Originally Posted By: Bob Calver
Press button A to get chords. Press button B to get backing.
No personal input no creativity.

Is that really the way we want music making to go?


Not when you put it like that!

But I didn't say no personal input, no creativity. There's plenty still to create in BIAB even after you pick some chords (a melody, for one thing.) Wouldn't a simple progression be a good place to start a first project?

Think of the kid who just figured out that all of Chuck Berry's songs are 3 chords, and writes down all those sets of 3. That's his "Scaler". He then strums A, D, and E on his guitar – his "Band in a Box" – settles on a simple pattern, adds a melody and some words, and calls it good.

On the other hand, there is this horrifying future, already in progress:

– Take an audio file (or URL) of a song you like and feed it to BIAB.
– BIAB analyses the song and determines the style.
– BIAB generates chord progressions that fit the style.
– BIAB generates melodies for each progression.
– BIAB generates style-appropriate lyrics and sings them.

Voila, BIAB has created an album of 12 new songs for you, ready to copyright and monetize. All that's left for you is to fire up the random title generator (a legal requirement in order to be able to assert human authorship.)

Last edited by Mark Hayes; 12/31/21 02:29 PM.