Christian Steinmetz was disappointed when he couldn’t find meetups about AI in music in Boston, so he decided to start his own.
The Ph.D. candidate at Queen Mary University of London is studying how to create AI-based tools for producers, with a specific focus on mixing and mastering. When Steinmetz looked for opportunities to connect with other people interested in AI in music, he noticed there weren’t many avenues to do so.
So, Steinmetz and his partner, Lancelot Blanchard, decided to create their own meetup, where students, engineers, researchers, and musicians could collaborate and find community. The meetup is inspired by events that take place in California, like Bish Bash, a meetup for people to talk about audio analysis and related fields, or Audio Programmer, a program Steinmetz has been involved with that has meetups virtually and in person.
“I just wanted to kind of bring something like that here in Boston because AI music is what I'm passionate about, and there wasn't anything like that in the community,” said Steinmetz.
The first meetup, held at the MIT Media Lab on Aug. 8, had 21 attendees. It was sponsored by MIT Media Lab and the generative AI music program Suno, where Steinmetz works as a research scientist. CJ Carr and Nikihil Singh presented research in different uses of AI in audio engineering.
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Steinmetz and Blanchard plan to host the event monthly. The next event is scheduled for Sept. 9, also at the MIT Media Lab. The hosts are looking to improve on and expand their audience from the first meetup.
According to Steinmetz, one issue with AI-related topics is that the crowd tends to be more research-focused or academically inclined. What the two hosts would lie to see is a more diverse crowd of musicians, researchers, and students, something Steinmetz doesn’t feel like he saw in the first meetup.
The two planners are looking into booking new venues across Boston to expand access to the Boston community and bring a more diverse crowd to the next events.
Ultimately, Steinmetz says the goal of the meetups is to foster more collaboration between those segments of the music and technology communities.
“Having researchers be able to collaborate with musicians has always been a big goal of mine, and this meetup is one way to potentially foster that. And at the same time, you know, expose hobby AI hobbyists to the latest research,” Steinmetz said.
