There's a lot to be inspired by and positively excited about these days.
Been saying that for the last 5 years, at least. And I'm taken aback at how often people disagree. Or they look at me funny, perhaps skeptically.
LOLOL 🤣
Much has been created in recent years and so much more is becoming accessible to the average person. So much, that it's impossible to keep up with it all!
Does anyone have a list?
It's gotten to a point where we don't know all of what's out there and wind up overlooking even the obvious.
Many things hold us back and keep us from knowing and doing more.
I guarantee you're missing out on something useful or interesting. We all are. Simply, from lack of knowing about it!
So, I thought I'd throw a couple things here on Substack. Might seem like this is coming out of left field. But it's interesting what is possible nowadays. Maybe I'll share some more in the future.
What's the point?
If the following is not interesting to you, then rest assured there IS something else out there you would like that you don't know about yet. But you gotta ask people and be specific. Be sure to do some searching on your own and don't be afraid to share what you find with others who may benefit from that information. So here's some of what I found…
I'll start off with Artificial Intelligence.
It gets a bad reputation. I agree, it deserves some doubt... and skepticism is definitely needed. But AI can do some crazy interesting things. And I don't mean the goofy chatbots. NOT the annoying robots in customer service either.
Me: Billing question.
A.I.: I'm sorry I don't understand.
Me: Bill...ING. Quest...ion. duh! 😂
AI: I'm sorry. We aren't communicating well.
Me: I'm communicating just fine.
AI: I'm sorry I don't understand your response.
Me: Exactly.
AI: (puts me on hold) 🤬
No, I'm talking about Sound and Music...
AI can take a sound clip or even an entire song and break it down into smaller parts.
Think of your favorite song. Want to know what just the drums sound like?
You can do that.
Want to hear the lyrics sung acapella?
You can do that, too!
Want only the instruments like the guitar?
AI can pull that out and you can hear without the drums or singing.
It's not perfect. But it's effective. It's better than even 5 years ago. Way better than 10 years ago! I know. I've tried it throughout the years.
There's always been treble issues or other details that weren't good enough, but overall AI finally can do the job right. And that's not even the mind blowing part.
You can do this for free.🤯
You might even be able to do it on your phone if you use a cloud based AI through a website or app.
But right now, somebody using an Internet connection can download an app called FL Studio and try the AI stem extractor for free. Anyone in the world with a halfway decent computer/laptop has access to this AI. It just became available for everybody a few months ago. I've been using FL Studio off and on for years as a hobby. Wanna know how easy it is to do?
It's 3 steps.
1. Drag and drop a sound file onto the FL program's user interface
2. Click a button and choose Stem Extraction
3. Click one more button to unleash the AI on it.
That's it! Just watch how simple it is…
After Step 3, the AI immediately starts chugging away on your computer (because it's NOT cloud based). Then boom... your sound clip or song separates into instrument, drums, bass, vocals and it automatically labels them accordingly. Then you can play them individually.
This opens doors for audio engineers, DJ's, and remixers. But guess what I tried first. You might LOL at me.
I didn't choose my favorite song. I had to explore. I wanted to put that little AI to the test.
I chose a sound clip of noisy radio waves.
That's another thing you can do for free. There's apps and websites out there where you can listen to LIVE radio frequencies with the click of a button.
So, one time I was rolling down the dial and came across some interesting transmissions which weren't just static and wasn't a station or broadcast. It was something else. Lots of noise but also signals, and even voice. I recorded a few of them as sound clips. Well, now I decided to use them with FL’s AI to see if I could hear what the voices were saying.
It did isolate the voices, but sadly either the AI or the recording itself did not have a high enough signal to noise ratio to bring out the words being said. It's not clear enough to hear, but they are definitely voices.
The wonderful AI did however pick up a Morse Code signal! 🧐 And it separated that out, so that it can be heard perfectly. Whereas before, it was noisy as heck.
I guess the next step would be for AI to automatically decipher the Morse code for us as well. 🤓
This is only the beginning is what I'm saying.
AI will keep getting better at things like this. Maybe even fixing the treble issues or clearing up voice chatter covered by static. But it's really good nowadays and it's freaking free to try right in your own home. No music degree or sound engineer training necessary. 👍
Imagine what people could do and learn with that. Even beginners might benefit because this is like reverse engineering music! A person can perhaps glean something from the stems about how songs are mixed and made. Maybe someday AI can tell a beginner when their vocals are off key or an instrument is not in key? Lots of possibilities!
Another Application
Staying on theme with music and sound, I will mention another free application. VCV Rack 2 and another one called Cardinal. These programs simulate modular sound design and analog modular synthesis. If that means nothing to you, I assure you that's kind of a big deal. The sound and music hardware those two apps simulate can take up a lot of space and cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And you can use them for free!
Musicians use modular synthesis for creating songs or sounds that can organically form and change over time. So instead of strumming a guitar or hitting the drums over and over again, you can create sound that's on autopilot.
Essentially, you can put together your own instruments (drums as well).
It's like building a clock and then also programming that clock to chime whenever you want it to, so that a specific sound, song, or style comes out the speakers. You can even make it random, so it plays something different every time you start the clock. Almost like making your own kind of AI, for music.
It's not easy and it's time consuming, but it's amazing what can be done just clicking and dragging the mouse every now and then. No music hardware required. I think it's fun!
If you know anyone interested in music production or sound generation, or building their own instrument, please tell them about VCV Rack 2 or Cardinal in case they don't know already. It's incredible what can be done nowadays, even on a laptop.
One more thing
AI is also capable of processing recorded audio of a person and then creating a song with that person singing it even though they never actually sang any of the words. I'm not joking. If you're curious, look it up. Again it's not perfect, but wow it really can do such a thing fairy well!
Ok. I've gone on enough about AI and music. Until next time...
Peace be within you!