Semantic release
A manifest and its referenced exact realizations define the durable intellectual object.
Open standard · Version 0.6.0
Virtual Acoustic
Object Standard
A preservation-oriented exchange standard for evidence-rich virtual representations of musical instruments and other acoustic objects.
- Edition
- 0.6.0 · MMIC 1.0.0
- Status
- Final specification
- Published
- 10 October 2026
- Identifier
- doi:10.5281/zenodo.23287792
- Editor
- Dominik Ukolov
- License
- CC BY 4.0 / Apache-2.0 / CC0-1.0
01
Purpose
VAO packages semantic identity, scientific evidence, multimodal media, physical topology, interaction behaviour, rights, and exact file bytes in a verifiable release model.
Version 0.6.0 adds mechanical music information carriers and digital designs, with documentary, decoding, comparison and generation contracts. Native signals, explicit MIDI bindings, model identity, geometry, timing and fabrication evidence remain distinct.
It is designed for research, documentation, preservation, and reproducible implementation. Machine conformance establishes structural and semantic consistency; it does not substitute for scholarly evaluation of an observation, model, or claim.
02
The release model
Carrier
A safe ZIP-based .vao file transports all or part of a release without redefining it.
Evidence
Protocols, observations, calibration, uncertainty, provenance, claims, and review remain explicit.
Fixity
SHA-256 identities bind descriptions to bytes; optional chunk and Merkle data support large assets.
03
Specification structure
Normative textRequirements and data model
ConformanceRoles, validation order, and claims
ProfilesCore, scientific, spatial, acoustic, playable and MMIC contracts
ArtifactsSchemas, context, vocabulary, mapping, and SHACL
SecurityRequirements for untrusted carriers and remote materialization
ChangesThe 0.6.0 release record
04
Relation to MODAVIS
VAO is the exchange and preservation standard. The MODAVIS Ontology Network supplies a broader conceptual vocabulary for multimodal digital research objects. VAO 0.6.0 includes a version-specific RDF mapping to MODAVIS 0.1.0; the mapping is downstream and does not make the ontology a conformance dependency.