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The Future Of Music: How AI Is Changing The Production Game

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A.I isn’t taking over music production yet. However, it is still early days. Some tools are exciting for generating ideas for melody, chord progressions, drums, and lyrics. If you can’t afford a mastering engineer, using an A.I. service online is a cheaper way to get your track mastered.

Artificial Intelligence And Music Production

We have seen in the media that now and then, the conversation of A.I. appears.

It’s usually related to some hypothetical apocalyptic event where the A.I. will take over and either kill or enslave humans. Not scary at all, right?

But let’s focus on the positives. We are music producers, so how will this affect us? 

In this article, we will discuss what A.I. can do regarding music production, the pros and cons, and an overall take on its possible impact.

Robot Pushing A Fader On A Mixing Desk

What Can A.I. Do For Music Production?

There are many different ways in which artificial intelligence music production can be implemented. 

Of course, the more complex the technology being used, the more powerful your computer will need. Please review our article on building a computer for music production for guidance.

Collecting And Manipulating Music Samples

Some sites, such as LALAL.AI, allow you to upload a song and select the stems you want. For example, if you hear the music’s vocals, it will take everything else away, and you can then use it for sampling.

Of course, some sites work better than others, but this is a great way to sample songs that you need access to the stems. It’s also valuable for hearing what happens in certain song parts. You can analytically listen to the different tracks in the music in detail.

Some sites, such as Samplette.io, that aid in collecting samples. They will have a shuffle button on the site and then load up a song for you to sample. It’s like the random article section in Wikipedia, but for music. They also have the added feature of shuffling with filters, such as the release date and genre.

All the music suggested for sampling is on YouTube, so you can easily download the audio.

Not all sites have considered copyright; they are just ways to sample songs. If you were to release these, you need to have permission to do so.

Collecting Speech Samples

Using speech samples is a standard move for producers, especially in the lo-fi hip-hop game. If you have a phrase in mind that you want to include in your music but need help finding a sample, then PlayPhrase has covered you.

PlayPhrase Me
PlayPhrase

This is so great, honestly. You type in the phrase or word you want to find a sample for, and it will search for movie scenes that include this phrase. It’s a fantastic time saver!

Writing Lyrics

Writing lyrics for a song can be very stressful if you’re unsure what to say. It may be writer’s block, or lyric writing may be something other than your most vital skill.

There are A.I. technologies that help you write lyrics, such as Jarvis.

You can fill out different parameters to direct the A.I. into the right kind of lyrics for you. You can even include some lyrics if you have some written but need help finishing them.

You can also type in an artist name that you want the lyrics to be like, a genre, the year, the song title, and the section of the song.

A.I. Voice Generation

Yes, you’re reading this correctly. You can use artificial intelligence to generate a voice. But how does this help with music production?

Uberduck Open Source AI Community
Uberduck

It’s more than just generating a voice. Services like Uberduck allow you to pick a rapper from a wide selection and then type something for them to say. You could have the biggest rappers in the world on your track. That’s awesome.

A.I. Idea Generators

We’ve all been stuck for inspiration and in a rut. There are things you can do to make it better, but sometimes the tank is just empty.

Apps like Amadeus Code allow you to generate beats based on genre, dynamic range, note length, level of drama, familiarity, and sound era. You can swap out sections in the beat or start again from scratch. This is a new and exciting way to spark inspiration.

Amadeuscode A Quick song sketch ideas in seconds
Amadeus Code

Another service that does this, but with a few more bells and whistles, is Aiva. This allows you to create a track based on a genre, and the A.I. will make a beat for you. The cool thing about this service is that you can open up the editor for the track. This allows you to mute instruments you don’t want and even change MIDI notes.

A.I Music Tools

Magenta is a service that has a bunch of music tools to create music and sounds with. There is a drum bot. There’s a loop generator. There is also this incredible tool where you can choose two sounds to mix to make a new sound, and you can even select the amount of each sound.

