Can ChatGPT be useful for sound design? YouTuber TAETRO finds out
The producer and content creator uses ChatGPT to help him design sounds based on existing comparisons, and even a completely abstract prompt
Image: TAETRO on YouTube
Producer and YouTube content creator TAETRO has teamed up with gear brand ROLI to put ChatGPT to the test in the realm of sound design to see just how useful, or unuseful, it can be.
Just mentioning the words ‘AI’ or ‘ChatGPT’ is enough to raise eyebrows and cause controversy in a room. Despite the exponential growth of the technology over the course of 2023, the topic of using AI in music production remains ever-divisive.
But, as some producers such as TAETRO, are proving, sometimes it can be a useful tool to implement in the studio.
In TAETRO’s video, he uses ROLI’s Seaboard RISE 2 with Equator 2, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to investigate the “synergy” of AI with sound design. At the start of the video, he tells the platform that he’d like to design some sounds in Equator 2 before feeding it the prompt: “I’d like to create a pad sound, similar to the dreamy atmospheric sounds of the Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis”.
With that, ChatGPT lists a bullet-pointed plan of action, offering instructions such as “choose a waveform that’s rich in harmonics, such as a sawtooth or a waveform with some pulse width modulation” and “detune multiple oscillators slightly to add thickness”.
It also lists effects suggestions such as adding reverb “with a decay time of 3-4 seconds” (very specific), and suggests to “consider using the modulation options in Equator to achieve the evolving nature of the Blade Runner pads”.
Elsewhere in the video, TAETRO uses a prompt idea provided by a viewer, in which he asks Chat GPT to tell him how to make a dreamy kalimba sound reminiscent of the PlayStation 1 startup sound. He also feeds it an abstract prompt from another viewer – “a floating sugar cotton inside a glass cathedral” – and again, it lays out listed instructions and breaks down what that prompt really suggests.
As TAETRO concludes in his video, there were little extra elements he added or made decisions about himself, but overall he agrees that ChatGPT set him on the right path each time.
Watch the full video below:
You can try out ChatGPT for yourself on the Open AI website, or view the full range of ROLI products on its official website.
