How Google is using AI to create completely new musical sounds

Google is using artificial intelligence to create musical sounds that human ears have never heard before, said Cade Metz at Wired​. NSynth uses neural networks to combine different kinds of instruments like, say, classical music's clavichord and the Hammond organ of rhythm and blues. NSynth doesn't layer the sounds on top of each other, but uses the mathematical characteristics of the notes generated by each instrument to produce entirely new sounds. And it "can do this with about a thousand different instruments — from violins to balafons."

NSynth is the work of Google Magenta, a small team of researchers within the tech giant who are teaching computers how to make art on their own and are creating a wider range of tools for human artists in the process. "Artistically, it could yield some cool stuff," said music critic Marc Weidenbaum. "And because it's Google, people will follow their lead."

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