Samplab has just released a free standalone application and VST3 plugin called TextToSample, and it’s available for both Mac and Windows users.
The main purpose of TextToSample is to generate short audio samples from a text prompt by employing the current state-of-the-art generative AI models.
It’s trained after Meta’s MusicGen model weights, particularly the weights of the “small” model. MusicGen is part of the bigger Audiocraft library, an open-source database for audio processing and generation with deep learning.
The research team behind MusicGen used 20k hours of licensed music to train it. More specifically, they relied on an internal dataset of 10K high-quality music tracks and the Shutterstock and Pond5 music data.
The latter are big libraries of royalty-free music, which means you should be safe and avoid potential copyright strikes by employing the neural engine of the app.
Speaking of AI music, you might want to check out our list of free AI music generators.
Anyway, as Samplab mentions, the goal of the TextToSample app is certainly not to replace human musicians if this something may scare you.
I think we should approach these fresh and “no-more-futuristic-but-very-present” developments in audio technology with an open-minded approach.
As with anything new and game-changing, artificial intelligence is certainly a field that divides enthusiasts from skeptical people.
If you’re interested in a more comprehensive analysis of the subject, you can read the BPB poll we published recently about the use of AI in music production.
Now, let’s turn our attention back to TextToSample.
All calculations made by the program are done locally on your computer. You just need an Internet connection to download the models when you open TextToSample for the first time.
It must be noted that an Apple M1 chip with Neural Engine or a GPU is highly recommended to generate audio quickly.
The plugin’s interface is very simple: at the top, you have a small box to enter the text prompt of the audio sample you want to generate.
Below that, you can drag in an external sample if you want the application to extend a musical idea.
A handy slider lets you define how long you want the generated sample to be, and it’s measured in seconds, not musical divisions, unfortunately.
After clicking the Generate button, the generated result will appear at the bottom of the interface, along with previous experiments so that you don’t risk losing them after each iteration.
Finally, you can simply drag and drop your new samples into your DAW by clicking and dragging the waveform icon.
TextToSample is available as a standalone or VST3 plugin, and it’s supported for Windows (v. 10 or higher) and macOS (v. 11 or higher).
Download: TextToSample (FREE)
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