7 ms·

Amper raises $4M to use AI to write music

90 points by bneiluj 10y ago

Insanity 10y ago
Interesting coincidence. Just today I was thinking about when AI would be able to generate music for in Clubs (which are mixes of other songs / sound-effects). I wonder how this will turn out. I did like the sound sample at the bottom.
- empath75 10y ago
  It's extremely formulaic by design so I think that it's maybe not that far off.
  - mb_72 10y ago
    As a 'traditional musician' (i.e. I play a couple of instruments, read music, jam and write songs with real humans etc), I used to think this way, however actual 'good' club music takes a lot of time to produce in terms of selection and mixing and mastering of sounds. A friend of mine, who is a talented performer and producer, deconstructed some of these tracks for me, and pointed out just how much effort and talent it takes to produce good pop / dance / club sounds. So while on the surface it would seem possible to do something passable 'automatically', I am actually not too sure how good it would sounds, especially to audiences used to hearing the best that most talented humans can come up with. Allow me to coin the phrase 'club muzak' for what early AI 'composers' will produce (although I bet then that these 2017 'club muzak' will become all the rage again across the solar system in the late 2050s')!
    - empath75 10y ago
      I used to be a rave DJ and am friends with a couple of producers. The core of a dance music track is pretty well dictated by the sub-genre. You can do a lot with a few wel chosen loops and generative music algorithms. What really sets off the best techno tracks is engineering and mixing, and I actually think that might be harder to get right with AI.
Existenceblinks 10y ago
Do anyone know why music, video or basically media service|app have the dark theme like PS, LR, Premiere Pro, Final Cut etc. ?
- fastbeef 10y ago
  Easier on the eyes. When working with media you tend to stare at details for long periods of time, a dark theme makes the UI non-distracting.
  - vidarh 10y ago
    Everything I use a lot has a dark theme - it's easier on my eyes. That includes websites, thanks to Stylish.
    - mnadkvlb 10y ago
      +1 for stylish
    - Existenceblinks 10y ago
      Could you share your snippet? I use stylish just for turning gray/dark theme websites(domestic ones) back to colorful again since the King's passed away :/
      - vidarh 10y ago
        I don't use my own themes - that's the nice part about Stylish: other people have made themes for most websites I use.
  - Existenceblinks 10y ago
    I agree with non-distracting in in-the-other-hand perspective. Dark theme makes me too focus on the work. In long period, it behaves like a magnifier in sunny day, the focal point burns thing so quickly.
- scardine 10y ago
jlebrech 10y ago
maybe danceclubs could have a webcam to the AI for it to gauge the reaction of the crowd to a particular sample. the first nights just monitor djs and then it can learn to be it's own dj. but I think in a way it could only come up with similar styles.
maroonblazer 10y ago
This looks promising. Having spent many years editing stock music for video we'd spend considerable time not only finding the right mood/genre but also editing the track to make it seem like it was "composed" specifically for the video. So, I think this solution only addresses half the problem. What would be better is if you could download the individual tracks to import into a DAW where you could further edit/manipulate them to get that more custom sound. I went through the "Pro" tutorial and this wasn't an option.
- kristopolous 10y ago
  so would you like some kind of tool within the timeline of the video in order to express things? Like some way to specify the a value corresponding to a dimension of the mood? What else would be useful? Perhaps a way to place a crescendo or a bridge? Would an option to do a MIDI export be useful? I have no dogs in this fight, just curious.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- 6stringmerc 10y ago
  So you'd want them in STEMs essentially right? I'm not a huge fan of the format package that DJs have sometimes used, but do understand what the legacy term means. Having one track for drums, keys, ambience, etc. That could be helpful from a tweaking / editing / fitting angle maybe?
- dhogan 10y ago
  I imagine you could generate MIDI files to get most of a song and then edit them as you see fit
samfisher83 10y ago
Even before machine learning people figured out the chord pattern of most popular songs. You can probably program it use those 4 chords. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
6stringmerc 10y ago
Obligatory Simpsons reference..."Don't praise the machine!" https://vimeo.com/18516240 https://vimeo.com/18516240 Kidding aside, this looks useful for a specific audience and in a price point consideration that hopefully gets traction. I've been fond of royalty-free stuff via purchase / service for a long time, it's a great platform. Will be a good one to keep an eye on!
romaniv 10y ago
We can't automate filling out Excel spreadsheets, but investing 4 million dollars in automating music creation. Meanwhile there are plenty of CC-licensed tracks and plenty of aspiring composers/producers who would gladly work on creating tracks for "commercials or short online videos" for very reasonable price.
- CamelCaseName 10y ago
  I think the question is of quality. Many people can make music, and anyone can automate making noise, but automating making music, good music, is something that's hard to do, and has a huge market. One can hope that one day we'll be autogenerating music based on individual preferences in a way that every piece you hear is a unique arrangement.
