Amazon introduced what they say is the first keyboard in the world that uses machine l earning. His name is Amazon DeepComposer , he has presented it on the occasion of his AWS re: Invent 2019 and the truth is that the idea is frankly attractive.
Amazon DeepComposer
Playing a musical instrument has many advantages. That is a proven fact and that is why it has always been one of my biggest challenges. The problem is that I never manage to dedicate enough time to anyone to advance beyond a Do Re Mi. But now I find this Amazon music keyboard with AI that will even be able to compose melodies by itself. And of course, now I want one.
Amazon DeepComposer is a music keyboard with 32 keys and the ability to connect to the PC. So far we could say that there is nothing new, because there are already many similar keyboards. The great differentiation comes from the use it makes of the capabilities of the cloud and machine learning.
By using an AI and Amazon services, with it you could play a melody or simple chords and then let your software do the rest. That is, analyze everything and create an improvised own composition. Ok, the piece will not win any musical awards but it is an interesting way to introduce many developers in the whole machine learning theme.
The AI that uses this DeepComposer is capable of generating different musical styles that range from classic to jazz to rock and pop. For this there is a neural network behind that generates and analyzes what was created to finally produce the piece, and there is also an important previous work based on analyzing a large amount of data that have served as training in various genres.
Those who have been able to prove it confirm the aforementioned. This AI for now will not win any prizes. Moreover, the compositions may not even be classified as a piece of music. However, for developers who want to delve deeper into the whole topic of machine learning it is very attractive and interesting. And no, there is no need for previous musical knowledge.
For the user the thing already changes. It is true that it has its appeal and also gives value when it comes to understanding a little more how this AI works. And in the future it could be a good complement to create musical compositions without much effort. In addition to, who knows if an extra motivation to learn to play an instrument. But right now it would be a whim.
Regarding the keyboard, as they comment in The Verge , it is not an Amazon design but the Midiplus company . This sells it at a cheaper price and the difference is in the software, in that “Powered by AI” that Amazon adds to give value and be able to charge the 99 dollars .
Of course, I was aroused again by having one of these midi keyboards. Although I think that the most I will get will be to open Garageband and retweet with its tools to create music in a slightly more automated way and without many complications.
