Initial Audio releases Difro Melody AI, a FREE AI MIDI generator

Developer Initial Audio has released Difro Melody AI, a free AI MIDI generator for macOS and Windows.

MIDI chord and pattern generators have been around for a while, and with AI’s emergence in music, it’s no surprise we keep seeing more on the scene.

Earlier this year, we had the Stepista MIDI pattern generator by Mr Jefferson, and now we have Difro Melody AI from Initial Audio.

Difro Melody AI is a local neural MIDI generator that runs fully offline on a standard CPU or compatible GPU (standalone app for macOS and Windows).

The obvious upside is that you don’t need a constant cloud connection or remote API. Instead, Difro Melody AI utilises a local Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and Transformer model to reimagine your MIDI.

It’s reimagine because Difro Melody AI takes your MIDI pattern and provides variations.

You can provide the app with MIDI in a couple of ways: drag and drop a MIDI file, or perform directly in the piano roll.

When done, you can drag the new MIDI straight into your DAW or bounce it to WAV.

The free version ships with ten prompt models (more to come and the option to create custom models), and although there are no ongoing costs, you are limited to 50 generations per month. The Pro version ($49) offers unlimited generations.

The app includes 80 SourceLab Light presets, so you can preview MIDI generations before dragging them into your DAW. Alternatively, Difro can host VST3 or AU plugins if you want to preview with a specific sound.

Initial Audio calls Difro your personal AI co-producer: a real musician, not a randomiser, and I get it, to an extent.

The developer has moved slightly away from the text-to-MIDI method by saying you have to provide an example, as you might with a real musician.

It’s definitely not just a randomiser because it analyses your MIDI and provides reasonable variations while maintaining the source’s core DNA.

The developer also says, “No music theory degree required,” and I don’t like that line.

Developers who create MIDI generators often pitch them as the alternative to being a music theory buff, but it’s not one or the other.

You can create amazing chord progressions without knowing everything about music theory. I often feel like some products almost encourage users to forget about theory because they do it for you (whether intentionally or not), and that’s narrow-minded.

As I’ve said a million times, getting help in areas where you can’t do everything yourself is fine, but if you don’t learn something from it, it’s a missed opportunity.

That said, Difro Melody AI could be very useful if you have an idea that’s not quite perfect or you want a variation for another section.

You can get through 50 generations quickly, which might limit use, but it’s free, and if you like it, you can upgrade to the Pro version.