The possibilities offered by a platform like Loopcloud (and similar) are currently disillusioning & depressing for me.
Make the perfect song with a few clicks OR buy cool synths for a few thousand € and learn to play these partly complex machines (i’m thinking of the Octatrack) over months or years.
What is more fun of course everyone must decide for themselves.
But for me, who recently started making music (the second variant with the hardware synths ), this actually means that I will always do this only for myself and never for a larger audience, because you can hardly compete with the platform producers.
And thinking further: when will there be the AI, which combined with platforms like Loopcloud will produce at the push of a button any number of variants and perhaps even unthinkable new things in mass?
When will we party on the dance floor and be entertained by an AI that gets inputs for the song generation via body scanner (this might be an interesting concept anyway= ?
Nobody is making a perfect song with a few loops from Loopcloud, but I get your point. Using “recycled” material has always been contentious with music but it’s not a new concept, it’s just that the technology has now reached a point where it can be sold at scale.
As for AI-generated music, well that’s definitely already out there. I’m not sure the quality is that great but it definitely has the potential to take money out of the pockets of real musicians etc.
I suspect it’ll be used to save money for “background” music for training or corporate videos in the same way that you can use AI-generated voiceovers.
you get a free intro to Splice with MPC but quickly realize that, at least from trying to sort out some good breakbeats to download with it, so many of the loops on these platforms just start to blend together and sound the same. certainly not a feeling that they were going to write the track for me (and quite more the exact opposite)
Some can make the perfect song with a few clicks, some can make the perfect song with a few chords. Some can’t make a good song with both…
The way you do it doesn’t matter if you’re happy with the result and had a good time
And everyone is getting worried about AI replacing ‘real’ musicians. Technology has being doing that for decades with drum machines, synths, samplers, daws etc. from musicians to studio engineers to distribution and promotion at every level technology has put more control into the hands of the individual reducing cost and saving time.
AI is just a further development and another step towards skynet and accepting our mechanoid overlords
you don’t have to leave the loops as they are, you can take them wherever you want. You can combine them with your own played original melodies, chords, rhythms.
You don’t have to use these options at all.
Should AI take over I can still have fun making music with my tools and listen to that. My synths and guitars won’t stop working because of AI
Sample collections have been around for decades now - if you have the talent and the nous then you rise to the top regardless of whether it’s via sample or synth use.
I don’t disagree with the general sentiment but for the vast majority of folk, this is all a hobby. If a service like Loopcloud makes it a little easier for Joe Bloggs to put a smile on and bop his head then fair play.
AI, on the other hand, is the really interesting one. But then, who hasn’t listened to mainstream radio and thought song X sounds super same with Song Y? The guys writing mainstream tunes today are basically doing what AI is being programmed to do anyway!
I don’t have an answer but didn’t some snobs kick off because much of Christine and the Queens album Chris was shown to use Apple Loops. I think “5 Dollars” was called out as an example.
Not mentioning this to have a pop at CatQ though - the album is great with 5 Dollars being a highlight.
I’ve just been reading Trevor Horn’s book and he mentions that in the early 80’s he got a lot of work because he had the money to buy one of the first samplers which cost about the same as a really nice house and hire a person to program it for him as it was too hard for most musicians. As a result he could make sounds which no one else could.
Now anyone could do something similar with freeware on a laptop or with a Volca or Pocket operator for under £100.
A similar thing is true of things like stutter editing which I remember BT saying would take hundreds of hours on a massively expensive Pro Tools rig back in the 90’s. I was playing with Shaper Box yesterday and you can make sounds that would have taken him a week in a couple of minutes.
None of it makes you able to make the kind of era defining pop tracks that both of those guys produced.
For the past 20+ years you’ve been able to grab a loop CD and make a track in 20 minutes with no real idea what you are doing, but that’s more of a beginners hobby than something that’s going to produce commercially successful music.
All that being said I imagine a lot of people who produce basic catalog music for ads etc are probably going to find AI replaces them pretty soon.
If this were an actual reality, then everyone would be doing it. This is not a reality. This is false.
Don’t be depressed because of this falsehood. If you believe this is true, then make a ‘perfect’ song with Loopcloud and share it with the world.
I don’t think what you or I make with a few clicks will be perfect, or anywhere close to it. So relax and enjoy your music making, everything will be ok.
Sorry for the misleading term “perfect song” .
i had thought of it more in terms of mainstream / radio music and as opposed to something new and surprising.
Same thing. Mainstream/radio music won’t be made with a few clicks either. It is not possible to make stuff like that with a few clicks that can compete with the rest in terms of quality.
Important to me are having good equipment and invest time to master it, be it an instrument, a mixing desk, a studio room, sample library, you name it.
It’s always about practicing, keeping your mind open to learn more, and keep practicing all the time.
My issue with loops is, if there is a rhythmic or a melodic/harmonic content, it can’t be changed as flexible, as I can do compared to use instruments. Making some loops from different sources compatible (speed, pitches etc), takes some experience and time as well. It’s not only clicking in the DAW.
What I love about loops and samples is to get inspired, re-play some content, or chopping them up, which is creative, fun, and creates quite new content … but also this takes some time to be invested for learning methods, and practice workflows …
Maybe or maybe not. At the beginning, yes … but after some time … who knows?
Don’t be disullusioned. Try it step by step and grow
This forum is chock full of talented, yummy, music producers. They all have tons of super expensive slick gear, years of experience, plus access to all the online pre-made loops and goodies these services provide.
Very few are rocking 30,000 person crowds, hearing their songs once an hour on the radio, or accepting their music awards at the big shows.
Many years ago when I played in a friends bar, we lived in a small mountain town that was a tourist destination spring through fall. In winter it was dead. Pull your fingernails out, I’m gonna go crazy dead. I could get 50 people out to listen to my average dance music because there was nothing else for them to do.
Now I enjoy designing sounds, playing keyboards poorly, and working on arrangements and song ideas because it’s fun. This includes using samples if I want, usually chopping, distorting, and rearranging them to suit my vision. Sometime I make these samples with my gear or - heaven forbid - my DAW(!).
Other times I find something I like that someone else made. That makes them part of my band, and I use their recording to get me to where I’m going.
In the end no one is doing this for me, it takes a hell of a lot more than a few clicks, and is far from perfect or radio ready.
Again, if anyone truly believes it’s that easy because of Loopcloud or Splice etc., then do it. It should take less than an hour and a few clicks. I’d love to hear a good song made that way. A good song is a good song no matter how the sausage is made.
), this actually means that I will always do this only for myself and never for a larger audience, because you can hardly compete with the platform producers.
