The Random thought thread

[octave]

 The Lark Ascending by Vaughn Williams, mimics a Lark within the confines of the music. We are talking here of an inspiration for a starting point not reproducing something faithfully.

Any the 5/4 is the thing that drives the rhythm along 

Edited 4 hours ago by octave

[willedoo]

6 hours ago, old man emu said:

Pete Townsend of The Who played around with reverberation using an electric guitar. No AI program would have thought to do that. When he achieved a useable result, other rock guitarists began to use the technique.

ome, I'm thinking you're referring to Pete Townsend's use of amp feedback, as in Jimi Hendrix style (at a later date). Reverb is a built in amp feature on a lot of amps or an add on device that produces a constant echo type sound, a bit like being right up the back of a big concert hall. If you turn the reverb knob too high it will produce a cyclical sound, a bit like tremolo underwater which is not nice, but the right amount of reverb makes a lot of people happy. Reverb is a constant setting on the amp, just like setting treble and base levels, or some people might use a foot switch to activate it. Feedback is where the sound from the amp bounces back and makes the strings vibrate, the guitar pickups detect it and send it back to the amp creating a high pitched squealing loop.

[octave]

Here is a video from a musician who has a pretty good YouTube channel.  This video is about how AI music will affect musicians. It is 15 minutes long, so I understand most folks are not that interested, so here is a summary of the conclusion. (created by AI of course)

 

6. The conclusion: art survives, even if the industry changes

The overall message is cautiously hopeful.

The speaker accepts that:

• AI is not going away,
• parts of the music industry will change dramatically,
• and some commercial opportunities may shrink.

But he argues that:

• artists will still create,
• audiences will still seek authentic human connection,
• and genuinely creative music may become even more valuable precisely because it is human.

His final idea is that true artists make music primarily because they need to express something — not just to make money — and AI cannot take that impulse away.

---

The tone of the video is interesting because it starts from real fear and grief, but gradually moves toward adaptation rather than denial. It’s less “AI is wonderful” and more “AI is here, so what parts of music remain uniquely human?”

 

 

[willedoo]

7 hours ago, octave said:

Music has often evolved because composers and performers broke the rules of their time.

You've got a good handle on it octave. This quote from your earlier post is an important aspect. Rule breakers have always pushed the evolution. AI by it's nature is rule based and at this stage in history is limited by that. Whether AI can evolve to become more human is something time will take care of one way or the other.

[onetrack]

I can always remember the story about Pete Townshend as a young man, when he went for a jaunt on a little motorboat that was propelled by a small two stroke outboard engine.

 

Pete was so mesmerised by the sound of the engine, combined with the burbling water against the hull - which both created a hypnotic, "sublime" musical experience, he claimed - that he fell into a hypnotic trance, and didn't realise he'd reached the shore, until the boat grounded in the mud! He's stated he's always sought to recreate that "musical ideal".