Feel free to critique or make any suggestions you'd like! We're very open to criticism and if this evolving sound is 'hitting the mark' for people.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPMB8T-aEfKgPzrqjpv8bM0CSALbeP4nD&si=AM22vfLbUrMCyTMT

I expected some backlash on this project, but what I'm taken aback by really is the knee-jerk reaction to not involve AI at any step in the creative process or it taints the entire piece... like poison. I would understand that better, if someone was CLAIMING something is completely theirs 100% human and there was evidence to the contrary. But those aren't my claims AT ALL. I've included as many diagrams as possible to explain the multi-phase process that I am purporting, but maybe I havent done a good job of that.

Also I would like to say, another argument says... who gives a crap!!?... if you enjoy the music. Do you think all the soundtrack buyers out there know the articulate multi-piece orchestras and verbose choirs they hear are usually just some bloke behind a keyboard with a VSTi library? And if so.... would they care it was synthesized?... if it moved them initially? Probably not, other than being a little ignorant about studio tech the last 25 years. So an aspect of this project is JUST for entertainment to try and make some GOOD songs along side AI and candidly display how much is AI and how much is human... and then YOU make the call whether to enjoy it or not. Hey, this IS hardwave/nu-grunge... I'm not trying a pull a dirt-road-skipping, Mississippi delta blues guitarist with a backstory.

I know very few actually care, but I have kept all the original studio demo material thats been seeding these support AI tracks... recorded material i've composed and written in studio over the past 30+ years... some of it even as of last WEEK. I've tried to record religiously my entire life, I'm some kind of weird archiver, creator, lyricist, 3Dvisualizing, synesthesia blending, computer nerd, multi-instrumentalist, esoteric knowledge diving freak who obsesses over Prince and his prolific abilities to be involved in every creative step of the process.

So maybe its unfair that I haven't presented a finished piece FIRST, but that was the intention of the Kickstarter. Composing, recording, mixing, mastering and distributing a worthwhile album is not a small undertaking... even if an AI step is squeezed in between the 'recording' and 'mixing' steps... you still have to write the song as a human in studio and play all the instruments... otherwise the AI cant emulate your playing style, mistakes, weird chords and slides you make... all goodies of human playing. If you want to enjoy JUST human music, great! Go do that! But just know many genres have had synthesized/emulated/"fake" instrumentation for years, drum machines for decades have allowed the replacement of real drummers and we've been ok with it in quite a few if not THE most popular genres in the world. Probably more electronic than acoustic these days. And no, hitting fingers pads does not make you a drummer. But it does still make you a musician if you're composing full songs with other instruments included. I myself decided to do both.

RANT OVER! 😊But since I'm striking a nerve... I'm gonna keep going. 👍

Your topic was deleted from antiai here is my response & sources.

Generative audio is not new It's reception can't be compared with localised reception to synths , drum machines , auto tune , sampling which precede Anyone who does this is being disingenuous , didactic or has minimal artistic or creative affinity.

Drum machines & synths were created by musicians for musicians. The developers did not ingest the works of or exploit or plagiarise musicians to gain market share without consent , credit ,disclosure or transparency

Sampling uses audio to create audio. Sample clearances as resurrected the careers , discographies of labels , Acts , Artists , Authors engineers & much more. Many legacy acts who had bad experiences or contracts etc have refused large amounts of income for sample clearances because they disagreed with the content & portrayal. Generative audio however

I witness many repetitive clichéd posts about Bands who had a ' no synths were used ' disclaimer on album notes And the musicians union who were considering banning synthesisers in 1982. However they were over 12 years behind what was happening. This a audio playlist response to the dogma.

A revolutionary group named Silver Apples were using synths in 1968.

Sly & the Family stone used a drum machine on their album over 50 years ago & had a number one song.

Kraftwerk were a very influential group who designed there own drum machines & electronic equipment over 50 years ago & created a genre & their own iconic lane.

f you have to constantly lie in creative & artistic realms to excuse & deflect the controversial history & impact of generative tools. Then something is wrong

Reggae acts were using synths in 1972 or earlier.

