Originally Posted By: rayc
Besides, left alone, BIAB backings lean towards the generic or bland.


Couldn't that be at least part way remedied by bring in some new blood to play the track samples? Outside of the same small handful of prime time names, the rest are largely just a little bit better than average. John Jarvis, Bryan Sutton, Paul Franklin are the only names I know (but I don't get out much). I have heard all I need from Brent Mason. I suppose there are other names in the jazz milieu that I just don't know about, but to look at pedal steel, it's mostly Paul Dunlop and Paul Franklin, and 3 other guys I have never heard of. Piano has 18 names, but only one I know at all. It is largely Miles Black, Blair Masters (who after researching I see is credited on 994 albums), Mike Rojas (1,239 albums), Jeff Lorber and John Jarvis. I know Jarvis and Lorber from having things they played on. 9 sax players. (None of them Norton, but he is probably too busy talking about himself, almost being signed by Motown, and flexing about playing "15 to 20 gigs a month" and on that whole fleet of cruise ships.)

I honestly think the sameness would go away with some new blood. I don't know this side of it, but I would venture a guess that more fresh players would cost more fresh money, and the handfuls that are there now are already bought and paid for, so no new faces are likely to be forthcoming. And since we are not privy to such things who has been approached (if anybody) for new samples will remain speculation.

To the topic of the thread, without a clear working definition of what AI actually is, BIAB is or isn't AI. If I go to a web page that draws AI faces, I can designate skin color, hair color, eye color, and gender, and the software spits out a person that does not exist. If I go to BIAB (RB in my case), I can tell it key, chord progression, tempo and style and it spits out a song that previously didn't exist. I don't see why one is considered AI and one isn't. Your coffee maker is in a sense AI. You put water in it at night, set a timer, and it makes your coffee when the timer tells it to start in the morning. That is AI in some sense.