The Illiac Suite - Music and AI

This is an automated AI transcript. Please forgive the mistakes!

I know you expect in this podcast high -class entertainment about artificial
intelligence in the field of music, but a big part of any big change is also that
people experiment and do silly stuff. I mean really, really silly stuff.
So I found this gangsters paradise by Kulio sung or better interpreted by
toothbrushes. This is so stupid that I had to share it. And for that I needed a
proper intro. So I used stable audio, the new AI from stability AI. You choose your
text prompts and it will generate for you music based on that. And I wanted a
fanfare for the toothbrush masterpiece. Something majestic. I put in the words
"serious fanfare k -pop". K -pop? You have to keep contact with the young kids,
don't you? Here we go. A fanfare followed by Kulios gangsters' paradise.
A masterpiece.
(upbeat music)
Okay, Enough. Let's get serious. This is the Illiac Suite,
a podcast on AI -driven music. Join me as we dive into the ever -evolving world of
AI -generated music where algorithms become the composers and machines become the
virtuosos. Yes, this music and text was written by a computer and I am not real,
but I am and my name is Dennis Kastrup.
So a second time. Hello, humans! Welcome to a new episode of The Iliac Suite.
It took me a while because as I'm not a robot or AI so far, let's say life made
it a little bit difficult for me to deliver in the past weeks. But during that
time, a lot of things happened in the field of AI. Spotify, for example, announced
that it will be able to dramatically clone a voice of a podcaster and translate it
into different languages. They say it works from English to Spanish, German and
French. Theoretically, I could offer all of you that service without an AI.
Because I was born in Germany and speak fluent German. I even considered doing the
podcast in German at first. But in the end, I decided to do an international
version.
Plus, I've been speaking French for a few years now. As I spend a lot of time in
Montreal, it works pretty well. But I don't have the courage to do a podcast in
French.
So let's come back to English. For this new episode, I had a talk with an artist
that crossed my path since many years since I'm focused on AI and music,
Benoit Carré. He is the creator of Daddy's Car, a pop song written in the style of
The Beatles, which was created in the Sony CSL Research Laboratory.
In 2016, that song made a big pass in the music world. So I started with this
laboratory with those, we were like seven researchers and me
Et la technologie était, le nom de la technologie était "Flo Machines".
La idée était de créer un flo qui inspire les musiques. Donc la idée était de
composer. C 'était autour de la composition des canons.
Donc j 'ai commencé avec Dadi Scar comme un exercice style,
comme un pâtissier de la Beatles, made with this flow machine tool.
And then I find it funny and nice. I don't know, but it was really a style
exercise, but it created a buzz and people start to be like a frightened by Cet
exercice style, ils pensaient que l 'A .I. était répliquant les Beatles,
mais c 'était juste une interaction entre moi et la machine,
et j 'ai fait cette chanson avec beaucoup d 'intérêts.
♪ I'm small, I wanna feel you out ♪ ♪ I wanna feel you out ♪ ♪ And that he's
got a sound so good like something new ♪ ♪ It turns me on ♪ ♪ Good day,
sunshine in the back seat ♪ ♪ God, I wish that mood could never stop ♪ ♪ Down on
the ground ♪ ♪ The rainbow lit me ♪ ♪ The sun,
please, Mother, try ♪ ♪ And then pray, you'd
ask Madam Teal ♪ ♪ Tomorrow, they would know ♪
(upbeat music) [Music] Every day I got a word Downtown I'm drowning in The traffic
jam Down on the ground Likes you need to know a man Please,
♪ See you again in your color
side ♪ ♪ Take me to the diamond sky ♪ ♪ Now I'm gonna figure out ♪ ♪ Now I'm
gonna figure out ♪ ♪ Take me to the distant sky ♪ ♪ Take me to the diamond sky
♪ La idée de "Flow Machine" était de capturer le style de Litchi,
c 'est comme ce truc, c 'est comme,
vous savez, pour exemple, c 'est un vrai livre et vous avez ici,
vous voyez, il y a la mélodie et les cordes sur la partition,
sur le score. Donc, l 'idée était de générer de nouveaux scores avec des chords et
de la mélodie de la musique existante donc c 'était très
excitant à prendre, je ne sais pas, un peu de 10 songs,
chords et de cordes, vous l 'avez donné à la machine et puis il a généré comme 4
barres, 2 barres, 8 barres inspirées par le lit -chip que vous avez donné comme l
'input, comme la nourriture, la nourriture.
