The most stunning Beach Boys AI I've heard yet

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Dae Lims definitely deserves credit for putting all this overblown AI technology to creative use producing most rewarding results.  I'm still not entirely clear how he utilizes the tech though.  Is he singing the vocals himself and then running his voice through an AI genorator to change his voice to whomever he wants?  If that's the case then you have to really appreciate his skill.  Because I'm assuming you have to adopt the phrasing and tonality of the desired singer's voice to really pull off sounding like them.  In this most recent offering you can really pick out "Carl" and "Al" in the appropriate places.

That is exactly what he is doing, and its incredible!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

What program is he using?

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

99% sure its RVC, he trains his models himself (admittedly not the hardest part), and then runs it all on either Google Collab or locally. The arrangements and performances are all his... which is the wild part!

I'm struggling with that last part, I use an AI model of a pretty famous contemporary artist on a new song I wrote... his voice and style were always the artistic vision... can't decide if the vision outweighs my concerns and morals... even if I never make any money

[Joel Goldenberg]

Dae Lims presents AI Dennis Wilson singing Holy Man, with special guests the AI Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jnPAXYUQnM

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

Dae Lims presents AI Dennis Wilson singing Holy Man, with special guests the AI Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jnPAXYUQnM

Holy wow. Amazing.

[feelsflow]

Is amazing, isn't it.

[guitarfool2002]

Dae Lims presents AI Dennis Wilson singing Holy Man, with special guests the AI Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jnPAXYUQnM

That is a sublime recording, I thought the Taylor Hawkins version was as good as I'd hear that song in a new version and then this dropped. If you played that for the average Beach Boys fan with some knowledge of the 70's output, I'd bet they wouldn't know it was a new AI creation and would think it was an original band recording from the 70's.

[Joel Goldenberg]

Speaking of amazing, at least in my opinion, this isn't the Beach Boys, but AI Elvis Presley completing a song, while Reality Elvis sang only one line before laughing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHiGC3fDmPI
Here's the reality version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMcBD4ScvMU

[rab2591]

Dae Lims presents AI Dennis Wilson singing Holy Man, with special guests the AI Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jnPAXYUQnM

I don’t want to gush about this, but when I listen to this it feels like the first time I heard some of my favorite beach boys tracks. Anyone else feel this way?

And yet it’s fake…And I don’t really care. This hits me right where stereo ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ hits me. That coda made my jaw drop to the floor.

Dae Lims, you’re really doing something special here. With all the terrible things AI can be used for, you’re creating something so beautiful - in the true spirit of the band itself.

[Joel Goldenberg]

The more I listen to AI Holy Man, the more onions I peel.

[guitarfool2002]

Dae Lims presents AI Dennis Wilson singing Holy Man, with special guests the AI Beach Boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jnPAXYUQnM

I don’t want to gush about this, but when I listen to this it feels like the first time I heard some of my favorite beach boys tracks. Anyone else feel this way?

And yet it’s fake…And I don’t really care. This hits me right where stereo ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ hits me. That coda made my jaw drop to the floor.

Dae Lims, you’re really doing something special here. With all the terrible things AI can be used for, you’re creating something so beautiful - in the true spirit of the band itself.

Yes I get that feeling too. It's like hearing a new "official" track when the quality is as superior as this specific track, along with the Smile tracks.  Ultimately music as an art form is directly connected to the imagination, and hearing music triggers sensory responses including the ability to visualize something as you're listening. I mention that because it isn't too much of a stretch for those open to doing so  to imagine and visualize this track as having been done by the original band members. And as I wrote above, I think if you played this track for casual Beach Boys fans without telling them it was a modern recording using AI, they would possibly have a hard time distinguishing it from an original band recording. And that element of quality and attention to detail in this specific track is why I think it hits me in a similar way as hearing a new "original".

I can understand the concerns about AI technology in music, and the potential abuses and outright misuse of the technology. But if a fan does work like this who clearly knows the music on a level beyond collecting records and being a fan, and can import the precise musical details into the work and be musically and sonically accurate in doing so, it's a work of art unto itself. If a piece of music touches a listener in a positive way, I'd ask those critical of using AI for this type of work to consider it no different from an artist covering or paying tribute to another artist's existing works of art.

