Splice CEO’s message for AI sceptics? “Trust the artists”Artificial intelligence is here, and it’s rapidly evolving in both its capabilities and mainstream infamy. A sudden boom in the adoption of the technology has sparked backing and backlash from musicians, producers, tech bros and everyone in between for months.

READ MORE: Record labels sue AI music generators Suno and Udio alleging “unimaginable scales” of copyright infringement

Generative AI equips users with the power to emulate pop stars such as Drake or The Weeknd, for example (or to emulate 2Pac, if you’re Drake). Arguably, this technology poses the most frightening threat. The three major labels (Sony, Warner, Universal) have expectedly caught onto this quickly and, this week, filed a behemoth lawsuit against generative AI platforms Suno and Udio, seeking damages to the tune of $150,000 for every track in their catalogue that’s been infringed upon.
But it’s not all bad. Some AI tech helps streamline music production, making it easier for more creators to stay inspired and make music quickly. Such services includes Voice-Swap, which aims to fairly pay session musicians for their vocal likeness, and Synplant, a synth plugin that uses AI to turn any imported audio into a novel synth.
Kakul Srivastava, CEO of music creation platform Splice — now boasting the AI-powered Create music arrangement generator tool — is an early adopter and leading voice in AI. Is she concerned? Yes and no.
“I’m not an AI fan girl… It’s a technology that can be used in good ways and really stupid ways”
“I’m not actually very pro AI,” Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava says from her San Fransisco home. “I’m not an AI fan girl.” She bemoans the annoying “noise” around AI today. “It’s a technology that can be used in good ways and really stupid ways.”
One of the “good ways,” from Kakul’s viewpoint of course, is Splice Create. The new platform harnesses AI to help users add to their musical ideas quicker so they don’t lose momentum.

A “crap” use case is generative AI, says Kakul. It’s “just not good enough,” she grumbles. “But I do think that the power of technology and software can make it easier and take the drudgery out of music creation.
“It took Michelangelo painful years lying on his back, suspended high up, to paint the artwork he did. And it takes photographers today just one click to capture a photograph. To say that one is art and the other is not — because they require different levels of effort to make — is challenging.
“The hard part of art is not the physical work; it’s the work of identifying the truth — truths about human nature — that you can translate into something. We need to do enable people to find that truth and convey it into music. I’m focused on getting that musical idea through Create.”
What is Splice Create?
Create is an AI-powered music arrangement generation tool that prioritises creative flow over arduous, momentum-killing manual sample searches. As of today (26 June), Create’s User Audio feature now allows you to import your song ideas; it will analyse your audio and suggest sounds from Splice’s sample library to complement your sonic sketch.

Splice says it sees over a million daily sample downloads, and champions sounds recorded by artists on over 300 instruments, spanning over 130 genres.
Drawing from this vast and diverse catalogue, Create can suggest sounds and styles you may never have previously thought of, according to the brand resulting in a more unique and explorative project.
“An incredible variety of diverse instruments, different genres and ethnic musical types live on Splice,” Kakul tells us. “I’m constantly amazed by people remixing, say, an ancient Korean instrument that three people know how to play and mixing it with hip-hop to get something completely different out of it.”

Speaking about the User Audio integration, Kakul says that Splice is “constantly looking for ways to increase creativity and enhance workflow. Our decisions start and end with creators and it was important that we introduce a solution for musicians looking to expand their original ideas. It gives the creator more options while their authenticity remains at the center.”
“I would like to live in a world where AI drives more human creativity and the reason I think that’s important is because of democratisation.”
Education and democratisation with Splice and AI
When Kakul says “democratisation”, the Splice CEO isn’t just talking about shining a light on a diverse range of recorded sounds and a global pool of players. It’s also about giving more and more budding producers the chance to create music, whatever their ability, technical skills or attention spans.
Tapping into education, Splice now offers an affordable option for students. It’s also teamed up with schools, including Berklee College of Music, to implement Create into the classroom. This means any student – not just those with the most technical prowess – can find inspiration quickly. Plus, the teacher has less chance of losing the class’s interest as they fumble around, thumbing in commands or searching for samples.
The response from teachers has been “profound”, says Kakul proudly. “Create AI allows people to get their students to a starting point of creation quickly. You can use a query to say, ‘I want to create something in this genre and I want to use the same samples’, for example. To get to your final track, you need to do a lot more work and refinement, but when you’re in a learning space and you want to explore, Create is powerful.”

