“You then use a machine learning algorithm that can find patterns in that data.
#How to make music with blob opera code#
“The Google code hasn’t been released, but most such computer harmonisers rely on a large dataset of existing harmonies,” says Dr Rebecca Fiebrink from the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London.
AI technology could turn thoughts into speech. Google’s Magenta creates its first AI song. Artificial Intelligence creates never-ending death metal. But it’s also because Blob Opera probably relies on two AI networks working so well you might not notice they’re there. Partly, this is because Google hasn’t publicly unveiled the code underpinning the experiment. But it might not be immediately clear just how smart. Modelled on 16 hours of singing from four professionals – Cristian Joel (tenor), Frederick Tong (bass), Joanna Gamble (mezzo‑soprano), and Olivia Doutney (soprano) – Blob Opera relies on AI to synthesise the noises you hear.Īs Google says: “In the experiment, you don’t hear their voices, but the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like, based on what it learnt from them.” It is no wonder then, that this voice rendition sounds way more natural than speech synthesis (also known as text-to-speech) as the ML doesn’t need to pick and pronounce every phoneme individually.It is – and we cannot stress this enough – a whole lot of flubbery fun.īut although effortless to use, it was no easy feat to build. From that, the machine deduced what sounds corresponded to different notes and vowels to finally give you the magnificent blob rendition. ‘’Field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.’’ Arthur Samuel 1959įor Blob Opera, the ML used has been fed sixteen hours worth of recordings of four different opera singers who, you guessed it, correspond to the four different blob voices. In the words of the father ML, Arthur Samuel, ML is a ML can thus produce new information, in contradiction to a traditional algorithm that is only capable of behaving within the inputs and limits its creator has established for it. The crux is that ML has a very different way of analysing data than another algorithm: instead of drawing its knowledge from a fixed database ML is capable of drawing conclusions from the information it has been fed. In other words, the different notes that the blobs are chanting have never been sung by anything else than these blobs. Other than being hilarious, Blob Opera is actually the product of Machine Learning (ML). 
Here’s a little taste of what can be done. You can also decide to change it up a little, as sliding the blobs to the left or right changes the vowel they’re singing. Simply use the mute button and you won’t hear a peep from it. If you want a blob to not sing for a period of time, that’s possible too. For example, if you mess around with the mezzo-soprano, the tenor and bass will match the mezzo-soprano’s notes. Making them work together is very simple, if blobs are lower-pitched than the blob you’ve selected, they will follow the lead of the selected blob. In addition to your initial bass blob, you now have another three voices at your disposal: a tenor, a mezzo-soprano, and a soprano. While controlling more blobs is always a good thing, here it has a practical use. Once this basic tutorial is completed, Blob Opera will show you that you can not only control one blob, but four simultaneously. The more you squash it in on itself… well, you get the gist of it. To what end? Why, if you comply with the instructions it becomes crystal clear in a matter of milliseconds: to make music of course! You see, the more you stretch a blob the higher the note it sings will be.
If you click on the link, you will immediately gaze into the bulbous eyes of a little multi-coloured blob-like creature and be given the prompt to basically squash and stretch said blob. Now if your answer is already yes, I am thoroughly curious as to why, but in the highly likely scenario that the answer is no, I’ll sweeten the deal: would you like to be a blob that also happens to sing opera?Ī shame… but let me try to convince you anyway by introducing you to the wonderful and thrilling world of Blob Opera created by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. Featured image of Blob Opera on Google arts and Culture
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