Book Image

Hands-On Music Generation with Magenta

By : Alexandre DuBreuil
Book Image

Hands-On Music Generation with Magenta

By: Alexandre DuBreuil

Overview of this book

The importance of machine learning (ML) in art is growing at a rapid pace due to recent advancements in the field, and Magenta is at the forefront of this innovation. With this book, you’ll follow a hands-on approach to using ML models for music generation, learning how to integrate them into an existing music production workflow. Complete with practical examples and explanations of the theoretical background required to understand the underlying technologies, this book is the perfect starting point to begin exploring music generation. The book will help you learn how to use the models in Magenta for generating percussion sequences, monophonic and polyphonic melodies in MIDI, and instrument sounds in raw audio. Through practical examples and in-depth explanations, you’ll understand ML models such as RNNs, VAEs, and GANs. Using this knowledge, you’ll create and train your own models for advanced music generation use cases, along with preparing new datasets. Finally, you’ll get to grips with integrating Magenta with other technologies, such as digital audio workstations (DAWs), and using Magenta.js to distribute music generation apps in the browser. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with Magenta and have developed the skills you need to use ML models for music generation in your own style.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Artwork Generation
3
Section 2: Music Generation with Machine Learning
8
Section 3: Training, Learning, and Generating a Specific Style
11
Section 4: Making Your Models Interact with Other Applications

Making Magenta Interact with Music Applications

In this chapter, we'll see how Magenta fits into a broader picture by showing how to make it interact with other music applications such as Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and synthesizers. We'll explain how to send MIDI sequences from Magenta to FluidSynth and DAWs using the MIDI interface. By doing so, we'll learn how to handle MIDI ports on all platforms and how to loop MIDI sequences in Magenta. We'll show how to synchronize multiple applications using MIDI clocks and transport information. Finally, we'll cover Magenta Studio, a standalone packaging of Magenta based on Magenta.js that can also integrate into Ableton Live as a plugin.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • Sending MIDI to a DAW or synthesizer
  • Looping the generated MIDI
  • Using Magenta as a standalone application with Magenta...