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In these examples, the sonics can be replicated, but not the sense of innovation that defined the artists. Even diehard Beatles fans probably don’t listen much to “ Daddy’s Car,” an AI-generated track from 2016 in the style of Sgt. “It’s able to coherently generate a multi-instrumental piece of music with metrical structure, musical phrases, progressions that make sense, all while doing it at a granular audio rate,” he said.Īt the same time, AI mimicry has a ceiling of interest. True, the audio is a bit muddy, but the generative complexity on display is striking, said Oliver Bown, author of Beyond the Creative Species: Making Machines That Make Art and Music. The track really does sound a lot like Nirvana - the loud-quiet-loud dynamics, the fill-happy drumming. Dubbed “ Drowned in the Sun,” it was the product of two AI frameworks: Google’s Magenta, which was used to produce the music, based on input data of dozens of original Nirvana recordings, and a neural network that generated lyrics, which were then delivered by the singer of a Nirvana tribute band.
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Why the scare quotes? The track wasn’t actually some long-lost recording from the seminal grunge trio’s active era, unearthed from the vaults. More than 25 years after Kurt Cobain’s death, a new “Nirvana” song was posted online. It’s also maturing as a compositional tool, with artists leveraging AI to generate new sounds derived from all manner of audio inputs.ĪI Music: Artificial Intelligence and Music Generation and Composition AI generates ever-shifting soundscapes designed for relaxation and focus, powers recommendation systems in streaming services, helps smooth audio mixing and mastering, and generates rights-free music without copyright issues.
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