Apple has acquired Samplab, the Swiss company behind AI audio editing software capable of polyphonic note editing, stem separation and chord detection.
The deal came to light when the EU’s List of Acquisitions website was updated with details of an agreement made in June. According to the filing, Apple acquired “certain assets” from Samplab through a subsidiary and has hired “certain Samplab employees”, but neither company has shed any light on the specifics of the deal. Samplab’s website has since been taken down and now redirects to Apple’s homepage.
Founded in 2020, Samplab built a standalone app and plugin that can detect and edit chords, split a track into stems and convert audio to MIDI, described by its creators as “the ultimate audio editor for musicians”. Samplab promised to let users edit audio files as if they were “working with MIDI”, due to its ability to edit individual notes in polyphonic audio, functionality that until recently has been the domain of long-established tools such as Celemony’s Melodyne.
What is Apple up to, then? Neither Apple nor Samplab has made an official announcement, but it seems likely that the acquisition has been made to bolster development of AI-powered features in Logic Pro and Garageband. Logic Pro already does stem separation and chord detection – two of Samplab’s core features – but perhaps the acquisition will help Apple improve their quality and accuracy using Samplab’s technology.
Less likely, but possible, is that Apple is developing fully-fledged, Suno-style AI tools for audio generation, perhaps to create samples and loops or modify existing sounds. Logic Pro already has Session Players, AI-based virtual musicians that generate drum, bass, keyboard and synth parts to accompany existing material, but these produce MIDI, not audio.
Generative AI remains controversial in the creative community and all of the mainstream DAWs have yet to embrace it. If one were planning on it, having the expertise of a company like Samplab on hand would certainly be useful. Alongside its audio editing tools, Samplab was also behind Resynthesizer, a plugin that transforms one-shot samples into playable instruments using an on-device AI engine.
Our best guess, however, is that Apple is working on enhancing its Flex Pitch functionality with Samplab’s AI technology. Flex Pitch is an audio editing tool in Logic Pro that lets the user edit the pitch, timing, and length of notes in an audio region as if they’re working with MIDI in the Piano Roll. Sound familiar?
Flex Pitch and Samplab do the same thing, but instead of working polyphonically – breaking open chords and editing individual notes – Flex Pitch is limited to monophonic material and can only edit single notes. Samplab’s note editing is polyphonic, so it seems likely that we’ll be seeing an AI-powered polyphonic upgrade to Flex Pitch in the near future, bringing the functionality of tools like Samplab and Melodyne to Logic Pro users.
If you can’t wait that long, check out Your Smile is Art’s Bubblegum, a free plugin for Windows, Mac and Linux that gives you Melodyne-style note editing at no cost.
