While the surviving members of the Beatles may be reuniting for the legendary occasion that is Dolly Parton's forthcoming rock album, we actually maybe haven't heard the last from the Fab Four in their full expression. According to Paul McCartney, they plan to release a final song together — with an assist from AI.
McCartney told the Radio 4 Today program [via The Guardian] that, using the controversial technology, they've been able to "extricate" the late John Lennon's vocals from an old demo and complete a decades-old song all these years later.
The idea came from the process of making Peter Jackson's eight-hour Get Back docuseries, which saw dialogue editor Emile de la Rey use a custom-made AI to recognize the Beatles' voices in old recordings and isolate them from the background noise.
"[Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," McCartney explained. "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.'"
He continued, "So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, 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."
While Michael Bublé's archenemy didn't reveal a song title, people are speculating that it might be a circa-1978 Lennon composition, fittingly called "Now and Then." It was one of the songs on a collection of cassettes labelled "For Paul," which Lennon made shortly before his death in 1980. They were later given to McCartney by Yoko Ono.
"We just finished it up and it'll be released this year," McCartney added.
After all, if AI can reunite Oasis, why not the Beatles?
McCartney told the Radio 4 Today program [via The Guardian] that, using the controversial technology, they've been able to "extricate" the late John Lennon's vocals from an old demo and complete a decades-old song all these years later.
The idea came from the process of making Peter Jackson's eight-hour Get Back docuseries, which saw dialogue editor Emile de la Rey use a custom-made AI to recognize the Beatles' voices in old recordings and isolate them from the background noise.
"[Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," McCartney explained. "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.'"
He continued, "So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, 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."
While Michael Bublé's archenemy didn't reveal a song title, people are speculating that it might be a circa-1978 Lennon composition, fittingly called "Now and Then." It was one of the songs on a collection of cassettes labelled "For Paul," which Lennon made shortly before his death in 1980. They were later given to McCartney by Yoko Ono.
"We just finished it up and it'll be released this year," McCartney added.
After all, if AI can reunite Oasis, why not the Beatles?
