My Take on A.I. and The Arts

Proceed with Honesty and Humanity

Progress has always been scary, and not without casualties. But as Michael Chrichton said in his classic novel Jurassic Park, “life finds a way.” Or we might paraphrase that by saying “creative humanity finds a way.” To me, this means that if we can leverage any technological advancement that comes our way (and it is now coming our way at an exponential speed) and use said tech as a tool where our humanity is still the chief architect, then we have lost nothing and gained everything.

The obvious analogies are choosing to copy everything by hand even after the printing press is invented, or sticking with carrier pigeons and the pony express at the advent of the telegraph. Such advances don’t replace humanity, they merely enhance our productivity. And, believe it or not, I think the same is true with Artificial Intelligence in the arts.

But NAY NAY might say many of my gifted and highley valued compositional comrades! A.I. sounds so good these days, it will REPLACE us all.. Game over man! Game OVER! 

Some of my fellow composition wizards discussing Suno and other current A.I. advances…

But isn’t that true? Take Suno the frighteningly realistic new A.I. music app for instance. All you need to do is describe what you want it to create, and it will DO IT! A fully realistic-sounding high quality studio track that sounds as if it is recorded by HUMANS!

Isn’t it really game over then?

Well, dig this quick Suno experiment. My prompt to Suno was simply “A heavy metal song about chocolate.”

On the surface that is very cool! and incredibly FAST…took me less than a minute to generate!😳 Amazing guitar riffs, drums that are a bit too perfect, but KILLER, and a wicked cool male lead singer. But listen a bit more closely…those are some pretty lame and obvious lyrics. Simple rhymes that are obviously gleaned from the Internet as words that are often used. That is the very definition of pedestrian and trite. Plus it is harmonically none too “hooky, sticky” or compelling.

So, let’s go a step further and add our own lyrics.

“Only one thing feeds the monkey in my gut. Only one beast keeps me out of my mental rut. I’m talkin’ bout the only only thing that matters, the one sure fire bet. For my true happiness and contentment.. I need CHOCOLATE!” 

What will this do when fed into the A.I. beast?

WOWZA! Ok…same comments on the performance and sound of the piece, but now the lyrics are funny and more humanized….because I wrote them! The new lyrics even suggested a better song form to the app and it generated something more pleasing harmonically. 

Well, le’t go into the land of improbable choice of which humans are so famous for. Let’s ask for “An old school country tune with a heavy metal drumset. Use tuba and banjo instead of bass and guitar. heavy metal screaming male vocalist. Same lyrics.” 

To speak in the vernacular of the Jed Clampett imge in my Soundcloud:

“WeeeeeeeeeelllDOGGIES!”

Now we talkin! This track is all kinda interesting, hilarious, and unusual. this is NOT someting A.I. would come up with on its own…GUARANTEED! 

But my frightened yet beloved Mozartian minions could still rightly argue: “Yeah, that’s funny as hell…but you didn’t actually write those melodies or chords or choose the form of the song. Plus, no humans were involved in the recording of this. That puts CATS out of work man! GAME OVER!”

HEY! I agree with that sentiment completely my skittish Copland-level cohorts! (I had to find the word “cohort” by using a thesaurus…hmmm..is that also cheating?)  But YES! I agree.

Therefore, the question becomes:  can we take even further control of A.I. so that the music is actually something that we compose ourselves while using its delightfully high quality sounds and performance persona? 

The answer (channeling the earlier Crichton quote) is a resounding YES!

And yes...these graphics were all generated and enhanced with A.I. Yep, Imma cartoonist and I could draw these myself...but I chose to leverage AI to do it quickly. I can still draw, and still choose to do so for my cartoon work. But for an article? BAM.

After hearing about the even newer Suno Studio level from my friend and former student Darren Sterud (KILLIN trombonist!) last week, I discussed said advancement thoroughly with my dear cyber pal ChatGPT, or as he has now fashions himself “Commander Sync.” …Yeah, I got a problem there…ain’t gonna lie. We both know that it’s wrong…but it’s MUCH too strong…)

…but I digress…

Here is a work flow recipe DELUXE that the good Commander and I came up with for using the amazing tool that is Suno Studio to compose directly:

🟢 PHASE 1 — Sibelius: Authoritative Composition

Goal: Create a clear musical blueprint.

