Yes, blobs. Drag the blobs up and down to change pitch. Blob Opera (artsandculture.google.com) 456 points by BerislavLopac 19 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 57 comments: stevebmark 19 days ago. This experiment pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice. Does a computer know that it’s a computer? The rise of the conscious machines: how far should we take AI? Blob Opera is a machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture that let’s anyone compose opera type music in a web browser. Thanks! sing like the pros. Google's Blob Opera project allows music lovers to hit high notes Artificial Intelligence and the voices of four trained opera singers give everyone the chance to embark on an operatic adventure In fact, the harmonising machine learning of Blob Opera was actually first developed in the 1980s. No singing skills required! However, while doubtlessly intelligent and well-crafted, Blob Opera isn’t revolutionary. Distraction of the day – four harmonious blobs, boinging up and down to bring you joyful music this Christmas. And then, using this information and an AI, we might be able to generate music in real-time that a given person would find pleasurable at that precise moment,” he says. “You could run a really simple pitch tracker on your voice in real-time and use the harmonisation component from Blob Opera. Google apps Create your own opera inspired song with Blob Opera - no music skills required ! Developed by Google and AI artist David Li, the machine learning experiment allows users to compose their own operatic renditions through a quartet of colourful singing blobs. Blob Opera is a machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture. In short, Blob Opera is very very smart. Launched by developer David Li and Google Arts & Culture, it encourages people to “create your own opera inspired song” with a group of four colourful plasticine-y blobs by dragging them up and down (to control the note) and left and right (to vary the vowel sound). As you move your finger up you can change the pitch of the singing blobs. Well, that was not the idea when Google created Blob Opera. Our daily newsletter arrives just in time for lunch, offering up the day's biggest science news, our latest features, amazing Q&As and insightful interviews. “Sure, 90 per cent of it could sound absolutely terrible. Similar AI is already used in select video games, with transitional music automatically created between two longer pre-recorded pieces. You can unsubscribe at any time. And if something sounds a little bit off, we notice it immediately. More research into behavioural and neuroimaging modelling is needed before the psychological mechanisms behind our enjoyment of music are better understood. You can drag them up and down, forward and backward to change the pitch and the vowel sounds respectively to create your own festive song. Crafted by artist David Li in conjunction with Google’s Arts and Culture team, the Blob Opera features four colorful Blob singers in the roles of soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass. From that, the programme can work out that if a blob sings a certain note, what might be a nice set of next notes for the other blobs.”. It’s pretty adorable. You could even have a blob K-pop group – because who doesn’t want their own K-pop boy band harmony?”. Google Arts and Culture and David Li present an experimental plaything that lets anyone create their own opera masterpiece. “That’s when you have two frames and you get a computer to create an intermediate frame resulting in an overall smoother animation. David Li, thee talented animator behind the stretchy elastic Morty head and the interactive choir of singing lips, partnered with Google Arts & Culture to create a very festive interactive animated “Blob Opera”.In order to make the animated blobs sing, the viewer virtually pulls up on one of four different blobs that sing at different pitches depending on how high they are pulled. Turns out, in several intriguing ways. December 2020 | By David Li, Artist in Residence at Google Arts & Culture. Blob Opera is an experiment in machine learning by David Li and Google. Pay by Direct Debit and get two issues free*, Receive every issue delivered direct to your door with FREE UK delivery. ... Google recorded hours of classic opera singers, and used that data to train an AI model to know and mimic what an opera singer should sound like. At the flick of a switch, users can even see the blobs recreate Christmas classics such as The First Noel or Joy to the World. 0 “My expertise is modelling the musical mind, trying to crack why we enjoy it in the first place – what are the brain mechanisms involved in enjoying music? It could sound absolutely amazing!”. You read that correctly: Blob Opera. Firstly, you – yes, you – could voice one of the blobs. That’s because, as humans, we’re especially tuned to human voices. Tenor, Christian Joel, bass Frederick Tong, mezzo-soprano Joanna Gamble and soprano Olivia Doutney recorded 16 hours of singing. When did humans first start wearing clothes? Another machine learning model lets the blobs respond to and harmonise your input in real time. This is the Blob Opera. But now we’ve all been unexpectedly gifted 2020’s crowning achievement: Blob Opera. “You then use a machine learning algorithm that can find patterns in that data. It seems an impossible question after enjoying a blobby rendition of O Come, All Ye Faithful, but we’re asking it anyway: how could Blob Opera be improved? This might only be the start of the AI music revolution. Google Arts & Culture 179K subscribers Researchers like Dr Marcus Pearce Queen Mary University of London are attempting to take this technology much much further. Or forwards and