AI tools such as this give creative minds the chance to make music who sadly, for a number of reasons, might not usually get far enough into the music creation process to be excited about it.
Giving young people these opportunities is vital for Kakul. She recalls a story about a friend’s seven-year-old son who played the piano and when asked what he was playing, simply replied, “I was imagining a horse galloping”.
“I was blown away,” she says. “Because if we let ourselves be creative in that way, if we don’t make excuses for ourselves like, “Oh, I wasn’t trained in music,” and if we just allow ourselves to create, something really powerful happens, right?
“That’s what democratisation is about: making you feel like it’s okay to play. It’s okay to make sounds like “a horse galloping” or say, “I wasn’t trained,” because it shouldn’t matter. It’s about giving more people the ability to find that musical story and to get to completion. We are on the side of the quitters, helping them bring these ideas to life.”
The easy accessibility of Create hasn’t been met with total glee, however. Kakul has seen feedback that the feature makes some people “feel a bit like they’re cheating”. She posits that “offering them more control will [mean] creators [can] have more manual settings within their workflow.”
“Our work tells us producers aren’t looking for ways to reinvent how they work, just ways to make it better, more efficient.”
Navigating the future of music with AI
With all manner of negativity swirling around the technology, however, and with only AI’s most controversial, surface-level examples making the most noise, there’s bound to be retaliation from artists.
Kakul says there’s “a lot to be figured out” with generative AI which she “stays away from”, her message for sceptics – and it’s a lot of people – is to believe in the power of AI when put in the right hands.
“Trust the artists,” she says with severity. “Every time we’ve put technology in the hands of artists, they’ve surprised us with what they can do.’” Kakul cites Daft Punk and Stevie Wonder who’ve taken “seemingly disruptive technologies and transformed them into something truly exceptional”.

“A lot of people are concerned with AI, and I count myself as part of that,” admits Kakul. “There are parts of this that are dangerous, especially when it blurs the line of what’s real and what’s not – ‘is this a Drake song? Is this not a Drake song?’. Those areas become important. As an industry, we have to get smart at that.”
Though there are global concerns about AI, we wonder about Splice’s more direct concerns. Suno and Udio are the first generative AI services that can vomit up a song in seconds for free with just a few text prompts — they may not be the last. How can Splice compete with such a unique, original source of free samples?
“We’ve been competing with free samples for years, so that’s not new to us,” Kakul says. “I think Splice is a pretty inexpensive option if you’re looking for royalty-free samples and a license to use them wherever you want! But primarily we need to keep delivering at a high level for our customers and continue improving the experience. Most importantly, the quality of Splice’s sounds is a result of the human’s who make them. Our users know that when they use Splice, they’re collaborating with artists, real-life sound designers and sample producers.”
Still, in Kakul’s vision, AI’s role in the future of music production is unavoidable and inevitable. And, if AI-powered tools such as Create can make it easier for young minds to express their inner musicality without the anxiety of ‘not being good enough’ or ‘not being trained in music’, the importance of this technology can not be overlooked.
“There’s a lot happening at the intersection of AI and music that’s impressive, but much of it is trained on copyrighted content, it will undoubtedly face a hornet’s nest of legal problems,” Kakul concludes. “We have Mic and Prompt features coming up next [on Splice] but we’re taking our time. We’re building our AI in the same way we do everything else at Splice: with creators at the center.
Find out more about Create and read more about AI in music via MusicTech.
The post Splice CEO’s message for AI sceptics? “Trust the artists” appeared first on MusicTech.

“Most artists’ best songs are still sat on a hard drive right now”: James Blake on modern streaming algorithms and their influence on final recordsIf you want to make it as a musician in 2024, you’re largely at the mercy of large-scale algorithms. While Spotify, for example, has an algorithm that’s highly competent at recommending new music to consumers, on the other end, artists are increasingly having to write to cater to it, rather than for their own creativity alone.
And according to James Blake – a notable critic of the current state of the music industry – streaming algorithms are meaning many artists’ best music is not being heard at all.