  - duality 10y ago
    I wouldn't want that any more than I'd never want to eat a favorite dish again. Novelty can be nice but it's not the only thing that makes an experience good.
- zitterbewegung 10y ago
  We can automate filling out of Excel spreadsheets. See flash fill : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-AutoFill-and-Flash-Fill-2e79a709-c814-4b27-8bc2-c4dc84d49464 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-AutoFill-and-Fl...
  - romaniv 10y ago
    Those are pretty handy features, but they are not nearly enough. I know plenty of people who spend several hours a day entering, validating and fixing data in giant Excel spreadsheets because they need to work with multiple systems that don't have real integration points. That work is mind-numbingly boring and completely avoidable. (Besides, system integration is also rote work, only one level up. I know plenty of engineers whose only job is to constantly write adapters between various web services.)
- 10y ago
raverbashing 10y ago
I've listened to the examples and it seems a very nice work in progress However it still sounds like basic themes put together and not a song with beginning/middle/end
Nihilartikel 10y ago
Well, the AI learned that Epic Cinematic soundtracks need the Inception BRAAAM (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/braaams-beginners-how-a-horn-793220 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/braaams-beginners-how-...) noise on every full measure. That's pretty impressive. https://soundcloud.com/ampermusic/epic-cinematic https://soundcloud.com/ampermusic/epic-cinematic
TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
Interesting. Sound choices are good, but the chord/harmony logic is pretty mediocre. I suspect there's an extremely simple Markov thing going on. That may be good enough for production music. At least it sounds like music, which puts it way ahead of most musical AI projects.
drewsilverstein 10y ago
Hey guys... Drew from Amper here. Thanks for the feedback!
- Taylor_OD 10y ago
  Drew, Most of the sample tracks on SoundCloud are 30 second in length. Is the platform capable of creating longer 2-4 minute songs right now?
  - drewsilverstein 10y ago
    Yeah -- we currently allow anyone to make music of up to 5 minutes in length. Would love for you to hop on Amper and give it a shot!
- drawbars 10y ago
  Is the mixing automated too? At what points are humans touching these compositions? (Meaning your soundcloud entries)
  - drewsilverstein 10y ago
    Thanks for asking. The entire composition, performance, and production is done by Amper. The music on Soundcloud is Amper's direct output without any human intervention.
lend000 10y ago
The technology is definitely there (and it can be done in many ways); I recently came across researchers/musicians using the self-organizing properties of slime molds to create music: https://vimeo.com/163427284 https://vimeo.com/163427284
bluetwo 10y ago
To me the demo was a bit bland. What it really needs is the ability to add cues, similar to how ML painting programs are now giving you the ability to define areas of a photo/painting (this is sky, this is water, etc). If you could say I need 30 seconds of uplifting music for my trailer but here are the 3 places where things are fast paced and here is the point that is shocking, the AI could in theory accommodate that into one piece that aligns with your already assembled visuals.
danjoc 10y ago
Where's the AI? At best, it looks like they use a pre-trained algorithm to generate output based on a few inputs. Similar to the deep dream visual effects Google was generating a while back. Amazon's recommender systems adjust dynamically, based on what users buy. Google's handwriting recognition is learning every time you select the correct choice and continue with your next scribble. How does this learn anything?
- tonmoy 10y ago
  AI doesn't necessarily mean it needs to have learning.
SwellJoe 10y ago
$4M would pay for a lot of mediocre human composers to produce a lot of mediocre music. I understand the value proposition here and it's neat technology, I just think it might still be a little bit early for millions to be pouring into the field. Every example I've heard of "AI music" has been some level of failure. But, maybe they just need a few million dollars to throw at the problem, and it'll go away.
- wwwigham 10y ago
  I dunno, I've heard Al Biles and his GenJam[1] autonomous accompaniment play, and it's actually pretty good. On par with most small time performers, at least. (Though maybe the synth could use some higher quality samples.) Also probably not technically AI, I imagine, but since a NN is just a generic function approximator, its conceivable a musician AI could imitate this improvisation. [1]http://igm.rit.edu/~jabics/GenJam.html http://igm.rit.edu/~jabics/GenJam.html
- Retric 10y ago
  The real niche IMO is in game music. If you can get the music to respond in real time to players actions without becoming repetitive that's probably worth 100+M across the industry even if it's never 'great'.
  - ORioN63 10y ago
    I think you nailed it. The real utopia here is putting your headphones and listening to appropriate and good music. Music responding to gaming, sports, chill, on-the-train, falling asleep, without user input would be pretty cool.
  - austinjp 10y ago
    In its day, Rez achieved this more convincingly than many games. It was a real ear opener.
- chaostheory 10y ago
  Not everything needs awesome music. With service, we can now implement a better version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPM1o9QKw1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPM1o9QKw1Q (This has already existed for years on iOS and Android, but they could be improved). There's also video games and a lot of amateur youtube videos that could use it as well.