I'm not sure if it's historically accurate to cite this as one of the benchmark moments in this "new art form", but I'd have to give some credit to the three surviving Beatles when they took the unfinished Lennon demos for Anthology and started the project with the mindset of Lennon giving them the demos and saying here's some new songs I worked on, I'm going on holiday, go ahead and finish them up. It freed up a lot of the trepidation they may have had in finishing work that a deceased bandmate had left unfinished, and I see that same mindset going toward opening the minds of some of the critics of projects like this with the Dennis track and allowing the end result of the music to speak for itself, and whether or not it resonates with listeners.

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

It's really a remarkable track. On some level it feels like a peek into a reality where Dennis was able to fully use the Beach Boys to execute his musical vision the way Brian did.

[Joel Goldenberg]

Well, this is one I've been wanting: A "completed " 1965 Sandy She Needs Me from Dae Lims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwm2eHEXz70

[SurfRiderHawaii]

“Holy Man” - Fantastic! Something I’ve dreamed of hearing!

Beautifully done!

[Awesoman]

While I personally dig most of the content Dae Lims has presented us, I have to admit that this whole AI thing is a double-edged sword. Although I can totally appreciate Dae Lims's talents and creative use of the technology, this is not the "real" deal.  This kind of technology can produce all sorts of chaos and problems if not managed responsibly.  That said, I can still enjoy these creations as "fan art" that serves as a curious "what if" of sorts.

[Don Malcolm]

One of the YouTube posters on "The Like in I Love You" expresses perfectly the emotions that I think so many of us are feeling when we hear Dae Lims channel the magic that ran through this band in so many ways, over so many years, despite all of the "shackles that were binding them down." The innocence and idealism of the band was unique during its original glorious run, and continued to evolve as Dennis and Carl took over much of the oversight for the band after Brian's emotional issues took hold after the Friends LP tanked. Dae Lims has a knack at capturing that feeling in his remarkable affinity for vocal and instrumental textures that is simply uncanny, and it seems to be getting more and more masterful as he proceeds with making versions of songs that so many of us had hoped might have come into existence save for those "shackles."

Here's the quote: "Dae Lims has become the same feeling of excitement I had as a boy going to a record store to find great new songs.  Going to this channel I'm hoping for songs, like all of his so far, that creates exactly that same feeling now."

He's permitting us to set aside all of the anguish and disappointment and frustration that has unavoidably filtered into our reckoning with the band's career, and exist in a wondrous liminal state where it's 1965 again, no matter what actual "year" he is targeting for these ideal reconstructions. We've been morphed into a world where the band can do no wrong, where it's able to play to its strengths at all times. They are not all 100% perfect, of course, but they are so good that one often just can't believe what they're hearing. AI as a force in the world is undeniably problematic, but not in the hands of someone with so much respect and love for the original band as Dae Lims clearly possesses--along with the technical chops to make recordings that channel directly into the very human "feel" of the group.

It is beyond exhilarating, and I frankly never expected that any of us would experience anything remotely like it. Like so many of you, I can't hardly wait for more--MORE...MORE!! 

[wavesoflove]

Dae Lims just dropped a new one:   https://youtu.be/d59D_rYkYM8?si=TYFkr9BU-3aORVW6

Also is anyone here in contact with him?   UMG have now taken down all of his Beatles covers.

Just wanted someone to let him know there is an awesome Beatles community here:  https://forum.beatlegdb.com/
They have a dedicated thread for AI covers.

That would be a good alternative to youtube.

[Joel Goldenberg]

Dae Lims just dropped a new one:   https://youtu.be/d59D_rYkYM8?si=TYFkr9BU-3aORVW6

Also is anyone here in contact with him?   UMG have now taken down all of his Beatles covers.

Just wanted someone to let him know there is an awesome Beatles community here:  https://forum.beatlegdb.com/
They have a dedicated thread for AI covers.

That would be a good alternative to youtube.

Yeah, was just about to post this. Fun!

[rab2591]

On the forum where they pat themselves on the back daily for their supposed positivity and inclusion, Dae Lims is getting completely shellacked for his work there.

Kinda blows my mind that a lot of people can't see the talent/time it takes to make these tracks - nor see anything remotely positive about it. Or see the imagination behind creating these harmonies, etc.. I mean I don't think that everyone has to like this stuff, and there have been tracks I haven't liked, but it's kinda crazy seeing the dogpile of hate.