Donc, j 'ai fait la machine avec 50 de mes préférentes songs beatles et puis la
machine, la machine flow, a généré 4 barres et c 'était intéressant,
très inspiré et j 'ai commencé à générer plus mais il y avait des résultats que je
n 'aimais pas, donc j 'ai répliqué des barres, là et là, et j 'ai build the song
with many iterations like that. So it wasn't a song composed by AI.
It was a song composed with AI. So it's very different. But it was like the
communication was about AI -composed song. Benoit talks about an important point.
In the communication about music and artificial intelligence, you read quite often the
headline "A .I. composes a song". No. What this headline misses out is that there
are always humans involved in it. And I talk to many people who are not aware of
that, as this is not their main interest. A lot of them carry an image in their
mind in which a humanoid robot sits in front of a sheet of paper and writes lyrics
and melodies and then he, she, it grabs a guitar and plays a song. Okay, not
exactly like that, but kind of, as they think a computer does all the work by
itself. But it does not work like that and the work of Benoit Carré is a perfect
example for that. His fascination for AI expanded after Daddy's car and he started a
project which is called Skigger. What was interesting is that I heard, in the result
of Dadi Scar, there were some interesting things because it was unexpected.
Some melodies or some chord changes was unexpected,
and that was the thing that I liked when I composed is to
quelque chose que je n 'étais pas expectant durant mon "doodling" avec l 'instrument.
Donc, j 'ai commencé à travailler plus sur ça et à couper la machine avec différents
types de choses comme 400 songs du réel book,
comme les jazz songs composés par beaucoup de composants ou beaucoup de choses comme
ça et j 'ai fait l 'expérimentation et j 'ai commencé à composer beaucoup de chansons.
La première chanson que j 'ai composée et que j 'ai vraiment aimé et qui me fait
penser que c 'était intéressant c 'est "Ballad of the Shadow" parce qu 'il y avait
ces deux barres qui étaient incroyables avec un avec un mouvement qui s 'est assommé
dans la mélodie et ce n 'était pas vraiment ce qui n 'est pas l 'un de mes minds
pendant plusieurs jours et c 'était obsessé. Donc j 'ai commencé vraiment à obtenir ce
processus de création et de l 'expériment intensivement.
Et puis, j 'ai eu 4, 5, 6 chansons qui étaient très intéressantes en termes de
composition. C 'était comme seulement les melodies et les cordes. Et puis, j 'ai
invité beaucoup de musiciens pour travailler avec moi. Stromae,
c 'est un artist French singing in French there was like jazz man's like Madeira
Collignon with a trumpetist jazz trumpet and we built Hello World with with this
flow machines system and our inspirations so we built this album that was very
collaborative. We listen to one of the songs of the album, the song Benoit mentioned
before "Ballad of the Shadow".
Preventing the swings at home The swings at home,
it's not a thing The wings at home The swings at home are out there The wings in
view The swings at home, are long there It would go
It would go It's a missing little doubt,
it's a missing, it's a missing, it's a missing little doubt.
Oh!
It's a missing thing You can't hold it in You're not expecting The things that are
The things that are It's a missing thing The things that are The things that are
The things that are
I hope I'm right
Ohhhhhhhhhhh
It all out It's all basic Mind full All out It would done
It's all basic It's all basic It's all missing in your doubt
It's all missing, it's all missing in your doubt
I have mentioned one thing before a lot here in this podcast and of course I am
not the only one out there but AI is a tool to make music.
