AI Tool: NSynth Sound Maker

Here’s another very cool AI-powered music tool: NSynth Sound Maker. It’s a Google Experiment with help from NSynth which is very different than other types of synthesizers. Rather than replying on things like oscillators, filters, envelopes and amplifiers, NSynth uses machine learning to create sounds from a dataset that includes over 300,000 individual notes from over 1,000 different instruments. You can check out the dataset here. NSynth Sound Maker is a very simple instrument that allows users to combine two different sounds, with a mixer that allows you to crossfade between the two sounds to get more or less of one in the mix. You can trigger the sounds using your QWERTY keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard if you have one.

Your students will LOVE mixing the fun set of sounds that include a dog barking, cat meowing, cow mooing, thunder claps, and more. Sometimes simple tools are the best for teaching musical concepts like timbre, and blend.

Since NSynth Sound Maker was first launched back in 2017, they have created a hardware device called the NSynth Super. NSynth Super is an open-source experimental musical instrument that allows users to combine 4 different sounds from the NSynth algorithm. VERY cool.