I For One Welcome Our New Robot Vocal Cords: Radical Computer Music

While not directly related to the article, but more related to the headline -- I was just catching up on some of what Beardyman&#x27;s been up to lately:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPBM69nThkM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qPBM69nThkM</a><p>Now, that&#x27;s one example of what <i>human</i> vocal cords (with various degrees computer augmentation) are capable of. While the things discussed in the article may be interesting... the reference to vocal cords seems somewhat misplaced?<p>[edit: I should perhaps clarify&#x2F;highlight that the above video does <i>not</i> feature drum machines etc -- &quot;only&quot; sampling, looping and &quot;warping&quot;. Easier to follow, is this video I like to call &quot;I was hip-hop before ducks&quot;:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39n4wow8fWE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=39n4wow8fWE</a> ]

Somehow, digging in deeper on this subject led me to another video (which I just shared - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7195652" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7195652</a>) of a player piano emulating human speech by reproducing the part of the spectral fingerprint within it&#x27;s range. Eerie

I found this article very difficult to read, and while it talks a lot about procedural music, I don&#x27;t think that any of the people it covers are making any <i>except</i> the &quot;Birthday Song Crew&quot;, who are clearly geniuses.<p>It did, however, introduce me to <a href="http://yaxu.org/tidal/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;yaxu.org&#x2F;tidal&#x2F;</a> which is going to force me to finally learn Haskell.

TFA asks if a machine can sing, and doesn&#x27;t mention Vocaloid?

I love music and experimentation but I find those pieces portrayed there quite devoid of emotional content.<p>I like the idea of procedural music being created automatically, but I believe that the end result still need to inspire and transport the listener. I have no doubts that we will be able to make some pretty convincing stuff in the future, and it probably won&#x27;t be a lot worse than what&#x27;s already playing in the charts.

For those talking about the lack of emotional content, I found that this video -- for Holly Herndon&#x27;s &quot;Movement&quot; -- helped some of this work make more sense. Of course, Herndon&#x27;s music isn&#x27;t really &quot;automatically generated&quot; and features a lot of human vocal samples.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kanNN4RPrOf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=kanNN4RPrOf</a> (NSFW, in most workplaces -- two dancers in underwear.)

About just as interesting as automatically generated novels. A machine has no intention. It doesn&#x27;t &quot;want&quot; to turn itself on or off and play some music.

Can someone translate this article into layspeak please?

I feel like this article is procedurally generated.