READ MORE: James Blake on why he’s stayed anonymous on other artist’s music: “They take it and make it 10 times worse”

In a new Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe alongside Lil Yachty – with whom he’s set to imminently release a new album, Bad Cameo – Blake discusses at length the way streaming platforms influence an artist’s end product.
“If you have a success- and wealth-obsessed culture, then you de-incentivise risk, and you de-incentivise creativity,” he says. “And I think we are in a late-stage capitalist version of the music industry, and right now, the only reason me and Yachty can make this kind of album is because we’re both already successful. If we weren’t, this would be a huge risk. And probably both of us would be like, ‘Let’s postpone this until we put our pop record out.’
“So in order to get people to listen to you, you’ve kind of got to join the ranks, essentially… That conversation has been going on way before me, but I started my Tweets and Instagram messages about that, all from the perspective of just being paid fairly, right? 
“And I think that got some people’s backs up, in some ways, because it’s like people are already paying their subscriptions. People are paying money for music. The issue is that, firstly, your subscription is not proportionally distributed to the people you listen to. So that’s a big part of it. 
“Secondly, this wasn’t ever to blame the consumer. This was to just point out that the industry’s fucked. One of my biggest issues with it is that this format limits creativity. And streaming services now [are where] the artist puts out the music they think they should put out. How I envision a platform in the future is the place people put out the music they wanted to put out.
He continues: “You don’t make music in a vacuum. You’ve got to constantly factor in what’s trending, what’s the new genre. if you want to be actually successful, you want to really play the game. You want to make some money – like you want to actually sustain yourself, then you’re going to have to fit into these narrow categories.
“Ultimately, I think the listener is suffering just as much as the artist, because they’re not getting the artist’s best music.
“When I’m in studios, day in, day out, artists play me their favourite shit from their record… And then it doesn’t end up on the album, it doesn’t end up being the single because it didn’t have the right length intro, it didn’t fit within the genre description, their own catalogue, but this is the best shit. Like, what?
“I don’t blame them – I blame the system itself – but that’s what’s going on. I mean, most artists’ best songs are sat on a hard drive right now.”
Earlier this year, James Blake launched his own streaming platform, Vault, which allows artists to upload unreleased music which fans pay a monthly subscription for.

The post “Most artists’ best songs are still sat on a hard drive right now”: James Blake on modern streaming algorithms and their influence on final records appeared first on MusicTech.

“I never expected anyone to listen to it”: Moby says Play was made in a “completely unpressurised environment”Moby has spoken about the “completely unpressurised environment” that led to the making of his breakthrough electronica album Play.
Released in 1999, Play got off to a slow commercial start, only to explode in popularity – the album has since become the best-selling electronic music album of all time, with over 12 million copies sold to date – after it began to be licensed for commercials and other projects.

READ MORE: “People want to talk without doing homework”: Swizz Beats on criticism of Verzuz beat battle deal with Elon Musk’s X

Speaking to MusicRadar about the making of the album, Moby recalls: “The interesting thing is that the music on Play was made in a completely unpressurised environment because I never expected anyone to listen to it.”
“In 1997/98 when I was finishing the music for Play, I’d been dropped by my American record label, and Daniel Miller of Mute Records hadn’t dropped me but it felt like that was because he felt sorry for me.”
“Play was made in my bedroom on cheap equipment and the commercial expectations were so low as to be non-existent, so it was a very unpressurised environment,” he adds.
According to Moby, things changed during the next few records, where he “put a lot of pressure on [himself] to try and make music that would be creatively interesting and commercially successful.”
“But I realised pretty quickly that I’m not good at that,” he says. “Some producers, especially now, are very good at accommodating the commercial marketplace, but whenever I’ve tried to do that the end result has been mediocre.”
The musician, who recently released his 22nd solo album Always Centered at Night, also admits that a young him would not have expected such success.
“For most of my life, up until a certain point, I assumed I was going to make music in my spare time that no one ever listened to,” he says. “I never expected to have a record deal or play concerts or shows to more than 20 or 30 people and certainly never expected to have anything resembling commercial awareness or success.”

The post “I never expected anyone to listen to it”: Moby says Play was made in a “completely unpressurised environment” appeared first on MusicTech.

#ICQ

MixChecker Ultra from Audified The latest version of Audified's mix reference tool emulates over 90 devices, supports user-imported impulse response files, and comes packed with handy analysis tools.

From Backyards to Coachella, How The Red Pears Built it The Old Fashioned WayThis week, Ari is joined by Henry Vargas and Jose Corona of the band “The Red Pears,” an indie band who has seen recent success particularly in the live performance scene, coming hot off the heels of their Coachella performance.

