A group of sample hunters developed a clever technique for using Google Assistant’s music recognition to find samples. Even cuts that last less than a second can’t be safely hidden by it.
This was the first time samples from the Daft Punk album Discovery as well as masterpieces by Mobb Deep and Madlib, among others, were discovered.
According to Tracklib, members of the Sample Hunting Discord group have supposedly found a lot of samples. In terms of sample identification, artificial intelligence technology sets completely new standards by utilizing a technique that was only recently discovered.
Through instantly streaming music from their PCs into the AI-powered song identification technology utilized by the virtual assistant program Google Assistant, sample hunters have unearthed previously unseen samples.
Google Assistant
A period of discovery ensued with the onset of Google Assistant’s use among Discord’s community members. They adopted Google Assistant as the new standard for sample searching in addition to their traditional methods of discovery by ear, musical understanding, and labor-intensive process of continually sifting through music.
The sample spotters make their discoveries, submit them to WhoSampled.com, an online database that catalogs samples used in contemporary music, and then publish their results.
Although Google Assistant uses technology that is comparable to Shazam, a service that detects music, sample hunters contend that Google Assistant’s accuracy is considerably better.
Google Assistant “can even detect samples less than a second long, and is typically able to detect samples that have been chopped or time-stretched,” exclaims DJ Pasta from Discord’s Sample Hunting group.
It wasn’t until mid-2022 that Google’s music recognition transformed from a Shazam substitute to a game-changing finding for them.
DJ Pasta continues, “I figured out a method to run audio directly from my PC into Google Assistant with software called Bluestacks. I was mostly trying out a few Todd Edwards samples that I’d been looking for at the time. To my surprise, Google Assistant’s song recognition found most of them. Eventually, I had the idea to try out shorter samples, like Carrie Lucas’ Sometimes a Love Goes Wrong.'”
Tracklib
The platform Tracklib allows users to sample and download creative music. Every music producer may now quickly, easily, legally, and affordably clear samples thanks to the service.
Producers won’t have to worry about clearance concerns and may comfortably traverse the world of sampling in this way.
Song recognition apps such as Shazam have been around for a while prior to Google’s AI virtual assistant software with both using closely related audio fingerprinting techniques.
Tracklib observes that Google’s employment of deep neural networks makes the technology behind their song recognition much more sophisticated.
Possible Repercussions
Although this sort of technology has evolved into a useful tool for sample spotters, some have voiced concerns that it may disclose the identity of uncleared samples that were previously undetectable in the work of independent artists.
“Can’t wait for a major label, RIAA, or whoever to purchase this tech and start suing everyone, including me,” tweets sound artist Jake Muir.
Can’t wait for a major label, RIAA, or whoever to buy this tech and start suing everybody, including me 😍 https://t.co/SMGGzwpkh2
— Jake Muir (@_jakemuir) February 28, 2023
When it comes to identifying content protected by copyright, YouTube’s Content ID has already shown to be fairly reliable. The difference is that this new approach gives power to everyone searching for specific samples rather than depending on a fingerprinting system that is entirely under the thumb of one company’s authority.
Daft Punk and The Sample Hunting Community
lobelia is the name of the creator of Discord’s Sample Hunting community. Before she understood this may be a game-changer, she had to wait five years. “When Google Assistant helped me find South City Midnight Lady by The Doobie Brothers as a guitar sample in (Daft Punk’s) Face To Face in late 2021, I realized that this method could be huge,” she remembers.
Several samples on Too Long and Face To Face by Daft Punk from 2001 add to the long list of samples that have been cloaked in secrecy for more than 20 years. They are now being outwitted by artificial intelligence.