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Wii can conduct an orchestra too

Like Guitar Hero only more arty

If rocking out with Guitar Hero isn’t your forte, then how would you like to conduct your own classical orchestra? It’s now possible thanks to the creation of a 'virtual maestro' game.

The Wii title was created by banking giant UBS as a promotional tool, according to the Associated Press. The game allows the company's would-be Herbert von Karajans to conduct an on-screen orchestra with the console’s Remote as though it were conductor’s baton.

To create the game, UBS recorded the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland while it played three classical pieces, including Rossini’s William Tell Overture and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. UBS' developers then wrote software that speeds up or slows down the music according to the Remote’s movements.

For example, moving the Remote too quickly causes the music to play with a jig-like tempo and moving the wireless controller too slowly will, you guessed it, mean the music comes over all slow and funereal.

UBS sponsors the Verbier Festival Orchestra - conducted by James Levine - and has already set the game up in concert hall lobbies in the US, as part of an ongoing tour programme. However, the financial services company hopes to expand the virtual composition videogame out into Europe later this year.

Latest Comments

Jig-like? You're having a laugh

Would it really be asking too much that an article about music is written by someone who has a vague clue about music? 'Jig-like' is not a synonym for 'fast'. It's a kind of dance, with a fixed time signature and fixed (ish) structure. And being slow is a common feature of 'Funereal' music but playing 'Who Let The Dogs Out' slowly doesn't make it suitable for your granny's send-off. Probably.

/pedant

Mine's the black tuxedo.

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PS2 done had something sorta liken to this

Mad Maestro was a budget ($20 US) title on the PS2 here. Used the button sensitivity to determine how hard you were signaling and the rest was tempo and bringing in and out parts of the "orchestra".

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Bruce Sterling had this idea long ago

... in Zeitgeist, I think

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Did you see what platform this was on?

"I think this will definitely make the top ten list of "Games that make you look like a twat when you play"

It's on the Wii - that goes without saying.

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A name for it: Botibol

Someone's been reading a bit of Roald Dahl, methinks .....

How long before we get orchestras of robots equipped with real instruments, controllable by MIDI files?

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