A small but interesting group!
After some casual extended chat we had short intros.
Then we dived into a wide ranging discussion around a few topics.

We started with a great GDC 17 talk by Doom composer Mick Gordon -> DOOM: Behind the Music https://youtu.be/U4FNBMZsqrY
Worth watching all of it (very funny) but three key takeaways applicable to any creative process:
. Change the Process, Change the Outcome
. Change the brief if it makes the project better
. A team that encourages an environment where you feel comfortable in failure will enable you to thrive

We then discussed a few of these takeaways, related to our individual experience and goals.
Creative collaboration emerged from the conversation as one natural way to generate these, and a few of us are interested in doing more of this. Mark brought up https://www.canvas.co.com/creatives/hengtee-lim as an example of Canvas fostering creative collab between writers and illustrators. Sara was interested in meeting visual artists to collaborate with so maybe Canvas could be used to facilitate these interactions more.
Hiroshi and I started working on some ideas with spatial audio visual music after the last meetup so I'm all for that too.

That segued into our next topic around audio visuals and spatial music, using a recent hack I posted as an example: Spatial Music Visualizer https://www.canvas.co.com/creations/3901

I highly recommend to watch this video:
IN-DEPTH VIDEO: IMMERSIVE AUDIO FOR VR WORKFLOWS
https://www.asoundeffect.com/immersive-audio-vr-workflows/ for a great discussion on some key issues with this emerging area. It's a big topic area, with spatial audio encompassing multi-channel approaches to game engine hrtf approaches. Tools and processes need to be developed. Now is a good time to jump in and start playing/collaborating!
Tools to do this:
. Audio plugins
https://www.waves.com/plugins/nx#introducing-nx-virtual-mix-room
https://github.com/EnvelopSound/EnvelopForLive
. Game engines + 3rd party spatial plugins from Steam, Google++
https://unity3d.com/
https://www.unrealengine.com
WebVR such as the previous Spatial Music Visualizer example
. Recording technology that does multi-channel recording (ambisonics++) + DAW multi-channel outputs
etc etc

Hiroshi and I are exploring some of these areas, and there was some interesting discussion about how to compose for this medium. Both Sara and Cae mentioned Arvo Pärt as a possible interesting approach to composition for this. See https://itunes.apple.com/jp/artist/arvo-p%C3%A4rt/id2601882?l=en for more.

Then we transitioned into talking about performance, both live and virtual.
Some links:
https://www.smallslive.com/ is a live jazz club in NYC that has a solid virtual and live membership bizmodel streaming virtually
http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/ is an example of top shelf production values in live music streaming.
At the low rent end there's my own R&D and experiments with SecondLife as a cartoon busker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVHoNhiowVA & http://www.japaninc.com/node/4134

Times change, we have to change with them but ultimately music is about an experience (real or virtual), emotion and energy.
How do we enable that with new technologies, while also enabling musicians to survive financially?
That's a big topic for another time perhaps!

Finally we bounced around the idea for the next meeting to be a combination of focused jam session at a studio, followed by drinks and chat at a bar later. Ambient music will be the genre. We're researching possible venues so stay tuned. We will be sharing costs, so if it goes ahead we need your commitment to show up.

Attendees:
Hiroshi Mehata (Noise/Visuals)
Ainaa Azman (Tacchi ProjM/Music lover!)
Go Nakano (Drummer)
Sara Segel (Vocals/Electronic)
Cae Rale (Composer/Sound Designer)
Junta Mitsugi (Multi Instrumentalist/Tacchi ProdM)
Paul Cohen (Soundtoys)
Mark Mcfarlane (Mr Tacchi/Viola that thing between Violin and Cello)
Rob Branchat (Tacchi Engineer/Piano and real musician!)
Adam Perry (Tacchi Designer/Music lover!)

This meetup was hosted by Tacchi studios, so thanks to Junta, Mark and the crew for providing the space.

Thanks to everyone for your participation.

Great writeup for what was a very fun evening. Thanks for organizing, Paul!

BTW in case you didn't know, you can Tag people to help others check them out if you like.

eg.

Hiroshi Mehata
Ainaa Azman
Go Nakano
Sara Segel
Cae isn't signed up yet.
Junta Mitsugi
Paul Cohen
Mark Mcfarlane
Rob Branchat
Adam Perry

👍

No worries, ty.
I think I got all the Tacchi names right, please check! I'm still working on that "impress people with your instant name recall" skill.

Edit: thanks for the tagging tip!

Thank you for the summary.
Sorry me and Go rushed back too quickly but I really enjoyed listening to the discussions. I'm not sure I can participate as a musician but I'd love to see what goes down in a musician's creative collaboration session if that's okay !

Ainaa Azman Sure thing, we need an audience too!

"Leading up to the full album release on September 1, LCD Soundsystem released the second single, “Tonite,” along with a special VR dance party. Built in collaboration with Google’s Data Arts Team, the “Dance Tonite” experience lets you move between rooms filled with dancing 3D shapes, ending with a vast roomless expanse of fan-created dancers."
Source: https://www.invisionapp.com/blog/lcd-soundsystem-webvr/

It's only a VR dance video, but imagine if the music was *also* recorded in the virtual space as we discussed... That could be a very interesting music video.

Thanks Rob, interesting point!

This is a recent webinar from Izotope that addresses some points about Augmented Intelligence in music production:
Headroom with Mark Ethier, CEO, iZotope - "Innovation & Risk"
https://youtu.be/agj621q0jUQ

Update!

We're now canvasing interest for the Ambient Music Jam.
Check out the post "Musicians Meetup #3 - Ambient Jam"
https://www.canvas.co.com/topics/283