This video features (1) Creatures—the latest song in my music series—and (2) my experiments using the Kaiber AI video generator (kaiber.ai/create),
I’ve always struggled to find video footage to go along with the songs on my main YouTube music channel. I have tried taking videos of dancers, using screen captures of music visualizers, using video footage I took while travelling, making montages of street art photos and collaborating with an underwater dancer. For this video, I experimented with Kaiber, an AI video generator that is useful for producing dream-like videos with evolving imagery.
Download the song
Creatures is the 45th song in my Free Background Music Series. It is a laidback piece that is largely created from loops, with the core piano coming from a promotional collaboration between Landr and Pantone (PANTONE Color of the Year 2020: The Classic Blue 19-4052), with additional parts played on a Korg M50 synthesizer. As with the other songs in the series, this work can be used for free in non-commercial projects and in YouTube monetized videos (that are otherwise non-commercial in nature) as long as credit is provided (‘music by longzijun’). For more information, you can refer to the detailed Terms of Use. The song can be downloaded from:
The music was recorded, mixed and edited using Cakewalk by Bandlab (which is free), and I did the mastering in Magix Audio Cleaning Lab.
About the Kaiber AI video generator
With Kaiber (kaiber.ai/create), you can choose from three main animation methods:
Flipbook: This is Kaiber’s signature style; it creates a somewhat jittery video in which the imagery evolves in a dream-like manner. You can control the amount of change via the ‘Evolve’ setting, but even if you use the very lowest setting, the main character’s facial features, hairstyle and clothes will still gradually change. Most of the shots in the above video were generated using this mode.
Motion: This is a relatively new feature. The animated clips are between 3 and 4 seconds long, but they have smoother motion. If you select a high ‘evolve setting’ you can get interesting transitions.
Transform a video: With this method, you upload an existing video and tell Kaiber’s AI what you want to do with it. In this mode, if you set ‘Transformation’ to a low value (1 is the minimum and 10 is the maximum), the effect is more like a filter, with only slight changes to things like the color and amount of detail. If the setting is near the maximum, you can completely change the look of the main subject(s) and the whole environment. In principle, it works similarly to rotoscoping or motion capture. At the moment, if you are using Kaiber, this mode is the only way to get realistic movements like running, walking or dancing.
I recently used this K-pop song—Eleven—by IVE, to demonstrate some of the decisions that a music producer is responsible for. There are quite a few interesting things about the song’s composition, arrangement and mix, so it is worth looking at them in more detail. Before reading further, you might want to listen to the song and think about what makes it so distinctive.
Context
Eleven, the debut single of six-member K-pop girl group IVE, was released on 1 December 2021. It was written and produced by Peter Rycroft (Lostboy), Lauren Aquilina, Ryan S. Jhun and Alawn, with additional lyrics by Seo Ji-eum.
Structure
The song has a typical pop-song structure:
Intro Verse 1 Pre-chorus 1 Chorus
Verse 2 Pre-chorus 2 Chorus Post Chorus
Bridge Chorus Post-Chorus
Melody & Harmony: Scales & Chords
There are some interesting things going on with the melody and harmony. The melody mainly uses two scales:
E minor (E F# G A B C D E)
Mixolydian b13 mode in E (E F# G# A B C D E): As this is a scale that is more common in Indian music, it is sometimes called the Hindu scale. The G# gives it a ‘major’ feel while the C natural and D natural give it a ‘minor’ feel.
The effect is that the melody of the song has a mysterious feel, with a slight Indian or Middle Eastern influence.
The song is ‘officially’ in A major (A B C# D E F# G# A), but the note that really makes A major a major scale—C#—is conspicuously absent in the song. And in terms of harmony, if you look at the actual chords, you will see that:
the verse and chorus center around the E major chord (E G# B) and
the pre-chorus centers around the E minor chord (E G B)
Thus, the song has a kind of neutral vibe—not quite major, but also not quite minor.
Melody & Harmony: Tension & Release
This song makes effective use of tension and release. Tension between the melody and harmony is created when the melody avoids the notes of the underlying chords and/or uses notes outside the scale associated with those chords (What is Tension and Release in Music?). Release then comes when the melody resolves to one of the notes of the underlying chord.
For example, in the song Eleven, the chord under the main ‘one two three four five six seven‘ hook (the first bar in the following excerpt) is C major (C E G).
