Interview with Ronald Molendijk | How good is AI-generated music?
Oh, how quickly things have moved with AI. Who could have guessed that since the launch of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022, so many strides would be made? AI has truly been everywhere since then. So too in the world of music. A-musical as I am, I see an opportunity here. Could I too make serious music with a little help from AI? I decided to test that. I had AI write, compose, perform and sing a song. And then I asked my former colleague from RTL Boulevard, music connoisseur and DJ Ronald Molendijk to give his opinion. How good, or not good at all, is AI at making music?
It begins with a prompt...
Before we get to Ronald Molendijk’s assessment, let me take you through the creation process. The idea is simple. I want to make an AI-generated song that I put as little effort into as possible. And no matter how bad, or good, the result is: I do not intervene.
I begin the production at ChatGPT. The prompt I give is simple: write the lyrics for an English song about my latest talk ‘AI: dream or nightmare’. That’s it. In seconds, ChatGPT delivers the lyrics. The result is er… incredibly narcissistic and embarrassing. But as promised, I do not intervene.
I then upload the lyrics into the AI music generator UDIO.com. Within a few minutes, the final result is spit out. How it sounds? Listen for yourself.
The AI singer knows how to pronounce my last name correctly. Pretty clever!
Now I am rather amusical myself. When it comes to music, you can tell me anything. So maybe I’m not the most critical audience here, but to be honest: I was quite impressed with the result. There is a build-up, beautiful notes, dramatic music… and last but not least: the AI singer even knows how to pronounce my last name correctly. Pretty clever! Especially when you consider that this whole joke only took a few minutes. I can imagine that a real musician would take a bit longer.
From Vivaldi to Walt Disney
Time for the final step. I had my former RTL Boulevard colleague, music connoisseur and DJ Ronald Molendijk, give it a listen.
Ronald’s verdict is an interesting mix of appreciation and criticism. He hears the potential of AI in music, but also misses that special ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes human creations so unique. At times, he even doubts whether what he’s hearing is really AI. For instance, he thinks he hears the sound of a pop filter – you know, that fabric in front of the microphone that prevents you from hearing when a singer ‘spits into the mic’. Is this the work of AI that ‘knows’ you can sometimes still hear that sound? Or could there be secretly stolen human work involved? After all, it’s typically something you hear in human recordings.
Only humans make wonderful mistakes
Will AI take over the music industry? For that, Ronald misses in AI creations those unexpected mistakes that often make hits right. That moment when a singer stumbles over his words and accidentally creates magic. Or that time a guitarist hits a wrong string and discovers a new sound. AI appears to be an impressive tool, but for now it lacks that creative tinkering that makes music so human.
So, can I score a hit with AI? Perhaps. But the chances of my AI version tripping over her feet and accidentally inventing the new moonwalk? That’s not in the cards for now. For now, the beautiful flaws are reserved for us non-artificial beings.