Correction #Plugins for creativity in #musicproduction and #SoundDesign

This smiling robot face made of living skin is absolute nightmare fuelGiving robots a human-like exterior has been the standard for years — centuries even. But giving them actual, living skin that can be manipulated horrifying, slimy expressions? That’s new. The new work, published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, is very much just an experiment. This will not be the face of your next […]
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US politicians who may be spinning the news with cryptoDonald Trump seems to have doubled down on digital assets after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York.

Donner Adds New Guitars to Its Seeker Series ElectricsDonner has introduced two new additions to its DST Seeker Series electric guitar lineup: the DST-600 and DST-700. By adding these two new models, Donner's time-tested Seeker Series has reached new heights with a balance of vintage and modern design, providing contemporary players with the ultimate playing experience and versatile tones, from warm blues or clean style to shred-heavy metal sounds.

The DST-600 has an alder body, C-shaped maple neck and comes in either SSS or HSS configurations with a maple or rosewood fretboard. The models featuring the rosewood fretboard come with 22 frets, while the maple fretboard version features 21 frets. Boasting special tuning on each pole piece, the vintage staggered SSS/HSS configured DST-600 gives an authentic 60s sound that is sparkly clean, while providing a rich and smooth tone when pushed with some overdrive. The DST-600, with a trio of alnico V single coils, marks Donner's faithful attempt for the vintage aesthetics while maintaining versatile play capabilities by providing an alternative HSS configured option.

Crafted with several differences from the original Seeker series, the DST-700 is Donner’s bold offering for aggressive players. First, the DST-700 boasts a 5-piece neck made with roasted maple bolted on a basswood or mahogany body, offering supreme stability and aesthetics for shred guitarists. Second, new pickups designed by Donner Lab come in two configurations: HH and HSS with coil switch. These new Donner Lab pickups are designed, made, and tuned for high-output fatter tones, yet deliver tremendous dynamic range.

Finally, the fingerboard utilizes a compound radius of 10"-14" resulting in a neck that achieves an ideal ergonomic equilibrium, suitable for producing both clear melodies and chordal playing, as well as lightning-fast solos played on the higher frets.

Other features include an easily accessible truss rod adjuster that sits next to the neck pickup, allowing players to make adjustments without removing the neck, high-quality hardware, including steel medium frets, Donner 18:1 locking machines, 2-point synchronized tremolo with block saddles, and a steel plate.

Availability:

The Donner DST-600 and DST-700 electric guitars carry suggested retail prices from $429.9 to $499.9, varying from models of different setups, and are available from donnermusic.com and selective retailers.

4 models, including DST-600 in Fiesta Red (SSS) pricing $429 USD, DST-600 in Sunburst (HSS) pricing $439 USD, DST-700 in Natural (HH) pricing $499 USD and DST-700 in Forest Green (HSS) pricing $499 USD, are now available onDonnermusic.com.

For prices and availability of other models please check out more information on www.donnermusic.com or contact your local retailers.The post Donner Adds New Guitars to Its Seeker Series Electrics first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

ESP-Hosted Turns ESP32 Into Linux WiFi/BT AdapterWhile we are used to USB WiFi adapters, embedded devices typically use SDIO WiFi cards, and for good reasons – they’re way more low-power, don’t take up a USB port, don’t require a power-sipping USB hub, and the SDIO interface is widely available. However, SDIO cards and modules tend to be obscure and proprietary beyond reason. Enter ESP-Hosted – Espressif’s firmware and driver combination for ESP32 (press release)(GitHub), making your ESP32 into a WiFi module for either your Linux computer (ESP-Hosted-NG) or MCU (ESP-Hosted-FG). In particular, ESP-Hosted-NG his turns your SPI- or SDIO-connected ESP32 (including -S2/S3/C2/C3/C6 into a WiFi card, quite speedy and natively supported by the Linux network stack, as opposed to something like an AT command mode.
We’ve seen this done with ESP8266 before – repurposing an ESP8089 driver from sources found online, making an ESP8266 into a $2 WiFi adapter for something like a Pi. The ESP-Hosted project is Espressif-supported, and it works on the entire ESP32 lineup, through an SDIO or even SPI interface! It supports 802.11b/g/n and even Bluetooth, up to BLE5, either over an extra UART channel or the same SDIO/SPI channel; you can even get BT audio over I2S. If you have an SPI/SDIO port free and an ESP32 module handy, this might just be the perfect WiFi card for your Linux project!
There are some limitations – for instance, you can’t do AP mode in the NG (Linux-compatible) version. Also, part of the firmware has blobs in it, but a lot of the firmware and all of the driver are modifiable in case you need your ESP32 to do even more than Espressif has coded in – this is not fully open-source firmware, but it’s definitely way more than the Broadcom’s proprietary onboard Raspberry Pi WiFi chip. There’s plenty of documentation, and even some fun features like raw transport layer access. Also, of note is that this project supports ESP32-C6, which means you can equip your project with a RISC-V-based WiFi adapter.
Title image from [zhichunlee].

