cnndsd | Magnogen

soooo, i tried to get a neural network to make sound. it worked, and i got some interesting results. this is a little article that i made to show off what those sounded like, my thoughts, and how i created them.

if you'd like, you can download each file by clicking on the link. alternatively you can also download a zip with all of them in:

cnndsd_raw.zip cnndsd_sample_pack.zip

alright. without further ado, lets get cnndsd-ing! ...that is definitely not a word. lol

this is the first one i liked. it kind of sounds like a lead.

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_03.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_07.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_09.mp3

they're slightly changing over time now. i guess that means i've got to explain how it works. if you don't want to read about this, fee free to skip ahead :)

first, i generate a random neural network with arbitrary weights and biases. i let the computer pick them randomly from between 0 and 1. i use a similar library to what i use for Graidients for this step. the network has length amount of inputs, as many hidden layers and nodes as i want, and one output for the sample it produces.

length can be defined to be whatever i like, usually it's a low number like 1 for simple sounding noises, or up to 10 for more complicated ones. the hidden layers also have an effect on the sound, but it's hard to put into words. all the activator functions are a sine wave, and i have quite a bit of artistic control with all the parameters i can set!

if you know anything about neural networks, you'll know i haven't mentioned the inputs yet. that's probably the most complicated bit - essentially, there's a history array for what the neural network has already produced. this history can get quite long, but it's only numbers so it doesn't take up too much space. the network selects from this history some samples, such as the one just before, then the second, the 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, etc. all the way until it has length samples.

i can also specify a gap parameter for it to skip some, for instance if the gap was 6, it would start at 2 to the power of 6, then keep going until it has length inputs. the higher the gap parameter, the lower the pitch sounds, sort of. it's all a bit complicated to explain. i'm not even sure if i understand it myself haha.

anyway, lets get back to the noises!

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_14.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_16.mp3

i liked that one. its like a dubstep growl. very cool.

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_18.mp3

this one's a little weird. it sounded like a dud to start with, then it had a sort of rhythm to it. i think it had a higher length parameter than the others.

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_22.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_24.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_27.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_28.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_33.mp3

another beat-like one, it's growing in intensity too - maybe like in a build up?

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_34.mp3

du dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu. nodding my head to that. has my neural network mastered psytrance already?

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_36.mp3

custom_neural_network_does_sound_design_37.mp3

two more, and then we're on to another section!

neural_network_does_sound_design_47.mp3

neural_network_does_sound_design_48.mp3

nodc

i challenged a few people - in various discord servers - to make some sort of music with these sounds. one of them got back to me with a little masterpiece, though they mentioned the following:

its really hard to make them sound normal since the sound is not oscilating around 0 but like shifted up

the top is what normal sounds would be like
the bottom is what the network made

- Tamkish

while i did sort of fix this to make the sounds cover the entire range of -1 to 1, rather than 0 to 1, i didn't fully fix the issue they were facing. i might just have to edit each sound to make more sense waveform-wise. you can find that sample pack at the top of the page in a zip.

so, lets have a look at a few more i made after the dc offset "fix". beware, they are doubly as loud.

its actually quite fun to just cycle through and find ones i like, though it takes a while sometimes. some of them are metallic sounding, like this next one, and others are just silence. fortunately for you, i've removed the boring ones.

cnndsd_nodc_28.mp3

cnndsd_nodc_31.mp3

cnndsd_nodc_33.mp3

adjusting

alright! time for some adjustments. i had an idea while i was getting ready for bed - what if i adjusted the weights and biases while the sound was being made? how would that sound, would it result in mutating sounds? certainly an interesting thought. here's how it went.

cnndsd_adjusting_01.mp3