Wherever you look these days, you’ll find somebody predicting what impact AI will have on the future of the human race. There’s those that foresee an AI-managed utopia where all illness, hard labour and tough decision making is eliminated. Then, there’s the slightly larger contingent who can only envision a soulless, grey and creatively barren planet. It’s a nightmare that’s based on the fear that, inevitably, AI will supplant most of the creative industries. “Why,” they despairingly ask, “would you need to make any music ever again, when AI can handle the entire creative process for you?”. This issue we’re here to propose an alternative forecast – of a world where the human music-maker and AI work hand-inelectronic-hand to fashion better music than either could conceive of making without the other. Our massive in-depth feature explores this idea by highlighting some of the most exciting and unusual things you can do with AI right now, as well as arming you with an expanded AI toolkit that can bolster your current creative workflow with added machine-mind might.
Aside from AI, this issue we’ve got one of the most high-value item giveaways we’ve ever ran in Computer Music. The incredible impOSCar 2 from GForce Software (worth £99!) is yours upon purchase of this magazine. A recreation of the Oxford Synth Company’s early ’80s classic, the OSCar, this dual-oscillator synth is infinitely explorable, flexible and has over 1,000 ready-to-go presets. We’ll have more free gifts of this calibre coming over successive months, too.
This is quite a packed issue, so for more on what’s ahead, read the contents overleaf and don’t forget to hoover up your free samples!
Andy Price Editor andy.price@futurenet.com