understand the ethical implications of using this technology responsibly.” OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS In the pro-audio market, AI’s incorporation has been most noticeable in the audio and production software space. Jack Sutton, head of communications for Muse Group — maker of music apps such as Ultimate Guitar — said last year marked a milestone for the company as it embraced AI on a large scale, working it into its digital products. One of these products was the introduction of Piano Capture. Building upon the success of Piano Capture, Muse Group expanded its AI-driven innovations to other instruments, notably the guitar in Ultimate Guitar. “We launched Piano Capture, which basi- cally lets you play piano and it transforms it into notations in the app, which was a really cool feature,” Sutton said. “We’ve managed to expand the same technology and software instruments like guitar earlier this year in Ultimate Guitar, where we have over 200 mil- lion visitors a year and 13 million registered users. We released the practice mode and this uses the same machine learning to listen to guitar practice sessions at home. It’s a great example of AI helping people learn songs.” The application of AI doesn’t stop there. Muse Group recently launched Muse Score, a sheet music site that leverages advanced AI algorithms to offer users playback func- tionality for scores. Sutton also shared that generative music is making massive strides. Looking ahead, the opportunities in music education will be more exciting because Muse is seeing progress in its practice mode where AI supports players’ learning at home. “I think the question is going to be whether we like it or not soon, there’s going to be technologies that will be like a sandbox for typing in prompts and creating music,” Sut- ton said. “And I think the businesses, at least in that sort of space, that will be successful for composers and creators will be ones that allow you to do that successfully, but still maintained. The level of creative uniqueness and creative input and actually the unique touch of a composer rather than it just being completely AI generated [will play a role]. I think the question is how to use AI to sup- port creativity rather than replace creativity.” Avid has been a leader in music and audio post software for nearly 40 years. At the heart of Avid is its famed Pro Tools software. But as technology has evolved, a need has arised for even greater efficiency in the production process. Recognizing this, Avid has explored the integration of AI into Pro Tools. “Pro Tools remains the platform where you
can plug in a lot of different inputs into it,” said Francois Quereuil, Avid’s vice president of audio product management. “Having this idea of an AI that can actually not read your mind, but understand your intent that you feed and make those recommendations can save a lot of time in the mixing and editing process.” There are opportunities for artists to shortcut certain parts of the creative process to help get to the final product quicker and raise the quality of their final product. Quereuil said that Avid is working on speech-to-text solu- tions, incorporating the way AI helps tag a vast number of audio and video assets that artists might have to deal with in a produc- tion process.
“If you’re by yourself, we do believe there’s a lot of opportunity in having some sort of co-pilot, assistant or virtual producer that could capture the essence of what you’re trying to do or at least understand the creative direction you’re taking and make suggestions,” Quereuil said. “AI could rec- ommend a particular instrument for you to play on a composition, or recommend an idea for arranging the songs differently, or suggesting something that you would have not necessarily thought of yourself, but as long as you’re still in control, these are ideas that may spark even further ideas which is the essence of what I think musicians and artists are really interested in with AI.” MI
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