Last week, Paul McCartney revealed that a decades-old Beatles tune would be completed all this time later with some help from AI, and he's now offered further clarity as to how the technology will be used.
Sharing that the finished project would arrive "later in the year," McCartney took to Twitter to settle "confusion and speculation" surrounding the undertaking.
To those not fully plugged into the rapidly developing area of tech, the phrase "AI Beatles song" could bring to mind generative audio using voice models of late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison to make impossible reunions a reality or entertain middle-of-the-road lyricism.
Thankfully, that isn't the case here. "Can't say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It's all real and we all play on it," McCartney wrote. "We cleaned up some existing recordings — a process which has gone on for years."
McCartney had previously explained to BBC's Radio 4 Today how the AI tool had been used in making Peter Jackson's Get Back docuseries, allowing dialogue editors to isolate the band's voices from background noise on deteriorating tape recordings.
"[Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," McCartney recounted. "We had John's voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine: 'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.'"
Of the forthcoming, previously unreleased Beatles song, McCartney shared, "It was a demo that John had and we were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway."
McCartney and Ringo Starr are already on deck for an IRL Beatles reunion as part of Dolly Parton's rock album.
Sharing that the finished project would arrive "later in the year," McCartney took to Twitter to settle "confusion and speculation" surrounding the undertaking.
To those not fully plugged into the rapidly developing area of tech, the phrase "AI Beatles song" could bring to mind generative audio using voice models of late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison to make impossible reunions a reality or entertain middle-of-the-road lyricism.
Thankfully, that isn't the case here. "Can't say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It's all real and we all play on it," McCartney wrote. "We cleaned up some existing recordings — a process which has gone on for years."
McCartney had previously explained to BBC's Radio 4 Today how the AI tool had been used in making Peter Jackson's Get Back docuseries, allowing dialogue editors to isolate the band's voices from background noise on deteriorating tape recordings.
"[Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," McCartney recounted. "We had John's voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine: 'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.'"
Of the forthcoming, previously unreleased Beatles song, McCartney shared, "It was a demo that John had and we were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway."
McCartney and Ringo Starr are already on deck for an IRL Beatles reunion as part of Dolly Parton's rock album.
Been great to see such an exciting response to our forthcoming Beatles project. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year.
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) June 22, 2023
We've seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can't say too much…