swengw 10y ago
If you want to try generating music yourself using machine learning, check out Magenta: https://magenta.tensorflow.org/welcome-to-magenta https://magenta.tensorflow.org/welcome-to-magenta
deepnotderp 10y ago
I'll bet money they just pulled tensorflow magenta off github.
xatan_dank 10y ago
I think this company faces some serious challenges, but to me the main challenge will be to create such incredible value from the interface between customers and the intended product that it is wholly better to use their software than just search "piano stock music" somewhere and pay a couple bucks (or pay significantly more bucks for a producer's labor). From what the article says, it looks like this company is looking to provide their software as a tool for companies to generate stock music with minimal effort. They claim that stock music currently available for purchase is both overpriced and generally insufficient for commercial projects with specific demands. Perhaps it's also implied that paying a producer would similarly be too steep of a cost. My main issue with Amper's concept is not that the creation of music with AI is too farfetched- that is not a new concept. My issue is that the value of Amper's software depends on their ability to optimize the process of creating music according to strict specifications- something that I think is bottlenecked by the speed of human conversation. Like any producer, AI software can get the ball rolling, but ultimately creative decisions have to be made intelligently somewhere, and there must be an exchange of feedback which is more efficient and stronger than regular human conversation for Amper to succeed. Not only must the AI be very good, but the user interface itself must be so good that someone without a music production skillset and only a vague understanding of what's needed can do the work. I think creating this kind of interface for a layperson is the bigger challenge here. I was also extremely unimpressed with the demo. The sound quality was very poor for commercial music and there really isn't a lot of range shown in the tracks. And it isn't because of soundcloud, there are plenty of even amateur composers with more professionally produced music. I know it's supposed to be stock music, but isn't this software supposed to be capable of generating excellent, detailed stock music?
diydsp 10y ago
I can save people a lot of time: It's not about the information on the medium, the .wav file the algorithm produces. It's about the context in which the information is presented. AI-generated music will go along with generic food and other products. Listen already to the generic soundtracks on most Kickstarters. It works because they're paired conspicuous consumption. Just use the phone app "SoundBot" to make a generic chord progression with 1/8th note rhythms. "Compelling" (a la Magenta) art and music will have to understand the context, have a perspective and understand what is ineffable and attempt to convey it. That's an unbelievably large machine learning task, having essentially no boundaries and with very little data to source from. Nevertheless, as a company, Amper may create some useful musical man/machine collaboration tools.
askafriend 10y ago
Music, entertainment, and branding cannot be separated in the mainstream. Let me put it this way - a large reason I listen to The Weeknd is because of the interesting lifestyle and excess that he portrays through his branding, his music videos, and his whole persona/vibe. It's never just about the music, which is why you see a ton of amazingly talented SoundCloud producers that no one has ever heard of. They understand the music but lack the branding and persona development that gets people to actually stick to their music. AI produced music will be like computer generated art - too distant for most people unless there is another component on top of the music. That's my initial take. Curious to see what people think of my opinion.
- sdflkd 10y ago
  > Let me put it this way - a large reason I listen to The Weeknd is because of the interesting lifestyle and excess that he portrays through his branding, his music videos, and his whole persona/vibe. A large part is the evolution of the persona too. Following his growth as an individual has been amazing (although House of Balloons is still my favorite project).
- backpropaganda 10y ago
  While you're correct, AI musicians can easily have all the features of a real musician. Check out Hatsune Miku. Although the music and lyrics are written by humans, the singer is a completely fictional character who sings (generates) the music. Fans love her (it?). So, we've already solved the persona problem. Just need to generate good lyrics and melody as well now.
  - ss248 10y ago
    Not really. Hatsune Miku is more like an instrument. Like piano or violin, but synthesized human voice (not completely synthesized even, they used voice samples from the real human). Miku is one of many vocaloids. You can think of vocaloid as family of instruments, like violin family in traditional music with violin, viola, cello etc. In my opinion, she is not even the best vocaloid, but most widely known for sure. And, as with all musical instruments, it all comes to how composer uses her. Most songs you hear only because composer is already fairly popular in doujin circles. AI generated music is completely different field, because AI is the composer there. This is why in the original article they talk about how they want to create symbiosis of AI and human composer, essentially creating another tool aka instrument, but this time human needs to do even less in terms of actual music creation.