The melody—E F G A B D B A—dances around ‘C’, but it never lands on the note. This leaves you expecting a ‘C’ that never comes, In addition, the F# over a C major chord also creates some tension as it is the tritone above C (If you are not sure what I mean here, try playing C and F# together and you will hear that the sound is rather dissonant—i.e., the notes clash with one another).
Similarly, the chord for the next bar is D major, but there are four E notes and no D notes, again creating a feeling of tension as you anticipate a resolution to D. Finally, the phrase resolves to a G# that eventually goes over an E major chord (E G# B). This provides a feeling of resolution, but the feeling is not as ‘final’ as it would have been if the note had resolved to the root note (E).
Tempo
The tempo of the song is 120 bpm, but before each chorus, there is a ritardando (i.e., a gradual slowing down), which is quite unusual in a dance-oriented pop song. Just before the chorus, the song speeds up back to the original tempo. In the first two instances, the speeding up takes one beat, while for the last instance it takes two beats (which adds a little variety). In IVE’s dance routine for this song, the ritardando and sudden return to the main tempo are emphasized by using movements representing drawing a bowstring and releasing an arrow.
Syncopation and Articulation
The melody in the verse is heavily syncopated. In the first four bars of the verse (shown below), for example, every note lands on the eighth note after the main beat. This use of syncopation also helps to create a mysterious feel.
In the hook, though the notes for the lyrics ‘one two three four five six seven‘ are on the beat, they are given a (somewhat) staccato articulation. Rather then flowing into one another (i.e., legato), each note is clearly separated. with a sixteenth note rest between each word in the phrase.
The Arrangement & Mix
The arrangement overall is quit unusual for a dance pop song. The arrangement of the song is very sparse, especially in the first verse and pre-chorus , where there are only vocals and three percussive parts:
a melodic/rhythmic pattern that is introduced in the intro
a simple drum beat with a kick drum and a weak snare sound (and no hi-hats or other cymbals)
a tuned-percussion sound that makes one think of the sound of a tabla or dumbak combined with the sound of a marimba. Due to the tabla/dumbak/marinba-like sound, the arrangement has a slight Indian or Middle Eastern vibe that complements the melody
In Eleven, the pattern from the intro and the tuned-percussion part that appears in most of the rest of the song have a multifunctional role—they help create the rhythm, they provide counter-melodies and they also create the chord progressions that make up the harmony.
In Western pop music, instruments tend to have one or two functions only—for example the drums provide the rhythm, the lead guitar focuses on melody, the keyboards focus on harmony, the rhythm guitar is responsible for harmony and rhythm, etc. However, in pop music in other cultures—like many genres of African, Middle Eastern or Indian music—the multifunctional approach used in Eleven is common in things like tuned percussion and very rhythmic ‘harmony’ and ‘melody’ parts.
There is a short solo phrase in the intro played with a woodwind-like synth sound that appears again as backing vocals in the post chorus. This melismatic (melismatic = using several notes to sing one syllable) phrase also has an Indian or Middle Eastern feel to it.
In the choruses and second pre-chorus, sustained synth chords appear but they are quite far back in the mix. The synth past just adds a bit of solidity to the chorus. In the chorus and post-chorus, there are also a lot of little background vocal parts. It is a very ‘vocal-centric’ arrangement overall.
The sparse arrangement puts the main vocals very front-and-center, and this is further emphasized in the mix, which has the vocals being very ‘forward’ in the mix (i.e., the levels are very high compared to other instruments in the mix).
Although it is safe to assume that the usual effects (reverb, compression and EQ) have been added to the vocals, these effects have been used in moderation, so the vocal character and timbre of each singer’s voice is clear. This is a good choice for a debut single as it is able to showcase the voice of each singer in IVE.
Demo Version
You can listen to the demo version of Eleven in the following video. Many of the things that are mentioned above—the influence from Indian music, the major/minor neutrality, the tension between melody and harmony and also the unusual ritardando—are already present in the demo version. The things added in the production stage—such as the intro, instrumentation and backing vocals—merely serve to further emphasize mysterious the Indian/Middle Eastern vibe
Conclusion
Overall, Eleven is an interesting song and was an effective debut single. First, the sparse arrangement and minimal use of effects showcases the characteristic voice of each singer. Second, the vaguely Indian/Middle Eastern influences in the melody and arrangement (and also in the visuals in the music video), created a unique, slightly exotic and mysterious vibe that helped set IVE apart from other 4th generation K-pop girl groups.
