About the Workshop

The workshop is designed as a collaborative space for music technologists and musicians. The goals of the workshop are to:

• create AI-driven musical compositions; 
• bridge technology and creative music practice;
• offer a platform to advance and explore music AI. 

This is a hands-on event, focused on practical experience with a sprinkling of discussions on AI in music. Participants will self-organize into 10 dynamic teams, each consisting of 2 music tech specialists and 1 musician. Together, they'll harness the power of AI to craft original compositions.

The workshop is the culmination of the Generative Music AI Course available for free on The Sound of AI YouTube channel. This course offers the essential theoretical and practical knowledge required for the workshop.

Who Could Attend?

We welcome 30 participants: 20 from the tech side (like AI music engineers and MIR researchers, music tech hackers) and 10 musicians.
Participants are expected to have followed the complimentary lectures from the Generative Music AI Course on The Sound of AI YouTube channel.

For technologists, it's expected that they:

• Have strong coding skills, ideally in Python
• Can work with music data like waveforms and MIDI
• Are capable of developing symbolic-based generative music systems, such as markov chains, transformers, and generative grammars
• Grasp the applications of generative music

Musicians should:

• Be familiar with prevalent music AI tools available, like Magenta
• Have hands-on experience with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)
• Ideally, possess some knowledge in using AI for music production
• Understand the use cases of generative music.

Location

The workshop will take place at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

Agenda

The workshop runs from December 11th to 15th, 2023, every day from 10am to 6pm.

Monday, December 11th

• 10h. Workshop intro
• 10:30h. One to all presentations + Informal Networking + Speed dating + One to all presentations 
• 13h. Team formation (each team has 2 technologists + 1 musician)
• 13:30h. Lunch break
• 14:30h. Brainstorming + project ideation
• 17:30h. Wrap up
• 18h. End of the day

Tuesday, December 12th

• 10h. Team projects ideas presentations
• 11h. Presentation of MTG tools of relevance to generative music AI
• 12h. Project time
• 13h. Lunch break
• 14h. Project time + Mentorships (from 15h to 17h)
• 17:30h. Wrap up
• 18h. End of the day
• 20h. Phonos concert

Wednesday, December 13th

• 10h. Daily review: retrospective and action plan
• 11h. Open discussion: The ethics of music AI
• 12h. Project time
• 13h. Lunch break
• 14h. Project time + Mentorships (from 15h to 17h)
• 17:30h. Wrap up
• 18h. End of the day
• 20h. Concert with works by the participants (in collaboration with Phonos)

Thursday, December 14th

• 10h. Daily review: retrospective and action plan
• 11h. Open discussion: how’s AI impacting the music industry?
• 12h. Project time
• 13h. Lunch break
• 14h. Project time + Mentorships (from 15h to 17h)
• 17:30h. Wrap up
• 18h. End of the day

Friday, December 15th

• 10h. Daily review: retrospective and action plan
• 11h. Open discussion: what are the challenges and expectations in generative music systems?
• 12h. Project time
• 13h. Lunch break
• 14h. Project time + Mentorships (from 15h to 17h)
• 17h.  Project presentations
• 18h. End of workshop + beers

Registration

Seats are secured on a first-come, first-served basis: 20 for tech experts and 10 for musicians.
Registration opens on November 13th at 10AM (CET)
One-time fee: €150

Organizers

The Sound of AI, in partnership with the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra organize the Generative Music AI Course and its associated workshop. With the support of Phonos and the Engineeting school ETIC-UPF.

Instructors

• Dr. Valerio Velardo, director of The Sound of AI - a leading ecosystem for music AI.
• Dr. Iran Roman, researcher at Music and Audio Research Laboratory at New York University.
• Prof. Xavier Serra, director of the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
• Several researchers of the Music Technology Group will participate as Teaching Assistants.

Mentorships

Throughout the workshop, teams can book mentorship sessions with Valerio Velardo, Iran Roman, and researchers of the Music Technology Group.