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To: itsahoot; All
I am not that much impressed by technical proficiency beyond human excellence, and often, even top human proficiency in playing or hitting notes is not required to make a great song. Sure, a great vocalist or player can enhance a song, but, just as often they go off into the weeds by oversinging or overplaying, and thereby screwing up the emotion or intent of the music, which is paramount to get right.

How many times do we see very talented singers screw up our national anthem? Usually, when you get right down to it...

In order to make what I would consider a great song, the AI needs to know not only my preferences, but why I have them, which gets into both objective and subjective (emotional) analysis of my entire life, some of which even I have difficulty putting into words. And then of course, because my experiences differ from others' experiences, my reaction to the song may be pretty unique.

Finally, for me, most, perhaps not all, good music expresses something in a coherent way. To me, that goes considerably beyond "harmonic tones produced by myriads(? What about solos?) of instruments or objects in an order that is pleasant to the listener."

AI will probably eventually get it "right", but this jumbled mess, "Walk My Walk" is a long way away.

I'll leave you with a song. The lyrics are fantastic but it's not well known, the playing is very good but not technically stunning, the vocalist is quite good, but not "one of the greats". And yet... Look at the reaction of the Asian girl in the audience, at 4:16. THAT is a musical home run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6wzHIlXDfo&list=RDQ6wzHIlXDfo&start_radio=1 (BTW, the better vid of this performance seems to have been removed from YT. I don't know why... Too bad, it had a lot more views & comments. Also ignore the replay - I guess they did retakes for the DVD?)

60 posted on 11/12/2025 2:22:31 PM PST by Paul R. (Old Viking saying: "Never be more than 3 steps away from your weapon ... or a Uriah Heep song!" ;-))
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To: Paul R.
I am not that much impressed by technical proficiency beyond human excellence, and often, even top human proficiency in playing or hitting notes is not required to make a great song.

Two words, Johnny Cash.

Your link while not my bag is certainly a good performance.

Live performances is where the money is and technology drive most of it and that will continue, but what will happen to that when all we have to do is ask AI to pop out a tune by our favorite singer that includes words of our choice.

Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers(done live) is as good as it gets for me. Now kids in Europe are discovering them now and are puzzled by the perfection without autotune and saddened to know Bobby has been dead 20 years.

61 posted on 11/14/2025 1:36:34 PM PST by itsahoot
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