These innovative sites allow you to explore your creativity though experimenting with differing ways of creating music through your web browser. Some of these sites have export/download functions so that you can save the sounds you made. For others sites, you will need to record the audio coming from your computer or device. There are a few ways to do this mentioned in this article: How to Record the Sound Coming From Your PC (Even Without Stereo Mix).
Can each of these apps make an entire song? No, not really, but they can give you some interesting beats, melodies and sounds to work with, and they just might inspire you to take your music production into new directions.
Some of the programs listed are easy to understand and play, while others have a steep learning curve. Click on the thumbnails to go to the websites.
Make Rhythms
Citizen DJ
Create beats from splices of public domain audio (old movies, speeches and song recordings) and classic drum machine sounds. For some of the material you need to provide attribution. You can check the terms of use for each collection once you select it for remixing (US Library of Congress).
The Infinite Drum Machine
Use loops of everyday sounds to create rhythms. use the filter function to specify sounds related to the terms you input. (Experiments with Google)
Rhythm
Make simple three-part looping rhythms. Permission is given to use the sounds in your own music (Chrome Music Lab).
Groove Pizza
Create rhythms by drawing shapes (musedlab).
Beat Blender
At the four corners are different kinds of beats that you can edit. Everything in between is a variation on those four beats. A MIDI output option is available. The save function, however, does not seem to work (Experiments with Google)
If you are logged in, you can invite friend to jam with you on this drum sequencer
808 Cube
A free beat-making app that combines 808-style drum machine sounds that get flipped around like a Rubik’s Cube. there is also a function for uploading your own sound samples.
Roland50 Studio
Roland celebrates it’s 50th anniversary by releasing online version of several of is drum machines (as well as a couple of bass and synth sequencers). The synth sequencers are especially good if you are aiming for a retro arcade game sound.
WebAudio MIDI Drum Machine
A drum machine with various drums sounds and effects.
Create Melodies & Harmonies
Blob Opera
Drag your mouse to make four blobs sing. Vertical mouse movements determine the pitch and horizontal movements determine the vowels (Google Arts & Culture).
Arpeggios
Create sequences of arpeggiated chords. Permission is given to use the sounds in your own music (Chrome Music Lab).
Word Synth
Choose a scale, type in words, assign them a note and select the degree to which you want them to be ‘sung’.(Experiments with Google)
Typatone
Type in letters, which are then translated into musical notes.
Scratch
Create music (and/or animations) via coded instructions. Make sure you watch the tutorial before trying to work with this app (musedlab).
OneMotion Chord Player
Try out different chord progressions.
Incredibox
Create a mix with beatboxing, lead vocals, rap and back-up vocals. This is a paid app, but there are free demos available. The music created from the app, however, can only be used for personal, non-commercial projects.
Web Synthesizer V
Create melodies with lyrics in this free online version of a paid desktop program.
Isle Of Tune
Add streets, buildings, plants and streetlights. Assign sounds to all of them and these sounds get played as the cars drive past.
Tones
Create melodies and sequences
Blockdust
By joining blocks together, you can build synthesizers, put effects on your voice, remix & manipulate samples and arrange self-playing musical environments. (by Femur)
Omni
Experiment with 40 different scales, including East Asian and Middle Eastern scales. (by Femur)
Beepbox
A piano-roll-style music app
Patatap(caution: flashing images)
Type any of the letter keys on your computer keyboard. Tapping the space bar will change the sound of that key
Acid Machine 2
Create sequences of beats, basslines and melodies
Sampulator
Use your computer keyboard to play a limited number of samples (percussion, keyboard, guitar, effects and speech)
Efflux
An online sequencer
Mario Sequencer
A Mario-Brothers-themed sequencer that gives you a class 8-bit game sound.
Music Grid
A simple sequencer.
AR Synth
Drag and drop classic synthesizers and drum machines and then program them to play sequences. (Experiments with Google)
Draw Sounds
Paint with Music
Draw shapes and lines which will then be converted to melodies. The horizontal dimension determines the length of a note but NOT the when the note actually gets played. (Google Arts & Culture)
Kandinsky
Convert shapes and lines into melodies. Permission is given to use the sounds in your own music. (Chrome Music Lab)
Scribble Audio
Play around with different types of sound waves (sine, square, sawtooth and triangle). You can save the sounds in WAV format.
