Back in the late 1980's - early 1990's I wrote and recorded over 100 musical doodles and themes on electronic keyboards, using a Tascam casette recorder. The themes were all live, one-off, performances on a Roland Juno 6, a Roland D20, and a Technics SX-K700, tin whistle and Saxophone. Over the years, I'd transferred all of the casette recordings into digital WAV files and cleaned them up as much as possible (using "Audacity"), In June 2024, I was diagnosed with cancer and during chemotherapy, to keep my mind off the situation, I focused on music. Click here for the facebook page and here for the fundraising story.
As my movement was restricted (one hand in an IV drip for seven hours a day, five days at a time, for four cycles - with two weeks rest/recovery in between), I began experimenting with artificial intelligence tools to bring the digital versions to life. The first step involved using various AI to MIDI tools to extract the main themes and melodies, followed by loading them into Logic Pro X to chop/mix key sections. The next step was to use AI tools to create variations of those sections, themes and doodles and produce more rounded versions of the original performances.
Once I had the MIDI versions, I could experiment in Sibelius/Logic Pro X and add various instruments (BBC Orchestra - Spitfire Labs), and add articulation and dynamics. More recently, I added Synth V (voice Synthesiser) voices to the AI enhanced versions of my original musical doodles and ACE Studio. I also experimented with various AI music generators, but the results were very hit and miss, producing only 1/100 that I felt "worked". The combination of Logic Pro and ACE Studio (with phrasing tweaked in Synth V) are now the main workflow.
During the original compositions, I typically had an image associated with each piece. With plenty of time on my hands (hand) I began to experiment with AI Image creation (Microsoft Designer). I created the images that I felt worked with the music. You can type a scene description using Microsoft Designer (DALL-E engine) and let the AI artwork generator do its magic. However, the rejection rate was high; several images took over 90 iterations to get right, and the AI threw up some pretty weird pictures during the process. In one example, a Viking hiding in the forest (the main character in the plot of Stonelore) had a DSLR camera hanging around his neck. Everything else was excellent, but the modern camera in a scene set around 800 BC was a severe anachronism. In another image, a sea monster (the Kraken) was an organic part of the ship; some characters' heads were back to front, parts of bodies folded in impossible positions, people had dog heads, dogs had human faces, and human limbs bent in impossible shapes. By tweaking the descriptions, keeping the main themes in mind, and a LOT of perseverance, I (eventually) managed to create the images I had in mind. The final results are stunning and were worth the effort and high rejection rate.
It was frustrating and time-consuming, but I had the time during Chemo and the months following while I recovered from the treatment. Keeping a positive metal attitude and producing music/art seemed like the best therapy.
AI art was great for my purposes, but it’s frustrating when you get something almost correct, but one element (like a camera) is wrong, and the whole image has to be sent to the bin (Mac user).
Iterating between image, Sibelius/Logic Pro X, ACE Studio and Synth V is a lot of fun and now occupies most of my spare time. I've several projects in development. "Stonelore", "The Kraken", "Rivers", "Binneas" and have released "Aislinnean" via Distrokid and both "The Ghost Cycle" and "Bridges" are available as Apple Books (digital download).
I'll load samples of everything on these pages as I progress.
I hope you enjoy - please leave a comment and/or feedback.
G. Keith Still 2025/26
Update - I was diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer Late 2025 - treatment 2026 - so I had EVEN more time to keep productive and hone the skills with ACE STUDIO and Logic Pro. Treatment now completed and happy to say - I've several albums on iTunes/Spotify/Amazon Music.
As my movement was restricted (one hand in an IV drip for seven hours a day, five days at a time, for four cycles - with two weeks rest/recovery in between), I began experimenting with artificial intelligence tools to bring the digital versions to life. The first step involved using various AI to MIDI tools to extract the main themes and melodies, followed by loading them into Logic Pro X to chop/mix key sections. The next step was to use AI tools to create variations of those sections, themes and doodles and produce more rounded versions of the original performances.
Once I had the MIDI versions, I could experiment in Sibelius/Logic Pro X and add various instruments (BBC Orchestra - Spitfire Labs), and add articulation and dynamics. More recently, I added Synth V (voice Synthesiser) voices to the AI enhanced versions of my original musical doodles and ACE Studio. I also experimented with various AI music generators, but the results were very hit and miss, producing only 1/100 that I felt "worked". The combination of Logic Pro and ACE Studio (with phrasing tweaked in Synth V) are now the main workflow.
During the original compositions, I typically had an image associated with each piece. With plenty of time on my hands (hand) I began to experiment with AI Image creation (Microsoft Designer). I created the images that I felt worked with the music. You can type a scene description using Microsoft Designer (DALL-E engine) and let the AI artwork generator do its magic. However, the rejection rate was high; several images took over 90 iterations to get right, and the AI threw up some pretty weird pictures during the process. In one example, a Viking hiding in the forest (the main character in the plot of Stonelore) had a DSLR camera hanging around his neck. Everything else was excellent, but the modern camera in a scene set around 800 BC was a severe anachronism. In another image, a sea monster (the Kraken) was an organic part of the ship; some characters' heads were back to front, parts of bodies folded in impossible positions, people had dog heads, dogs had human faces, and human limbs bent in impossible shapes. By tweaking the descriptions, keeping the main themes in mind, and a LOT of perseverance, I (eventually) managed to create the images I had in mind. The final results are stunning and were worth the effort and high rejection rate.
It was frustrating and time-consuming, but I had the time during Chemo and the months following while I recovered from the treatment. Keeping a positive metal attitude and producing music/art seemed like the best therapy.
AI art was great for my purposes, but it’s frustrating when you get something almost correct, but one element (like a camera) is wrong, and the whole image has to be sent to the bin (Mac user).
Iterating between image, Sibelius/Logic Pro X, ACE Studio and Synth V is a lot of fun and now occupies most of my spare time. I've several projects in development. "Stonelore", "The Kraken", "Rivers", "Binneas" and have released "Aislinnean" via Distrokid and both "The Ghost Cycle" and "Bridges" are available as Apple Books (digital download).
I'll load samples of everything on these pages as I progress.
I hope you enjoy - please leave a comment and/or feedback.
G. Keith Still 2025/26
Update - I was diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer Late 2025 - treatment 2026 - so I had EVEN more time to keep productive and hone the skills with ACE STUDIO and Logic Pro. Treatment now completed and happy to say - I've several albums on iTunes/Spotify/Amazon Music.