AIVA has been changed significantly since this was written.

AIVA - Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist

May 2019 Review

Listen

Each of these pieces were made with MIDI files from Aiva.ai. I didn't add notes, change notes, or change the form or tempo at all. I added my own MIDI instruments and expression data. Percussion was also added on some tracks.

Preview mp3

Fully Produced

"Simple Tango-ish"
"British Hunting"
"Dark and Chinese"
"Magic Time"
"Strict Mystery"

NOTE! I didn't spend a lot of time making the Produced pieces, less than one hour each.

Inputs:

  • Genre [Modern, Cinematic, Sea Shanty, Tango, Chinese, (more planned)]
  • Key Signature
  • Time Signature
  • Ensemble [varies by style]
  • Duration [30 seconds up to around 2 minutes]

Outputs:

  • mp3 [128kbps, 48khz, Stereo]
  • MIDI full score
  • MIDI condensed piano score
  • (WAV files coming soon)

  1. Select the style of music you want from the list.
  2. Customize your parameters.
  3. Create track!

Wait about a minute.

  1. Download the files
  2. Create a template in your DAW and load it up with similar instruments to the MIDI

There is a lot of manual production required after you get the files.

What it does right:

Orchestration! I am amazed by some of the orchestrating things I've seen this do. This piece starts as all strings, and then shifts to brass. AIVA writes block chords in the violas, and then hands the same chords to the trombones for their entrance (0:40-0:50)
"Nicer"

A person would do this because the timbre of the violas in that range is about as close as you can get to the trombones and still stay in the string section. Perfectly repeated in the brass, and that is some smart thinking, AIVA!

MP3 Preview! The preview may be at the point of usable for some applications already. Good enough!
"Fluffy"

MIDI File! The MIDI is well formatted, and plugs into whatever digital studio you have going on. Nice!

Melodies! It can make some really sticky and unusual melodies with appropriate jumps in appropriate places. Crafting melodies is difficult to explain to a human, but AVIA understands them.
"West of the Portal"

EULA! AIVA has the best End User License AgreementM in the business. It comes in at 631 words and you can read it in about 2 minutes. Nothing tricky. Very nice. Thank you for your sanity, AIVA!

Where it falls short:

There are only a few styles in the beta. New ones have to be built by hand. At least it has Sea Shanties!

Almost no input. You can select the key, and that's about it. Want something sadder? More mysterious? Peppier? More chill? Faster? More exciting? More lyrical? You have to make a lot of new tracks, and then pick the one that sort of does what you want. Download 75 pieces with mp3 and MIDI data.

I do want something with almost no input, but this one doesn't know what kind of music I want, so it just gives me whatever music it comes up with.

Fail Rate. A significant number of the pieces are bad.
"Charles Ivy"
"Grave Wonkivator"
"Training Needed"
"Rambling Just Outside"


I found only 15% of the pieces it outputs are usable, and even then they can take a lot of work. It currently does best in the "Modern Cinematic" style.

What's on the horizon:

More genres, better input controls, in-browser MIDI editing, a better preview, and the ability to upload your own MIDI files are already being worked on.

insert cartoon here

Appendix 1: All the stuff

Since the user gets all the copyrights to the music, I'm dedicating these 75 pieces to the Public Domain. Do whatever you like with them!

Open the Spreadsheet in Google Docs

Download 75 pieces with mp3 and MIDI data.

Ratings:
 0  - NA. Does not exist or fails spectacularly.
 1  - Poor. Seemingly random. Worse than a beginning student.
 2  - Fair. As good as a beginning student.
 3  - Good. Good student work / passable pro work.
 4  - Very Good. As good as a professional composer.
 5  - Excellent. Remarkable composition. As good as the top composers.
 6  - Masterwork. A once-in-a-decade level of quality and interesting.
 7  - Superlative. Bounds of music have been moved.
 8+ - ???

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