For Video Soundtracks, Computers Are the New Composers (npr.org)

Reader jader3rd writes: NPR has a story about computer composed soundtracks being used for small video projects.

Ed Newton-Rex, the company's founder, is a composer who studied computer programming, and says he started to ask himself: "Given what we know about how music's put together, why can't computers write music yet?" "You basically make a bunch of choices that really anyone can relate to," Rex says. "That's one of our aims. We wanted to make it as simple as possible, [to] really democratize the process of creation." Despite the successes there's been limited investment, because audiences and producers are uncomfortable with it. "On the credits they don't want to see 'Composed by Computer Program Experiments in Musical Intelligence by David Cope,' " he says. "It's the last thing they want to show their audience."

But how much longer will that last, until audiences are comfortable with seeing that a movies soundtrack was computer composed?

Comments

How much longer...

[fustakrakich]

until the entire movie is computer composed? It's not much of a stretch.

Re:How much longer...

[avandesande]

When we get to this point I will ask my robot watch the movie for me so it can give me a summary.

Re: How much longer...

[The Grim Reefer]

Unless in the virtual Workd make me a geek living in my oarent's basement posting on Slashdot as an AC.

It appears there's been a glitch in the subroutine that renders your keyboard and it's shifted a couple of the keys slightly to the right of where you expected them to be.

People Don't Demand Better

[BlueStrat]

That's why. They've found people simply don't care. It's the same with bands that used to play in bars and clubs. The venue owners found out they didn't have to pay live bands or performers, that people were fine with a DJ/karaoke, or just a jukebox with a decent speaker system. They still patronized and spent money at roughly the same rate, and the owners pocket a tidy sum in their cost savings.

And then people wonder why they can't find live bands in bars and clubs anymore, and why now movie scores will be generated by software going forward.

Because people have proven they'll tolerate it. That's why. If venue owners or movie producers/studios lost money without real performers, this would not be happening.

Strat

Re:People Don't Demand Better

[The Grim Reefer]

They've found people simply don't care. It's the same with bands that used to play in bars and clubs. The venue owners found out they didn't have to pay live bands or performers,

I used to play guitar in bands 25+ years ago. I'll never forget a discussion I had with our rhythm guitarist one night. Being that he was probably almost twice my age, I figured he was old and didn't know what he was talking about. He told me that no one really cared about anything we did as long as the drum beat kept time. He explained to me that he thought there might be one or two people out of 500+ in the crowd that would even notice if one of us made a mistake.

To prove his point, during a song in the middle of the set he let go of the fret-board and strummed the open strings a couple of times. Not a single person stopped dancing, or even noticed as far as I could see. No one said a thing to us about it. While were were packing up, the owner of the bar even told us we were really on that night. So, you're probably right.

Re:People Don't Demand Better

[BlueStrat]

To prove his point, during a song in the middle of the set he let go of the fret-board and strummed the open strings a couple of times. Not a single person stopped dancing, or even noticed as far as I could see. No one said a thing to us about it. While were were packing up, the owner of the bar even told us we were really on that night. So, you're probably right.

I still play the occasional gig. It's even worse these days. Even on the tunes that have typically had the dance floor filling up, you look out beyond the glare of the par-cans, and all you see are people with their faces stuck in their phones.

C'mon, people! That behavior from an "audience" is downright soul-killing! We've literally spent decades and invested our souls into learning to perform for you, at least show a bare minimum of respect!

Strat

Re:People Don't Demand Better

[The Grim Reefer]

and all you see are people with their faces stuck in their phones.

I'm not sure why so many people refuse to live in the moment at all these days. When I go to a public place anymore, I feel like I'm surrounded by zombies half of the time. I'm starting to think that if the Matrix came out today, most people would feel it was a better fantasy world to live in than Star Trek.

Re:People Don't Demand Better

[Captain Splendid]

"Bar audience misses short flub from local band, anecdote tortured to death in order to prove unrelated point."

Re:They are?

[hackel]

Just because you have no music appreciation doesn't mean the rest of us do not as well. I care very much, particularly is where film is where the the majority of good, new music is coming out of these days. And you don't have to look far to see producers and directors that feel passionately about their scores. They will heap all kinds of praise onto a composer they really appreciate for bringing their vision alive.

How To Actually Try This Service - Instructions

[dryriver]

Set your browser to https://www.jukedeck.com/ and click "Make" in the top right corner of the screen. Once you've created an account (email required), you can start playing with AI compositions. The options are a bit limited right now - you choose genre, speed, how many seconds in the compositions peaks and so forth. Then their cloud tech composes the track and records the resulting composition through machine learning driven synthesis.This takes about a minute. They describe the tech in more detail on their research blog. This tech is clearly in its infancy. But the audio tracks created are actually quite pleasant to listen to. Not much worse than typical stock music you'd buy for video tracks.

Credits

[DontBeAMoran]

On the credits they don't want to see "Composed by Computer Program Experiments in Musical Intelligence by David Cope".

Of course not. We want to see "Soundtrack composed by CPE-MI v2.5, vocals by Hatsune Miku v3".

Computers have been doing this since the 1950s

[Solandri]

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~blackrse/algorithm.html#computer

The earliest instance of computer generated composition is that of Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson at the University of Illinois in 1955-56. Using the Illiac high-speed digital computer, they succeeded in programming basic material and stylistic parameters which resulted in the Illiac Suite (1957). The score of the piece was composed by the computer and then transposed into traditional musical notation for performance by a string quartet.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/11/science/undiscovered-bach-no-a-computer-wrote-it.html

IN a low-key, musical version of the match between Garry Kasparov and the chess-playing machine called Deep Blue, a musician at the University of Oregon competed last month with a computer to compose music in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. Steve Larson, who teaches music theory at the university, listened anxiously while his wife, the pianist Winifred Kerner, performed three entries in the contest -- one by Bach, one by Dr. Larson and one by a computer program called EMI, or Experiments in Musical Intelligence.

Dr. Larson was hurt when the audience concluded that his piece -- a simple, engaging form called a two-part invention -- was written by the computer. But he felt somewhat mollified when the listeners went on to decide that the invention composed by EMI (pronounced ''Emmy'') was genuine Bach.

Re:Soulless music

[neilo_1701D]

Why would we need this?

For soulless movies. Like Transformers. Or (judging by the trailers) Baby Driver and Atomic Blonde.

Re:They are?

[g01d4]

While you certainly don't want music to intrude in a negative fashion, its transparency to a viewer might not be a bad thing. In other words, the music might contribute to a viewer's experience of a film without their explicit awareness (or acknowledgement).

film is where the the majority of good, new music is coming out of these days

I recall speaking to a local community college professor composer several years ago whose aim was film scores. I was initially surprised till I realized a good score stands alone. Mark Snow (of X-files fame) comes to mind. I just saw 'The Founder' and enjoyed Carter Burwell's work.

Re:They are?

[newcastlejon]

The audience really cares who makes the music? Aside of a few memorable scores, I couldn't even say who did it for most movies.

That's the fault of lazy/untalented composers and disinterested film-makers. It's especially bad with Marvel films. As an exercise, try humming the theme song from any Marvel film*.

Effective soundtracks can make a mediocre film truly memorable, and lacklustre soundtracks can make a great film forgettable. The viewers attention can be grabbed momentarily with action or impressive visual effects, but to really grip them you need a sold soundtrack. Done well you'd hardly notice it was there, but if it were absent the experience wouldn't be half as engaging.

*Not including Guardians of the Galaxy of course.