I am in the same boat. I used audimee and it is great. I can decently sing on pitch - but my voice just has a terrible sound as anything that isn't metal or BGV

I am in the same boat as the thread creator. The timbre of my voice just isn't good. It is very nice for screams and growl in metal and that is it. Vocal teachers and lessons have provided zero benefit other than being more in key, my voice didn't change - and still is bad for everything other than metal.

If we have the capabilities, why not use them. What makes Melodyne cheating, but frets and electrical amplifiers okay? Its just arbitrary rules.

Use whatever works and makes the song sound better.

True, we all cheat ... overdubbing is it, using amplifiers, compressor, distortion on guitars to longer sustain, keyboards that emulate the work of dozens at the touch of a button. Now fake vocals.
When its too much?

This is great news for unskilled and very bad for people who effort to sing well, now the computer can compete with you, like Ghibli artists agains chatgtp devaluating their work

I don't think there will be a point when its too much other than when people admit that they've been lying to themselves.

I'm no vocal coach expert, just asking the question: how long did you go for lessons, like years or just a few months, practice every day diligently?

This may sound like an offhand remark, though it's meant with respect: maybe you're best suited to metal then, why fight it?

But it isn't your natural voice, it's a manipulated version of it. I bet your teachers would roll their eyes at the mention of AI or Melodyne.

You're quote-replying a post you have already quote-replied, and I answered that here: AI voices are here

3 years singing every day.

Because I am great at singing metal, but I don't enjoy writing songs for it. I don't care if it isn't my natural voice - because it sounds a lot better and fits the song better if it isn't my voice.

I'm labouring the point as you never really said anything other than

It's a question I can't really answer other than a pure guess.

Anyways, all of that aside

I can see the benefits of using these things as a tool in the sense of staying on pitch. Say you record yourself, pitch correct and then sing along to it and use it as a training aide so as to better your ear; makes sense.

Tell me, what is it about your own voice that you feel the need to use AI? Does it sound dull, uninteresting, weird? I ask these things as I shudder at hearing my own voice, it's like drawing nails down a chalk board to me. I think that was the main reason I used Melodyne in the first place, then realised that if I were ever to sing live, I'd sound really bad, so walked another path.

What sort of stuff would you rather write?

I mostly write Japanese Rock and Pop mixed with Funk

Something like the Chili Peppers sorta thing?

Here are a few artists that are my inspiration








Closest is probably this one

I really liked this one

I wish i had some words of wisdom to offer to help you on your path. If what you're doing now is fulfilling, go for it.

Yes, I took singing lessons. Yes, they helped.

I’m comfy singing certain things, and not good at others.

I sang a demo for a song of mine, and it just didn’t work. Decided to run the finished lead vocal track thru the AI thing, and it made it better.

If you don’t enunciate, AI may hear something different and change it.
If you’re not on pitch, AI may interpret it as a different note and act accordingly.
If you’re not in time, well you’re not in time, and that always sucks.

You dont need to justify yourself for doing it mate. I am sure good music can be made faking voices, and if you cant sing properly is ok too: with it you can render a wav file containing 0 and 1 that converted to electricity and then into sound you can fake a human voice was singing.

Imagine that in the 80's you deny to use synthesizers cause you wish to give work to big human string section... you would lose against sticking a cheap string sound on your Juno synth.
In this game of competition if you dont adapt you lose.

Now... How you adapt?
Well, lowering the cost (not neccesarily the quality) of your art to make it cheaper against others. Why hiring 12 different singers when it can be you faking them and selling an album with different voices? Well, you will not sell it, i know, there will be millons of people faking so it will make the product a drop of water in the sea of fake.

At the end everyone will be able to fake doing music and it will be for their own consumption.
So if you think this gives and advantage, in the very short term yes, but in the middle it kills too.

