A.I. or Handmade, That Is the Question?

This is an honest text. Completely without A.I., written by hand. I didn't even run a correction over it. The original text is in German, the translations into all other languages ​​are automated by A.I.

Why A.I. at All?

I've always been a programmer and a musician. For me, A.I. is simply a new tool that allows me to get to the results I have in my head faster. Even if real musicians don't like to hear it, I've always been more interested in the results - the path to get there was often tedious and lengthy. You need perseverance to sit on a song for 3-5 hours every day for a whole month in your free time. The motivation decreases if you're only interested in the results anyway.

I started playing the keyboard at the age of 7 and I'm honest: only because of the many buttons. As a small child, I also had to press every elevator button. I love buttons. The music was not relevant. At 15, I ran around outside and recorded noises with my Minidisc recorder and built the worst techno you can imagine with Musicmaker.

Handmade?

If I label music as "handmade," these are really the songs that were created completely by hand in weeks of work: conceptualization, composition, playing notes on one of my keyboards, recording sounds or tones with my field recorder, mixing - the entire process up to mastering.

A.I. - Or Not?

It gets complicated with the topic of A.I., as this can affect several components of the overall result. The best way to explain this is with a few examples. By the way, when I write prompts, whether for music or images, they are far more complex than "techno please."

Example 1

I work with a lyricist who provides me with a handwritten text. Sometimes I write lyrics completely myself. Then a first prompt is written, which is then used to generate the music. The prompt and the text are then adjusted during the development until you have a result that corresponds to the desired idea.

Example 2

I strum around on my keyboard in Cubase and create a song idea of ​​about 4-8 bars. This is 100% handmade. I play this basic idea as an audio file into the A.I. system and write a prompt that represents my idea for the song in text form. The A.I. then creates the song based on my idea - i.e. audio and song structure, mood, evolution. Over the course of several iterations, you then arrive at a song result.

Example 3

I write a complete song by hand, produce everything by hand. I have an idea for lyrics. I then have the lyrics created in text form by an A.I. Based on the lyrics and my song and a prompt, the vocals are then generated and overlaid on my song.

Example 4

I have an idea for a certain mood, genre or topic. I write a first summary to match the idea. Based on the summary, I then work with an A.I. to develop a working prompt that leads to exactly the result I have in my head. I tell the A.I. about results that don't match my suggestions in order to refine the prompt based on these experiences until the result fits. I like to use such prompts more often to create several songs in the same style - these are often series with slightly modified prompts.

Concrete Prompt Example Using an Image

I would rather not reveal what music prompts look like for me - that is too intimate. But using the cover for the song "When Tomorrow Wakes Me" I can show you what such a prompt looks like for me even with a simple picture:

"Cyberpunk atmosphere in the year 2500. It is 8 a.m., the sun has already half risen. A pretty blonde woman in skimpy sleepwear stands in a large room in front of a large window that reaches from the floor to the ceiling. She looks out at a skyline with numerous billboards and lights. The woman has just gotten out of bed. Behind her is the bed with the headboard against the wall. A flying car is flying past the window. The camera observes everything from a wide-angle perspective from behind, so that you can see the woman, the room and the bed. The title "When Tomorrow Wakes Me" is placed over the image and blends in wonderfully with the image, with professional and appropriate font in cyberpunk style and a slight 3D effect. The scene looks like something out of a blockbuster film. Format 1:1."

Result:

Conclusion

The label "WITH A.I." does not mean that ONLY A.I. was in the game. It only shows that A.I. helped - as a tool, somewhere, sometime. How exactly doesn't really matter in the end, because only the result counts.

With the songs, I am sometimes an author, sometimes a programmer, sometimes a musician - but everything is a creative process. Like this website. Everything here is first and foremost a work of art for me - i.e. the website with everything behind it, my ideas, my developments, the programming, the music. If a damn piece of toast on a wall is art or a red dot in the middle of a white surface - then my work even more so.

I don't give a damn whether I'm called a musician, programmer, web designer, author or anything else - what I do here is what I enjoy and what is art to me. And if you don't get paid for it, there's only one thing that counts: that I enjoy it.

So then, thanks for reading.

Yours, Sascha