People have made Smile mixes for how long now? People have been using Brian Wilson's very own work/voice to create their own fantasy album(s) for how many decades now? I know this is a whole other universe of technology/creativity, but at its heart it is the same thing: a fan trying to create something that never was.

As Guitarfool said above: But if a fan does work like this who clearly knows the music on a level beyond collecting records and being a fan, and can import the precise musical details into the work and be musically and sonically accurate in doing so, it's a work of art unto itself.

[wavesoflove]

On the forum where they pat themselves on the back daily for their supposed positivity and inclusion, Dae Lims is getting completely shellacked for his work there.

Kinda blows my mind that a lot of people can't see the talent/time it takes to make these tracks - nor see anything remotely positive about it. Or see the imagination behind creating these harmonies, etc.. I mean I don't think that everyone has to like this stuff, and there have been tracks I haven't liked, but it's kinda crazy seeing the dogpile of hate.

People have made Smile mixes for how long now? People have been using Brian Wilson's very own work/voice to create their own fantasy album(s) for how many decades now? I know this is a whole other universe of technology/creativity, but at its heart it is the same thing: a fan trying to create something that never was.

As Guitarfool said above: But if a fan does work like this who clearly knows the music on a level beyond collecting records and being a fan, and can import the precise musical details into the work and be musically and sonically accurate in doing so, it's a work of art unto itself.

Yeah I know it can get prickly over there, but at least they have an ai thread, so the people that hate that type of content can ignore it.
It's ironic cause most of the fan mixes there have used ai tools to demix/re-balance, and people are fine with that.
I think we need to get past using the work 'ai' as a blanket term for any new audio tech.

[CenturyDeprived]

Hats off to Dae Lims, the tunes he is doing are phenomenal and fascinating.

Like most people I am terribly afraid of AI for so many reasons, but that doesn't mean I can't compartmentalize part of my brain and completely enjoy this for what it is.

It's essentially somewhere between a cover version and BBs music from an alternate future universe.

It's a rather indescribable experience listening to these songs. But it's very very cool. To me there's only any moral and ethical quandary if he is trying to pass them off as the real thing, or anything like that. I see/hear nothing of the sort here so I have no problem enjoying this alternate version of reality.

 I'm very grateful to listen to them and I greatly appreciate the work that went into them. Bravo.

But undeniably this is uncharted territory for all people. I had a long in person discussion with a friend of mine yesterday who is a fellow superfan of this band, but he has a problem getting emotional enjoyment out of these types of AI versions. I find that fascinating, and understandable, and honestly somebody should write a thesis or a book about this new phenomenon. Different strokes for different folks.

I get an uncanny valley repulsion when I see a humanoid robot, but for some reason these versions don't give me those same negative vibes at all.

[El Molé]

Hats off to Dae Lims, the tunes he is doing are phenomenal and fascinating.

Like most people I am terribly afraid of AI for so many reasons, but that doesn't mean I can't compartmentalize part of my brain and completely enjoy this for what it is.

It's essentially somewhere between a cover version and BBs music from an alternate future universe.

It's a rather indescribable experience listening to these songs. But it's very very cool. To me there's only any moral and ethical quandary if he is trying to pass them off as the real thing, or anything like that. I see/hear nothing of the sort here so I have no problem enjoying this alternate version of reality.

 I'm very grateful to listen to them and I greatly appreciate the work that went into them. Bravo.

But undeniably this is uncharted territory for all people. I had a long in person discussion with a friend of mine yesterday who is a fellow superfan of this band, but he has a problem getting emotional enjoyment out of these types of AI versions. I find that fascinating, and understandable, and honestly somebody should write a thesis or a book about this new phenomenon. Different strokes for different folks.

I get an uncanny valley repulsion when I see a humanoid robot, but for some reason these versions don't give me those same negative vibes at all.

This is interesting and it is clear that people react differently to these sorts of things. I have no difficulty at all connecting emotionally with these works (when the models and application of them are as good as Daelims manages), and actually find that listening to something like the AI Holy Man, or Ol' Man River / Are You There to be incredibly emotional experiences.  I'm also someone who gets nothing whatsoever from a poorly executed AI cover, or a fan-completed mix etc. I can't even enjoy the 'updated' You're Still a Mystery with Brian's later vocal overdub, because it sounds inauthentic to me (nothing at all logical about these feelings).

