Designed by artists for artists, new creative suite Tamber is here to reinvent how we use AI in the studio. Powered by “sonic intelligence”, Tamber is able to transform an artist’s most abstract thoughts and ideas into sound, keeping artists firmly in the drivers seat.

Thanks to the input of countless artists, including some who experience synaesthesia (those who can hear colours, taste sound, etc), Tamber acts as an “ethically trained” creative hive mind. Rather than pumping out fully AI-generated tracks, Tamber acts as a “creative nervous system”, able to adapt, respond, and provide unique sounds based on user prompts and emotions.

Say you’re keen to capture the feeling of a sunrise, the feeling of sand between your toes, or the taste of your favourite meal – Tamber can tap into those emotions and conjure up the perfect sound to add to your track.

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The pool of available sounds is also, again, “ethically” gathered. It has a slew of new samples, from jewellers clanking away in an Istanbul bazaar, to the sound of drinks being shaken on a Rio beach, to the sound of bustling cities. “Nothing synthesised, nothing borrowed,” Tamber promises. “Every sound carries the place it came from.”

Backed by $5 million in funding from Adobe Ventures and a network of artist-investors, the creative suite is a transparent and intuitive new way to use AI in the studio, while protecting artists from other tools that may be training off of their work. “I built Tamber because I was sick of watching the music industry get sold tools that steal from artists and defend it by calling it progress,” Zoe Wrenn, founder and CEO of Tamber, explains.

“Artists shouldn’t have to choose between their values and their careers, but that’s the choice they’re being handed right now – use tools built by taking from your peers, or get left behind,” she continues. “There needs to be an alternative, one that’s built with artists, and that is ethically trained and takes its environmental impact seriously.”

Wrenn also adds that, due to Tamber’s pool of contributing artists, users can use it without fear of where all the inspiration input has come from “[It’s a] tool that respects where the sound comes from, and it doesn’t have to hide how it works to feel like magic,” she says. “[It’s a] tool that puts the future of music making back in the hands of the artist.”

Expanding on this, Wrenn also spoke to Billboard, saying: “There was a turning point where all musicians were suddenly expected to create more music at an unnatural speed and to also become content creators. When I looked for tools to help me keep up with that, I found the tools were either blatantly robbing us or just weren’t particularly useful. I believe Tamber is the right solution.”

“We don’t train on any third-party audio at all. A lot of the other music technology and AI companies have, as everyone knows, scraped a whole bunch of stuff and stolen the majority of their training data. We don’t do anything like that.”

While users can use Tamber without fear of “robbing” other artists, the creative suite also supports and adapts to each user’s creative process. The “sonic intelligence” begins to store information on preferences, and learns when it might need to hop in and offer some inspiration.

To hear Tamber in action, Wrenn utilised an early model of the creative tool on her 2020 single, Hailey.

The Mac desktop app is available now, while integration for Ableton and additional DAWS will come later this year. Find out more at tamber.music.

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