Combobulator New AI-Based Virtual Instrument Features Ethically Sourced, ‘Farm To Table’ Artist Brains
DataMind Audio let us know about Combobulator, a real-time generative AI instrument, powered by custom models called ‘Artist Brains’, created in collaboration with a wide range of ‘donor musicians’, who receive a 50% of the profits.
They say that the AI-based instrument “offers access to an artist’s sonic mind and musical style, while providing an ethical and sustainable way for artists and producers to experiment with and benefit from the massively augmented capacities of AI.”
‘We don’t always know where our ideas and creative drive come from. Similarly, when we map an artist’s artificial Brain, there is a mysterious realm called latent space inside it,” says DataMind Audio co-founder Ben Cantil. “The Combobulator, allows sound designers and music producers to explore this space in 64 dimensions, discovering newly generated, never-before-heard sounds. They can then manipulate them by means of an easy-to-use interface, to make entirely new, original music.”
Official into video:
“What is fascinating is that there is so much more to learn about the capabilities of neural networks,” says Dr. Martin Parker, Head of The Reid School of Music at The University of Edinburgh. ‘We are using our research to invent tools that serve artists first, and which build a creative community that is empowered financially and creatively by our application of AI. Datamind Audio is one of very few innovators out there who genuinely nurture artists and promote creativity using AI.”
“There is a lot of valid concern about the future of creatives in the AI era, but in the area of sound design and music production, we’ve created a solution by artists, for artists: They are paid for their original work, get to use new tools and instruments to create original music with new products,” says Catherine Stewart, Co-Founder and Managing Director at DataMind Audio. “Artists are approaching us to train and sell their Brains for them. We launched with a group of globally renowned artists who know and trust us, but now that the word is out, we’re expand our sound palette and Artist Brain marketplaces with some seriously big names.”
Combobulator is available with an intro price of $129 (normally $199). Additional ‘Brains’ are also available.
