Paul McCabe | ROLAND

Why AI Won’t Make Everyone a Musician Creativity is still a choice, not an accident

This is an absolutely fantastic take on the relationship between emerging creative AI tech and music making. Well worth the read and subscribe!

open.substack.com/pub/discmans...

Making music with MIDI just got a real boost in Windows 11 MIDI 2.0 (and enhanced MIDI 1.0!) comes to Windows 11 Non-musicians sometimes associate MIDI only with .mid music files, or with the late 80’s General MIDI sound sets. But it is so much more than that...

MIDI 2.0 (and many other great MIDI enhancements) has arrived on Windows!

blogs.windows.com/windowsexper...

The Future Starts Here: Visiting Roland’s Radical New Headquarters Roland unveiled its new global headquarters and we were there to see it.

Very pleased to introduce our new headquarters in Japan, aptly named Roland Inspiration Hub. Thank you to Attack Magazine for the great story, including mentions of Project LYDIA and the Soundscapes Project from Roland Future Design Lab!

www.attackmagazine.com/features/lon...

Been Undone (Dark-Side Mix) - Single by Peter Gabriel on Apple Music Album · 2026 · 1 Song

Who is Peter Gabriel to me? He’s a genius and musically sophisticated sonic artisan whose voice and lyrics knock on the door to my soul and wait patiently to deliver truths I may or may not be ready for, but almost always need to hear.

music.apple.com/ca/album/bee...

‘I’m delighted to say that we will be beginning another year of full moon releases under the name o\i.
The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings. I hope you like them.’ - pg

A Look Inside Roland Future Design Lab Roland Future Design Lab lead Paul McCabe, Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation, discusses the group's mission and future.

My dear friend @pkirn.bsky.social has written a very nice introduction to my Roland Future Design Lab team.

articles.roland.com/a-look-insid...

AI4Music The Principles for Music Creation with AI establish a guideline for the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in music. By adopting these principles, companies and organizations commit to protect...

You are welcome. To understand what our principles are with regards ti AI, please have a look at aiformusic.info . We are ONLY interested in AI applications that responsibly enhance/augment human creativity. And you can hold us to this.

I will seek confirmation from our partners at Neutone about the initial one-time model training process, but as this is done with only 1-4 hours of audio source material, and the resulting models average about 30Mb, it is not going to be a resource-intensive process.

This is a fair question. Roland is committed to pursuing sustainable inferences of AI, and in this case, everything is run on-device, so using Project LYDIA requires no pervasive connectivity to a data center.

YouTube video by sonicstate Roland Future Design Lab - Project Lydia - Neural Sampler - ADC 25

If you are interested in the announcement last week from Roland Future Design Lab and Neutone about our Project LYDIA PoC, you may find the conversation in the comments for the Sonicstate video quite interesting. We are doing our best to respond quickly.

youtu.be/D1hwf0Ih55s?...

As AI-Artist Xania Monet Climbs the Charts, Victoria Monét’s Caught in the Uncanny Valley The Grammy winner can’t prove the virtual singer was trained on her music or image—but “It’s not ideal,” says Monét.

My sincere thanks are offered to Brea Cubit and Vanity Fair magazine for taking an interest in the impact of AI-generated music on artists and the industry, and for inviting me to contribute Roland's views.

www.vanityfair.com/culture/stor...

AI Music Fools Most People, and They're Not Happy About It A survey from Deezer and Ipsos reveals strong feelings about AI-generated tunes.

Thankful to CNET for giving Roland the chance to contribute our views on purely AI-generated music in response to a recent Deezer public opinion survey:

www.cnet.com/tech/service...

Introducing Project LYDIA Discover the exciting audio effects Technology Preview from Roland Future Design Lab and Neutone.

Super excited to share the latest technology preview from Roland Future Design Lab and our partners at Neutone. Please say hello to Project LYDIA:

articles.roland.com/introducing-...

I understand the point, but I do still wonder. I am peppered with visuals I don't really care about all day long, but when I see what I believe is an AI-generated human, it stands out and I respond negatively. We will see.

Yes, I wonder, too. And short of that, if it just becomes easier to recognize, through some form of labeling, where the line between human and AI creativity might be in a given piece of music (if it exists at all- my focus was more on music created entirely with AI), I wonder how we might respond?

Can AI generate music with emotion? (part 2) Part 2 of 2 (or more)

That's a really interesting take, thank you. I wrote a while back about the difference between emotional response (arguably to content) and emotional connection (to art, in your example). I may need to think about a follow up. Here's the first piece: twentysixtyone.substack.com/p/can-ai-cre...

Breaking the illusion. Can we feel as strongly about AI music as we do for AI visuals?

My latest opinion piece on purely AI-generated media...

Like and subscribe, as they say! I'd appreciate it!

twentysixtyone.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

Why do I love giving books? When I’ve read a book that has really resonated with me, I quickly start to think about who I can share it with.

A few brief thoughts about giving books away...

twentysixtyone.substack.com/p/why-do-i-l...

The Florian Schneider Collection The Florian Schneider Collection All property to be shipped or picked up from Gardena, CA, excluding lot 441, which will ship from Germany. Auc...

Okay, my electronic musician and producer friends, how's your self control today? What an amazing collection of electronic and acoustic instruments from the collection of a late true legend...

www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/...

Drop The Boom: The Story Of The Roland TR-1000 What do you get when you combine 808 and 909 analog drum synthesis, SP-404MKII-style sampling, and input from Detroit legends like Underground Resistance? The TR-1000, a modern drum machine that is mo...

It's uniquely energizing when you experience a "hit". We are humbled by the response to the Roland TR-1000, and I am privileged to have the members of the development and marketing teams as my friends. This is a great BTS look published by Attack Magazine:

www.attackmagazine.com/features/lon...

I will be speaking at the Music Tectonics conference in Santa Monica (in all my 8-bit glory) on November 5th- hope to see you there!

musictectonics.com/conference

Know the past to Design The Future (part 1) "Beyond reality" with the Roland RD-1000

My latest substack story talks about the importance of knowing the past in order to understand the present and predict the future. If you enjoy it, please subscribe!

twentysixtyone.substack.com/p/know-the-p...

It’s a good point. I think what we may yet see is blockchain and NFT become enabling infrastructure in one or more future provenance/attribution systems.

152 years of music tech innovation. And I've been around for more than half of this!

A timeline of music tech innovation spanning 150 years. What thoughts does this trigger for you?

open.substack.com/pub/twentysi...

coatshek on Apple Music Listen to music by coatshek on Apple Music.

Ironically (because of the name), from my POV Bluesky is becoming a stream of whining and overall negativity. Stopping in here less and less because of this.

Now always focusing on being part of the solution, here is a great new music artist to check out!

music.apple.com/ca/artist/co...

AI For Music (part 2) A deep-dive into the Principles for Music Creation with AI.

Continuing to tell the journey to AI For Music from my personal viewpoint...

open.substack.com/pub/twentysi...

Gen-Z is wired differently. I walked into the living room to have a conversation with my son and he was playing piano, watching a YouTube gaming video, and fully ready to talk without stopping anything. Me, I forgot what I wanted to talk with him about. #gen_z

AI For Music (part 1) The journey to a music industry-wide responsible AI initiative.

Read about my personal journey on the road to AI For Music.

open.substack.com/pub/twentysi...

Deep Listening A fundamental trait of true genius.

My latest story after working in Japan last week and spending time with my super-mentor Tadao Kikumoto-san...

twentysixtyone.substack.com/p/deep-liste...

Thanks for choosing Roland Cloud! I think you will have much fun exploring the past and present, and you can look forward to the future!