AI Vocals for an original song?

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FirwoodDigital

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Not trying to stir any controversy... I'm just an old guy that is curious about a thought I had yesterday.

I've been working on a new EP with a mix of live played electronic-to-midi drums. I've been editing them in EZ Drummer. I have recorded quite a few guitar and bass tracks myself and am piecing it all together in Logic. I'm really liking the stuff I'm creating and this workflow is allowing me to work on individual ideas and just keep building them into songs. Nothing new to this group I'm sure, but I've been at this for over 30 years and the technology and creativity it affords me today, just blows my mind! Style is mostly similar to Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief, et al.

While I haven't settled on how I feel about the use of AI, I was wondering if the technology exists to feed AI a song file and some sort of focused theme..... and have it generate AI vocal tracks? Like a live vocalist in the song.

Anybody doing this?
 
FirwoodDigital said:
Not trying to stir any controversy... I'm just an old guy that is curious about a thought I had yesterday.

I've been working on a new EP with a mix of live played electronic-to-midi drums. I've been editing them in EZ Drummer. I have recorded quite a few guitar and bass tracks myself and am piecing it all together in Logic. I'm really liking the stuff I'm creating and this workflow is allowing me to work on individual ideas and just keep building them into songs. Nothing new to this group I'm sure, but I've been at this for over 30 years and the technology and creativity it affords me today, just blows my mind! Style is mostly similar to Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief, et al.

While I haven't settled on how I feel about the use of AI, I was wondering if the technology exists to feed AI a song file and some sort of focused theme..... and have it generate AI vocal tracks? Like a live vocalist in the song.

Anybody doing this?
Click to expand...
I use AI for fun as it opens up a whole lot of music to me - things I can write for but can’t sing too - I’ve used Kits AI with some success - tried SoundVerse with good results -
but I recommend looking at all of the AI Generators till you find one that works well for you.
 
Papanate said:
I use AI for fun as it opens up a whole lot of music to me - things I can write for but can’t sing too - I’ve used Kits AI with some success - tried SoundVerse with good results -
but I recommend looking at all of the AI Generators till you find one that works well for you.
Click to expand...

Right!
I do as well.
I mean, why be afraid of it?
Did people run screaming when digital tuners came along? Some did probably.
I use every trick, cheat, stolen idea there is.
No one will care a week from now.
All's fair in love and music.
 
I feel like using my own performance, flawed as it is, is more honest to the audience and to the artwork than using a tool that artificially makes me sound "better". Of course, I use tools to compress, EQ, saturate, etc. my tracks, but at the end of the signal chain is a real performance by me.

To take autotune as an adjacent example: I think there are two uses for autotune: as an instrument itself, or for deception. I like some songs that use autotune in an intentional, stylish way, such as to snap between tones for effect. But I find it very disappointing when I am listening to a vocal performance and I can tell that it's autotuned for the purpose of making me think the singer's performance was more on pitch than it really was. For me it damages the humanity of the song, it 'breaks my immersion'. It feels dishonest.

So, will there be some future state where a musician says, "I'm going for a real 2025 vibe, I want the vocals to sound all robotic and AI-ey"? It's probably already happening, and just like I'm not panicking about the robot voice in Radiohead's "Fitter Happier", I'm not so disturbed by that.

But should we be replacing our own human voices with autogenerated ones because they are "better" performers than us? Fuck that, my music is for me. Music is a collaborative art for people. If I'm not "good" enough to perform something the way I want it performed, I should either work with another artist who is already there, or get better.

s
 
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