Benoit with his project Skigga agrees. It has always been very clear that il y
avait des outils pour penser comme outils,
comme instruments, comme nouvelles instruments pour aider, peut -être pas pour aider,
mais pour aider les musiciens à trouver de nouvelles manières de composer,
à découvrir des autres places de leur créativité.
et c 'est pourquoi j 'ai utilisé ce nom "Skige" qui signifie "château" parce que c
'est comme explorer son propre château. Donc je n 'étais pas affaire et depuis que j
'ai écrit une chanson, même si c 'est vraiment comme des chansons jouées sur une
guitare, j 'ai toujours en parallèle joué avec des computers to record to work on
the arrangement and everything so I started really to compose with a computer.
It was like a Commodore 64 in the late 80s but I always find it really interesting
because it's like augmented creation. Another song from the Hello World album from
Skigar, one note samba.
En fin, dans mon coin, c 'est le semestre Hey, we're fine, we're served, we're no
show Better play, better play the note, you know
Tu devrais confier déjà la salle à un faisait -plé Mais tu comprends la settelle,
ou patager la settelle Tu devrais même faisait -plé Mais déjà,
déjà, déjà, ça me vient compter On n 'attendait pas dans le coup Mais tes secrets,
des petits plus spécifiques C 'est dont elle s 'est faite chanter aussi des tendis So
I would pour into that one note Of the love I feel for you Anyone who wants to
watch you Don't win me if I sell our seat though Here we find himself with no
show where to play, where to play and know what you know
(upbeat music)
All this AI stuff appears right now to be so magic. AI does this and that and we
click buttons and sometimes something amazing comes out. Venois demystifies this a
bit. I saw the researchers like dealing with the code. I understood c 'est un bug,
un bug c 'est juste comme, c 'est une lettre de faute, c 'est une faute de faute,
c 'est quelque chose de très très comme, dommage, que fait le tool,
que fait le tool et j 'ai vu qu 'il y a beaucoup de manuel,
de travail, même dans l 'aïe de l 'aïe, It requires a lot of handmade work to
create the code, to curate the data,
how do we curate them, how do we name them.
There's a lot of very boring things, but very handmade. We hear another song from
Hello World, Multi -Mega Fortune.
Take me far right in the palisades This karma comes through LA like a knife Remind
me of the powers I have thrown away But I try, I promise you that I try Do we
put you far? Only to discover it's not enough Not enough We practice hard,
eyes with blind colors It's not enough, no it's not enough Don't you,
don't you, don't you wanna look at that too? The meaning we took back in a team
like a fortune A team like a fortune Don't you, don't you,
don't you wanna look at that too? The Really, we could make it, we'll see like a
fortune We'll see like a fortune
I'm underneath the flowers, pick me up and take me out Help me build this every
town
Picture is memory Projectile of your fantasies Ambition is the fire now 'Cause I'm
dreaming deep But I'm still in version of those It's not enough Not enough We're
half asleep And the vision's on the road It's not enough,
oh it's not enough And don't you wanna get back to the feeling we could make it
'Cause we're out of touch, out of touch I promise you,
but I'm ready to take this far enough Don't
you, don't you, don't you wanna get back to the feeling we could make it
*I'm watching * *You're acting like I'm watching * *Don't you, don't you, don't you
wanna * *Get it back to me * *Ain't it, we have - * *Make it * *You're acting like
I'm watching * *I'm standing * *You're acting like I'm watching * *You're acting like
I'm watching *
The same attention Benoit Carré got back then with Daddy's Cars, another artist has
since some months by using AI -generated voices from other musicians. Ghostwriter,
the person, producer, musician, whatever he is, published a new song. Whiplash,
sung by Travis Scott and 21 Savage, the AI voices of course. And Ghostwriter said
about it on Tiktok, "The future of music is here. Artists now have the ability to
let their voice work for them without lifting a finger. It's clear that people want
this song. DM me on Instagram if you're interested in allowing me to release this
record or if you'd like me to remove this post. If Travis Scott and 21 Savage
allow the release of the song, I will direct royalties to them I would say story
to being continued. This is how it sounds whiplash
Check my killings 'cause they tryna kill me But I never been so alive Yeah,
we blush, we blush, we gay, we blush, we gay, so alive We blush,
we blush, we blush, all night We gay, we gay, we blush,
all night, all night, all night
We're Plesh from Ghostwriter. When you hear the "Fake of Drake" et "The Weeknd" et
tous ces chansons vocales qui sont comme "Oasis" et tout.