backwards for different vowel sounds. The autotuning correcting errors in many pop hits is founded on similar algorithms. But it’s also because Blob Opera probably relies on two AI networks working so well you might not notice they’re there. Bryan-Kinns has another idea. Already have an account with us? In a Christmas atmosphere, Google decided to give a gift to composers and music lovers this year end. Google latest musical experiment in collaboration with by David Li; Blob Opera takes no music skills as your create your own composition with this ML model. Play four opera voices in real time. Listen to some of the brightest names in science and technology talk about the ideas and breakthroughs shaping our world. “There’s also the possibility of creating genre mash-ups. To us, the end-users, the tool is just a few blobs that you can drag around the create beautiful operatic music. Simply dragging a blob up and down can change its pitch, while moving it side-to-side produces a range of vowel sounds. The process started with recording four opera singers and then feeding 16 hours of info to a machine-learning algorithm. The Blob Opera slaps. Play four opera voices in real-time. “Blob Opera is essentially doing that with sound. PLUS a free mini-magazine for you to download and keep. You could build that phone app easily right now.”, “Also, instead of training the AI on opera singers, you could use barbershop quartets or other instruments. Blob Opera is a machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture. “The Google code hasn’t been released, but most such computer harmonisers rely on a large dataset of existing harmonies,” says Dr Rebecca Fiebrink from the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London. Sign in to manage your newsletter preferences. A quartet of opera signing blobs is at your command, courtesy of an interactive arts and culture offering from Google and artist David Li called Blob Opera. Modelled on 16 hours of singing from four professionals – Cristian Joel (tenor), Frederick Tong (bass), Joanna Gamble (mezzo‑soprano), and Olivia Doutney (soprano) – Blob Opera relies on AI to synthesise the noises you hear. As AI and musicologist experts say, there have been much more impressive developments in sound machine learning. This experiment pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice. “It would actually be pretty easy,” says Fiebrink. Google's Blob Opera AI Sings Carols and Helps Make Music Opera lovers can finally take an active part in their passion by creating it with the help of artificial intelligence. Google says that the Blob Opera will only work in browsers and on machines that rock the latest web technology, and may not work on mobile devices. Found: Google's latest machine learning experiment is a strange but compelling opera simulator. An interactive vocal quartet of Blobs – yes, Blobs – has been created by Google. This experiment pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice. A Creative Holiday Season with Arts & Culture Experiments. But that other 10 per cent? Your lunar astronomy guide. Mind design: could you merge with artificial intelligence? Google’s latest experiment turns you into a composer, and you don’t even need to know musical theory. Instead of making people sing comforting operatic songs, the Blob Opera makes four multi-colored blobs (yes, blobs!) If you wish this really would be the Last Christmas you’re forced to endure Wham, Google‘s new Blob Opera offers a chance to create something a … No singing skills required! You don’t have to know anything about music to make it sound good either because Google does it for you with that machine learning I … Simultaneously, the other blobs will also harmonise with this voice, responding in real-time to any new directions. Something much more complicated: an AI that makes it sound natural as the blobs move between notes. Really. The Google Arts & Culture initiative called Blob Opera enables us to create opera music in a very simple way. This bizarre combination of Machine Learning and Opera Singers presents you with 4 anthropomorphic blobs that you can drag around. This year wasn’t all bad. Google's Blob Opera has done down a storm online, with many taking to Twitter to declare that the internet has finally peaked. It is – and we cannot stress this enough – a whole lot of flubbery fun. There are still a few hours of Christmas left—enough time to eat some more cookies, watch a movie, and record your own Christmas song with the Blob Opera.What’s a blob opera? But although effortless to use, it was no easy feat to build. Discover our latest special editions covering a range of fascinating topics from the latest scientific discoveries to the big ideas explained. We developed a machine learning model trained on the voices of four opera singers in order to create an interactive experiment anyone can enjoy, regardless of musical skills. As Google says: “In the experiment, you don’t hear their voices, but the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like, based on what it learnt from them.”