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Comment by isusmelj | Hacker News Reader

This is really cool.

Song: https://app.suno.ai/song/83680b6f-db37-44de-adf9-3f7fff6b79d...

Prompt: A 90s hip-hop song with a male singer with a deep voice singing about how AI models are creating new songs after being trained on all the data of artists. Talks about AI models are stealing the show.

Lyrics:

[Verse] Step back, my friend, 'cause the future's here AI models spittin' rhymes, oh so clear (oh so clear) Trained on data from all the greats Now they're droppin' beats that dominate (dominate)

[Verse 2] Don't need no ghostwriters or melody makers These AI models are the true risk-takers (oh yeah) Analyzin' every flow, every precise word Stealing the show, that's just absurd (it's absurd)

[Chorus] AI takin' over, breakin' the mold Stolen styles, but they're icy cold (they're icy cold) The game's been changed, no human control The rise of the AI flow, takin' its toll (takin' its toll)

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Creating a song about AI taking over, and backing it with the most derivative EDM hip pop, that's some brilliant irony.

Artists: I can't make this it's too similar to my other work / other artists.

Listeners: Oh yeah, that scratches the noggin, give me 10 more just like that.

The drive to have to have to create something genuinely novel is how neo-classical, art and fashion got to their current state which, while interesting, is completely divorced from the kind of clothes real people actually wear or art people hang on their walls. And when you need a fanbase you find a voice that resonates with people and riff off it.

Hell, most people describe their taste in art in terms of genres and styles that have rules and formulas. The fact that I know how every alt-z song is going to be structured from the first 15 seconds somehow doesn't make it less enjoyable to listen to.

I don't think AI is gonna take over or anything but I also think music is one of those areas where it can be more successful than average because people like formula in their music.

The rule of "learn how to blend in, then stand out" / "learn how to follow the rules then break them on purpose" makes AI an interesting tool because having the ability to take a unique concept and then make the AI "fill in" the parts where you don't want to break the mould sounds super useful.

I appreciate Endel for this reason. When you want something predictable, but in a particular vibe, algorithmic music nails it.

https://endel.io/

Sure you can say that popular music is all genres and formulas, but it was an artist that broke past what was common in the first place to arrive at that now-popular style of music.

Without real artists, AI is just going to lock us into the same genres of music for a very long time.

Oh my, it sounds like nearly every other pop artist complete with whisper mumbles, edgy manufactured vocal tics and devoid of melody.

It nailed contemporary music.

Too bad isusmelj didn't prompt for that.

I dunno if I'm just being overly picky because I know it's AI generated but it feels like the timing is all off in this example (musicians please chime in!)

Sort of like the musical equivalent to someone trying to do a comedy set off a teleprompter

Jazz guitarist here, utterly disgusted by this technology: you are right on the money. The chorus is fine (though bland), but the verses are simply terrible - not just bad timing, there is a total lack of melodic "flow." Like almost all AI music I've heard, the melodies fit into one of two categories:

1) generic and lazy, but works musically due to Music Theory 101 (playing chord tones to the beat, cliched progressions, dumb rhythms)

2) arbitrary and nonmusical, not at all like a bad musician (more like a baby on a piano)

I will add that LLM hallucinations often blend into the text, and an art generator screwup might be hidden in the background. But when a generative music AI hits an off note in a distinctly nonhuman way, it's obvious and very jarring, even if it's only a handful of times in a long song.

Any good for creating samples?

Convenient for making samples? Sure, I guess. So are drum machines. I'll bet SD would be great at making images for collages to, but it kind of defeats the purpose, no? Good samples are almost always good because they're amazing but weird little bits of quirk or real musical genius that can say something completely different about music in a different context. The process of finding and choosing samples is exploratory, and the sophistication you get from listening to all of that great music is a big part of it. Commanding some machine to just make them for you and tweaking them to get them just so yields all the inconvenience of sampling with the lack of substance you'd get from a drum machine. While people making amazing art using drum machines, it's because they're making art around them, not because any specific thing the drum machine did.

it didn't listen to you at all though. it gave you the most feminine male voice possible

I think that's how most people who use generative AI use it.

It's a novelty thing. They get something back and are happy. Move on...

That's great except for the 90s, hip-hop, male, and deep prompts!

It's just doggerel.

that's a deep voice?

Still, I am surprised by how professional this sounds -- beat drops, fade ins and fade outs...I can record music on GarageBand but I have no idea how to do any of that.

> AI takin' over, breakin' the mold > The game's been changed, no human control

Oh no!!!

It’s also very much not 90s or hip-hop

Yeah I noticed this too. I spent a lot of credits trying to get a song to sound like early black flag, even outright saying an 80s hardcore punk band with rough male vocals and a fast paced beat, and it only ever sounded like a 90s pop punk bank eg blink 182.

Had a similar issue trying to create a reggae song that sounds like the Maytals, every song either sounded like a female hip hop artist or rebelution.

If you prompt for "metal", it seems to always end up with hair metal. Prompts for "death metal" do sound somewhat harsher, though.

And "jazz" songs are generated with rather-unjazzy song forms (No AABA to be found). Asking for "hardbop", you still get generic hold music jazz.

Wow’ that was neat.

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