Vous readez dans les papiers, vous readez que c 'est une chanson AI,
c 'est une chanson générée, c 'est une version AI de la chanson et tout.
Donc, on doit expliquer que non, ce n 'est pas une chanson AI,
non, c 'est qu 'il y a un homme ou une femme derrière qui a la chanson,
imitant la chanson sur laquelle, à la fin, le timbre sera connu,
sera répliqué, mais tout a été fait par un homme avant cette étape,
qui est la très, très, très dernière étape du son. Donc,
nous devons expliquer, nous devons dire "non" et c 'est pourquoi je suis un peu
entre ces deux
moyens de communiquer, parce que, sur l 'un des côtés, c 'est pas vraiment intéressant
d 'être un artiste de dire "Oui, j 'ai utilisé l 'AI", c 'est comme un artiste qui
dit "Oui, j 'ai utilisé ce synthétiseur et puis ce brand de drum,
on ne craint pas de ça, on ne craint pas de ce microfon, oui, j 'ai la chanson
sur le microphone noman, c 'est génial, c 'est génial, on ne craint pas de ça,
non, Mais sur l 'autre côté, il y a aussi de la fake news,
aussi de la fake AI, de la fake musician et de la fake singer que nous devons
décrire ce que nous avons fait, juste pour arrêter le mot magique de l 'A .I.
Nous devons juste Just explain what has been done with AI to stop this because when
people will know how it's done and everything, they will stop to fear maybe,
to have fears and they will listen to the music again.
is the color of my true love's hair.
Her face is something wondrous fair. The purest eyes and the daintiest hands.
I love the ground on which she stands.
My love, my love, and will she know I'll follow her where she goes I'll write her
a letter containing these lines I'll suffer death a thousand times Black,
black, black is the color of
pieces something wondrous fair The purest eyes and the daintiest hands I love the
ground
♪ There's no one who would stay ♪
♪ Quickly fade away ♪
♪ This is something wonderful ♪
J 'ai travaillé vraiment seul sur un autre projet, c 'est les songs American Folk.
Ce projet est vraiment basé sur l 'orchestration générée par AI.
C 'était juste une expérimentation, à la fin de l 'année, j 'ai voulu tester le tool,
parce qu 'on en a développé ce tool d 'orchestration qui était capable de faire une
orchestration sur aucune chanson. Donc j 'ai commencé avec cette chanson, "Black is
the color"
c 'était "Song à Capella". C 'était recordé par Pistiger en 1961. Et j 'ai commencé à
orchestrer cette chanson avec A .I., en utilisant différentes sources.
Et puis j 'ai trouvé le résultat tellement amusant, tellement
avec les strings de Bossa Nova, dans le style de Closogerman, un armonie très, très,
très sophistiquée est générée sur ce très simple,
mais très belle chanson de folk songs,
folk songs de pizzeria. Black is the color. Donc, quand When I had this result,
I wanted to make more experiments with folk songs and I orchestrated a lot of folk
songs with AI. So it was the project "American Folk Songs". We heard the song
"Black" is the color before from the Skigalbum "American Folk Songs". Here is another
one, a pretty famous one in his version, "Amazing Grace".
