Innovative Sonic Design: How ChatGPT Enhances Digital Music Creation

When it comes to crafting sounds in a DAW, ChatGPT is a surprisingly constructive tool. Its main strength lies in translating musical ideas into technical language, which is useful for demystifying how audio effects are created.

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Instead of turning knobs and moving sliders at random hoping to get a sound you like, you can use ChatGPT to suggest values to start experimenting with. It also provides a handy resource for learning more about the wide range of audio effect parameters you come across in a DAW.

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ChatGPT in Music Production

Working with ChatGPT in your music production workflow presents an interesting use case. Since it was trained on an enormous trove of text from across the internet, it understands the expressions we use to describe music, as well as the technical speak used to describe effects plugins in DAWs.

This doesn’t mean it can give away the secrets to Frank Ocean’s production style or the vocal sound of Billie Eilish. But it can help you figure out the right plugin settings for the kind of sound you want to create.

ChatGPT can turn ideas like “crunchy, cut-through distortion” into practical settings written in decibels and hertz. Saving you the time you otherwise would have spent searching YouTube or Google for the answer to “How do I create X effect?”.

You can listen through the playlist below for a quick preview of the results in action. We created the sound effects by asking ChatGPT for various suggestions, then dialing the numbers into the plugin and recording the results.

In the title of each track is the name of the plugin type we used, such as distortion or delay, plus the keywords we used in the prompt i.e., dense, watery, psychedelic, etc.

The Prompt Format

There are numerous ways you can ask ChatGPT to help you craft a sound. After successive experiments, we came up with the following prompt format that is concise, while producing all the necessary information.

Prompt: I want to create a [describe the effect or sound] in [name of DAW]. What settings do you recommend I try? Summarize your answer in a table. Here are the plugin settings: [list plugin settings, including the unit]

Read our guide on how to use ChatGPT if you need a quick recap before moving on.

For the first part of the prompt, you want to describe the effect or sound you are trying to create. A few keywords will do the trick. We tried words like “watery and psychedelic” to describe a delay effect, and in other experiments, we played with phrases like “bright, sharp, and cuts through the mix”.

In the second part of the prompt, you need to give ChatGPT a list of the most important parameters you are using inside the plugin of your choice. You can pick any plugin you want. Open it to view the available settings and make note of the parameters.

One thing that is crucial to get right is to include the unit of measurement alongside the name of the parameter. As an example, for a chorus plugin, you might list parameters like Rate (Hz), Intensity (%), and Mix (%). Some settings like Tempo Sync have no unit but can be enabled on or off (ChatGPT seemed to understand this on its own).

Start with a plugin that has fewer settings to adjust to simplify the process of writing a prompt.

If you don’t include the unit, then ChatGPT will conjure up its own names and units that have no relation to the plugin at hand. Hallucinating, as the phenomenon is called, is one of the problems ChatGPT faces as it continues to develop.

Keep in mind that every plugin is unique and will have different types of controls with various names. So fill in the blank part of the prompt with a list of parameters that matches the plugin you are using.

Applying the Settings to Your Plugin

If you use the prompt format from the previous step, ChatGPT will produce a neatly ordered table with the plugin parameters listed in the left column, and the recommended values given in the right column.

Here is a prompt we tried and what the results look like:

Prompt: I want to create a dense and rapid delay effect in Logic Pro X. What settings do you recommend I try? Summarize your answer in a table. Here are the plugin settings: Tempo Sync, Delay Time ms, Smoothing ms, LFO rate Hz, LFO Intensity %, Flutter Rate Hz, Flutter Intensity %, Feedback %, Output Dry %, Output Wet %

Once you input ChatGPT’s suggested settings, listen to the results and see what you think. Here is the result of the prompt we tried above:

Generally, ChatGPT will list values with a small range, so you have some wiggle room to play with the suggestion. Of course, you aren’t beholden to these suggestions by any means, so feel free to use them as a starting point and adjust as needed.

This is advice that ChatGPT also appends to just about every response:

“Remember, experimentation is key, and these recommendations serve as a starting point. Have fun exploring and finding the perfect sound for your music!”

It may be tiring to hear, but nonetheless true.

Tips and Tricks

In addition to the basic prompt format that we’ve outlined, there are a few extra things you can experiment with. These tips and tricks will help you play with, or expand on, ChatGPT’s responses.

Ask for an Explanation

Want to know more about what a plugin parameter does or why ChatGPT picked those settings? Simply ask it to include an explanation. You can do this by adding the phrase include explanations to the end of your prompt.

Follow-Up Questions

Sometimes the explanations can be hit or miss, so if there is a parameter you want more information about, ask ChatGPT a follow-up question. You can treat the AI chatbot like you would a person and ask it to explain something in depth. If it starts to use too much jargon, ask it to write the answer in simple terms or use a metaphor.

There are several prompting techniques for ChatGPT that can help you distill the information you’re looking for.

Get Variations

A good way to get a different result is to have ChatGPT regenerate its response to your prompt. The Regenerate response button sits just above the text box, and you can click it to get a slightly different answer.

Additionally, look for a couple of arrows near the top left-hand side of ChatGPT’s response. You can use them to move back and forth between the different results.

ChatGPT: An Unsuspecting Music Production Tool

Pairing ChatGPT with music production in this way is both constructive and instructive, serving as an unlikely tool for learning the ways of crafting sound effects. Starting with a prompt format, you can use ChatGPT to give ballpark values for distortion, chorus, or delay plugins, among others.

As an alternative to watching YouTube tutorials or reading plugin manuals, opening a dialogue with this AI chatbot can help us to better learn our plugins and have more fun using them.

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Instead of turning knobs and moving sliders at random hoping to get a sound you like, you can use ChatGPT to suggest values to start experimenting with. It also provides a handy resource for learning more about the wide range of audio effect parameters you come across in a DAW.

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