# Music Making Tools, or Tools Making Music?



## slowdon (Feb 18, 2021)

Dear composer friends,

I'm hoping I've posted this in the right section! I have recently completed a Masters course in 'Sound for the Moving Image' at Glasgow School of Art (UK). My final dissertation/thesis was a research project on media composers, music technology and artificial intelligence – which I thought may be of interest to some on this forum.

I have included below, the dissertation Abstract; to give you an idea of the scope and findings. As a creative application of the research, I also produced a companion film – to provide an accessible overview of the written submission. If you have the time and are interested, the link to the film is here:





Thank you again to all of the composers, directors and producers who took part in the research survey, and made the project possible.

With best wishes,
Simon Lowdon

www.simonlowdonmusic.com

#keepmusichuman


*Abstract:*

Music and technology have always had a close relationship, and composers must continually stay up to date with the latest tools and techniques. The pace of progress has accelerated since the advent of MIDI, computing and the internet. The latest developments in methods classified as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI), mean there is a potential for AI to compose music. Does this present a threat or an opportunity for composers?

This research focuses on advancing an understanding of the influence of technological tools, on the creation and production of music for moving image media. The aims of the research were met through an extensive contextual review, including an assessment of available music tools which claim to incorporate AI.

This was accompanied by the implementation of practical research. Two online surveys were carried out; one aimed at current media composers and another aimed at directors and producers. This research produced a number of key findings: The close relationship between music and technology is most apparent in composers for moving image media. Composers typically use a wide variety of hardware and software tools to create, manipulate and shape sounds into music.

This research found that, in contrast with the marketing hype, many ‘AI’ music tools are extremely narrow in scope, and of no practical use to professional media composers. Nonetheless, composers may in future benefit from AI tools assisting with the more mundane aspects of their extensive workflow. Composers, directors and producers, are aware of the potential for AI music, but all hold in high regard the artistic value of human music.

The main conclusions drawn were: Media composers have a wide range of roles and responsibilities and make use of a wealth of technological tools. The essential ‘toolkit’ and workflow steps are laid out in the recommendations. Current composers have nothing to fear from contemporary AI, and they could play an important role in developing future tools. There is a strong argument for media composers, as a community, becoming ambassadors for the unique qualities of human music to enhance moving image media. 

Keywords: music technology, music production, media composer, artificial intelligence, moving image media


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## KarlHeinz (Feb 18, 2021)

Is there an overview of the tools you examined and maybe a classification/rating/hints ? As I have seen in the credits (I cant really look/hear video while I am on work now) there are most of the tools I use/have tried out (seems not really something new sadly but maybe I have overseen) but would really be interested in your assessment.


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## creativeforge (Feb 18, 2021)

@Tatiana Gordeeva You seen this one? ▲


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Feb 18, 2021)

Nicely made video! Well developed subject. Wrong conclusion imho.

True AI cannot "feel" the way humans do (yet, the neuropsychiatry of emotions is a very active subject), BUT humans can and then_ they_ can tell the AI what emotion(s) to shoot for in the composition, based on thousands of previously analyzed and categorized successful human scores.

The process is no different than what musicians do, learning by comparison and training. WE ARE neural networks. AI is just faster and more exhaustive. Something that would take a human composer hundreds of lives to learn.

Also individual emotional responses cannot be anticipated by the composer or the AI. They are statistical averages over a population of listeners and don't necessarily apply to another culture or even a sub-group of any given culture. AI will be able to even fine-tune music to your personal taste, your mood of the day, the weather, etc. And we all know very well as composers that we can instill (install?) a mood in a person's mind directly or in a more subtle way. This has been used commercially thousands of times.

As for learning from a master using AI him/herself: it has been the case for centuries. Luthiers and other craftsmen taught the use of tools to their apprentices as well as the principles themselves. They go literally hand in hand. The same will be with AI-assisted composers.

But I like the fact that you even discuss the subject. It is inevitable. Let's keep the dialogue going.
If only we had a sub-forum on vi to do it 
Best regards, Tatiana


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## Rory (Feb 18, 2021)

This links in this thread - How to Play a Kandinsky - may be of interest: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/how-to-play-a-kandinsky-synesthesia.105559/


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Feb 18, 2021)

Rory said:


> This links in this thread - How to Play a Kandinsky - may be of interest: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/how-to-play-a-kandinsky-synesthesia.105559/


Very interesting idea. My husband was toying with exactly the same thing in 2010 (even using Kandinsky as a source for the same reason, synesthesia) but AI then was not so prevalent nor powerful enough. The results shown are interesting but lack the coherence of a complete painting. They feel more like a collage of the composer's ideas than the product of a pure AI.

Google Arts & Culture is a very cool playground that I used myself in my own _Bladderna_ piece recently


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Feb 19, 2021)

It's even happening _here_ and _now _ as we are discussing it:








Artificial Neural Nets Finally Yield Clues to How Brains Learn


The learning algorithm that enables the runaway success of deep neural networks doesn’t work in biological brains, but researchers are finding alternatives that could.




www.quantamagazine.org




We really should have a proper place for discussing all this as it is changing _our _world as composers and _The_ World, naysayers notwithstanding.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 3, 2021)

To expand a bit on previous posts in this thread I propose to you a series of musical "experiments" based on A.I. technologies from previous years up until now.

The first one is quite old already (2016): the well-known Sony CSL "Daddy's Car" pop song in the style of The Beatles:



Some background info: https://www.livescience.com/56328-how-artificial-intelligence-wrote-pop-song.html


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 3, 2021)

Almost as old (2017) is AIVA's collection:



Background info: *





About AIVA


We are a team of musicians and engineers on a mission to personalize music and augment human creativity with Artificial Intelligence




www.aiva.ai





AIVA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCykVChITx5kqBoGkzfz8iZg*


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 3, 2021)

Even before that there was Iamus, the AI-based composer. My preferred "algorithmic" composer of all times, here being performed live:







https://www.amazon.com/Iamus/dp/B00AUMAYT0/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357059323&sr=301-2 (Full album with LSO)
The making of the album above: 

More Youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=iamus+computer


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 3, 2021)

And as Lennox Mackenzie, Chairman and Sub-Leader of the LSO, says here: 

*"This is only the beginning, let's face it!"*






We're not talking about minor leagues stuff here... Let's face it!


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