In my last post, I talked about my venture into Etsy-land and the Print-On-Demand story at hand. There are two sides to every coin though. That has nothing to do with this though, it’s just a known fact. The other thing I’ve been busy with is YouTube. We all like that music that you put on and just listen to in the background while we work or study right? That’s what I’m doing. It’s a labor of love at the moment but it’s keeping my video editing skills sharp as well as my audio editing skills.
For the time being, I am using AI to generate the music. The one thing I have to do is master the tracks because they come off the assembly line sounding a little lunchboxy. I made that word up. The songs just sound flat but that’s a good thing! That means we can polish them up and such. So, there are actually two sides to this venture.
The music is generated using a website called Mubert (mubert.com) and the idea is you just pick the genre or style you want, select how long you want it, and hit the button. After a few minutes, you’ll have a pretty solid track, usually. Some are missed but on the whole, it does a great job. You can use the text-to-music feature but it’s kind of a shot in the dark as to whether you’ll get what you’re wanting. After you download the tracks as .wav I use Audition to master them and string them together into one long cohesive track (with fades and such so that it sounds good). After that, it’s video time.
For that, I also use Midjourney. Now Midjourney’s text-to-image is pretty amazing and you can really dial in what you like. So a chill vibe city in the evening with stars overhead is one way to go, or a dystopian metropolis is another. Maybe a serene valley with lush fields as the moon looms overhead. It’s endless. Not done yet though. Once I generate and upscale the image I like, it’s time to add some movement. A static image is boring so I will employ particle effects or rippling water or other atmospheric effects to give the image motion. It’s not critical to the music but it is a visual interest, so I go the extra mile for that.
The results are something I’m proud of. Perfect? No. Pretty darn good? I think so. There are many music channels, I’m looking at you Lofi Girl, and I am assuming most of the larger ones have a team of people and/or composers. For now, I am just one person doing the best I can with what I have. I am writing my own music but that is a more involved process than just clickety clicking a few buttons (usually).
Where can you find it? Why, I’m glad you asked. Or, I asked for you. Either way, you can find the entire “Elements of Chill” channel here but I’ll post a couple of my favorite videos down below. As of this writing, I’m up to 70+ videos. Each is at least an hour long. It’s definitely a labor of love. So, I hope you enjoy!
Lofi:
Dark Ambient:
Ambient Atmospheric (good for sleep!)