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Comment by m_w_ | Hacker News Reader

This was a very pleasant read. There's (justifiably) a lot of debate about AI prose on this forum, which has become tiring. It's refreshing to read something so grounded. Doubly so while looking at a packet of Belvita breakfast biscuits on my own desk.

As far as lo-fi goes, I must recommend Leavv. Mind Garden and Tales of a Flowing Forest. Both pre-AI music albums that are lovely to work/study to.

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To each their own of course, but I personally don’t get the point of avoiding AI music when what you’re listening to (lofi beats) is essentially elevator background tier noise anyway. I listen to various types of it all the time and I honestly couldn’t tell you the difference between AI or not in this genre.

Listening to Tokyo Echo Sounds right now, is it AI? Probably, but how tf would I even know if I did care?

There’s the chance that you notice patterns emerging that become quite grating after listening to it for awhile, in the same way that LLMs tend to have subtle but eventually noticeable patterns in writing. Some people care, some don’t.

Will that be the case for the music that you are listening to that’s generated by AI, maybe? Maybe not?

By highlighting that the music predates generative AI, at least that’s something that you won’t have to think about.

At least, that’s how I read it. It’s like a ‘no artificial sweeteners’ label on a drink.

AI music makes my head feel like I'm wearing noise cancelling headphones. That sort of weird 'pressure' sensation. It's as if even the silent bits are still pushing on my eardrums. I can spot it instantly and I hate it.

Gemini speculated that it might have to do with the AI not mimicking the audios phase properly.

You’re hearing the wave form of the load-bearing emdash

A web app for blind testing this would be an interesting project

"The load-bearing emdash" made me chuckle, thank you.

Not sure why you got downvoted, but I too think it would be interesting. I vaguely remember a story about it posted here a while ago.

It would be a pretty cool project.

I found out the hard way though that some modern audio denoisers/etc use something similar. One of my favorite youtubers audio has the exact same audio signature, even though it's clearly not AI generated. Eventually he mentioned that he was using a new AI cleanup tool and it clicked. Since then I've noticed it creeping into more and more videos. Linus Tech Tips uses it on some videos, for example.

So even for people who are sensitive to it, the false positive rate is now probably very high. It's making me a little crazy that other people don't seem to be bothered by it.

>I'm wearing noise cancelling headphones. That sort of weird 'pressure' sensation.

Classic over-processing issue. It's very pronounced with voice "enhancement" or "clean up" tools that are not properly applied. Usually it's someone applying it in the 40-70% range of wet vs. 60-30% dry, thinking they're being conservative with the tool (you really need it to be very light or very heavily applied if you can't get granular with the specifics of how it's applied).

It creates an effect where different parts of the EQ surge up and down gradually over a few seconds but the volume stays relatively the same. The tone is constantly changing which is aggravating. It's a very uncomfortable sensation for a lot of folks.

Spot on, I think. I actually just commented down thread a bit that I've also seen it happening more and more with Youtube videos.

I speculated that they seem to be adopting some kind of AI based audio cleanup tool that has the same effect, since I first noticed it when one of my favorite Youtubers mentioned they were trying out a new AI audio tool. I think your guess is probably the explanation I was looking for.

Thanks!

Glad it was helpful! Yeah I regularly use dxRevive and used to use Adobe audio enhance (so glad to be rid of them!) and this came up allllll the time with new editors. A lot of ai tools basically do what these tools do in some form or fashion .

Couldn't it just be a moral thing? Ie "This thing was trained on the work of people it's now replacing and I think that sucks". (NB I'm not looking to get into an argument about the actual impact of these kinds of small moral stances)

I agree if it's clearly labeled. I like lofi or vaporwave or neo 80s beats for a while. But I definitely don't want it mixed with any genre that has vocals or mixed with human produced music.

For one, I think AI music is ontologically evil and have extreme opinions on the matter.

More than that though, I completely disagree that anything I'd ever choose to listen to is elevator tier / background noise. Just because it is playing while other things are happening does not mean it never receives focus or active listening.

You can focus on elevator music, doesn't make it not elevator music.

I listen to a lot of ambient and other genres that are AI-amenable. I still try to avoid listening to AI generated music.

Knowing I'm sitting there consuming the uncaring out of a machine just makes me feel sad and alone and I'd rather avoid that feeling.

I’ve been talking about this a lot on here. It’s because the product isn’t the audio file going into your ears. It’s the process that got it into that audio file. It’s knowing someone was passionate enough to put something together for others to hear. It’s knowing that someone out there in the world made this thing you’re getting beamed into your ears. It’s the soul of the thing that makes the difference.

Clinically, that doesn’t matter. However to a listener who is being intentional, it most definitely matters.

I prefer my elevator music to be human created, and not a moral failing of techbros who don't believe in creativity.

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