90 points by bneiluj 10y ago

Interesting coincidence. Just today I was thinking about when AI would be able to generate music for in Clubs (which are mixes of other songs / sound-effects). I wonder how this will turn out. I did like the sound sample at the bottom.

empath75 10y ago
It's extremely formulaic by design so I think that it's maybe not that far off.
- mb_72 10y ago
  As a 'traditional musician' (i.e. I play a couple of instruments, read music, jam and write songs with real humans etc), I used to think this way, however actual 'good' club music takes a lot of time to produce in terms of selection and mixing and mastering of sounds. A friend of mine, who is a talented performer and producer, deconstructed some of these tracks for me, and pointed out just how much effort and talent it takes to produce good pop / dance / club sounds. So while on the surface it would seem possible to do something passable 'automatically', I am actually not too sure how good it would sounds, especially to audiences used to hearing the best that most talented humans can come up with. Allow me to coin the phrase 'club muzak' for what early AI 'composers' will produce (although I bet then that these 2017 'club muzak' will become all the rage again across the solar system in the late 2050s')!
  - empath75 10y ago
    I used to be a rave DJ and am friends with a couple of producers. The core of a dance music track is pretty well dictated by the sub-genre. You can do a lot with a few wel chosen loops and generative music algorithms. What really sets off the best techno tracks is engineering and mixing, and I actually think that might be harder to get right with AI.

