FEW things can move us quite like a maestro on the violin. Could a computer soon be able to twist our feelings in the same way, by learning musicians鈥� best tricks?
, a start-up based in the Netherlands,is pioneering a new approach to synthesised music that emulates the richness of analogue instruments and the sensitivity of human players. Unlike the flat jangle that often typifies synthetic tones, Prolody鈥檚 sounds are full and alive because they make use of human-produced notes. Its system is setting the scene for beautiful music that is played by a machine with its own aesthetic sense.
鈥淭his is setting the scene for beautiful music played by a machine with its own aesthetic sense鈥�
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The team started with the violin 鈥� a . They got a human violinist to play tens of thousands of notes and phrases in the studio, encompassing loud and soft, bright and mellow, trembling and majestic. The goal was to capture as much expressiveness as possible, for a computer to digest and process into a system capable of mimicking that expressiveness.
Creating libraries of sound samples in this way , but Prolody has a twist. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not just recording single notes, we鈥檙e paying attention to context,鈥� says the firm鈥檚 co-founder, Dennis Braunsdorf. The company has built a machine-readable database from those thousands of samples, tagged with the musical context in which they were played, paying special attention to how notes sound in sequence.
When rendering music using these samples, the computer chooses the note or sound that best meshes with the rest of the piece. The goal is a rendition which sounds more natural than anything existing synthesisers can produce. Prolody is already in talks to license its system to a music software developer, and plans to repeat the process for other instruments.
The new sound impresses Julian Gregory, a first violinist with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Salford, UK. Traditional synthesisers have trouble with smooth transitions between notes. 鈥淭he connections between notes are really important and that鈥檚 vastly improved here,鈥� Gregory says.
Prolody鈥檚 output still isn鈥檛 indistinguishable from a human performance, says . But with synthesised music already in use in theatrical shows and elsewhere, any improvements will enhance many performances and create new avenues for it, says Gregory. Cox points to corporate videos and video games as potential applications.
As well as teaching machines to make authentic sounds, Braunsdorf wants them to learn to perform. He is creating another database of the diverse ways in which musicians interpret a melody. He plans to apply machine-learning algorithms to this data so that a computer can acquire the ability to perform its own interpretation of a score.
Cox sees the potential for such a system. 鈥淎 lot of pop acts play recorded material and perform live with it,鈥� he says, but one problem is that is the backing track can鈥檛 alter according to the audience鈥檚 reaction.
A gigging computer which could produce its own take on the musical score at every performance could make that a thing of the past. It looks like the days of soulless muzak are numbered.
Listen: Click here to hear the music made by the machines
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢achines are in training to be concert virtuosos鈥�
