![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
Berklee Faculty Lead the AI Conversation at AES Convention Berklee educators Michele Darling and Jonathan Wyner will participate in discussions on AI at the Audio Engineering Society convention this week in New York.
By
Daniel Pesquera
October 25, 2023
Michele Darling
The annual Audio Engineers Society (AES) convention in New York City takes place at the Javits Center from October 25 to 27, and Berklee will be driving the conversation around artificial intelligence. Michele Darling, chair of electronic production and design (EPD), and Jonathan Wyner, professor of music production and engineering (MP&E), are featured in two separate presentations on AI at the event.
Darling, named EPD chair this fall, will take part in a discussion on harnessing the power of AI for instrument design, with her EPD colleague Akito van Troyer joining her on the panel. Darling is involved in many AI-focused projects, developing audio plug-ins for music production and assisting researchers on how to teach a neural network to interpret sounds. Wyner will lead a town hall on AI audio technologies, with a goal to encourage an open exchange on AI and how the AES community can help producers, artists, and other technology users. Wyner, who founded the AES Technical Committee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, is also working with several groups to plan events at Berklee focused on AI in audio.
We spoke with Darling and Wyner ahead of the convention. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Professor Darling, what insights will you bring to the discussion on AI's role in the future of instrument design?MD: The panelists have been meeting and talking about the current practices in AI innovation while also speculating about its future. We are looking at how AI can assist with traditional instrument design as well as the potential for completely new AI instruments. We are asking ourselves What is an instrument?' and Are we considering an AI device an instrument? We want this discussion to be open-ended and forward-looking, and to incorporate different educational and ethical perspectives. It's going to take input from programmers, designers, creators, educators, philosophers, and anthropologists to make decisions about AI and its use in music and audio.
Jonathan Wyner
Professor Wyner, what would you like to see come out of the town hall discussion on AI?JW: The thing that really motivates me is having the opportunity to bring together developers and users. When we're looking at the rapid advancement of AI technologies, the question that emerges is What can our communities do on behalf of the stakeholders involved in creating audio? The town hall is intended to be a place to surface ideas and to begin defining the work and potential goals. If this leads to us discovering interesting things artists are doing with the technology, that's awesome!
What are your personal experiences with AI audio technologies?MD: I got started with AI using artificial assistance to make plug-ins for audio tech companies. You give the AI parameters, and it will provide different settings. It becomes a dialogue between the creator and the machine where AI provides options and the user finesses it to get the desired effect. As a freelance sound designer, I have been connecting with companies who are working on new AI products, apps, and plug-ins in order to help music producers with their creative process. The most recent consulting I did was for a research project around how to teach a neural network to listen and interpret sounds that it hears.
JW: I've worked with the audio tech company iZotope and spent time with researchers looking at machine learning in audio at the Centre for Digital Music in London. One of the most exciting things that the technology provides is deep insights to the creative user within the context of their work. A great example of this is a toolkit called Tonal Balance Control. It's a way of distilling thousands and thousands of recordings to see how the signals are distributed across the audio spectrum. If you look across 10,000 recordings and notice they follow a similar pattern, you can use this as a statistical model to measure it against your own recording. This is a way AI provides information that we would never have otherwise.
What are your thoughts on AI in the context of teaching and learning, and its implications for future generations of designers and producers?JW: My way of teaching with AI is to help students understand what it is and put it in the context of its utility. It's essential that students have an understanding of the powerful technologies available and how to use them. In our creative context, AI isn't meant to be used to produce a wholly finished result. If you think about something like large language models as a tool for generating prompts and stimulating ideas, that's interesting. But if you're using ChatGPT to write your entire paper for you, there are obvious problems with that. Ultimately, AI may modulate what we do. For example, I can see AI handling tasks such as writing commercial music for advertisements, but I don't think it will ever replace human abilities in the creative process.
MD: As we start to bring AI into the DAW [digital audio workstation], it's important that critical listening skills remain essential. If you are actively and thoughtfully evaluating the sounds that you hear, you will make better decisions when it comes to applying AI. The danger is that a user may accept AI results as being the best outcome, when in fact it may not be. Teaching students to have the ability and confidence to say, I see what the AI tool did, but I don't think it's quite good enough is paramount. In the classroom at Berklee, we might make something using AI and then talk about what it gav
More from Berklee
26/07/2024
Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2024 Emmy Awards Twenty-one Berklee alumni received Emmy nominations this year for music composition, sound mixing, and sound editi...
23/07/2024
Alum Notes: Spring/Summer 2024 The most recent news from your fellow alumni.
July 10, 2024
Emily McGuire B.F.A. '18 of Glendale, CA, found a new love f...
18/07/2024
Faculty Notes: Spring/Summer 2024 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty.
July 8, 2024
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Assistant Pro...
18/07/2024
Jim McNeely and Miguel Zen n Named the 2024-2025 Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in...
18/07/2024
Jim Lucchese Named Berklee's Fifth President A 20-year music industry veteran and a committed artist advocate with deep Berklee roots, Lucchese sets the t...
16/07/2024
Dr. Judith Christie McAllister Joins Gospel Performance Summer Program as Artist...
15/07/2024
Berklee Alumni Publications Win CASE Awards The magazine Berklee Today received a gold award and podcast Pass the Mic earned bronze from the Council for Advan...
11/07/2024
Berklee NYC Honors Largest Class of Master Scholars at 2024 Commencement Grammy and Tony Award-winning alum Charlie Rosen delivered the commencement address a...
09/07/2024
Legendary African Musician Youssou N'Dour Receives Honorary Degree at Berkle...
08/07/2024
Berklee City Music Celebrates Three Decades Empowering Young Artists The program has given generations of musicians-sometimes within the same family-the tools...
08/07/2024
Renate Rohlfing Awarded Mass Cultural Council Grant The music therapy faculty member will use the grant to help foster more opportunities to create in-person co...
06/07/2024
Berklee Online Offers Courses to Students in Juvenile Justice Centers To date, Berklee Online classes are offered at nearly 30 such centers across the United ...
06/07/2024
Working to Make Music More Accessible to All New technologies and changing attitudes mean more disabled musicians are playing instruments.
By
Adrian Ananta...
29/06/2024
Students Help Bring Nona Hendryxs Dream Machine to Life at Lincoln Center A group of electronic production and design majors created sonic landscapes for Hend...
28/06/2024
Dr. Trineice Robinson-Martin Named Chair of the Ensemble Department A renowned vocalist, arranger, and educator, Robinson-Martin is known for developing innov...
26/06/2024
LGBTQ Student Group to Hold Inaugural Pride Music Festival Lavanda, founded by student Emma Whitney, will host Camp Fest, an outdoor music festival and commu...
15/06/2024
What Exactly Is Dad Rock? 21 Songs that Explain the Totally Not Embarrassing Gen...
14/06/2024
Dr. Lenora Helm Hammonds Named Dean of the Professional Education Division A renowned jazz vocalist, educator, and Berklee alumna, Hammonds is known for her i...
13/06/2024
Final Exams or NBA Finals? For These Boston Conservatory Students, It's Both Two commercial dance students joined the Boston Celtics dancers for a memorab...
05/06/2024
Taylor Swifts Global Popularity Explained (Berklees Version) Music business, songwriting, and live production faculty weigh in on what makes Taylor Swift unst...
05/06/2024
Professor and Two Alumni Receive Fulbright Awards Faculty member Stacy Mattingly and alumni Shanelle Villegas and Lili Chey Warren have been selected for Fulb...
05/06/2024
Music and Sustainability at Berklee and Beyond Integrating sustainability practices into music not only helps address environmental concerns but also contribute...
24/05/2024
Boston Conservatory Plays a Leading Role at the 41st Annual Elliot Norton Awards With six wins and eight additional nominations, the Conservatory's theate...
22/05/2024
Berklee's Summer in the City Brings Free Concerts to Boston Area The series will feature Berklee students, faculty, and alumni performing at popular venue...
21/05/2024
Dr. Ray Seol Awarded Grant for Creative Individuals from Mass Cultural Council The grant will expand his Seu Aprendiz project designed to help individuals bui...
15/05/2024
Berklee Artists to Perform at Major US Music Festivals this Summer and Fall The Berklee Popular Music Institute arranged placements at top festivals including...
12/05/2024
Berklee Honors Ledisi, Q-Tip, and Gilberto Santa Rosa at Commencement This years honorary doctorate recipients were recognized for their profound influence as...
10/05/2024
Berklee Announces 2024 Songs for Social Change Contest Winners Student songwriters shine in the annual contest that recognizes music with a socially conscious...
10/05/2024
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2024 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
10/05/2024
Berklee and Audio Engineering Society to Host Symposium on AI in Music The inaugural AES International Symposium on AI and the Musician will highlight excitin...
08/05/2024
Q&A with Visiting Artist Lei Liang The acclaimed composer discusses his collaboration with Boston Conservatory, his work as a research artist, and what it mea...
04/05/2024
Three Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Nominated for Tony Awards An additional eight alums and two current students performed in nominated productions.
...
02/05/2024
Two Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Nominated for Tony Awards An additional eight alums and two current students performed in nominated productions.
By...
30/04/2024
Next Jazz Legacy Announces 2024 Cohort of Women and Nonbinary Awardees The program was created by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender J...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
25/04/2024
Berklee Student Riko Sasaski Named 2024 Yamaha Young Performing Artist The accomplished saxophonist secured a spot among the elite winners of this year's ...
24/04/2024
Berklee Online to Hold 2024 Berklee Onsite Music Conference May 31-June 1 The in-person conference is open to Berklee Online students and the music community ...
18/04/2024
Krisha Marcano Announced as Dean of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee The theater educator, choreographer, and performer will join Boston Conservator...
18/04/2024
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear struc...
17/04/2024
Simone Pilon Appointed Executive Director at Berklee Valencia Pilon, who has served as Berklee Valencia's interim executive director since March 2023, has a...
17/04/2024
FINNEAS and Ashe Talk Confidence and Collaboration in the Music Industry Days before his sister Billie Eilishs new album announcement, producer and songwriter...
12/04/2024
Youssou NDour to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee Valencia's 2024 Comme...
12/04/2024
Berklee and Electronic Arts Celebrate Annual EA Day The second annual EA Berklee Day celebrated women in the screen scoring industry and presented the Electro...
11/04/2024
Boston Conservatory at Berklee to Honor LaChanze and Lar Lubovitch at Commenceme...
11/04/2024
Berklee Hosts Leading Artists and Entertainment Pros at Annual Career Jam Grammy-winning producer and singer-songwriter FINNEAS and hitmaker Ashe BM 15 headli...
10/04/2024
Ledisi, Q-Tip, and Gilberto Santa Rosa to Receive Honorary Doctorates at Berklee...
05/04/2024
Berklee Honors Three Outstanding Artists at Alumni Achievement Awards Natalie Toro, Gustavo Borner, and Mark Kelley were recognized for their achievements in ...
05/04/2024
Berklee's Africana Studies Department to Host its First Annual Symposium The inaugural event will feature scholar, political commentator, and author Dr. E...
04/04/2024
Boston Conservatory at Berklee to Present Five Iconic Works at Spring Dance Conc...
04/04/2024
Morton Subotnick Named 2024 Herb Alpert Visiting Artist for Electronic Productio...