Tag: computer music

With the advent of the home computer, many of us said that it would make musical ability irrelevant. Others said that the computer was just a tool, and new tools are always something cool that musicians will want to work with.
The latter camp proved to be mostly right. People still write songs on instruments as timeless as the guitar and the piano and use the computer to record, edit, and send out their works for their fans.
All good. The jury is still out in my mind about AI music, however. Its a sea change from what was before, some might say the end of what was before. I’m really not sure what to make of it.
A guitar maker who makes things by hand with archaic tools would not be blamed for using a modern skill saw and measuring tools from Home Depot. And though there may be some criticism of computer lathing, it is now an industry standard, and the results have really leveled the quality as to where guitars are made; namely, it doesn’t matter.
But with AI, it seems the tool is now the creator, with very little input from the human operator. That’s my take on it at this time.
I have ventured into using AI as a basic translator for lyrics. The results are a bit plain, but I am able to correct for that using my human knowledge of the language ( Japanese). But the lyrics are mine, not the product of an AI “write this” prompt.
So in a way, I’m “AI guilty”. But i have no plans to automate my music writing. If a usage for it comes up, I want to make sure that its only as a tool. In my opinion, it might be useful in the area of smart midi quantization and velocity editing. I always think the computer really shines as an editor, not a creator.
And that’s that.