Existenceblinks 10y ago

Do anyone know why music, video or basically media service|app have the dark theme like PS, LR, Premiere Pro, Final Cut etc. ?

fastbeef 10y ago
Easier on the eyes. When working with media you tend to stare at details for long periods of time, a dark theme makes the UI non-distracting.
- vidarh 10y ago
  Everything I use a lot has a dark theme - it's easier on my eyes. That includes websites, thanks to Stylish.
  - mnadkvlb 10y ago
    +1 for stylish
  - Existenceblinks 10y ago
    Could you share your snippet? I use stylish just for turning gray/dark theme websites(domestic ones) back to colorful again since the King's passed away :/
    - vidarh 10y ago
      I don't use my own themes - that's the nice part about Stylish: other people have made themes for most websites I use.
- Existenceblinks 10y ago
  I agree with non-distracting in in-the-other-hand perspective. Dark theme makes me too focus on the work. In long period, it behaves like a magnifier in sunny day, the focal point burns thing so quickly.
scardine 10y ago

jlebrech 10y ago

maybe danceclubs could have a webcam to the AI for it to gauge the reaction of the crowd to a particular sample. the first nights just monitor djs and then it can learn to be it's own dj. but I think in a way it could only come up with similar styles.

maroonblazer 10y ago

This looks promising. Having spent many years editing stock music for video we'd spend considerable time not only finding the right mood/genre but also editing the track to make it seem like it was "composed" specifically for the video. So, I think this solution only addresses half the problem. What would be better is if you could download the individual tracks to import into a DAW where you could further edit/manipulate them to get that more custom sound. I went through the "Pro" tutorial and this wasn't an option.

kristopolous 10y ago
so would you like some kind of tool within the timeline of the video in order to express things? Like some way to specify the a value corresponding to a dimension of the mood? What else would be useful? Perhaps a way to place a crescendo or a bridge? Would an option to do a MIDI export be useful? I have no dogs in this fight, just curious.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
6stringmerc 10y ago
So you'd want them in STEMs essentially right? I'm not a huge fan of the format package that DJs have sometimes used, but do understand what the legacy term means. Having one track for drums, keys, ambience, etc. That could be helpful from a tweaking / editing / fitting angle maybe?
dhogan 10y ago
I imagine you could generate MIDI files to get most of a song and then edit them as you see fit

samfisher83 10y ago

Even before machine learning people figured out the chord pattern of most popular songs. You can probably program it use those 4 chords. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

6stringmerc 10y ago

Obligatory Simpsons reference..."Don't praise the machine!" https://vimeo.com/18516240 https://vimeo.com/18516240 Kidding aside, this looks useful for a specific audience and in a price point consideration that hopefully gets traction. I've been fond of royalty-free stuff via purchase / service for a long time, it's a great platform. Will be a good one to keep an eye on!

romaniv 10y ago

We can't automate filling out Excel spreadsheets, but investing 4 million dollars in automating music creation. Meanwhile there are plenty of CC-licensed tracks and plenty of aspiring composers/producers who would gladly work on creating tracks for "commercials or short online videos" for very reasonable price.

CamelCaseName 10y ago
I think the question is of quality. Many people can make music, and anyone can automate making noise, but automating making music, good music, is something that's hard to do, and has a huge market. One can hope that one day we'll be autogenerating music based on individual preferences in a way that every piece you hear is a unique arrangement.
- duality 10y ago
  I wouldn't want that any more than I'd never want to eat a favorite dish again. Novelty can be nice but it's not the only thing that makes an experience good.
zitterbewegung 10y ago
We can automate filling out of Excel spreadsheets. See flash fill : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-AutoFill-and-Flash-Fill-2e79a709-c814-4b27-8bc2-c4dc84d49464 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-AutoFill-and-Fl...
- romaniv 10y ago
  Those are pretty handy features, but they are not nearly enough. I know plenty of people who spend several hours a day entering, validating and fixing data in giant Excel spreadsheets because they need to work with multiple systems that don't have real integration points. That work is mind-numbingly boring and completely avoidable. (Besides, system integration is also rote work, only one level up. I know plenty of engineers whose only job is to constantly write adapters between various web services.)
10y ago

raverbashing 10y ago

I've listened to the examples and it seems a very nice work in progress However it still sounds like basic themes put together and not a song with beginning/middle/end

Nihilartikel 10y ago

Well, the AI learned that Epic Cinematic soundtracks need the Inception BRAAAM (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/braaams-beginners-how-a-horn-793220 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/braaams-beginners-how-...) noise on every full measure. That's pretty impressive. https://soundcloud.com/ampermusic/epic-cinematic https://soundcloud.com/ampermusic/epic-cinematic

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago

Interesting. Sound choices are good, but the chord/harmony logic is pretty mediocre. I suspect there's an extremely simple Markov thing going on. That may be good enough for production music. At least it sounds like music, which puts it way ahead of most musical AI projects.

drewsilverstein 10y ago

Hey guys... Drew from Amper here. Thanks for the feedback!