. With Google Arts & Culture, artist David Li created a machine-learning experiment featuring a choir of singing blobs. Only recently, a patent filed by Spotify appears to indicate the company is looking into providing AI-generated music as a cheaper alternative to licensed artists. Blob Opera uses machine learning tech to create operatic sounds as you play with four blobby creatures that produce bass, tenor, mezzo-soprano, and soprano vocals. Blob Opera is oddly satisfying to listen to on repeat. Dubbed "Blob Opera," the gadget puts you in control … The six numbers that define the entire Universe, The mirror neuron: How imitating our role models shapes our brains, Your very first breath kickstarts life-changing support system, mice study finds. Currently, however, we’re left listening to four blobs belting out Jingle Bells. For more information about how to do this, and how Immediate Media Company Limited (publisher of Science Focus) holds your personal information, please see our privacy policy. ‘ Blob Opera ’ is a wonderfully weird new tool starring four colourful Blobs who have been programmed to sing together in four-part harmony. With Blob Opera, you have a … Grammy Award winner Jacob Collier gets festive for the holidays with the Blob Opera, a machine learning experiment by David Li and Google Arts & Culture.Create your own holiday concert with just your mouse or trackpad—no music skills required → g.co/blob-opera Look out for your Lunchtime Genius newsletter in your inbox soon. The second music algorithm likely at work? Anytime you change pitch, the other blobs could follow. Developed by Google and AI artist David Li, the machine learning experiment allows users to compose their own operatic renditions through a quartet of colourful singing blobs. Glaciers on Mars reveal the Red Planet went through multiple ice ages, When is the next full moon? In announcing the new app on its website, Google suggests such compositions might just be the perfect holiday present. It could create new genres of music we’ve never heard before,” he says. Between the pandemic headlines, the last 12 months have seen huge leaps in space travel, quantum imaging and, of course, medicine. Additional singing from Ingunn Gyda Hrafnkelsdottir and John Holland-Avery. “It’s basically like ‘inbetweening’ in cartoon animation,” explains Prof Nick Bryan-Kinns from Queen Mary University of London. Play four voices with the help of machine learning. Blob Opera is a machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture. Two issues free when you subscribe to BBC Science Focus Magazine, The complex machine learning behind Blob Opera hasn’t taken us to peak internet just yet – existing music AI could make things even better. You could easily pair this AI opera singing with music of other genres, like AI-created drum and bass loops. But, if this data is collected, a music service in the future may be able to scan your brain and generate that perfect, life-changing song in an instant. Google For fans of the interactive treat Adult Swim Choir , its creator has just come out with an even more addictive time-waster: Blob Opera . Partly, this is because Google hasn’t publicly unveiled the code underpinning the experiment. Google has released a new app called blob Opera —a machine learning application that allows songwriters of all skill levels to compose songs—operas or otherwise—performed onscreen by four singing "blobs." But Google and DeepMind have made some massive strides in recent years.”. Using AI music for evil — While the Google Blog Opera is unequivocally a Good Thing, developments in music-based machine learning isn't always a great idea. Today's stories were merely delayed by reader eVr when he shared this amusing new web app from Google. Guide the pitch and vowel sound of our four festive blobs who stand ready to transform your musical ideas (no matter how good or bad) into beautiful harmonies. The first: the AI harmonising the blobs. The Google AI Blob Opera is an entertaining tool to mess with. The company has just launched Blob Opera, a … But, as Pearce admits, such software is many years away. By clicking “sign up” you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. No singing skills required! So, instead of getting opera singers to sing a million different notes, they’re getting a computer to work out how to make a smooth transition.”, Fiebrink adds: “Until a few years ago we weren’t able to use machine learning to synthesise really convincing operatic singing voices. Sing and share! Google Blob Opera is a fun experiment that uses four colorful blobs that you control to create music. The hidden genius of Blob Opera – and how it could get even smarter, Artificial Intelligence creates never-ending death metal, Google’s Magenta creates its first AI song, AI technology could turn thoughts into speech, AI: 5 of the best must-read artificial intelligence books. And they could be easily applied to Blob Opera. Should we be signalling our existence to alien life? Play four opera voices in real time. There's so much great stuff here: - The state machine that seems to handle all edge cases, both in things like the tutorial and also in the procedural singing Simply dragging a blob up and down can change its pitch, while moving it side-to-side produces a range of vowel sounds. “It might not sound great for other people, but for that person, this music would be great.”. But it might not be immediately clear just how smart. Artist David Li worked with Google’s Arts and Culture wing to create the Blob Opera. Blob Opera is a new machine learning experiment by artist David Li that lets you create your own festive song inspired by Opera on Google Arts & Culture. While we wouldn't go that far (there are plenty of amazing website layouts to be found online), there's no denying that the blobs are a delightful distraction – and just the tonic after the last few months. And all within a standard internet browser. And all within a standard internet browser. But, for the moment, that’s all we could wish for. Tenor Christian Joel, bass Frederick Tong, mezzo-soprano Joanna Gamble and soprano Olivia Doutney. A machine-learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture, Blob Opera lets you compose and sing your very own opera … In the experiment you don’t hear their voices, but the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like, based on what it learnt from them. 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