In my way of thinking, there are 3 categories of musicians (maybe more, but for this discussion I'm focusing on the broadest categories I can easily recognize) -
1. There's those who are performers, who just love to play songs for an audience.
2. Then there are writers/composers, but who can't or don't want, to perform.
3. Finally, there are those very few who have the traits and skillsets of both.
And those third group of folks are pretty rare, from what I've seen.
I happen to be in the second group - I don't have a good singing voice, and have no desire to play guitar or piano in front of an audience. But I can write songs. I'm a prolific writer, and it would be the biggest kick for me to write material for a really great band of skilled, natural performers who wanted to perform original songs. Since I haven't found such a band so far, I've turned to using AI to at least bring my recordings up to a level of quality that I just couldn't ever reach completely by myself. But wait, hear me out - I do have certain conditions for this AI usage, that I stick to faithfully.
At this time in my life, I'm at my last years and into retirement, so I have no realistic hope that anything commercially viable is possible. So frankly, I continue to compose, record, mix & master my own songs and run my own website - just purely for the sake of creating the best quality of music that I possibly can - in other words, I just create the music for the music's sake. For me it's an art, and I am continuously improving on my own works.
Thus, as far as using AI to "Enhance" my songs to the best, highest level of quality, I'm now in - after being fairly negative about it before actually trying it - but I have to say and to specify very clearly, that I have my own process and procedure - It begins with me having already written my song lyrics, and having my full melody already composed and recorded, either with piano or guitar, before I ever turn to the AI studio to "Enhance" my already-written song material. For me, there is no such thing as "hit a button and spit out a song". (In fact, I also additionally write my songs in music notation, complete with guitar chord symbols, meant for easy guitar playing).
I use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) [Fender Studio One] to build and design my multiple tracks, all with no AI assistance. I build rhythms with drum and bass kits, melody with guitar or piano apps, and even add in string orchestrations when I want to add that. I use a mic to record my own vocals - no matter how rough and unsuitable for any realistic recording quality - because that's a requirement for obtaining any copyright from the US Copyright office. And I do this as a routine - for every single song that I write. And I've been copyrighting my songs back to my very earliest - back as far as 1976-1977, up through to the present. So, I've been composing songs for a very long time.
In spite of how my material (presently 10 albums of 15 tracks each) is nearly all labelled as "AI enhanced", EVERY single one of those songs has been composed, recorded in basic levels, and submitted for copyright, before I use the AI platform (specifically Ace Studio software), to enhance each song's instruments and vocals. The end result is, I can finally hear the polished, pro-studio quality in a final mastered form, that makes me feel like I've finally accomplished the full "vision" of what it was that inspired me to compose that song in the first place. I'm happy with what I hear - but especially in knowing that these are still every bit my own songs- my own instrumentation assembled and carefully crafted, and superbly professional vocals that sing to my exact melody. And that underlying melody and lyrics are still fully protected with the copyright that I obtained prior to using the AI.
In other Blog topics I will go into more detail about the US Copyright process and procedure, and how AI in music has affected that process; I'll also delve deeper into how non-AI software has advanced and improved the ability to assemble and compose original songs, within the given DAW a musician uses . Additionally, I'd love to begin a discussion among AI-users about how best to correct AI issues - the occasional warping, garbling, metalic sounds, etc. I'd like to keep these topics front and center and encourage any and all musicians and viewers to chime in with their own thoughts and processes. Keep it constructive, but by all means feel free to express your own feelings about the use of AI in improving your own recordings. I'm keeping an eye out constantly for any new twists and turns in the legalities, how distributors are developing new additional procedures to produce songs and albums online that contain AI material, and why we as musicians should be pushing to keep the "human element" into our own creative process, always.
-JOHN
