Chicago Creative Machines: Bryan Pardo’s Interactive Audio Lab

Chicago Creative Machines is a lecture-performance series featuring artists who use machine learning and ML-adjacent tools and techniques in their creative practice. All events are free and open to the public.

In this session discusses the Interactive Audio Lab, where they invents new tools to find, label, separate, modify, and generate sound.

Each event consists of a technical lecture/demonstration by the artist of their tools followed by a performance of work they’ve created using those tools. No previous knowledge of machine learning, coding, algorithms, or computation is required!

Prof. Pardo will discuss several projects illustrative of the work in the Interactive Audio Lab: 

VampNet: VampNet is fast enough for interactive performance and can be prompted by music audio prompts, making it well suited for creating loops and variational accompaniment.

Text2FX: Audio effects (e.g., equalization, reverberation, compression) are a cornerstone of modern audio production but are challenging for non-technical musicians, podcasters and sound artists. Natural language can serve as a more intuitive and accessible way to navigate the complex parameter spaces of audio effects.

AI-tribution: Today, "inspiration" has been automated by generative music models. The black box nature of these models obscures the identity of the works that influence their creative output. As a result, users may inadvertently appropriate, misuse, or copy existing artists' works. With AI-tribution, we establish a methodology to systematically identify similar pieces of music audio in a manner that is useful for understanding training data attribution.

Bryan Pardo studies fundamental problems in computer audition, content-based audio search, and generative modeling of audio, and also develops inclusive interfaces for audio production. He is head of Northwestern University’s Interactive Audio Lab and co-director of the Northwestern University Center for HCI+Design. Prof. Pardo has appointments in the Department of Computer Science and Department of Radio, Television and Film. He received a M. Mus. in Jazz Studies in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2005, both from the University of Michigan. He has authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications. He has developed speech analysis software for the Speech and Hearing department of the Ohio State University, statistical software for SPSS and worked as a machine learning researcher for General Dynamics. His patented technologies have been productized by companies including Bose, Adobe, Lexi, and Ear Machine. While finishing his doctorate, he taught in the Music Department of Madonna University. When he is not teaching or researching, he performs throughout the Midwest on saxophone and clarinet with the bands Son Monarcas and The East Loop.

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