Magenta Make Music and Art
Magenta

The fun part about this service is that Ableton Live plugins can be used for free within your music-making progress. I love these plugins.

There is a plugin that will generate four bars of a melodic or drum MIDI part, where you can determine the number of variations and temperature of the parts. 

A similar plugin gets you to import a MIDI part, and the A.I. will continue writing the part.

There is also a plugin that allows you to import two audio files and generate a new sample that’s a blend of the two.

These are fascinating tools to inspire you and help you progress a song. Plus, they’re free!

Another set of plugins that add to your music tool collection is the Orb Producer Suite. This isn’t free. However, these four plugins are very powerful.

The first plugin is Orb Chords, creating an unlimited number of chord progressions. 

The second plugin is Orb Melody, which will create unlimited melodic ideas. 

The third plugin is Orb Bass, which, as you guessed, will give you an unlimited amount of basslines as if having a bassist right there with you.

The fourth and final plugin is the Orb Arpeggio, which can generate anything from simple to complex arpeggio.

All of these plugins are highly customizable and incredibly inspiring. You can choose from dozens of presets. The controls for the parameters are intuitive. Of course, you can also select the key and the specific type of scale.

Organisation Of Your Music and Beats

Cyanite is a service that allows you to import a collection of music or beats for them and then be organized by different filters such as key, genre, tempo, and mood.

Cyanite sample manager
Cyanite

This is amazing for someone like me, who makes many different music styles and needs to learn genres better to label them. It’s a massive time saver too.

Once the tool has analyzed your music, you can search within these parameters to find songs or beats that fit into that category. It’s great if you continuously make music and a collaborator or client wants something specific. You may already have it in your library and can now find it quickly.

With all this music you’re making, are you sure you have an adequate storage setup? Check out our article on how much SSD storage you need for music production.

What Are The Pros Of A.I. Music Production?

  • They allow you to find new inspiration.
  • They make your workflow more efficient in some ways, such as organization or collecting samples.
  • Even the free A.I. tools are helpful.
  • It allows producers with less music theory knowledge to grow and create new music.

What Are The Cons Of A.I. Music Production?

  • It could cause producers to feel that they don’t need to learn the aspects of music production that the A.I. assists them with.
  • You could spend a long time searching for the right idea in one of these A.I. tools.
  • Newer producers could become too dependent on these and not develop their style and sound.
  • Can an A.I. write beautiful lyrics that reflect the emotions you want to convey?

Related Questions

Can A.I. Music Be Copyrighted?

While a piece of music generated by A.I. cannot be copyrighted, a piece of music created with A.I. assistance can. It’s unclear how much assistance is allowed. Still, there needs to be significant input by a human to copyright this music.

What Artists Have Used A.I.?

Alex Da Kid
Ash Koosha
The Cotton Modules
SKYGGE
Taryn Southern

How Is A.I. Used In Music Production?

A.I. can generate ideas, organize song selections, compose a whole track, help finish a track, and much more. A.I. is most commonly used in music production within online mastering platforms.

How Does A.I. Create Music?

The developer can input a set of chords, melodies, beats, and other musical parameters into an algorithm. From here, the artificial intelligence will use the algorithm to learn the unique aspects of the music. Then it can create new music based on this.

What A.I. Do Spotify Use?

There are three. 

Collaborative filtering is what Spotify uses to track user listening patterns and send recommendations of music that the user might enjoy.

Natural language processing collects information online to learn about various artists. It then uses this information to recommend songs to users.

Audio Models is the final A.I. that Spotify uses. This analyzes each song in detail to learn about what the user likes and then recommends other songs to the user based on this information.

Final Words

A.I. can be a fantastic tool in music production and every other aspect it’s being applied to if you use it correctly.

Don’t let it stop you from learning. Please don’t rely on it. Use it when you’re stuck on an idea. Or when it could speed up your workflow and organization system.

A.I. could take over music production if we let it. But even then, I doubt it could produce the music that hits us. 

For a more in-depth look at the effect of music in life, check out our article on why music is important.

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