deeplearner5

About This Site

This page shows a set of my AI music projects, under my pseudonym deeplearner5. The tracks themselves live on SoundCloud, but this page is the index: it's just a list of albums with direct listening links.

These albums are shared as private/unlisted links — if you’ve been given this URL, you’re the intended audience. The albums aren't actually secret, but I really just want to share them with friends, I don't want to be a rockstar and I don't care what randos on SoundCloud think of my stuff. If you want to share the links, please do so with that in mind.

Why I made this site

TL;DR: I wanted a straightforward way to share my AI music with friends. This is that place.

Longer version: I’m not an apologist for AI. I see plenty of terrible behaviour in the current gold rush around it, but that’s a separate discussion, and am not inclined to ignore an area of technology entirely just because it’s being implemented badly.

Also, I think a distinction needs to be made between AI music and real music. I don't believe they are the same; AI music may well sound good, but it can be created by a non-musician with an idea in moments. Real music takes a lot more effort, and should be recompensed accordingly.

That said, I do enjoy making AI music for my own entertainment. AI tools let me make reasonable demo-quality music far more quickly than my guitars, synths, and DAW ever allowed. I try to take care designing and tweaking the music, rather than just hit a “make me music” button; to me, that's where "AI Slop" begins, when music, or indeed anything, is made automatically and without human guidance and planning. Somewhere along the way I realised I was actually enjoying listening to what I was making; it may be AI slop by the strictest definition, but it sounded like pretty good AI slop to me, and the process allowed experimentation with different styles far more rapidly than traditional techniques would ever do.

I don't believe this kind of music is any kind of replacement for human musicians, and I fully agree it should be openly tagged as AI-assisted. To me, this kind of delineation is crucial going forward; AI music shouldn't be on BandCamp competing with "real" musicians, but equally it won't cease to exist. As far as I am concerned, it gives a way of rapidly making music for myself, often in styles that aren’t especially fashionable, and sharing it with friends if they want to hear it. And although they often inspire me, it’s also not an attempt to impersonate artists — I’m trying to write and record in styles I like, not clone voices or sample anyone’s work.

This is an interesting article, which I partly agree with - "Artists, audiences and music industry executives need to pause and reflect on what role we want AI to play in this new era of creation". I don't think anyone will pause, but we do need to reflect, and soon. I'm hoping my stuff will help that reflection.

And if you’re wondering whether I’m going to use this to churn out rants about Nigel Farage (I considered "Fascist in a Frog Mask" ;-) ): no. I’ve learned pretty quickly that my political instincts veer towards “angry pensioner shouts at clouds”, which isn’t a sound I particularly want to explore here. When I do touch on politics, I usually mark it as a bonus track (see Minneapolis (You’re My Hero) or Grapefruit), and I favour a less shouty style.

So this is a place for y'all to listen to my AI-assisted stuff, if you want.

Requests

If you want me to make something you’d enjoy — a genre, a silly idea for a song, a private in-joke — get in touch. I’ll try pretty much anything.

If you want ska-punk songs about badgers with kazoo solos, I’m yer man, but I warn you in advance, I find kazoos difficult to replicate. Maybe a bazouki solo?