Wired has an article on modeling musicians' styles with software to create new music in their style. Want a virtual Little Walter? Well, they are starting with pianos, so we are all safe, for now.
Music only has to fool once sense though. The clip in the article sounded pretty good, although a piano, I would think, would be one of the easiest instruments to use for replicating a musicians style.
I agree...Computers (electronic keyboards) have been mimicking the piano for a long long time...I havent heard of too many harmonica simulators out there... ---------- Kyzer's Travels
No doubt, computers will get better at mimicking humans. Could they replace musicians? In many circumstances, I expect so. I mean, how complex can the algorithms be that would be required to produce the formulaic nonesense in the hits parade be?
Maybe that's why so many people turn their noses up at that rubbish. 'That's not music' you often hear the grumpy old gits - like me - exclaim. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
This, believe it or not is an old question and one I hate. I must say the following opinion is my own and does not reflect the views of Mgmt. Midi's have been used in clubs for years. When I was running Done with Mirrors I found us loosing gigs to single guitarists with midi's that played bass line and drums and keyboard in loops for the guitarist to play along with. When I asked why anyone would prefer hiring basically play along with recorded music it came down to price. a bar owner can pay a single musician half of what they pay a band.
FOR ME and me only it takes out the sponteneity of musicians interacting and I've never walked in a club and stayed longer then a half a set before becoming bored. On the other hand it is tough to find bandmates who are all sharing the same vision and work ethic. It's the kind of issue that justr churns my stomach ----------
The Original Downtown Philadelphia Fatman... Accept No substitutes!
@HarmonicaMick: Thats just it, the reason rational people say its not music is because these so-called "artists" aren't really musicians. Therefore if a computer replaced them, it would not have replaced a real musician. The little things in live "real" music that are dictated by impulse reactions you get from the nervous system, with its responding to sound, are far too complex (like this sentence) to be duplicated by algorithms on a consistent basis. The feelings and whatnot that evoke music and that are evoked by music, thus perpetuating the cycle, are at least in my opinion immeasurable. Machines could never compete with the human brain, the brain has too much evolution behind it. Computers are not capable of actually replacing musicians; think about how long recorded music has been widely available...80 years or so? How long has music been around?...probably since we started walking on two legs. That's why I think that true context of music is/has been/should be live. Too bad people just don't seem to see things that way anymore, not since MTV...god damn I'm so proud of my generation.
I was at a jam session and this bloke gets up on stage and plugs his i phone into the pa! He proceeded to play a good solo on a keyboard on screen on the phone. He said it was an 'apps' he'd got.
What about when the live musician smiles, reacting to a crowd reaction? This causes a slight pause, maybe a touch more behind the beat on the next vocal line. Or a drummer drops a stick and leaves a little something out of the pattern while he grabs another one out of the bag without missing a beat? Or you drop your guitar pick and finish without it. Or little mistakes that happen to anybody...two keys instead of just the one you wanted, or the wrong key for a microsecond before you hit the right one..oops, you missed. This stuff is totally random. I wonder how they will try to simulate that stuff?
I went to the wired site and listened to the piano piece. My hope going in was that it would sound very stiff and obviously machine made. It didn't. Had I not known ahead of time it was computer generated, I never would have guessed that it was. I'm not a classical music fan so I can't say how it compares to the same piece played by a trained classical musician, but I hope it sucks.
The thought of a world where virtually all the music we hear is played by virtual musicians is super depressing to me. I don't care if humans are responsible for programming the machines or not. I want to hear music from musicians not computer scientists. Art, in all it's forms is one of the things that makes us quintessentially human. It will be truly tragic if computers take over this aspect of our lives too.
I know the techno-geeks will say "tough shit that's progress". I only hope I'm long gone from the planet when that day finally arrives.
"I hope i die, before the robots take over talkin 'bout my generation"
Well the title of the thread was "replace a musician" - in that respect the answer is "yes"...most music I hear on a day to day basis is not live music, it's recorded music streamed from the net into pubs, bars etc.
If you are a bar owner, with a themed night & restrictive licencing laws (many places in the UK only host duos unless they are particularly interested in live bands & aplly for the apropriate licence) are you going to pay a group & eat into/eliminate your profits, or select a website and have generic computer generated "X" kind of music, for a nominal fee? Most of the typical bar/pub going punters won't be bothered or even notice. Times are hard at the moment, the scene's not dead/dying by any means, but a lot of prospective venues have it quite hard at the moment (if where I live is anything to go by - anything over a dozen customers is a busy night).
But of course, we don't really represent the largely apathetic majority, we have vested interest in live music and particularly appreciate the individuality of performers, their personas, charisma, proficiency & tone. In that respect, we're never really going to be happy with another person's idea of what computer generated harp will sound like..."Hey man, that *harp* doesn't sound right, turn up the Walterfication knob! Back off with the Sonny Boy...".
For a good while, it would be a programmer's/manufacturer's nightmare to cater for all the micro niches, in an already niche market. But if all you need is muzak, or a pop sample...there already "producers" who never see real instruments.
Last Edited by on Mar 04, 2010 1:13 AM