Taylor_OD 10y ago
Drew, Most of the sample tracks on SoundCloud are 30 second in length. Is the platform capable of creating longer 2-4 minute songs right now?
- drewsilverstein 10y ago
  Yeah -- we currently allow anyone to make music of up to 5 minutes in length. Would love for you to hop on Amper and give it a shot!
drawbars 10y ago
Is the mixing automated too? At what points are humans touching these compositions? (Meaning your soundcloud entries)
- drewsilverstein 10y ago
  Thanks for asking. The entire composition, performance, and production is done by Amper. The music on Soundcloud is Amper's direct output without any human intervention.

lend000 10y ago

The technology is definitely there (and it can be done in many ways); I recently came across researchers/musicians using the self-organizing properties of slime molds to create music: https://vimeo.com/163427284 https://vimeo.com/163427284

bluetwo 10y ago

To me the demo was a bit bland. What it really needs is the ability to add cues, similar to how ML painting programs are now giving you the ability to define areas of a photo/painting (this is sky, this is water, etc). If you could say I need 30 seconds of uplifting music for my trailer but here are the 3 places where things are fast paced and here is the point that is shocking, the AI could in theory accommodate that into one piece that aligns with your already assembled visuals.

danjoc 10y ago

Where's the AI? At best, it looks like they use a pre-trained algorithm to generate output based on a few inputs. Similar to the deep dream visual effects Google was generating a while back. Amazon's recommender systems adjust dynamically, based on what users buy. Google's handwriting recognition is learning every time you select the correct choice and continue with your next scribble. How does this learn anything?

tonmoy 10y ago
AI doesn't necessarily mean it needs to have learning.

SwellJoe 10y ago

$4M would pay for a lot of mediocre human composers to produce a lot of mediocre music. I understand the value proposition here and it's neat technology, I just think it might still be a little bit early for millions to be pouring into the field. Every example I've heard of "AI music" has been some level of failure. But, maybe they just need a few million dollars to throw at the problem, and it'll go away.

wwwigham 10y ago
I dunno, I've heard Al Biles and his GenJam[1] autonomous accompaniment play, and it's actually pretty good. On par with most small time performers, at least. (Though maybe the synth could use some higher quality samples.) Also probably not technically AI, I imagine, but since a NN is just a generic function approximator, its conceivable a musician AI could imitate this improvisation. [1]http://igm.rit.edu/~jabics/GenJam.html http://igm.rit.edu/~jabics/GenJam.html
Retric 10y ago
The real niche IMO is in game music. If you can get the music to respond in real time to players actions without becoming repetitive that's probably worth 100+M across the industry even if it's never 'great'.
- ORioN63 10y ago
  I think you nailed it. The real utopia here is putting your headphones and listening to appropriate and good music. Music responding to gaming, sports, chill, on-the-train, falling asleep, without user input would be pretty cool.
- austinjp 10y ago
  In its day, Rez achieved this more convincingly than many games. It was a real ear opener.
chaostheory 10y ago
Not everything needs awesome music. With service, we can now implement a better version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPM1o9QKw1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPM1o9QKw1Q (This has already existed for years on iOS and Android, but they could be improved). There's also video games and a lot of amateur youtube videos that could use it as well.

swengw 10y ago

If you want to try generating music yourself using machine learning, check out Magenta: https://magenta.tensorflow.org/welcome-to-magenta https://magenta.tensorflow.org/welcome-to-magenta

deepnotderp 10y ago

I'll bet money they just pulled tensorflow magenta off github.

