Most musicians believe that the creation of music is inherently human. That notion, however, never stopped scientist and researchers from making machines that can make music without the help of humans.
The idea of computer-generated music is not something new. Back in 1957, roughly fourteen years since the invention of the first digital computer, Lejaren Hiller already taught computers to make the first ever computer-generated score.
“Was it any good?”
Subjectively, it was. For the uninformed, the string quartet may be mistaken as the work of a classical musician.
These days, music made by computer algorithm is getting better. Listen to this two-minute piano track called “Today”…
Well, it’s not bad at all, right? It has a nice feeling too it. The emotional range is there and it certainly doesn’t sound soulless. That track was made by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) from Jukedeck Research. It literally generates original musical audio from zero. Both the composition and synthesis are all AI-driven.
“Will AI music take over the world soon?”
It may take close to a decade before machines can make a coherent song plus lyrics on their own. After all, making short melodies is a whole different game than composing a five-minute song. However, researches have started to train the algorithms by taking into account music theory and harmony. The idea of a computer program making real music independently is not such a far-fetched idea at all.
Let’s compare AI-generated music with movie CGI. Twenty years ago, you can always tell how fake the CGI in movies was. Today, they’re so realistic and hard to discern from the real thing.
In the next decade, AI will do the same thing with music. Scientists are teaching computers how to be a musician. You’ll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a piece made by a talented musician and one made purely by a machine.
“I don’t like this AI stuff…”
Truth is, AI is everywhere around us in one form or the other. Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube employ AI when they recommend new music or videos for you. Regardless of how spot on or off the mark their recommendations are, you just have to accept that AI is here to stay.
Machines have already taken half the burden off musicians back for years. In the near future, the machines may take everything off. Scary thought right there. Or is it?
The idea of machines making music may not sound as scary as SkyNet, but it does put some things into perspective. Will humans be the still be king of creative works in the future when machines are getting more advanced?
There’s no point in being scared about technology advancement. We just need to enjoy and appreciate what we have today. Technology is helpful in music. Check out the ambiance over at ambient-mixer.com. Technology makes it so easy for anyone to create immersive ambiance and that’s a great thing.
