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Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

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Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#51

Post by rexpop »

PotatoPrime wrote: post #48
tkiolp4 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree to some extent. At some point though we jump the thin line between creative expression and… magic? Like if at some point I can just say “Generate a song similar to Smooth Criminal, different enough to not trigger copyright claims” and it just works, and everyone loves it… well is that creative thinking?

I think there is something to it. First, it would still need to be different enough from Smooth Criminal to avoid listeners just going back to the original. Then, if anyone could just type a simple prompt like that and get a hit, wouldn't we be flooded with 'sounds like' singles, which would turn the audience off of those, and now, you're not making hits... I think there will always be more to it then just a simple p…

> it would still need to be different enough from Smooth Criminal to avoid listeners just going back to the original

Or just cheaper to license so that Spotify/Pandora promote it in your algorithmic feed. It's audio skimpflation!

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#53

Post by treebeard901 »

windowliker wrote: post #8

For me, the point of making music is making it myself. If want to have something done for me I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it.

> I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it

How many "DJs" today could even find two records that they could key and beat match? Then physically mix them on the turntables with no software or sync buttons? AI is just going to make this worse...

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#58

Post by Archer6621 »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #23
brandonb wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous generations might have said the same thing about Ableton itself, vs playing a physical instrument. In that regard, AI might become just another power tool for creative expression.

Agree to some extent. At some point though we jump the thin line between creative expression and… magic? Like if at some point I can just say “Generate a song similar to Smooth Criminal, different enough to not trigger copyright claims” and it just works, and everyone loves it… well is that creative thinking?

I think you can quantify the amount of creative expression you engage in by looking at all the decision points in the creative process where you are directly involved in making the decision. For an LLM prompt, that is going to be fairly limited by definition. I suppose the quality can be measured then by how novel and effective the output/approach of each decision is then, how much impact is made.

The amount of creative expression does not necessarily correlate with impact. Something can be created with nearly zero creative expression, that ends up making a significant impact. In that case you are more of a director than an artist I suppose, in that you direct the high-level process and only make decisions there. You can call it creative thinking in the same way a good businessman makes smart high-level decisions and then delegates what is downstream to others, with decisions being optimized for impact.

I think you can be creative "within a frame" in that sense, e.g. creative in the way you wield an LLM for instance, which is on a different scale compared to being creative on the piano roll with how you organize and brainstorm your melodies. It's just a different skill set at a different granularity altogether. But the one thing that I think holds, is that higher level methods have less creative expression by definition, because you are delegating more decisions to other faculties; you are seeing less of the "creator" in the work.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#59

Post by Mashimo »

treebeard901 wrote: post #53
windowliker wrote: post #8

For me, the point of making music is making it myself. If want to have something done for me I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it.

> I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it How many "DJs" today could even find two records that they could key and beat match? Then physically mix them on the turntables with no software or sync buttons? AI is just going to make this worse...

> How many "DJs" today could even find t

A lot of them. The barriers to entry have been lowered, which also means there are way more DJs around. And some of them will start to expand their horizon.

I don't know, but I would not be surprised if the total amount of people who can mix without sync increased. Though the percentage of DJs who need sync is probably higher.

I started DJing with 'rona and now somestimes mix vinyl. And I also hosted open deck nights with CDJs where a lot of beginners did not use sync, unless they where only a few month into the game.

I don't think it's a negative.

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