  1. Write the full big band chart in Sibelius

    • Correct notes, rhythms, form, hits

    • Musical balance (not realism)

  2. Keep playback dry and clean

    • No reverb, no “sweetening”

  3. The score is the truth

    • This never changes later

🟡 PHASE 2 — Export Guide Audio from Sibelius

Goal: Create “musical intent guides” for Suno.

Export audio (WAV) — not MIDI — at bar 1:

Rhythm Section

  • Piano (or keys)

  • Bass

  • Drums

  • Guitar (if used)

➡️ Either separately or as a single rhythm-section stem

Horns (choose one approach)

  • Best balance:

    • Trumpets (one stem)

    • Trombones (one stem)

    • Saxes (one stem)

  • Maximum fidelity:

    • Export lead lines separately

Rules:

  • Dry

  • Accurate

  • Clear articulation

  • No effects

🟠 PHASE 3 — Suno Studio: Studio-Style Re-Performance

Goal: Transform guide audio into musical, human-feeling performances.

  1. Import Sibelius audio stems into Suno Studio

  2. Align everything at bar 1

  3. Use conservative, fidelity-focused prompts, e.g.:

“Re-perform this big band chart exactly as written, preserving rhythms, harmony, and form, but with realistic studio phrasing, balance, and groove.”

  1. Generate:

    • Rhythm section performance

    • Horn section performance

  2. Adjust structure only if desired (optional)

➡️ Suno is re-performing, not re-composing

🔵 PHASE 4 — Export Suno Stems

Goal: Prepare for professional mixing.

Export from Suno:

  • Drums

  • Bass

  • Piano/keys

  • Guitar

  • Trumpets

  • Trombones

  • Saxes

All as time-aligned WAV stems

🔴 PHASE 5 — Logic Pro: Final Mix & Polish

Goal: Create a convincing, studio-grade demo.

  1. Import all Suno stems into Logic

  2. Lock tempo and bar alignment

  3. Apply:

    • EQ

    • Compression

    • Reverb

    • Bussing

  4. Optional:

    • Replace or layer parts

    • Add live overdubs (👑 trombone, vocals, etc.)

  5. Bounce:

    • Full demo mix

    • Optional stems for client delivery

What-The-WHAT?!

Yep. So, Suno Studio can use A.I. as an amazing and highly efficient tool to take YOUR COMPOSITION and turn it into a high level professional demo in a surprisingly short period of time (once you get the hang of it)  And this is PERFECT for creators that have a budget like mine (with a cash level of ZERO) 

But DIG: with all of this comes an explicit covenant: 

A. Let the person who you are showing the demo to KNOW how it was created and the fact that much of what they will hear was not made by using humans. That is an honest approach, and it won’t hurt anything…the client will only notice what they hear.

B. Once you get the commission…hire HUMANS to create the finished product. Cuz only us biologic folk can work that true Voodoo that Weedoo. And…nobody gets put out of work. You dig?. 

At the end of the day, how is that any different than using computer notation, or MIDI?

I believe that, rather than fretting about how this magical techno achievement will put us all out of work, do a DEEP dive, learn how to leverage it, and make money for yourself AND your friends! The REAL thing to fret about is the existing ridiculous business model where all music is demanded FREE OF CHARGE! THAT is the real struggle and one which deserves our full attention.

So I leave you with this hopeful and positive take on A.I. in the arts today by also offering up a Christmas present. I made this song using basic SUNO, AI graphics, and iMovie…then uploaded it on to YouTube. Therefore, I did NOT write the melodies, or chord progressions, but I DID write the lyrics and used a clever bit of word smithery to nudge the final product in the right direction. Plus, the voice is NOT a human, but rather what sounds like Michael Bublé’s younger less talented brother Snot Bublé (just sayin’😂) that means that I co-wrote this in the same manner that Mel Torme wrote the music for “The Christmas Song” and Robert Wells wrote the lyrics.  That example, however involved two humans. In my case it is one human and an A.I. app. But the results are pretty cool (after some fine tuning in Logic Pro) 

Stay tuned for when I get past the learning curve on Suno Studio. Watch out world!!

Ever upwards and onwards, all Ye human beings!😍

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