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Comment by alberto467 | Hacker News Reader

Who would even DJ on classical music?

If you have the slightest knowledge of classical music you would know it should not be mixed like in a dj set, and you would not optimize your dj algorithm for it.

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Why would you even have a classical music station? What is public radio even doing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRR_(FM)

I believe the person you are responding to was being facetious.

What the AI doing now is in fact what classical radio DJs do; the author wants a general purpose smart music playing robot, not a “DJ” per se.

I think you could pick out a movement from this and then a movement from that. I can see somebody wanting to have classical music playing all day without having to pick out specific tracks, like listening to the radio.

I think the auto DJ feature is already well capable of that: having tracks playing the all day.

But if you want to preserve the original composition of classical music, you have to play the track start to finish, preferably with a small pause between tracks as well.

I have to admit that my rock and pop music listening is still album-oriented whether it is The Kinks or The Super Furry Animals or Charlie XCX.

I think it is totally reasonable to want something that plays all movements from one work, then finds similar works to play after that.

Sure, that might not be what a DJ algorithm is optimized for, but a more generalized AI like an llm should be able to figure that out.

You are very right, using a generalized LLM in combination with good music search and metadata tools works very well for this sort of thing. I know because I built a platform that does this. The big limiter isn't the tech, it's what the rights-holders will allow. They maintain tight control over their catalogs because renting that intellectual property is their entire business model. This makes them very cautious about letting any actually useful AI near their music and metadata.

> you would know it should not be mixed like in a dj set, and you would not optimize your dj algorithm for it.

Yet the computer program happily tried to do it anyway. It would be much better to fail with a clear error message than to try to proceed and emit garbage.

Yeah, if he wants to listen to your complete albums, it’s unclear to me why he would be using a DJ feature or expected the DJ to do that. Just play the albums manually or set up playlist. It’s like having a six CD changer and putting it on shuffle and then complaining that it shuffles.

And then we have artists such as Gas who famously mixed classical with dub techno.

Interesting, i never heard of anything similar before, but i'm quite sure the classical music fans would also hate on him for ruining the original compositions.

He is a very influential artist in the techno subculture. I don't think anybody hating him for making those masterpieces...

The blend of classical and techno must come from the techno side. I remember many years ago listening to CBC Radio as they breathlessly talked about some avant garde classical piece that purported to blend classical and techno. It was a mid tier modern classical composition with occasional cheap synth sound effects. And this was ten years after Portishead released their entire first album, recorded with an orchestra, or all the work that Massive attack was doing.

William Orbit did an album of electronic arrangements of classical music 25 years ago. Not that it prevents anyone else from doing it. But it's not a completely novel idea.

Yes, at least 50. Folks applied electronic instruments to classical music shortly after they moved out of the experimental phase.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach

And there was this fun disco version as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fifth_of_Beethoven

Remixing art has been done since the invention of art. It doesn't ruin anything if the original work is preserved.

No one is required to like it. But the word 'hate' is a bit extreme, even in your example. Also, the group comprising "the classical music fans" is certain to include many who disagree with you.

I consider myself a "fan of classical music". We go to Philharmonic a few times a year and I own a remarkable collection of classical music. And I do go to parties and love techno...

I love electronic renditions of classical music. Trance does this often (Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, William Orbit, Ferry Corsten and others) and it's some of the best work they put out. To me, it's like a natural progression from classical minimalism, such as Phillip Glass or Max Richter.

I've played the violin since I was a kid (only for fun now). I can find something I love about almost any musical genre and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

BT is a trance dj that's classically trained: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_(musician) and Armin van Buuren has classically trained parents

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6yFanGv_ReU

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S1YwlPH_o50

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fNloJAge0 (same chord progression as la folia https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8zxoEoA_Q)

La folia itself has been "remixed" many times by both classical and modern composers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folia

It is not uncommon to have parts of a classical music movement in a DJ set, even if it lasts only a few seconds.

Until 2009, WGBH FM… then they shuffled it. Which went about as well as this tool.

Deodado?

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