Google Arts & Culture: Blob Opera – Create a pitch-perfect opera quartet with your mouse
Image Credit: Google
Prepare to waste hours of your day with Google’s latest experiment. Using machine learning Blob Opera replicate a four piece opera choir.
It’s easy to get started creating your choir. Simply drag the different blobs up and down to alter pitch as they all sing along in perfect harmony. Pitches stick to a scale, so there are no wrong notes. Drag forwards and backwards to sing different vowels. Silence any blob by simply clicking the mute swich above their head.
Once you’ve got used to the basics, hit record to share your creations with friends. Active Christmas mode to don the Santa hats and let the snow fall. You’ll see a playlist icon in the lower right corner. Here you can select from 8 popular Christmas Carols.
The machine learning model was created by David Li and trained on 16 hours of singing from four opera singers: tenor, Christian Joel, bass Frederick Tong, mezzo‑soprano Joanna Gamble and soprano Olivia Doutney. The blobs don’t simply play samples of their voices, rather the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like. Hear more from David Li here.
This isn’t Google’s first fun music experiment. Check out Google’s Magenta Lo-Fi Player here and Google’s Music Week on Inside Guide here.
