Time to put down the Real Books

[CliffR]

We've been replaced by Google:

MusicLM

[Liarspoker]

Chat gpt for music?

I wonder what this means for musicians since they seem to be needed less and less.

[CliffR]

Yeah. I only listened to the swing and smooth jazz examples, but was surprised at how bad they were. Really bad. Whereas I've been blown away by ChatGPT, which is dealing with natural language, which I would have assumed would be a more complex problem. Perhaps musical language's relative leanness makes misuses more grating?

[Christian Miller]

I really enjoy how terrible AI is at stuff like jazz and classical. It seems to be decent at pastiching current trends… so maybe modern music fails the Turing test haha

[Alter]

Like pro music studios, which have lost a huge part of their amateur and semi pro work with the availability of home studios (and a considerable amount of their pro work also), many musicians whose livelihood entails writing and producing music like that (gaming, electronic, pop, jingles, advertising, music canvas, etc.) will soon be obsolete or a novelty.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Like pro music studios, which have lost a huge part of their amateur and semi pro work with the availability of home studios (and a considerable amount of their pro work also), many musicians whose livelihood entails writing and producing music like that (gaming, electronic, pop, jingles, advertising, music canvas, etc.) will soon be obsolete or a novelty.

Soon? It’s been reality for years. Back in the ‘50s & ‘60s, there were a lot of small, local studios. They had a list of available players and vocalists they called in for clients who made demos, jingles, themes, and all those seconds-long musical interludes used as filler on radio. It was a great way to make $50, which was a lot of money back then. Those days are long gone.

I recorded at Virtue Studios in Philly in the early ‘60s when I was in high school. It belonged to Frank Virtue, whose lead guitarist was Jimmy Bruno’s father. It was a great local operation - Virtue recorded Guitar Boogie Shuffle and Boogaloo Down Broadway. There were several such studios in town and throughout the country.



It wasn’t just the little guys either. Back then, many top studios booked sessions for locals, semi-pros, demos etc. I was on a session at Sigma in about 1970 backing a local country singer on a 45. Our few hours there must have been between the big guys, since Sigma was already recording world class records - they launched The Sound of Philadelphia into stardom. Wilson Pickett cut an album there in 1970. But there we were for maybe 4 hours one night, recording the first (and only, as far as I know) disc by George Lane and the Ranchers.

When we were packing up, the engineer (who could have been Joe Tarsia - I wouldn’t have known who he was at the time) stopped me to tell me that he wanted me to redo a few of the parts. He wasn’t happy with the bass player, George’s rhythm guitar, or the piano. He heard me showing them what I thought would be right for them - but they didn’t get it. So I redid their parts and became 4 of the Ranchers on that record. And I made $50 for that session too. George offered me royalties or $50 - the choice was clear to me

Interestingly, the disc is now a bit of a cult classic, although it’s a very small cult. The A side was called Where Mary Goes, and it seems not to have pleased the cult. But to my amazement and the everlasting embarrassment of that engineer, the B side lives! Here’s the evidence:

Although I reject any suggestion that all things (or even most things) were better then than they are now, this was one of the few things about “the good old days” that was truly wonderful and irreplaceable now that it’s gone.

[DawgBone]

AI will never quell the pull real musicians have for getting together with other humans to create music on the spot for the enjoyment of themselves and other music appreciators. I'm tired of hearing the BS about how AI is going to take over the world. One good solar flare and we will be making music on animal skins and tendons again. Luddites will be pleased.

[pauln]

… so maybe modern music fails the Turing test haha

Pretty much my own long term conclusive observations about modern "music"...

[Christian Miller]

Pretty much my own long term conclusive observations about modern "music"...

it’s a better argument than I’ve heard from the forum

[mr. beaumont]

Makes the piano player in iReal sound swinging.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Makes the piano player in iReal sound swinging.

Hmmm - there's a lot of that going around. It's been said about my playing on that big red 45 in post #6, too! Maybe AI will help the industry go green - there's a lot of wasted energy in retakes

[hotpepper01]

Okay, its a start with lots of possibilities for improvement...
For now, I stick with BIAB, Sibelius, a couple of those real/fake books. And most important, real other musicians.

[Flat]

Q. What did we have before Pro Tools?
A. Pros.
(h/t Rick Beato and Steve Lukather)

Anybody else get that commercial before a musical YouTube video advertising "Niko's MidiPak" where some smarmy keyboard player says something like "You want a great melody? I can write you a great melody in two minutes."

And then he wags his head orgasmically while he plays a melody that sounds like he came up with it in two minutes and that you will forget in one. Unless you are forced to endure the commercial a few dozen times.

And then I feel a little happy inside knowing I will croak before too too much longer. So there is that.