Is AI Ruining Drumming?

Grab your free transcription of the grooves in this video - https://8020drummer.short.gy/drummer-ai Give human composer Ben Bratton a follow -   / benbrattondrums   Chapters 0:00 - intro 3:33 - the tools 7:15 - what critics say 9:48 - won't this cost drummers our jobs? 18:26 - yes, we should boycott (but whom)? The “bad future” is here. AI tools can now write songs for you, replace band members in a DAW, quantize your drum parts without any fidelity loss, and transcribe songs for you. (That last one…needs a few tweaks.) And the internets are awash with critics, decrying the new generation of music tech. But what if you’re a drummer who just wants to make some songs to play along with? Does that make you the equivalent of somebody buying factory-farmed meat instead of free-range? Or, worse, burning coal in their back yard? In this video, I attempt to separate the “society-wide” arguments from the personal ones. We take a hopefully-sober look at the tools that are actually available to drummers, through the lens of a bunch of feedback I received from Instagram, Reddit, and members of my private Discord. Then we ask “would even the most shrill critics of AI music tech decry this use case.” And, short answer: maybe. You’ll find people impugning any use of AI because of “ick factor”. You’ll find plenty on the polar opposite side, opening shilling it. And between the two polls, some arguments we ought to consider, like “de-skilling”. Are drummers who use AI at risk of stunting their brains? Well, color me skeptical. To me, the much more clear and present danger has almost zero to do with private use, and much more to do with the large companies that stand to adopt - and are already adopting - AI in cases where they could have, and would have, afforded human creators. And, in my opinion, it’s these cases we should be most concerned about. Can we split our brains in 2? Go easier on individual drummers who just want a fun song to accompany them, and harder on big companies replacing human producers, drummers, and composers? We’ll get into it.