PIXELSYNTH
Create very weird electronic music by transforming the pixels of an uploaded image or drawn lines into musical notes.
Create Sounds with your Body
These apps require a webcam to be installed so that the programs can monitor your body movements.
Semi-Conductor
Conduct a virtual string section by moving your arms. (Experiments with Google)
Body Synth
Create sounds by moving your body. (Experiments with Google)
Add Effects
Voice Spinner (Chrome Music Lab)
Spin the sound your voice (or anything coming from your mic) like a DJ spins records
Nsynth Sound Maker
Combine the sounds of two different things (e.g, guitar + flute, cow + organ) and adjust the proportion of each sound. This can create unique sounds. (Experiments with Google)
Tone Transfer (by Google Research)
Take the melody produced by one thing (e.g., human voice, birds chirping, etc) and turn it into and musical instrument sound. You can also upload your own files or use a microphone input.
Play Online Synthesizers
Viktor: NK-1 Synth
Experiment with building your own sounds from different kinds of basic waveforms.
Tony-b Machine
A synth with retro sounds.
Websynths Microtronal
Explore all kinds or parameters—waveforms, modulators, filters, delay, feedback, etc.
TrueGrid
Move patches, flip switches and rotate dials to create sounds in this digital version of a modular synth.
WebSID
Recreates the retro sounds of an early computer: the Commodore 64.
Cardboard Synth
Experiment with analog synth sounds.
Play Other Virtual Instruments
Theremin (Google Doodle)
A theremin synth developed by Google for in celebration of Clara Rockmore
Theremin (Femur)
Drag your mouse across the screen to change the pitch (and you can also add delay, feedback and ‘scuzz’.
Theremin App
You can select waveforms, 12 different keys and 18 different scale types
Virtual Bandura
Play this plucked Ukranian folk music instrument.
Virtual Pantam Playground
A virtual handpan—you can select and edit different scales.
Create Ambient Soundscapes
Ambient Mixer
Create mixes of ambient sounds from the sites library or adapt other users’ templates. I would recommend using this site for personal use as the licensing and rights are ambiguous.
Tabletop Audio Soundpad
Sound effects and music for creating ambient soundscapes. The site is good for exploring and for working on personal non-commercial projects, but the creator’s terms of use when it comes to commercial use are ambiguous.
Add Texture
Mix ambient sounds. Your mixes are free to use for non-commercial purposes as long as attribution is provided. For a commercial license the fee is £25.
Adapt/Remix other People’s Music
Rather than helping your create your own music, these sites let you transform and remix existing music.
Unseen Music: Helios by Yume
Move elements of the pictures to mix a beautiful electronic soundscape composed by Yume.
Play a Kandinsky
This site explores the relationships between sound, color and emotion using a painting by Kandinsky as kind of interface. (Google Arts & Culture)
Variations Playground
Create your own variations of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Britten’s the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. (musedlab)
Visualize Sound
Oscillator (Chrome Music Lab)
Hear and see visualizations of four different kind of soundwaves (square, sine, sawtooth and triangle).
Spectogram (Chrome Music Lab): See the spectograms (visual representations of audio frequencies) of different kinds of sounds. You can also input sounds via your microphone.
Piano Roll (Chrome Music Lab)
See a simply display of how selected classical music works look in the MIDI piano roll format.
Seeing Music
View visualizations using sample audio or upload your own audio. You can see different kinds of representations such as waveforms, oscilloscopes, spectrograms and ‘Hilbert’ visualizations.
Other Tools
Easy Virtual Choir
An app for quickly creating a choir from individual videos.
Ableton Launchpad Intro
Thinking about getting a Launchpad MIDI controller. You can experiment with this app to see how it works.
Ableton: Learn Synths
A hands-on-guide to things like oscillators, waveforms, envelopes and filters.
Ableton Learn Music
A step by step guide to all the basic principles of creating rhythm sequences and melodic and harmonic patterns.
Full Music Production Software
Bandlab Studio
A complete DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software that allows you to record and mix music. You need to create a free account to access the software.
