54 START-UP ALLEY MXX
Words by Ann-Marie Corvin
In this month’s Start-up Alley, we look at three music start-ups using AI and sophisticated software development to help video creators produce innovative soundtracks
MXX
There are two types of AI being used in music, according to MXX co-founder and CEO Dr Joe Lyske. There’s generative AI, which uses algorithms to replace traditional music. And there’s transformative AI, which works alongside ‘human’ music to augment the creative process. “We’re very much in the latter camp,” explains Lyske. “We want to look at how to repurpose work written by a person and how to add life to a back catalogue.” An established composer with over thirty years’ experience, Lyske’s interest in AI began almost a decade ago when he embarked on a PhD in Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London. While his research included a tool that generated film scores capable of fooling fellow film composers, this eventually evolved into an interest in creating artist- centric tools designed to enhance the creative process. The result is an app that comprises a series of patented AI-driven solutions, which allow users to instantly edit cleared library music to fit their own video footage, complete with rises and fades. “Our tool takes music out of an existing library and seamlessly edits it to fit your content,” Lyske explains. “If a cat falls out of a tree – this app can identify that and make the track fit it so that it seems like it has been written for your video. And it does this in a sensitive and intuitive way,” he adds. The company has seven patented technologies to date, four of which are involved in the core editing process. These technologies listen to music and create metadata out of their understanding of it. This includes being able to edit in and out of sections, as well as identifying what these sections might mean to a human, for example ‘building tension’, ‘climax’, ‘chorus’ and ‘verse’. Clients include video content creators and MXX launched an AI creator suite specifically with this audience in mind, forming a partnership with Epidemic Sound’s library in order to bring its back catalogue to more than 250,000 YouTube channel creators.
MXX IT UP Dr Joe Lyske, pictured above, is the CEO and co- founder of MXX
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