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

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

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?


2 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. People Don't Demand Better by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    1. Re:People Don't Demand Better by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.