Wii Music Orchestra Hands-On

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot

Posted May 11, 2006 9:33 am PT

LOS ANGELES--Who hasn't had the fantasy of being a famous conductor guiding a world-class symphony through some of the world's greatest classical music? Who, secretly in their hearts, hasn't yearned to mimic great conductors like Leonard Bernstein or Michael Tilson Thomas? Anyone? Anyone at all? Okay, for those of you that have, Wii Music Orchestrator might help you unlock you inner maestro. We played a demo version of the game at the Nintendo Wii booth, and it left us musically enriched and physically drained.

The demo, which uses the Wii remote as a conductor's baton, let you conduct a cute-looking orchestra of thimble-shaped musicians through two songs: the theme from the Legend of Zelda series and the theme to Bizet's Carmen. Once you calibrated the Wii remote, a hand holding a conductor's baton appeared on screen. After a few seconds, the hand began conducting at the tempo the song would be taken. To start the orchestra on their musical adventure, you had to tap out four beats at the required tempo.

Once the music began, it was up to us as the conductor to keep the collection of musicians on their musical path. The biggest responsibility was to keep the tempo moving by vigorously moving the Wii remote up and down. And when we say "vigorous" we mean it--no dainty conducting movements here; the quicker your movements, the louder and more enthusiastic the orchestra would play through the number. The coolest part of the demo was how the orchestra would react immediately to any shifts in your tempo, slowing down and speeding up in conjunction with your conducting movements. There wasn't much in the way of cueing of specific sections of the orchestra--such as the brass or violins--but perhaps that will make it into a final version of the game at a later date.

With cute visuals, a camera that seemed intelligent enough to focus on specific portions of the orchestra during the correct moments (such as the brass during a particularly bright trumpet flourish), and an interesting control scheme, Wii Music Orchestra seems to be yet another interesting use of the Wii remote. Our only complaint was how physically drained a single song left us; by the end of one tune, our arms were aching and we had to take a break. We'll keep you informed on how Wii Music Orchestra develops in the coming months.

-GameSpot

I think this program as a LOT of potential, if Nintendo actually acts on it.

Wouldn't it be great if this turned into a program that allowed young students to practice their conducting skills? Young conductors tend to waver in tempo and generally when you're in a college conducting class and playing when you're not up on the podium, you're probably keeping a good beat. The student may have no idea how badly they're wavering in tempo, even after watching themselves in a video.

I'd love to see Nintendo pair up with MENC or something like that to release exercises for serious musicians, maybe downloaded via their WiiConnect24 or something like that. I just hope it's not some cheesy demo that gets tagged on with Wii Sports. If they really want to expand the gaming market, they have to offer things that would draw the non-gaming market in. I think something like this would be a great tool for musicians to use.

Conducting is fun. Nintendo should build a special controller-baton that is shaped like a real baton and reacts to motion. That would be something I might buy... of course, I'm not too inclined to spring for a Wii anyway!

For the Millenium New Years, my school (Peabody Conservatory) arranged a computerized orchestra (sounds sampled by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra) so that a conductor could stand in front of sensors and actually conduct the computer. A graduate student composed a work for the occasion, the PSO recorded it, and then the wizzes in the Computer Music department set up the computer to play and control the sounds, when initiated by a special 'baton' and a conductor specifically trained to work with the computer. They did this in Times Square, and it was on the news.

Anyway, this game sounds like it'll turn out to be crap. I don't know, it just seems like nintendo is just trying to reach out and get everyone into playing their consoles.