But, will it kill quality production? it will make them unprofitable. And in this capitalist system you need profit to pay the bills and food and health.
I admire proper singers, composers and players, who can perform live. Making them to compete at the same level than people that fake is nothing to be happy about, but what we should do?? deny you to have some fun or express yourself? No way.

Have you tried copying what the AI is doing to your voice so you could do without its help? It might be an interesting experiment to play with. I mean, if the AI is changing your voice so it sounds like someone else which you feel more comfortable hearing back, try and do it yourself, like acting?

I've been listening to Bee Gees for the last couple of days strangely enough. Man, they were immense.

Trying to do that falsetto on the Stayin Alive track nearly blows my voice up

This has gone off-topic long enough.

This thread is about AI voices, not my personal journey as a singer.

Back on-topic, please.

I'm not justifying diddly. He asked a question, and I answered. But enough about that.

You guys wanna talk about the ethical (and social) implications of the emergence of AI in music. I get that.

I feel you have not as much to bring to the table if you haven't at least tried the very thing you are arguing against.

Without it, the arguments brought forward usually sound like some variety of "get off my lawn".

"Get off my lawn" is a despective way of summarize what we are saying "we dont want to lose our jobs".
I could despectively reduce your point of view in many ways, lets say:
"I dont have talent for singing but with this fake i can compete with you stupid people that effort to be professional".

Nice isnt it?

You could try convince us that this technology will be beneficial for art... not for you, we are not discussing your case.

I dont need to try it, since i can understand its implication. As much as i dont need to drink poison to experience in person the result someone else with knowledge can forsee.

According to Dr. Pollup, you should be careful not to strain your vocal chords trying to be something you're not.

I don’t know what ‘despective’ means and I can’t find it in the dictionary, but from the context I assume you mean something like ‘derisive’?

Anyway, to address your post:

“We don’t want to lose our jobs”
drum machines were gonna take drummers’ jobs, samplers were gonna take orchestras’ jobs, DAW’s were gonna take recording studios’ jobs etc. The world is constantly changing. Old jobs disappear, new ones appear. The sky is not falling.

"I dont have talent for singing but with this fake i can compete with you stupid people that effort to be professional"
this is a strawman argument, a bit disingenuous. I didn’t say anything even remotely like that.

As much as i dont need to drink poison to experience in person the result someone else with knowledge can forsee.
wrong comparison, you can safely try out AI voices with absolutely no risk to your well-being.

It’s okay not to want to try it, it’s okay to be ideologically opposed to it. I just think you can make a stronger case if you have actually used the thing you are arguing against.

I used it for fun and i found it far more than interesting. And in a possible future i might use it. I used RVC to see what it was like.

"Despective" was wrong, i am not english native. I was saying that you were reducing unhonestly our arguments.

And, yes sampler killed orchestral work (for pops), and drummers were replaced by machines. Now not even singers will be paid for their talent.
Of course some remains but far less than before.
Yes, the sky felt, many talented musicians drive an uber instead of working as sessionist on recordings and playing live.

I work in a classical orchestra and produce pop/rock and record guitars. Do you think it is funny that you dont get paid anymore for doing your work? People wont need us, cause it will be free. Just because you see one surviving doesnt mean that thousands have'nt left the profession.

Good for you.
Dishonest how? I don't see it.

I see that differently. The music industry, like everything else in the world, is changing constantly. Yes, it is not like it was in the 1970's but that is not just down to technological advances, so many other reasons.

I am optimistic about the future of music. My Instagram feed is full of mega-talented youngsters who slay on their instrument and have a firm grasp of technology as well.

Music is gonna be just fine.

Haha, music is fine cause you see lonely people doing videos on instagram.
Its an horrible sign of this time. The 95% of them Is just talented people with no work of music doing virtuoso things themselves against their phone. They need to catch your attention quick to not be scrolled up. Is not fun at all. Individual fighting agains algorithm. Horrible.

Are you a working musician?

