I think that this would be a solid idea for Waves’ exploration of AI with production plugins…
A plugin where you can drop and audio track onto it, it can analyze the drum track/beat (including tempo and time signature) and recreate it as MIDI. It would be even cooler that MIDI was then mapped to drum sample packs in CR8 or General MIDI PERCUSSION Key Map (user’s choice). Of course, the user could also then edit the MIDI within the plugin for timing, velocity, or just to add/subtract notes.
I am actually an ex-drummer, but if I am honest, I never was great and would love to be recycle drum tracks from great/studio drummers to adapt to my work.
Waves has already proven that it can do advanced filtering with Clarity. Maybe use some of that technology along with a transient mapper like what is in Logic currently. It should be able to figure out a lot based on the frequencies of whatever remains after filtering and map that. I also like thinking about how they could make CR8 drum libraries that automap if users didn’t choose the MIDI Percussion Key Map option.
This idea came to me the other day when I was listening to the first Mahavishnu Orchestra album and I was trying to MIDI tap in Billy Cobham’s drum parts into Logic. If you heard what I ended up with, it didn’t sound anything remotely Cobham-like, lol.
Lately, if taken to doing crude transcriptions of reference tracks so I can pull it apart both musically and sonically to understand how and why it works as well as it does. Then I’ll use those understandings and the crude sounds I have conjured up as a starting point to evolve from.
The idea is to do something that is ultimately different, but still captures a lot the essence that made something so good without it coming close to being a copyright issue.
It’s a new thing I’ve just started to try and do so I haven’t manage to streamline a workflow yet. It was mainly inspired by hearing how not many people respect the temp tracks that they get given from film editors and how that can lead to a source of contention. I just figured its an important part of the creative brief and it would pay to have the skills to better understand how to work with it and how to interpret it.
I gave the above a go. After getting in to the process a fair degree I came to the conclusion that I don’t really need to transcribe it as such.
I can actually skip that whole, time consuming process and skip to writing similar but different parts for the key instruments, The melody goes up a third, maybe I go up a 5th, or maybe a not that’s outside the scale. The melody goes down then up, I could try up then down.
I can try all these different things and when I compare it back to back with the original I’ll soon learn what notes aren’t working and which notes sound like a better choice over the original. Because in the end, the goal isn’t to copy, just to learn from and be inspired by the reference track.
