AR Pianist app is fun to watch, but that’s about it
2Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/13/21136248/ar-pianist-massive-technologies-virtual-musicians-pianos
Reported today in The Verge.
AR Pianist app is fun to watch, but that's about it
AR and VR company Massive Technologies has just released an app called AR Pianist which superimposes virtual musicians on pianos to give you "piano concerts from the comfort of your living room." The app was first teased last December, when a tweet went viral with a video that showed virtual pianists popping up on-screen as the camera scanned across several different pianos.
Here's the thing: My one colleague, Nilay Patel, says AR Pianist is "so cool," while my other colleague, Thomas Ricker, says it's the "AR equivalent of a fart app" (as in: use once and delete). Who's right?
Our latest app, AR Pianist, uses machine learning to superimpose a virtual pianist on your piano. It works with any piano and features a library of songs performed by award winning pianists. #ar #arkit #ai #ios #vr #coreml #app #piano #apple #music #education #augementedreality pic.twitter.com/a7W7KYvoiP
The gist of AR Pianist is that you hold your phone up to a piano and a virtual pianist will instantly appear, seated and playing. There's a bunch of musical pieces to choose from, and the sheet music scrolls along the bottom of the app. There's also a bunch of overlays on the piano itself: notes are marked, the piano can be re-skinned, notes approach the keyboard as they're about to be played a la Guitar Hero, and keys light up and actually appear to be pressed down as they're played. Neat!
The bones of AR Pianist are very similar to another app Massive Technologies launched in 2017 called Piano 3D, but that was more focused on music creation and had no superimposed humans. While that app had a dedicated learn mode, the ability to write songs and export them, and full core MIDI support, it doesn't appear that any of