Spotify says artists should “actively discourage” fans from “inorganically” streaming musicStreaming giant Spotify has laid out new policies on artificial streaming, saying that artists should discourage fans from streaming music “inorganically”.

READ MORE: Spotify claims it’s enabling musicians to make a living: “More than 25,000 European artists are now generating over €5,000”

On Spotify’s artificial streaming policy webpage an FAQ is titled: “Is it okay to encourage my fans to stream my music on loop?” According to Spotify, “Fans inorganically streaming your music on loop or attempting to manipulate Spotify by using automated processes (e.g. bots or scripts) is behaviour that you should actively discourage.”
So what is an ‘artificial stream’? Spotify says, “An artificial stream is a stream that doesn’t reflect genuine user listening intent, including any instance of attempting to manipulate streaming services like Spotify by using automated processes (like bots or scripts). If left undetected, artificial streams dilute the royalty pool, shifting revenue from legitimate artists to bad actors. They also undermine the fair playing field that streaming represents.”
Spotify adds that while artists should encourage fans to stream their music, “You should not encourage or support coordinated efforts from fans to stream your music inauthentically.”
While Spotify doesn’t explicitly state what counts as inauthentic streaming, we might assume that the platform isn’t fond of artists sharing information on how to use multiple accounts to increase streams, for example.

So that might seem less clear: what is “inauthentic” streaming? Basically: if you’re an artist, don’t share tactics about avoiding detection or how to use multiple accounts within a Spotify Family plan to boost stream counts.
Some superfans may genuinely want to listen to their new favourite songs on repeat, but Spotify explains that it can spot when streaming is inauthentic, and will penalise it.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Spotify’s ‘Supremium’ subscription service may arrive later this year, and could include access to high-fidelity audio, as well as new tools for creating playlists and managing your library.
Read more music industry news.
The post Spotify says artists should “actively discourage” fans from “inorganically” streaming music appeared first on MusicTech.

Injection Molding Using a 3D PrinterRecently [Stefan] of CNC Kitchen took a gander at using his gaggle of 3D printers to try injection molding (IM). Although the IM process generally requires metal molds and specialized machinery, 3D printers can be used for low-volume IM runs which is enough for limited production runs and prototyping before committing to producing expensive IM molds. In the case of [Stefan], he followed Form Labs’ guidance to produce molds from glass-infused Rigid 10K resin (heat deflection temperature of 218 °C). These molds are very rigid, as the ceramic-like noise when [Stefan] taps two together attests to.
Injection molded bolt, with imperfections on the head. (Credit: Stefan, CNC Kitchen)
The actual injection process is where things get more hairy for [Stefan], as he attempts to push the clamped-shut mold against the nozzle of the FDM printer to inject the molten plastic, rather than using an IM press. With PLA at standard extrusion temperature the plastic barely gets into the mold before solidifying, however. Following this, higher temperatures, different materials (PETG, TPU) and high flow-rate extruders are attempted, with varying results.
Many of the struggles would seem to be due to poor mold design, rather than fundamental issues with using an FDM. The Form Labs document details some of the basics, such as opening up the injection gate (to decrease pressure inside the mold), adding air vents to improve flow and so on. Commentators to the video with professional experience point out many of these issues as well, along with the benefits of preheating the mold.
With the caveat that most of the challenge is in making a good mold, we’ve even injection molding done with nothing more exotic than a hot glue gun. If you’ve got a friend, or a long enough lever, you can even inject the plastic by hand.

Waves plug-ins updated to V15 Waves V15 rolls out a whole host of new features across the company’s plug-in line-up, adds new plug-ins to some of their existing bundles, and ensures compatibility with the latest operating systems. 

How the major labels plan to cost Suno and Udio billions (and why it all rests on Michael Bublé)The AI music companies' business model "threatens to eliminate the existing market for licensing sound recordings"
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