Well that didn’t take long. Speaking of AI, here is a really interesting use case with AI that actually does have to do with creating music that I fully endorse.
Terrence O’Brien writing at The Verge:
If you spend any time on r/synthesizers or watch a lot of synth videos on YouTube, you’ve probably noticed the explosion of custom firmware for hardware synthesizers, samplers, and grooveboxes. What unites almost all of them is that they were made possible by increasingly sophisticated vibe-coding tools.
This really leans into the most killer use-case for me around AI. I’ve long been someone who loves to use technology and follows the technology space. I often tell people that when I was growing up, if I wasn’t playing music, I was probably listening to music while playing on my computer. But for as much as I love technology, I never learned to code. Now that AI can code, I feel like I’ve been freed to be able to create whatever I can dream up. It really is incredible.
And in this examples, older hardware is being given a new lease on life by musicians who don’t know how to code but can now create music in new and interesting ways. And even anti-AI folks in the music space seem to be open to this use case:
The response to music gear that uses AI and vibe coding has been mixed. Devices like the Polyend Endless have sparked some ire. And music-making subreddits are awash in people complaining about vibe-coded plug-in slop. But so far the community has been less hostile to vibe-coded firmware. Maybe, in part, because breathing new life into old instruments helps keep their Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) in check.