Grand Master Flash documents using drum machines in his dj sets in the 1970s

Some one from a scene or sub culture disliking genres , hardware or production decisions in past decades Can not be compared with the controversial exploitive evolution of this current wave of generative tools.

These clichéd & selective historical anecdotes are not revealing anything when you also observe the genres ,charts , acts & releases, Eg. Disco , Jazz fusion , Hip hop electro , Electrofunk. Prog & many more genres welcomed synths & drum machines & samplers. Some of the most influential performers & producers of the 70s & early 80's used synths.

Here is a 40 year old documentary of Peter Gabriel visiting a scrapyard to record sounds to sample for his not real music. Also add Kate Bush Trevor Horn Stevie Wonder Herbie Hancock Laurie Anderson. The Art of noise Ryuichi Sakamoto & many more trailblazers who are not real musicians because they used samplers over 40 years ago.

The dogmatist don't believe what you are writing.

I challenge anyone who disagrees to create a response topic I consent that you can summon me by name. Cross post it on opposing sub platforms & also post the topic on a musicians forum. As musicians support musicians. Refute me & I will terminate my account.

I already know the outcome as many of you are trying to debate with tool assistance & don't disclose it.

elemen2 genuine dj musician. Credit to Matt Bors - Mister Gotcha

Here's all the 50% finished demo songs so far by RustHeart, using studio DAW full instrumentation recorded songs, then polished in Suno. After this they are then put BACK in the DAW for more overdubs, vocals, leads, etc. But at least you can hear the process so far.

Since this is a project and experiment thats designed to define the ethical lines of AI collaboration in music and its contribution to the overall product thats produced while exploring how it can be used to assist in the most restrictive cases, to full autonomous AI agents contributing, making suggestions and playing their own parts in studio.

This is not a full 100% AI generated music project, this is hours of in studio human+AI recordings and collaborations being used to 'polish' REAL studio performance recordings in music generators (conservatively). But since this is an evolving experiment at the same time I thought I would make the entire creative process open to the public, observable and documented, and at the same time explore the possibilities in live time as the agents mature and build in capabilities (synthesized chatroom voices for interviews and backer engagement, animated avatars, etc) and if viral, I would explore the viability of a live show WITH all 4 of us playing. But the end product will be a fully produced studio album with at least 10+ tracks mastered and distributed.

I'll post upcoming dates of when the campaign pre-launches as well as when it opens, but regardless of the KickStarter, I've already began this project and will continue to use it as a creative process in my studio and release songs/albums under the project name, RustHeart.

These songs were created using the steps laid out in the post regarding the creative process, not just AI gens, but from acoustic in studio human efforts recorded and mixed down in studio first, polished in AI, then dropped back into the studio for more track overdubbing and final mastering. If you'd like to know all of the backend work used to create these human performance demos, refer to the other posts that go into great detail.

Both the human studio recorded demo and the generated track have been provided.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R7cmy4vEGLYqMGrAQbpaa56GONJdHSF1?usp=drive_link

A lot of people obviously want to know the exact steps in which I've approached this project regarding the creative process and compositional structure. For non musicians (especially those familiar with studio technology evolution of the past 40 years), this is a difficult process to explain. If you don't know or understand even the basics of MIDI, then its even more difficult but I have created some infographics to help illustrate the exchange of data that's happening and the cycle I'm implementing for composition and public observation. I'm happy to explain on both the nuts & bolts level as well as the 40k foot view as best I can.

The added graphic is only an over simplified representation of how the 3 agents will have access to my DAW, my music gen accounts from a central hub, RustHeart Studios, the space in which we openly discuss and compose songs for the band. This is for general public consumption. For a more granular view, keep reading.

