3 ms·

Show HN: TrebleMaker – AI-assisted song writing

35 points by stevehiehn 9y ago

brudgers 9y ago
Direct to video from the "What is this" link, https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/songseeds/treblemaker-instruction.mp4 https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/songseeds/treblemaker-ins... Burying it behind a link may be a case of design aesthetics impeding functionality of the landing page. Or not. To me, secondary text -> untitled video -> complex demonstration is a little indirect for visitors who don't know what it is or why they should care. The cool thing is the tool. The landing page, maybe not so much?
- stevehiehn 9y ago
  (site author) Thats great feedback! Honestly, I've spent the last several years trying to learn how to train models that generate reasonable sounding music but am still trying to figure out what it is that i'm building and how to present it.
  - brudgers 9y ago
    My advice at this point is to present it in a straight forward and technical way. Make the landing page answer the three important questions: What is it? How do I use it? Why should I care? In this case the product is very technical -- I have to open and operate sophisticated MIDI software. Presenting it like a phone app is confusing. Even more so, it looks like an MP3 player because it just presents a few icons and these have nothing to do with how I would use it. The video tutorial is great, but video is linear. It needs some text support. Particularly because it starts up with nothing but a desktop. Consider adding a title so it is clear that it is a video not just a picture of a fish. In sum, it's a technical product for technical users. The presentation can be dull because the presentation does not have to fit on a page in the iOS app store. At least not yet.
    - bill_rr 9y ago
      Yup. I don't know what MIDI software is, and wish I was able to qualify myself out sooner. No need for me to be poking around wondering what this thing is. Speak to current (or, if you don't have them yet, prospective) users. In real life. That way you can construct a landing page that speaks to them.
  - brudgers 9y ago
    One other thing I thought of is copyright. It might make sense to include Creative Commons Zero license with the download. For commercial use, the absence of a clear license is a non-starter for many people. Being AI generated probably muddies the waters more than anything else.
    - stevehiehn 9y ago
      Didn't even think of that. I just assumed the code is mine but the output is not. But I agree,being clear is essential.
kapauldo 9y ago
Great name.
FigBug 9y ago
It would be nice if the output midi files were broken into verse, chorus, bridge, etc instead of one big midi file per track. Also be nice if drums was midi instead of rendered audio. If you ever make an API, I'd be interested in integrating it into some of my software. (I've already said that in previous threads you've posted)
- stevehiehn 9y ago
  Both of those points are excellent and easy to do! I always think about a music DAW where a user composes music by selecting from a series of constantly adapting choices generated by ML.
- stevehiehn 9y ago
  Building it into an API would make an amazing product but not something I could afford as a side project. Each session would require a huge amount of RAM & CPU and the code would need to be re-architected to handle concurrency.

35 points by stevehiehn 9y ago

Direct to video from the "What is this" link, https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/songseeds/treblemaker-instruction.mp4 https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/songseeds/treblemaker-ins... Burying it behind a link may be a case of design aesthetics impeding functionality of the landing page. Or not. To me, secondary text -> untitled video -> complex demonstration is a little indirect for visitors who don't know what it is or why they should care. The cool thing is the tool. The landing page, maybe not so much?

stevehiehn 9y ago
(site author) Thats great feedback! Honestly, I've spent the last several years trying to learn how to train models that generate reasonable sounding music but am still trying to figure out what it is that i'm building and how to present it.
- brudgers 9y ago
  My advice at this point is to present it in a straight forward and technical way. Make the landing page answer the three important questions: What is it? How do I use it? Why should I care? In this case the product is very technical -- I have to open and operate sophisticated MIDI software. Presenting it like a phone app is confusing. Even more so, it looks like an MP3 player because it just presents a few icons and these have nothing to do with how I would use it. The video tutorial is great, but video is linear. It needs some text support. Particularly because it starts up with nothing but a desktop. Consider adding a title so it is clear that it is a video not just a picture of a fish. In sum, it's a technical product for technical users. The presentation can be dull because the presentation does not have to fit on a page in the iOS app store. At least not yet.
  - bill_rr 9y ago
    Yup. I don't know what MIDI software is, and wish I was able to qualify myself out sooner. No need for me to be poking around wondering what this thing is. Speak to current (or, if you don't have them yet, prospective) users. In real life. That way you can construct a landing page that speaks to them.
- brudgers 9y ago
  One other thing I thought of is copyright. It might make sense to include Creative Commons Zero license with the download. For commercial use, the absence of a clear license is a non-starter for many people. Being AI generated probably muddies the waters more than anything else.
  - stevehiehn 9y ago
    Didn't even think of that. I just assumed the code is mine but the output is not. But I agree,being clear is essential.

kapauldo 9y ago

Great name.

FigBug 9y ago

It would be nice if the output midi files were broken into verse, chorus, bridge, etc instead of one big midi file per track. Also be nice if drums was midi instead of rendered audio. If you ever make an API, I'd be interested in integrating it into some of my software. (I've already said that in previous threads you've posted)

stevehiehn 9y ago
Both of those points are excellent and easy to do! I always think about a music DAW where a user composes music by selecting from a series of constantly adapting choices generated by ML.
stevehiehn 9y ago
Building it into an API would make an amazing product but not something I could afford as a side project. Each session would require a huge amount of RAM & CPU and the code would need to be re-architected to handle concurrency.