O no, people practicing and making money alone - without needing a label or luck to be born in certain cities where they can find great band members.

Please look up the people behind the videos, most start touring after a while, some create cool bands and collabs etc.

Just because a lot of people here were lucky to be born at the right place to have loads of bands and being able to tour, doesn't mean that it was better in the past

The industry has changed, true, big budget record deals are mostly a thing of the past. But the internet and the commoditization of recording technology have actually leveled the playing field. You no longer need a studio, label and airplay to get your stuff heard.

There is money in IG, YT and Tiktok. I would go as far as to say that these days that is where careers are made. I think most of today's stars got their breaks on social media before being picked up by the industry.

Sure, you need to game the algorithms, but it's not that different from paying DJ's or station managers to get on regular rotation. Different platforms, but same old same old.

I think where AI music may hurt the most is in non-critical library music and advertising, those are the jobs where I can see some creative just writing a prompt and not bothering to contract an AV studio.

But at the end of the day, people will still wanna hear and see other people perform music.

Yes.


Anyway, we're veering off-topic again.

What is the topic then? Thetitle is **AI voices are here**. We shall speak only about the good things that brings to lonely musicians?
I was pointing how many jobs will be lost and in its implications on how much difficult collaborative music (the best for me) will be. A world of lonely musicians DIY is so uninteresting and sad, and boring to me.

Do you want to talk about the good things of it?

I can only think of empowering producers to not need different singers or even a singer, at the click of a mouse you can have the vocal skin you want. You can fake a vocal harmony by the artists you wish. Sing like Pavarotti from your vocal. Make John and Paul do the backing track to your vocal. Funny, but not artistic.
I dont find music to be over there. More like a caprice and trascending the frontiers of human reality. I will remain silent hearing others point of view on how amazing this tool should be.

Yes, let's make even more soul-less music. Everything artificial is the best. Especially for the music like Pop, Soul etc which are supposed to be about human emotions (Pop for teenagers of course).
Drum machines didn't replaced drummers: sure. It's not like all best selling recordings today are not replaced with samples and perfectly matched to grid in case if, god forbid, there would be a 1ms outside perfection - we don't want that here, no no. It would sound like a human which is so wrong.
Session musicians weren't replaced by machines. Not at all. Even in genres like RNB, replacement of real musicians with samplers and loops became a thing already in 90s.
Modern studio is empty. Just a producer and DAW. Why somebody would finance session musicians if it's much cheaper to make music without them?
Modern Pop music? All synthetic, artificial music without session musicians and with live vocals. But this will change any minute. Pop music will be 100% artificially generated.

If musicians can't respect themselves, why should they expect to be respected by others?

I work in a multidisciplinary art environment and I see that musicians and audio professionals are respected right there just slightly above toilet cleaners. Everyone is against AI taking their jobs, but musicians? "Naaah, it's good mate, we actually want to be replaced, it's good for us". LOL music industry is rotten more and more with every decade. No wonder that it's the end of it. Maybe this is good thing because people will stop dreaming about music careers and will back to making music for their own pleasure.

I can't even stand autotune vocals. What's left for me are live performances of poor musicians who can't afford live autotune effects.

I started this thread because I thought it would be interesting to discuss how this tech can be used and how it will develop.

But I guess it is more fun to complain about how tech is destroying music. From your computer, on an online forum. On a subforum called Music Computers. The irony is delicious.

You guys seem to be on top of things. Have at it.

I am sorry we dissapoint you mate. We dont share your POV. This is shit, will devaluate recorded music faster than its being done already.

How this tech can be used? Well you can compose yourself, play yourself, sing, mix, master, upload and hear your music yourself. Or if you want you can use your cats voice for singin, or Pavarotti's. It will be lost in a sea of artificial made noise. It might turn recorded music into 0 value.

Amazing.

If you earn your living as a musician this is awful news.
An amateur will be "empowered" to compete with properly trained artist.