The Infinite Crate

Why have I not written much about AI in the past? Mainly because I've not been impressed, this VST has just blown my socks off, it is very interesting indeed

If you haven’t dabbled with some form of AI tools to date, what have you actually been doing? Maybe you have been in prison with limited access to a computer, because that is probably about the only place where you are unlikely to encounter AI tools - don’t ask why I assumed that! Just an educated guess.

The AI is getting everywhere and soon you will be buying pepper pots with AI built in. Where will it bloody end?

Oh I’m not a fan then?

Well, there are good and bad applications for it and rubbish implementations of it. I don’t believe for a second that it is going to take all of our jobs.

Or am I being blaise?

I know that it is already changing how we do our work and I prefer to interpret this surge in AI advancements to be an interesting time, rather than a troublesome one. In short the smart move is to embrace it because if the doomsayers are in fact right and it does overthrow the Governments of the World and our very existence, at least some of us will be able to take control of it and master it.

Enough of the preamble, let’s have a play with a new VST plugin called The Infinite Crate, what is it? What does it do and what can’t it do?

Who are Magenta

Magenta is an open-source Google research project that uses machine learning and AI to explore and create art and music. Launched by the Google Brain team in 2016, the project develops tools and models, such as MusicVAE and Magenta RealTime, to assist artists and musicians in their creative processes, generate new artistic styles, and build a community around AI-assisted creativity. The project is built on Google's TensorFlow platform and shares its research and code on GitHub.

Today’s plugin, can be found at https://magenta.withgoogle.com/infinite-crate

Here is an example of something I created based on models for Reggae and Trap music.

I loaded the plugin into a Midi track, routed this into an Audio track in order to record it’s output and then apply some further automation to the track in order to fade in and out. The demo incorporates elements of mixing and transitions between stages of the song, including a slightly bonkers “middle eight” sort of section.

I faded the end out, as I couldn’t find a way of ending the generated track gracefully.

How about one more and I am getting the knack of this app a little bit more now and have come up with the second sketch, down below

I am finding this very interesting, even if the sound quality is still very AIish, these clips could be further manipulated using effects plugins.

That’s it, we are done here. Check this plugin out, its good fun but bear in mind it is an Alpha version, so very early to the table.