Coming Soon: AI
There are already a few web-based services that will auto-generate music for you, but the results tend to be generic. For example, with AIVA you can generate a song like this: Always in Your Mind, Never in Your Heart – AI Composed R&B Track by AIVA (though a lot of human remixing was done with the material generated).
However, Google recently released a research study on one of their experiments: MusicLM: Generating Music From Text. With this program, you can write text prompts or hum a melody and the software will come up with a song in the style of your choice. MusicLM’s idea of jazz is ‘ropey’ at best, but it does a good job in other genres. We seem to be at the stage now where AI-generated imagery was a couple of years ago. The results are interesting. but no replacement for the real thing. However, it is likely there will be a similar breakthrough in music AI in the next couple of years just as there was with AI-generated imagery.
If there are there any sites I should add, let me know.
Future articles will look at free online DAW software and editing tools as well as free music apps. If you have any recommendations, let me know.
Orchestral Sunset is the eighth track in the Short Instrumental Themes series. It was mainly played on a Korg M50 synthesizer. There is also a drumless version:
Intro Theme 07 (Soft & Hard) is made up of two sections: the first part is electronic (synthesizer and percussion) while the second part is more like rock (guitar and drums).
Love & Time is the fourth track in the Free Short Instrumentals series. It is a solo piano instrumental that has a nostalgic feel. The song was played on a Korg M50 synthesizer.
This is the fourth song in the free background music series. The instrumental features synthesizer, piano, acoustic bass, guitar, strings, flute, an Asian fiddle, drums and percussion. There are quite a few different sections with slightly different feels to them.
There are two different versions of the song. The short version (4:42) is the video shown above. The longer version (7:21) of the song has an extended intro with a clockwork-like feel and a longer coda at the end. Here is the long version:
Safe Harbor is the 11th song in the Free Background series. This is minimalist. loop-based song with orchestral instrumentation (e.g., piano, cello, acoustic bass, harp, flute, French horn. clarinet, drums). There are two versions. The second version, which is shorter and which is without drums, is shown below.
This video features the two piano songs in the Free Short Instrumental Themes series. They are both by featured guest artist Jessica Yip: Untitled (Track 26), which 62 seconds long and The Mercury Tale Track 15), which is 53-seconds long. These piano instrumental are suitable for opening sequences and end credits.
Intro 26. Untitled by Jessica Yip (62 seconds)
Intro 15. The Mercury Tale by Jessica Yip (53 seconds)
The Sea Withdrew is the 43rd song in my Free Background Music series. It is a quiet and gentle piano instrumental that switches between major and minor keys. The song was played on Korg M50 Synth. The composition was inspired by all the problems we have been facing during 2020. It has a sad and somber feel, but includes key changes to major keys in order to show a feeling of hope. The song starts in the key of C minor and ends in C major.
This video features Drifting, the 42nd song in the Free Background Music series. Drifting is a two-minute song built from loops (for the guitar, zither, cello and percussion parts) and tracks I played on a Korg M50 keyboard (the strings, bass, woodwinds and synth parts). It drifts between C minor and it’s relative major (E flat). In this composition, I am mainly focusing on the gentle rhythmic interplay between the instruments. If you like this track, you should check out another of my songs: Ravenchanter (Track 29). It has a similar laid-back acoustic vibe.
This video features the 17th to 24th songs in the Free Short Instrumental Themes series. The songs in the video range in length from 6.5 seconds to 34 seconds and are suitable for use in intros, credits, outros and very short videos. These tracks are mostly synthesizer-based compositions. For each song. two versions are available. For most of the songs, the second version is a little faster and is one semi-tone higher. The tracks are listed below:
Intro 17 (synth & beat) 0:34 & 0:32
Intro 18 (gentle & melodic) 0:10 & 0:09
Intro 19 (bubbly synth) 0:07.5 & 0:07
Intro 20 (aggressive: piano, guitar, war drums) 0:13 & 0:12
This video features the 41st song in the Free Background Music Series and is the second video in my Travel Diary series.
As with the other songs in the Background Music series, this instrumental work can be used for free in non-commercial projects and in YouTube monetized videos (that are otherwise non-commercial in nature) as long as credit is provided (‘music by longzijun’). For more information about the terms and conditions for using the music, you can refer to the detailed Terms of Use.
Longzijun 