
These are Empads, wHarp, Board, Oorgan, Clustr and Wavemin, that will see you being able to set-up you own drum kits with the Empads or tickle the digital keys with the Oorgan. Each virtual instrument also comes with a number of sound settings allowing you to switch up the sounds they output to get it to your liking, with some instruments also offering different octaves. Really giving you a lot of options to make the song you like.
Add to these six instruments, the microphone and the looper, and you can add vocals with reverb and get each recording in the looper playing at the correct times to nicely finish off your master-piece.
All these instruments and tools are added from the menu, so only the instruments you want to use are on your virtual stage – and you can even close these down once you have recorded what you want. Which makes it easy to organise your space and work on your track.
You might be thinking, I have no knowledge of producing music or any sort or rhythm, so is this game really for me? Don’t worry Virtuoso has you covered with an interactive tutorial and also features Temp sync and pre-sets to help you stay on time and pitch. Really opening the tool for professionals and casuals a-like.
There is also Community Songs available in the menus, and I found downloading some of these in the game and seeing their loops, really helped me understand building up the tracks in the looper – as someone who is more casual than professional.
Presentation
With this being a music creation game, your are placed onto a stage like setting, which you then add your chosen instruments and tools to. This is given a clean look and gave me a real synthwave type feeling. When playing your track your speakers and elements around the stage will react to the music. This is really all the game needed and works with what it does.
Of course the audio in the game was always going to be the main element they needed to get correct, outside of the tools offered for making the music. All the sounds from the instruments are nice and clear and distinguishable, making the creation and listening back to your songs a pleasure.
Comfort/Controls
As you are creating music in your own customisable space, the game can be played seated or standing, and turning in your space is best done manually, if you want your instruments around you.
The controls are really simple to understand, the Y and B buttons open your menu to get your instruments out. Once they are out you will use the grip to move them around, and the trigger to change the instrument options and interact with them. With the only instrument not needing the trigger interaction being the Empads, as you get drum sticks for those.
Longevity
Over the hours I have put into Virtuoso, I have yet to create an output that I really feel is ready to share – and this was the same with the aforementioned EJ series. But, I have had a lot of fun in this time and feel I am starting to understand the unique instruments in the game. So, this is where some people might be split in the longevity aspect of the game, as if you like to create music and have the patience to learn what it’s offering, this could be a game full of potential and many hours play-time. However, if you are expecting to get straight in and make the perfect songs and can not persevere with the learning curve, it will soon lose it’s appeal.
Reviewed using Meta Quest
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.
Review Overview
Virtuoso has finally given the VR medium a solid music production game, that is made with professionals and casuals in mind. Although, some casuals might be put off by the learning curve, as you can not expect to be making tracks without some practice and perserverance. The six unique instruments created by Really Interactive AB, work really well in VR and bring a number of options to get the tracks to your liking. If you have been waiting for something like the EJ series in VR, Virtuoso will be right down your ally.
