We love you Brian. Regardless of what happens in the future, and this news, you'll always be remembered as a genius who brought immeasurable love and magic into the world. Millions will carry the music you gave us with them for the rest of time.

I can't help but feel dread when I read this. It's such a terrifying experience for someone to deal with, and for those around them.
Prayers for Brian, his family, and everyone who loves him.

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.

Wow, I'm genuinely shocked. Prayers to Brian and his family. Don't even know what to say.... By all accounts she was a huge part of Brian's recovery and maintained happiness, and for that I will always be grateful for the love she put into the world.

I'll be "advocatus diaboli" here and note that SB served his time and paid his debt to society.  The fact is that from "Imagination" through Brian's late-career renaissance, SB is part of the story.  Heck, he's a person Brian called "the most talented musician I've ever met." Digest that one for a minute.  None of that can't be changed or taken away from him.  Must he be ostracized forever?   

The whole point of the law is for society to outline what criminals owe them. As a society, we outlined it and he paid it

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

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!

I have this weird feeling about this kind of stuff lately. There are certain places fans are willing to go that a "legit" version wouldn't be able to.
This applies to Smile and other classic works. My stuff, and ESPECAILLY Dae Lims, makes changes to the mixes and vision of the tracks that goes
beyond, say, remixing already presented and recorded tracks.

Giles doing the Beatles stuff is the furthest I've seen this go, fundamentally changing the sound of these songs. I happen to love it, but it is certainly finding some backlash. I think that the official stuff should try as hard as it can to preserve the legacy and sound of the tracks.

New masters? Sure... but at this point, with what they have to work from, I wonder if an ai-remixed Smile would truly preserve the sound. Even if it may sound "better"... (was there any reaction like this to the stereo Pet Sounds CDs? I seem to remember reading some)

A really cool guy, got to speak with him briefly in 2011 (I believe) and he was great to his, and Brian's, fans. A piece of the legacy for sure. RIP

I remember seeing yours on YouTube a while ago! Great to see others taking a swing at it. I definitely think it's cool to hear Paul doing the jaunty pirate rap ahahaha

So glad you enjoyed my version, thanks for listening!

Well, despite the hang ups, I decided not to let my existing hard work go to waste! I had a different idea for the "rap" section... I hope you all enjoy it!!

On a Holiday!
https://youtu.be/Al3F7OD-fk8

Another fantastic one!!

Dae Lims and I both sing our parts, for reasons outlined in my video clip above.

AFAIK he is also using RVC, you can find some easy tutorials on YouTube, it's not that tough to get set up!

I'm at a bit of a crossroads here, and I can't decide what to do.

I have a finished version of On A Holiday, with Mike and Al sharing the lead. On the middle section, the pirate rap, I had van dyke parks beat rapping the part I was so excited about it and couldn't wait to share.

I was encouraged to send it to the man himself, and I was excited to receive a reply. I told him that I wanted to make something special to celebrate my love of BWPS and the original tracks for the 20th anniversary. I made sure to let him know that if he didn't like it, I wouldn't release it as is.

Very respectfully, he responded that he didn't feel the track honored the legacy and that I should do something else with my talent (paraphrasing). He was very kind and I want to stress that I don't feel anything negative towards his response.

However, I can't help but feel that if he isn't a fan of the project... I should just drop it. I don't feel like a compromised version of my vision would be worth following through with. I'm not sure what specifically about my project he didn't like, like just the use of his voice on the track, but I just feel off about the whole thing now.

I know others have mentioned he gave some encouraging words to Dae Lims Smile, so that's cool... oof! 

Thoughts?

Would be great to have those, archived. Feels like that is a part of the history! Might be great for the book?

Nothing else would have been possible without BWPS.

Facts. 2004 SMiLE proved that the album was more than a mess of ideas. I prefer almost everything about the originals, but this had a ton of heart.

The folks who came together to make this happen really seemed to have Brian, and his legacy, in mind while assisting him to finish it. That alone deserves to be celebrated. 

Made a quick video to answer this question

https://youtu.be/SED0pLJj844

All good conversations above, I would always love to collaborate with anyone interested in this tech!
I've noticed so far, most folks just want to pay me (or just beg) to have their songs made with Paul McCartney's voice... or a specific request from the Beach Boys...

One of the things I most want to show is that, honestly, ANYONE can use this tech. It really isn't that complicated! I am a programmer by day, but I'm just a bedroom musician by night. I do believe that is the biggest leg up that Dae Lims has... his knowledge of sound engineering, mixing, and just his skill as a musician is a HUGE asset to his productions with the AI. That said, I'm just a hobbyist and I believe any of you (with the right amount of passion and effort) could make some bomb stuff with these tools.

I've been trying to make more "behind the scenes" stuff for this project. A lot of folks, here and elsewhere, would assume that I used BWPS vocals to "de-age" Brian... but that isn't the case. While I personally wish to stick to the words and arrangements pretty closely, I am singing all the parts which as mentioned is a blessing and a curse in some cases.

I think it's important that people know this. It takes musical skill to do these things, and it's the main thing I'm trying to improve to catch up with Dae Lims... who has a pretty decent lead on that skillset!

Little clips like this may help to explain to the general public how this stuff works, and perhaps legitimize the tech a bit more?
https://youtu.be/8F5ljjBppSk

Fair enough :/ This is literally a bedroom project ahaha, I think it sounds pretty good but... valid criticism!

BOOKOFF SMILE PLUS - Completely new ai models, tracks, and mix! Coming... when it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep_6aF32OjI

Song for Children - featuring Al, Mike, Brian and Carl!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_LBW8qDZFM

BOOKOFF SMILE PLUS - Completely new ai models, tracks, and mix! Coming... when it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep_6aF32OjI

Song for Children - featuring Al, Mike, Brian and Carl!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_LBW8qDZFM

Can't wait till you guys hear the rest of this, but I wanted to show a bit of how the sausage is made.
So many folks have the wrong idea about these tools!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnm_DW0azIc

Any guesses what this goes to? Hmmm...

Oh! And these models, much better ones than my Brian model, will be available soon as well. 

Funny enough, mine was me singing as well. Guess I'm a bit too much of a Brian fan and not enough Sinatra! 

Well, that video was just a little joke to show I'm still working on stuff... can't wait till you guys see what I'm cooking up next...

Some thoughts: https://youtu.be/nrEoGv13Cm8?si=yovpp-n2WHO2GqL1

Not enough time to share all my thoughts right now... but what a daring, incredible, and creative work. Absolutely monumental.

The SHOWMANSHIP

https://youtu.be/PImkald8cQU

We're going multimedia on this... so hyped!