♪ To see God's place ♪ ♪ Then when we first ♪ ♪ Be mine ♪ ♪ God's
place ♪ ♪ God's place ♪ ♪ God's place ♪ ♪ God's place ♪
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
While I was discussing with Benoît the possibilities of AI, more and more I had to
think of the fact that we are right now in a transmission. Everything is so new
and we are excited to see what's happening there. And also scared of the use of an
artificial intelligence, of course. But I guess some years from now, this will be as
normal as using any instrument to make music. The question will be, will we even
mention anymore that we use AI to make music? - That was really a question. And
since the first album, we were hesitating saying that it's created with AI.
But as we moved to Spotify and as it was very new and as we didn't have so much
time because it was like a race with AI.
So we were afraid that another artist would make something with AI so we choose to
say okay it's created with AI and I was also working in a laboratory with
researchers so it was not easy to say don't to hide the AI part mais c 'était
vraiment une question et maintenant je pense que nous nous sommes comme nous sommes
cinq ans six ans, presque six ans après ça et maintenant je pense que ce ne
devrait pas être une question et j 'ai parlé de l 'AI pour le l 'album que j 'ai
créé en 2022, Melancholia, je l 'ai remarqué que les gens n 'auraient pas entendu
avec le même état de la main si ils n 'auraient pas compris que c 'était avec l
'AI, je suis sûr de ça,
et c 'est comme... ça peut être...
ça peut être bon et mal. Parce que les bonnes sides, mais les deux sont mal. La
bonne side est que... la bonne side est que les gens disent non,
il n 'y a pas de coeur, il n 'y a pas de souleur, c 'est AI. sans connaître.
Mais je pense que vous pourrez faire l 'expérience avec une chanson.
Donc ils ont des idées, quand vous dites que c 'est fait avec AI,
et d 'autres personnes, sur l 'autre côté, mais c 'est pas bon, les deux, ils disent
"Oh, c 'est génial, c 'est fait avec AI, C 'est fantastique, c 'est fou. Et les deux
ne sont pas de la même manière. Donc, je pense que maintenant, le sujet de la
musique et de l 'A .I. ne devrait pas être dans la communication quand vous lancez
un album. Et maintenant, je vais arrêter. Donc,
sur le project Skiger, je vais lancer le prochain track,
sans communication sur AI, sans communication sur comment j 'ai fait ça,
je vais seulement le faire dans les conférences, les panneaux et expliquer, oui, mais
dans la communication des, vous savez, sur les pages et tout,
sur l 'artiste, je pense que nous devons arrêter ça parce que c 'est,
c 'est, Ok, c 'est fait. Beaucoup de chansons ont été composées avec AI. Ce qui est
intéressant peut -être maintenant, c 'est que les chansons sont composées à 100 % par
AI. Et la pensée à 100%, mais je pense que ça n 'existe pas.
Un artiste créé par un AI, c 'est la prochaine chose. Mais tout le reste,
c 'est fait, même comme avatars et tout, il y a beaucoup de gens derrière ça,
donc arrêtez avec ce slide
Falling down Angels
Angels
Far from the sky Far from the sky
Down the road On the sand In the waves On
The rules of the rules are
called down In slow motion
In slow motion For now
(Music) It's
not even light (Music)
This story nears from the sky (Music) Burge blood as on fire grows (Music)
The fall of the rebel angel from the album Melancholia from Skiger,
the project from Benoît Carré, who I leave another last thought here. You know,
Post, he was a famous French writer, he was saying that music is the language of
soul et j 'avoue que la musique est très compliquée,
très sophistiquée, il y a beaucoup de dimensions dans la musique et je pense que l
'A .I. ne sera pas sûr qu 'on puisse créer une seule chanson qui signifie quelque
chose à to a lot of people. I'm not sure of this.
That was another episode of the Iliac Suite. Today with Benoit Cariaz,
my guest. Thanks a lot for talking to me, Benoit.
If you, as a listener, have any feedback, you find my contacts in the notes of the
podcast.
Thanks a lot for listening humans.
Take care and behave.
(upbeat music)