AI vs CHOPIN AND MOZART : Are Musicians Doomed?
So today, something quite interesting happened. A buddy of mine, a fellow composer and aficionado of classical music and all things music really, texted me about this new AI "composer" he found online.
Apparently, it was a visionary — a complete game changer to the art that is musical composition! "Infact" he said. "I guarantee you that this machine can create music just as good or dare I say, even better than any composer ever has!"
Of course my response to such ludicrous statement was:
Poppy cock! From a statement that just poppy sucks! ... Infact, you my friend have said the most pompitious popsicle statement I have ever heard!
K, you got me. I didn't really use the word "statement."
But yeah, I guess I just found the whole thing quite nerving. I mean sure with all the latest trends going on today about how AI has been doing this, and how Artificial intelligence has doing that, it's no wonder why he fell into that rabbit hole so quickly.
But HEY, who could blame him right? Artificial intelligence really has it going these days.
Like for real, with recent AIs such as DALL- E 2 and Stable Diffusion kicking ass in the fine arts department, and other AIs such as Novel AI and AI dungeon breaking headlines in the literary department, there seems to be a little competition and dare I even say, uprising against Humanity and it's services.
Think I'm bluffing? Just check out this art I created with Stable Diffusion simply by typing in the prompt - High resolution and very detailed drawing of an Anime girl.
Ain't she a beaut? Well then, I guess you can say that it was because of such impressive results like the one you just saw above, that I was prompted to check out this "visionary" of a robot composer myself.
So it all began when I clicked the link my buddy sent me and Wala! I was immediately taking to the home page of the AIs website.
Then, after signing up with my Google account, it was time to test out this baby.
Once logged in, you are immediately taken to your dashboard - the place where all the "magic" happens!
To begin creating a piece, you can either decide to use existing music available on the site:
Or you can choose from different preset styles available for reference, so the AI knows what kind of music you wanna create:
Sadly, classical music isn't quite popular with the AI. Sad noises
Or lastly, you could use a custom option that allows you to import any midi for reference yourself. Which was exactly what I did!
Anyway, that's that and once I uploaded the midi for reference and did a little here and there editing...
It was time to compose like it was 1789!
But hold on, before I continue, aren't you curious to know the 2 pieces I uploaded for references?... Haha, I knew you were 😅
Of course, when it came to the type music I would love to replicate, I made no hesitation in referencing the music of my two favorite composers of all time — Frédéric Chopin and Wolfang Amadeus Mozart.
Respectively, I chose Fantasie impromptu by Chopin and my personal favourite piano sonata — Sonata No 8, K 310 in A minor by Mozart.
And after acquiring the midi from a TOTALLY legal website that uploads midi music files for free
Everything was finally ready. 1789 here I come!
Okay... so I thought for the purpose of comparison and of course, for your listening pleasure - I ought to upload recordings of the two pieces so you can listen for yourself and see if the two styles match with the results of the AI.
So, without further ado ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Humanity's entry to the round!
And now of course, we shall see how the AI responds to such outstanding works of art.
Take a bet: Do you think it can replicate the genius of Mozart and Chopin? Well, let's see then...
So, let me guess: Not quite what you were expecting huh?
LoL, you'd think for something as powerful as an AI that can perform numerous impossible tasks, that it would be able to replicate a sound as simple as a melody similar to Mozart!
Well, I guess it goes to show that when it comes to composing music, it's all about the heart and creativity NOT the numbers.
But, don't get me wrong though. The AI did actually do its job well here! I mean, it actually composed a pretty solid piece of music! Sure, it wasn't anything like the references but still, it actually composed somewhat enjoyable music.
To be honest, I just feel like this particular AI wasn't exactly suited to render classical music. I mean because in comparison to that minimalistic, atonal, shit we heard at the top, it actually does a pretty solid job in rendering music from other genres - especially when referenced from an already in built preset.
Take a listen here to this fantasy style music. It's quite brilliant in my opinion .
You know, with all this issue concerning AI and it's possible uprising on composers, I thought it would be funny insightful to research more about it's possibilities. And that's when I stumbled upon ANOTHER AI with much more impressive results.
Brought to you by the company that created DALL - E and that guy who bought Twitter, is an AI called Musenet.
Quite a catchy name huh?
Musenet boast next level AI capabilities that is believed to be able to replicate the music of any style and any genre - especially the ones of the old masters!
Upon testing it, I was quite surprised by the results:
Well, atleast you've gotta hand it to this particular AI, i feel like they did a pretty good job in replicating the style of each composer selected.
Ha! I could actually hear the influence of Chopin in those piano solos😅. So that's what it would've sounded like if he wrote Silent Night!
In conclusion, would I say that AIs can never achieve the genius and creativeness of humanity when it comes to music composition - perhaps — perhaps yes, and perhaps no.
Yes, because clearly we've seen how far technology has come. I mean holy shit that's actually kind of impressive! A couple more years from now and most of us would probably be out of work lol.
And no, because even if the technology gets to where it needs to be to create perfectly accurate and enjoyable music, there's still this shred of creative advantage that humans have a thousand time fold over artificial intelligence.
I mean, it's one thing to use complex codes and binary to mock up sweet, simple melodies; but then again it's another to imagine, to dream, to attune to a much less mundane form of musical awareness and expression; that results in the birth of fresh, beautiful, emotional and breath taking music.
That's human music for ya ;)
fascinating information sir👍
Why thank you!