xatan_dank 10y ago

I think this company faces some serious challenges, but to me the main challenge will be to create such incredible value from the interface between customers and the intended product that it is wholly better to use their software than just search "piano stock music" somewhere and pay a couple bucks (or pay significantly more bucks for a producer's labor). From what the article says, it looks like this company is looking to provide their software as a tool for companies to generate stock music with minimal effort. They claim that stock music currently available for purchase is both overpriced and generally insufficient for commercial projects with specific demands. Perhaps it's also implied that paying a producer would similarly be too steep of a cost. My main issue with Amper's concept is not that the creation of music with AI is too farfetched- that is not a new concept. My issue is that the value of Amper's software depends on their ability to optimize the process of creating music according to strict specifications- something that I think is bottlenecked by the speed of human conversation. Like any producer, AI software can get the ball rolling, but ultimately creative decisions have to be made intelligently somewhere, and there must be an exchange of feedback which is more efficient and stronger than regular human conversation for Amper to succeed. Not only must the AI be very good, but the user interface itself must be so good that someone without a music production skillset and only a vague understanding of what's needed can do the work. I think creating this kind of interface for a layperson is the bigger challenge here. I was also extremely unimpressed with the demo. The sound quality was very poor for commercial music and there really isn't a lot of range shown in the tracks. And it isn't because of soundcloud, there are plenty of even amateur composers with more professionally produced music. I know it's supposed to be stock music, but isn't this software supposed to be capable of generating excellent, detailed stock music?

diydsp 10y ago

I can save people a lot of time: It's not about the information on the medium, the .wav file the algorithm produces. It's about the context in which the information is presented. AI-generated music will go along with generic food and other products. Listen already to the generic soundtracks on most Kickstarters. It works because they're paired conspicuous consumption. Just use the phone app "SoundBot" to make a generic chord progression with 1/8th note rhythms. "Compelling" (a la Magenta) art and music will have to understand the context, have a perspective and understand what is ineffable and attempt to convey it. That's an unbelievably large machine learning task, having essentially no boundaries and with very little data to source from. Nevertheless, as a company, Amper may create some useful musical man/machine collaboration tools.

askafriend 10y ago

Music, entertainment, and branding cannot be separated in the mainstream. Let me put it this way - a large reason I listen to The Weeknd is because of the interesting lifestyle and excess that he portrays through his branding, his music videos, and his whole persona/vibe. It's never just about the music, which is why you see a ton of amazingly talented SoundCloud producers that no one has ever heard of. They understand the music but lack the branding and persona development that gets people to actually stick to their music. AI produced music will be like computer generated art - too distant for most people unless there is another component on top of the music. That's my initial take. Curious to see what people think of my opinion.

sdflkd 10y ago
> Let me put it this way - a large reason I listen to The Weeknd is because of the interesting lifestyle and excess that he portrays through his branding, his music videos, and his whole persona/vibe. A large part is the evolution of the persona too. Following his growth as an individual has been amazing (although House of Balloons is still my favorite project).
backpropaganda 10y ago
While you're correct, AI musicians can easily have all the features of a real musician. Check out Hatsune Miku. Although the music and lyrics are written by humans, the singer is a completely fictional character who sings (generates) the music. Fans love her (it?). So, we've already solved the persona problem. Just need to generate good lyrics and melody as well now.
- ss248 10y ago
  Not really. Hatsune Miku is more like an instrument. Like piano or violin, but synthesized human voice (not completely synthesized even, they used voice samples from the real human). Miku is one of many vocaloids. You can think of vocaloid as family of instruments, like violin family in traditional music with violin, viola, cello etc. In my opinion, she is not even the best vocaloid, but most widely known for sure. And, as with all musical instruments, it all comes to how composer uses her. Most songs you hear only because composer is already fairly popular in doujin circles. AI generated music is completely different field, because AI is the composer there. This is why in the original article they talk about how they want to create symbiosis of AI and human composer, essentially creating another tool aka instrument, but this time human needs to do even less in terms of actual music creation.