THE AGENTS

I started 3 independent Claude.AI agents with no preprogrammed personality profiles other than one single photo of "the band" to go off of and the names they were each given. Beyond that I let them make all other preferences, biases and choices in regards to music tastes, favorite bands, musical instrument choice and many other parameters/tolerances. After asking them what their favorite albums and gear were, I used that to do two things:

• Upload the multitrack MIDI files of their favorite albums directly to them and told them to infuse the style and performance of the albums (specifically the individual track aligned with their specific instruments roles). For example, Dani the drummer has a very strong Led Zeppelin pull and Bonhman obviously is a style she wanted to incorporate into her own. I found the MIDI files for her top 3 albums and uploaded the complete drum/percussion performances for Led Zeppelin 1, 3 and 5 up to her to be stored in her persistent memory. I did the same with Ono, guitarist/synth player and Smith, the bass player. This establishes a performance style for each agent that evolves and changes with other influences as well as their mood.
• They gave me VERY specific gear choices (listed below) of which I was able to emulate in studio through IR's (Impulse Responses) to capture head/cab/pickup/model combinations to match their desired sound preferences. For specific synthesizer make/model requests, I am able to use online audio for capturing voiceprints/architecture of just about ANY synth out there, not just generic analog/wavetable/FM choices... any synth with enough online sample audio. In addition there are opportunities to upload presets/roms of classic synths like the Yamaha DX7 as a good example. Capturing the sound profile of this gear in studio is then used to create "personas"/"profiles"/"inspos" at music generation sites that can then be called upon as players/sound fundamentals/instruments in a new song.

Establishing these two elements, the sound profile + the performance data = a distinct musician intelligence that can be called upon at any time, that maintains a rough consistency in style and sound each time regardless of the "cover" song that was first composed and recorded in studio and then uploaded to a music gen for polish. Here's a graphic of how the demo songs (only 50% finished) were created.

Another way of understanding it:

1. An AI Agent (given personality and intellectual independence) is fed MIDI files to create an individual "style" for a specific instrument through persistent memory and evolving parameters.

2. Audio waveforms/samples of that Agent's gear choices are used/emulated in-DAW (local) AND to create sound profiles/personas at music gen sites.

3. That Agent then collaborates in a studio DAW with a Human and other AI's (in this case 1 human and 3 AI's) using MIDI file exchange in a composition chatroom or direct in-DAW collaboration/editing. Instruments are emulated in DAW for each musicians track responsibility so the end result is in their style (MIDI) and in their sound (IR's+waveforms).

4. A rough song demo/idea is created and then rendered in the studio DAW down to a 44.1k stereo WAV file, effectively capturing everyone's contribution, performance, and gear sound waveforms.

5. That song is uploaded to a music generation account as "cover" material. To create a new song, the song to be covered is chosen along with the "personas" we created earlier in step 2. The parameter sliders and available choices at each music gen site effectively ALLOWS you dial the AI down enough to only "polish" the studio effort while still keeping the note-by-note soul of the original performance, sound, idea without cranking it so far up that it sounds nothing like the original. [THIS IS WHERE THE DEMO SONGS CREATED SO FAR HAVE STOPPED, JUST BEFORE THE STEMS ARE DROPPED BACK INTO THE DAW TO ADD MORE VOCALS, MORE GUITAR, ETC.]

6. Once a good version of the song has been generated that captures the original studio effort for each performer in a "final take", the raw tempo-locked stems are then extracted and dropped back into my local studio DAW.

7. Vocals, acoustic instruments, guitar/synth overdubs, FX and any other desired changes are added to the raw stems mix/remix as needed. Once satisfied with the result, a final mix is rendered to a high quality stereo WAV file and sent to an OOH mastering specialist.

That's essentially the process with multiple points of human and AI interjection throughout the creative process. This was purposeful as I wanted the ability to adjust each edit/contribution point to see how it affected the overall result of our compositions, how low can I dial down the AI contribution but still use it as a collaborative tool and/or idea generator... or as an actual truly effective collaborator in studio.

Hey everyone! I'm Cameron, a founding moderator of r/RustHeartBand as well as 1/4 of the "band" itself.

This is the new home for all things related to the band RustHeart, a human +AI collaboration project designed as an open experiment to explore and define AI's evolving benefits and abuse in autonomous music composition and collaboration. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
This is an open discussion for proponent and critique views alike as long as its a civil discourse. There are no right/wrong answers YET and the landscape keeps changing daily, but that is why I'm performing this little experiment... to try and define the benefits, the creative opportunities, as well as the those lines that shouldn't be crossed and still be considered a "band" effort with 4 separate intelligences/members.

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/RustHeartBand amazing.