New technology can 'clone' musicians
The MusicRadar Team, Wed 14 May, 2:43 pm BST
We’re familiar with the concept of virtual instrumentalists – this has manifested itself in products such as MusicLab’s RealStrat and Rayzoon’s Jamstix – but researchers at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR) at the University of Plymouth claim to have taken things a step further by developing a digital instrument that can listen to you (or anyone else) play and then jam along in a similar style.
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but PhD student Marcelo Gimenes and Professor Eduardo Miranda seem to think that full-on musical cloning technology isn’t too far away. Their system ‘listens’ and learns (it doesn’t have to be pre-programmed) and is said to be much more sophisticated than previous efforts.
Professor Miranda has this to say: “We predict the emergence of new kinds of intelligent musical instruments that could revolutionise the music industry. Such instruments will be able to learn basic musical skills autonomously as they are played.”
MusicRadar wonders how it’d feel about teaching a machine how to play – we’re not sure we want anyone/anything nicking our ‘signature licks’. What’s more, we’d worry that if the thing sounded rubbish, it would reflect badly on the quality of our own musicianship…
If the technology works, though, it could raise some interesting questions – would it be possible to ‘clone’ Jimi Hendrix by feeding in recordings of his playing, for example? Let us know what you think…
User comments (3)
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Well. I think the time has come. Who knows? Computers don't have over-sized egos or want to make piles of cash or make groupie-girls pregnant in hotels, we might be in for something interesting and authentic. Humans were great, but let's face it - we're not really necessary. I mean - really. I'm downloading robo-composer right now. Let's jump on the techno-train, baby. See where it takes us.
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I find it all rather disappointing that technology is constantly being used in music to replicate what we already have – rather than to push forward and give us new and exciting sounds and tools.
A few decades back a band like Kraftwerk used advances in electronics to produce some startling music – the like of which had not really been heard before. Now we’re talking about a machine that might be able to play like Hendrix or whoever.
Well I’ve heard Hendrix play already thank you and, as good as he was, I was hoping someone would someday come up with something as startling and original as Hendrix was back in 60’s – rather than making stuff similar to what he’s already done. -
SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! does anyone think just like clonning humans clonning musicians is wrong. all the morale implications are staggering, this is an abomanation!
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objectman
7 weeks ago.