David Jayden Anthony
How I Use AI for Demos
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I wanted to take a moment to talk about how I use AI and why it matters as a songwriter and musical theatre writer.
When I started writing musical theatre, years ago, it was the industry standard to only accept piano vocal demos for songs, whether in person or recording. Over the last decade this has shifted to people wanting to hear fully produced demos for a new musical because they want to hear the energy and vibe of the final product. Producers have become less creative in their understanding of the writing and need to hear the final product even in a draft form!
I have a degree in music songwriting and music production. I have studied every element of recording. Not to mention the masters degree in musical theatre writing that took place IN THE RECORDING STUDIO that most cast albums are recorded. I studied orchestration (with Michael Starobin) and had actual broadway players record my songs. I was coached on opening numbers from Ahrens and Flaherty.
I know how to write, orchestrate and record and mix my own music.
However, I only want to write the songs. I do not want to spend half of my time, orchestrating, hiring musicians, paying for studio time etc. to create demos of songs for shows that people may or may not even be interested in!
So yes, I am taking my music, full piano vocal scores and recordings and using AI to make orchestrated recordings with perfect vocals. (The best part is that the AI singer sings the song exactly as I did originally. Same back phrasing, same dynamics and even straight-tone to vibrato!)
In almost 30 years of writing great songs and musicals, I finally have polished demos that truly show my writing. Whether I wrote the music and lyrics, or whether I had an amazing lyricist. The following use cases explore each concept, live performance audio and how AI made a recording.
Use Case #1
Song: Love Is Love
This song comes from a live performance
- Musical Theatre Class Assignment Music by David Jayden Anthony and Lyrics by Ken Offricht
- by David Jayden Anthony and Jonelle Allen This song was in a musical, but it’s really a pop rock song.
- for Marriage Equality for 8 The Play Music by David Jayden Anthony, Lyrics by Denis McCourt
- Words and Music by David Jayden Anthony This song is Romeo and Juliet in Fifty Shades of Gray.
- from Angel’s Playhouse Words and Music by David Jayden Anthony
Here is the new recording with Suno creating an orchestration and replacing the vocals.
- Lyrics by Grace Jasmine, Music by David Jayden Anthony