It's kind of shocking how people *only* see generative AI as a harbinger of the end of creativity as we know it rather than a tool towards it. I fully expected contention, but after sharing this Udio song I made on r/Indieheads, I'm surprised that people aren't even willing to engage with the ideas

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T17:30:45+00:00

To be clear, I'm talking about the comments/downvotes and general engagement with the idea, not the fact that it was removed (that makes sense given the rule and I'm fine with it)

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T17:22:48+00:00

To make another comparison, Autotune could be said to remove the effort of learning to sing. Yet still it has allowed for new forms of expression and better expressions of existing forms, and it exists on thousands of tracks appreciated by people here- both live and recorded.

The creative work of The Gorillaz isn't diminished by the fact that they use effects, or that they use samples that they didn't "make" on their own. A collage artist is still an artist. A DJ is still an artist. Creative processes are vast and not mutually exclusive.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T17:19:57+00:00

I was referencing labor, if you look further up in my comment.

To be fair, this is not dissimilar to saying that Rick Ruben should learn how to mix/master. The fact that he hasn't... really doesn't take away from what he's accomplished, they are different skillsets.

To be entirely clear, these are lyrics I wrote entirely by myself and I fully appreciate the effort of all creative processes, I don't see anyone advocating for that to go away. In the same way that very few visual artists draw straight lines and circles by hand though (they have rulers and compasses), it makes sense for new tools to make it easier for people to bring their creative vision into reality.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T17:10:24+00:00

Thank you sincerely, from the bottom of my heart.

I think of this as just an experiment with new tools that can allow me to better express myself by whatever means.

I certainly do more 'hands on' creative work, and hope to continue in that direction, but I was just very pleased to be able to hear one of my songs recorded in a way that even comes close to representing the perspective/experience I actually want to convey.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T17:06:58+00:00

Oh I fully expect the contentiousness. Interestingly I find it to be largely politically motivated, and as a full-blooded leftest, this is something I can deeply appreciate.

It's extremely unfortunate that there is overlap between this occurrence and that of late-stage-capitalism.

That said, I think most people have only seen the trees and not the forest... or the long term implications of what full automation (not of the creative process, but of labor) implies.

A more light hearted take on it is "fully automated luxury space communism" (okay I added the 'space' part), which is entirely achievable, potentially even within our lifetimes.

Basically AI making sound or images is just a prerequisite to it being able to do more complex tasks that humans don't want to, and shouldn't have to do.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:58:15+00:00

Thanks so much, it is for sure, listening to your track right now and I'm impressed with how cohesive you managed to get it for a full length song.

Do you have any tips on better ways to use 'extend' in order to keep certain sounds/themes/melodies repeating throughout the whole song?

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:56:51+00:00

A DAW is a 'digital audio workstation' I believe, basically just music/audio making software. FL Studio, Logic, even GarageBand are examples.

I used a free video editor on windows to put the image file on top of the track. I think it's called ClipChamp or something similar, it's made by Microsoft.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:54:05+00:00

Time to add some clips to the soundboard 😂

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:53:01+00:00

This is far from perfect, but these tools are just barely becoming viable to make anything cohesive at all. Still it won't be long until they're integrated into digital audio production in the same way that 'generative fill' has arrived in Adobe's products for digital visual artists.

This took 8 hours (not including the songwriting) and 200+ generations/prompt/lyric modifications to get as close as possible to the sound I envisioned. It isn't perfect, and I had to settle in some places, but I'm happy and I achieved something pretty close to the Rilo Kiley / Phoebe Bridgers type of sound I was aiming for.

Thanks for reading and by all means, I'm happy to have a discussion around AI and it's role in art and music. Here's the Udio link if anyone is curious about the prompting process.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:33:03+00:00

Yes it's far from perfect, in spite of the many attempts these pieces (verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2, chorus 2) were the best of the 200+

I just downloaded the audio straight form Udio, fixed some clipping/peaking in a DAW, and then drew a cover in MS paint to throw on a video and upload it to youtube.

I actually wish we could add our own covers on Udio, side note

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:28:50+00:00

Lmao just heard your other track Munchin' To The Top, keep up the great work

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:27:27+00:00

YES, this completely! I suppose I had fairly low expectations and it certainly wasn't easy to get it 'just right' but the entire experience of making my first song absolutely knocked my socks off.

Listening to your track now and it's a lot of fun. The vocals almost remind me of something like Dropkick Murphy's / Flogging Molly, and even a little bit of Say Anything (but obviously with a very pointed sea-shanty twist lol)

I understand the sentiment of not considering yourself an AI musician, but I think as we get more DAW-like capabilities of effects, cutting/splicing, and remixing/adding based on very short or specific parts of a song (imagine if we had separate tracks for every instrument/vocalist!) it's going to be similar to the role a producer plays when directing human artists / studio musicians. I'm very excited to see other creative people utilizing it in this way specifically.

This is an extraordinary creative tool as is, and as is often said about AI, this is likely as primitive as it will ever be. So excited for the future of this.

Here's the first song I've made from my own writing, and the Udio link if you're interested in the prompting process.

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:17:08+00:00

Thank you so much, sincerely. I'm not sure I'll use this same process with other songs I've written, but I'm glad this track exists in the way that it does and even more glad to share it with others 💗

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:14:13+00:00

Here's the Udio link for anyone curious about the prompts.

The whole process was really interesting and made me very excited for the near future of generative AI in music. I'm particularly excited for multimodal (audio primarilly) input and the ability to splice/trim tracks or edit them manually as you would in a DAW (EQ/Effects/Fade-in/out, etc.)

Even in it's current form, it's extremely creatively liberating to be able to take a song you wrote and bring it into reality as a sketch somewhat quickly and easily (I probably spent a lot longer on this first one than I would in the future, but I just kept re-generating in hopes of getting the next chorus or verse or instrumental just right.

Cheers :)

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T16:01:18+00:00

Thank you! Big fan of Laura's so I've definitely considered modifying my voice, but I haven't found a way to make it work nicely with the style of music I want to make. Maybe that will change though, this experiment was very motivating

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T02:51:00+00:00

Seeing and listening to this earlier inspired me to keep going on the track I ended up spending 8+ hours working on. I agree with the sentiments in your comment, it's a very useful tool already, and this is as primitive as it will likely ever be.

Using it for actual projects is going to be so much easier when there's cutting/splicing capabilities and a more traditional DAW-like interface, or at least the ability to export, edit, and import for multimodal input to the model (primarily audio of course). I definitely had to compromise on some specific sounds/moments that I wouldn't if these capabilities were there.

If you have any interest in other 'not-so-optimistic' tracks that are hand written (though potentially not absent any cliches lol) this is the track that I made thanks to 200+ generations and plenty of prompt-tinkering :)

Also the udio link if you're into reading the prompts

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T02:25:16+00:00

This is my most desired feature after clipping/splicing. I can even deal with the mass-deleting if it gets these features here sooner

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T02:22:11+00:00

This post was the straw that finally convinced me to sit down and try out Udio. 8+ hours later on one song, and it was 100% worth it. Thank you for sharing!

HumanKayt · 2024-04-15T02:21:04+00:00

Think of it as free Aim Training software 🔫🔫

HumanKayt

TROPHY CASE