Creating music from words: AI via text prompts

[KenElevenShadows]

You know how you can create art via text prompts? This is the musical equivalent.

 

https://google-research.github.io/seanet/musiclm/examples/

[KuruPrionz]

I listened to the first 4 examples on the first page. 

 

Observations:

All tempos are flat-lined. 

Melodies are "correct" but uninspired and lack "style".

The 4th clip was supposed to be reggae but the drum beat was not reggae - not even close.

The tone of the vocals is not pleasing to me, harsh yet thin. 

 

They've made progress, still a long ways to go. Doesn't mean the general public won't like it. Cream may rise to the top of the bowl but so do turds. 

 

😇

 

[KenElevenShadows]

There was one, a calmer sort of one, that actually sounded pretty good to me. I believe this was on the second page. While none of these offerings are masterful or stunning or gifted in any way, they are 1.) impressive that they can actually be done, much less to this calibre, 2.) illustrate that this is coming and is absolutely a "thing", 3.) is gonna make music far more cheaply for people like music supervisors who need interstitial music, etc. (although quite frankly this is already extremely cheap), and 4.) already create music better than some humans.

[KenElevenShadows]

I wrote this article about AI-generated art after someone won first prize by submitting something from Midjourney. While it's largely photography-based, some of the points apply to other forms of AI-generated art.

 

https://photofocus.com/opinion/artists-are-pissed-ai-generated-artwork-wins-first-place-at-competition/

 

One of the more amusing things to do is create “what if”-style word prompts. Here, I’ve typed in “If the Beatles were Goth.” Midjourney then created four possibilities.

 

I helped create this photo with the word prompt “The last selfie on earth.” Midjourney did the rest.

 

When polled by the school newspaper, 59% of Yale students thought this photo was generated by AI. It's in fact a real photo, a long exposure night photo.

[KuruPrionz]

 I do like AI rendered drawings, paintings, photographs (the word means "writing with light" which is what we are doing with a computer on the screen).

That said, humans draw what humans draw and it's hard to imagine that you could in words provide enough information for one frame of the classic Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly with any authenticity, That took a form of human talent and insanity, at least where we are now with AI. Maybe you could feed it several frames and it would come up with something, I don't know. 

 

I know I really like some of the AI features in Photoshop Elements 2021. I'll wait for the 2023 version to go on sale at the end of next year but  I'm guessing it will have more refined versions of current AI and new tools as well. Handy stuff, saves a LOT of time, even if you still need to do a little tweak or two after. 

 

I'm not opposed to AI in music but I'm pretty picky in general so I await new accomplishments. They may well be out there now, I just don't spend much time hunting for these sorts of things - too busy trying to be creative myself while I can. 

[David Emm]

Too much of the wrong kind of automation renders things increasingly lifeless. I can barely stand to use an arpeggiator in its usual role. Its a thin line between that and various kinds of looping, but the latter warms my cockles and the former steps on them. Some AI art is very technically appealing, but I can often smell the difference, so far.

 

We seem to be in a dead heat for who can de-humanize who the fastest, although some of the alleged humanity I've seen lately makes me yearn for the Matrix. Now watch, I will have lived in it for years, but it was run by an Elon AI and the short-circuiting allows me to carp about it. 🤨

 

If AI is going to be useful to me personally, let it find a way to keep me from wanting to kick certain people in the crotch until they make a sound only a dog can hear. That's a job for 20 old warehoused Cray computers. 🦿⚡

[KenElevenShadows]

For some things, AI is very useful. In photography, leveraging that so it does mundane tasks or seeks out "noise" in images or helps in editing...well, it's fantastic. If it seeks out noise or levels out things in audio, this is super useful. It can be used for doing repetitive tasks so we can get on to the creative stuff.

 

I just want to throw that out there. This isn't an "AI good/AI bad" thing for every scenario either. 

 

If it's for creating art, well, I said some of what I think in the article above.

[KuruPrionz]

23 minutes ago, KenElevenShadows said:

For some things, AI is very useful. In photography, leveraging that so it does mundane tasks or seeks out "noise" in images or helps in editing...well, it's fantastic. If it seeks out noise or levels out things in audio, this is super useful. It can be used for doing repetitive tasks so we can get on to the creative stuff.

 

I just want to throw that out there. This isn't an "AI good/AI bad" thing for every scenario either. 

 

If it's for creating art, well, I said some of what I think in the article above.

I agree, I love some of the AI features in Photoshop Elements. I'm not certain I've used it in music creation, mostly I play instruments and try to sing and record that. 

I know I use digital emulations of many otherwise unobtainable goodies in plugin form and I'm certain there are AI plugins but I don't think I've used any since I generally have to mess with the settings to get the sounds I want. 

 

I agree that if they do something useful that saves time, I'll give it a spin. I guess if AI allows computer geeks to have adventures in music it doesn't bother me. The odds are if people keep doing it someone will "create" something lovely. If not, at least they are not posting strange ideas in some political forum or something...