I agree that when it's transparent and not intended for monetary gain from someone else's voice, I don't have a problem with it, but there are potentially huge problems down the line if the legal and ethical boundaries aren't established firmly sometime soon. Imagine a young talented singer signing a contract early on in their career that (unknowingly) gives away the rights to an AI version of their voice? Artist is then dropped a little later but the record company can churn out tracks with their voice at will (a modern day version of the Spector / He's a Rebel scenario).

Youtube fan covers/edits are different territory, but there are unethical examples on their already. Daelims has been more than transparent and is clear that he does what he enjoys doing, is very respectful of the material, usually do a high level of technical skill, this stuff can really work. It means that the vocal can contain emotion in the delivery as well as sound very close (sometimes indistinguishably so) to a contemporaneous take by the actual artist. I can't not be moved when hearing AI Dennis sing Holy Man with the rest of the boys filling out the sound via AI - it sounds incredible and goes much further in demonstrating what Dennis might have done with it had he been able to complete it than the backing track does, or the Taylor Hawkins track does. On that point, if it's ok to have a Taylor Hawkins vocal version released to showcase the song, is it worse to have Dennis' own voice on it, reconstructed carefully and respectfully via AI to do the same job?

[guitarfool2002]

It's ironic cause most of the fan mixes there have used ai tools to demix/re-balance, and people are fine with that.
I think we need to get past using the work 'ai' as a blanket term for any new audio tech.

It's a rather indescribable experience listening to these songs. But it's very very cool. To me there's only any moral and ethical quandary if he is trying to pass them off as the real thing, or anything like that. I see/hear nothing of the sort here so I have no problem enjoying this alternate version of reality.

I think some of the key issues in this debate are found in these two quotes. I am admittedly a vintage audio type of person, I prefer the sounds created on older technology. Having said that, hearing some of the AI creations posted and linked on this forum have changed my mind regarding the use of AI technology in creating these tracks, due in large part to the superior quality and the obvious respect and attention to detail that went into making them.

This could get long, because to cover all the aspects and issues would perhaps be a book-length exploration. All I want to do is express some of my own opinions, shine light on some historical details and parallels, and perhaps open some minds and opinions for discussion and consideration.


Point 1, and perhaps the more important issue to consider, is that all audio recording of music since roughly the late 1940's is an illusion, an alternate version of reality. As soon as pioneers like Les Paul started to work with magnetic tape, which led to multitrack recording, and other pioneers like Bill Putnam started to create technology to electronically process audio signals and create unnatural sounds and effects on recordings, the doors were kicked wide open. Recorded audio became an illusion, and the process of recording musical performances became a process of creating those illusions.

Previous to these developments, a recording was essentially capturing a live performance on media to be reproduced and sold and/or broadcast. Whatever the musicians did in whatever room they performed was recorded as it happened, as if the listener were in that room with them. The only editing that was done would have been doing multiple takes of that continuous live performance in order to get the "keeper" take.

When Les Paul came along with his "New Sound" or what they used to call "Sound On Sound", most times he had only himself or he and Mary Ford playing and stacking all the tracks. Instead of hiring 5 vocalists, along with a drummer, bassist, and perhaps 10 guitarists to cut a "live" take, we instead got 12 Les Pauls and 5 Mary Fords stacking sounds atop each other, track after track, to create an ensemble recording out of two people's musical performances.

That is pure illusion, pure alternate reality. It didn't exist prior to 1947 or so in the popular music realm, and that technique forever changed music. At the time, it was also called a gimmick, a fad, a false reality, etc by musical purists. They wanted to capture a full group as it performed live, whether it be classical, jazz, country...and some still do in 2024. But the illusion created by new technology, specifically magnetic tape and multitrack recording machines moved popular music miles ahead of where it would have been.

And the issue of magnetic tape: Editing became possible. If you had a group, or even a single spoken word artist, who had recorded 10 takes of a song, but none of those takes was "the one", a skillful engineer with a razor blade, a cutting block, and adhesive tape could patch together the best segments from those 10 takes and create a continuous recording which the majority of listeners would be fooled into thinking was a single live continuous take. Again, technology created a false reality, an alternate reality, but that technology allowed the creators to make records which were more perfect than would be humanly possible.

Tape editing became not only a skill but an art form. Instead of doing a straight cut, engineers could cut and splice angles to create seamless crossfades and deliberate effects. Instead of just connecting the first minute of take 2 with the last two minutes of take 7, they could razor-blade individual tracks in and out of the performance. It was used by experimental artists but probably brought to the mainstream by way of Good Vibrations, where the tape editing became part of the performance itself and created a #1 hit record. It wasn't used as a gimmick or a comedy prop, but rather played an integral role in the performance captured on the recording. Add to that the ability to loop tapes continuously, which was probably codified in popular music by The Beatles and Tomorrow Never Knows, and seen through into the 70's when the Bee Gees unknowingly created the robotic, precise nature of dance music by using the same 2-bar drum loop on 3 smash hit disco singles in the mid-70's because their drummer had to leave the sessions due to a family emergency and they didn't want to halt work on the tracks.

I could go on, and move into digital sequencing, digital recording, DAW's, and all that, but I think those gaps can be filled into the story.

It's an illusion, it's creating alternate reality from the point where a musician performs a passage of music and that recording gets distributed to and heard by listeners.

As such, how is the AI technology in the timeline of recording technology development any different than those previous developments? People who I guess were considered "purists" also criticized Les Paul's recordings, Bill Putnam's effects, the techniques of editing tapes in general, and a whole host of other developments through the years. Claims that it was not natural, it wasn't pure, it would create "lazy" musicians or put musicians out of work, it wasn't reality...Again, consider that recording music and distributing it to listeners in a multitude of formats is in itself creating an alternate reality and an aural illusion.

It's all in how the technology is used, and what kind of art is created with the technology. Artists use tools to create a work: If you give different artists those same tools and turn them loose, isn't it foolish to assume each of those artists will create some form of "high art" with them? It's like giving a hammer, nails, and wood to 10 people and expecting all 10 to create something valid or useful with those materials. One of those 10 might decide to smash the foot of another with the hammer, Three Stooges-style, to get a laugh...how can that be controlled other than someone saying not to do it? And if their goal was to create a comedy skit, to get laughs at the expense of someone else's foot, isn't that as comedy a valid use of the tools as well?

So much to digest, I've already gone too far. But consider AI as used to create these tracks is only another tool in the development of recorded sound. If people choose to make high art, or create pure crap, it's not the technology creating the end result as long as a human is inputting the data and parameters into the AI generators. And if people like one use of it, but not another use of the same technology, that's their own hang-ups and tastes.

Now if AI turns into HAL, that's another story. 

[Wirestone]

This is tricky because of all the reasons GF laid out above. Modern recording technology has been proudly inauthentic since before most of us were born. And what’s going on with most of these tracks is the equivalent of a vocal effect — an AI filter that makes someone sound like a Beach Boy or Beatle or whatever.

I find the Holy Man and Desert Drive videos remarkable, simply because they allow us to imagine something that never happened. Dennis and Mike never sang those songs. Indeed, the tracks didn’t event have vocal overdubs.

I would be much more cautious when it comes to some folks’ suggestions that he “fix” tracks that have already been completed and released. Much of the Paley material, for instance, features somewhat wonky BW vocal performances, but I don’t want to hear those songs with a fake 1960s Brian belting them out. Seems tacky and disrespectful and ignores the point of the material, which is that it was recorded by an older Brian.

Smile, of course, has been fan edited so many times that I don’t give a fig anymore.

Again, though, I would make a distinction between tracks that give us something we never had before and those that try to improve or fix something that doesn’t need improving or fixing. (I do wonder, however, which artist will be the first to release an official album featuring an AI version of their younger voice singing the tunes. It’s coming.)

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Really great points here, and generally I agree. If an artist's intention is a specific sound, and they work hard to achieve and broadcast it... what truly makes this any different? The only aspect that is tricky in my book is legal, in which case we'll have to see.

Sampling was also a tricky subject. It allowed a lot of artists who otherwise would never have had the chance to make such productions to achieve a sound they dreamed to create.