Only a couple of months into 2023, artificial intelligence has already been the dominating news story of the year. And with AI driving exponential advancements in all leading industries worldwide, the music production space is arguably more ripe and welcoming for what AI can bring than any other.
Our own biases aside, and while the ethics and the notion of the artistic integrity behind relying on such tools to make music are still being hotly debated by both the old guard and the new, the reality is that AI is here to stay in the world of music production. And while we certainly err on the side of the argument that advocates against using AI as a complete replacement for creativity, it’s hard to deny the power of these tools to supercharge your workflow.
We did some digging and discovered our favorite AI-based plugins for music production that work best as helpful studio assistants to the production process. Use these tools to help manage the tedious parts of production, compensate for areas of the craft you’re not very good at yet, and more! So let’s dive in.
DRUM Virtual Instrument
Plugins that help program your drum grooves and sequences are far from new, but Plugin Boutique’s new and innovative drum plugin takes the concept a step further. By allowing the AI to sort, tag, and categorize all the sample sand loops they host on their sister app, Loopcloud, the plugin helps you find the perfect drum samples out of the millions they host on their platform.
From there, you can cycle through the sounds, dial them to perfection, and even help generate new, exciting patterns you would never have imagined. This is a powerful tool for anyone who struggles to come up with their drum patterns, hates wasting time crate digging for the ideal snare sample, and those just looking for a quick way to set a vibe during their creative process.
The benefits and creative potential of this plugin would require an entire article to showcase, so for now; I encourage you to check out the link below and dive more into the powerful features of the VST for yourself.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
InstaChord
There is no shortage of chord-generating plugins for the music production community. Even in this list, a couple of the better and more powerful ones are included. Still, we love the InstaChord from W.A. Productions because of the depth of functionality and the multipurpose use that users can find in a single device.
Where many other chord-generative plugins use AI and machine learning to recommend more popular chords for your sequence, InstaChord packs a TON of extra menus and parameters to help refine and filter through the chords recommended. Chords are the backbone of the entire song, and they are hardly something you want to be leaving up to chance just by hitting the ‘generate chords’ button typically seen on many other sub-par chord-generating plugins.
If you’re looking for a top-down production resource, assistant, and instructor, you don’t need to look much further than this plugin.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Mastering The Mix Complete Collection
Mastering The Mix’s bundle of smart plugins has completely changed the game for many producers. Its powerful AI-driven mixing tools help democratize the complex technical skillset needed to achieve tight, warm mixdowns. All of their tools use powerful AI to help recognize problem areas in your mix before suggesting ways and sometimes even offering ways to fix the issues.
Their plugin Reso identifies harsh resonant frequencies that are subtly killing your mixdowns. Expose 2 and reference help you see how your mixdowns measure against your favorite artists. And Bassroom and Mixroom are, without hyperbolizing too much, simply some of the most excellent mixing plugins I’ve seen.
It’s no wonder why top artists like Shiba San included two plugins in this bundle in his short list of the five best plugins for mixing house music.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Melody Sauce 2
Evabeat’s second iteration of their popular Melody Sauce plugin is a powerful production tool for getting the ball rolling regarding melodies. And while the melodies it produces aren’t necessarily instantly usable 100% of the time, this plugin produces fascinating rhythms and patterns. Too often, we rely on the same dotted 8th note or 16th, not arpeggios, when we bust open a new project. We miss many opportunities to add extra grooves and more interesting syncopations by falling back on these predictable sequences.
But that is all instantly remedied with this plugin, whose powerful AI engine cranks out interesting rhythmic patterns with just a few clicks of the buttons.
When it comes to the melodies, you can help dial in exactly what you’re after by adjusting the melody’s speed, octave range, and vibe. Plus, you can save melodies you like in the “Melody Bank” section by combining your favorite riffs from multiple generations to be used into one single Ear-worm melody line.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
smart:bundle by Sonible
Where Mastering The Mix’s plugins all used powerful AI algorithms to suggest the more broad-stroke areas of the mix that are preventing your track from sounding professional, Sonible’s bundle of smart plugins gets much more details and molecular. Tools like smart limiters and smart reverb help identify the exact lengths parameters like decay, release, ore-delay, and attack are needed for the best-sounding mix.
It might not seem like a lot right now. Still, the small minute difference of just a few milliseconds makes a difference. It often takes professional audio engineers years, if not decades, to train their ears to a point where they can hear such differences. But Sonible’s plugins allow you to get those same results in minutes instead of years.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Captain Plugins Epic
Mixed In Key’s bundle of production plugins might seem like just another bundle of chord, lead, and bassline generators, but you’d be way off to assume as much. While on their own, that’s precisely what they do; the true power of these plugins is their ability to play well with each other. The interactions and recommendations their AI software gives are all based on the context of what the other plugins are doing.
This is a total game changer, as it quickly and easily allows you to navigate the most difficult parts of music production – writing music that actually “makes sense.” Having all the dots that need connecting not only in one place but have them suggesting news, chords, and changes all within the context of what you’re working on is revolutionary if you ask us and is the reason why Mixed In Key’s bundle of plugins has become an essential part of our workflow ever since we had our initial chance to review it back in 2022.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Atlas 2
Audio tagging and organizing through AI have become so much more robust in the last couple of years alone that I can foresee a future where AI and robots handle almost every aspect of studio organization. I thought I would need to spend a day or two a month organizing files and samples on my hard drive for the rest of my career until I opened up the Atlas plugin by Algonaut.
Atlas’ powerful AI helps organize and tag all the samples in your library, allowing quick indexing, sequencing, and more. Even better is how fast, easy, and intuitive it is to start using the samples in your tracks once they’re organized. You can export MIDI loops made within the plugin or render them directly to audio!
And while the plugin’s sequencer is undoubtedly designed for drum programming, it also has the general vibe of a plugin whose true potential is only matched by the creativity of the one using it.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Solaris Virtual Vocalist
Released in 2022, the vocal synth from Eclipsed Sounds has been slowly growing in popularity due to its small but loyal community of cover-song producers making covers of popular songs using the vocals that the plugin producers. Solaris Virtual Vocalist is a plugin that allows you to write in your lyrics and melodies, and the Carnegie-Hall-level vocals of Emma Rowley sing back what you fed into the plugin.
And while the demos of the plugin they have hosted on the site make it seem like it recreates perfect vocal arrangements with ease, know that the plugin can be a little finicky when dialing in melodies and inflections that don’t sound too robotic. That being said, it’s a powerful creative tool that works just as well for full vocal arrangements as it does for creating specific and unique vocal stems to resample and repurpose in other creative ways!
If anything, plugins like this excite us for what the future has in store. We’re just thinking about artist-branded vocal engines that allow you to tap into the sounds and voices of top-tier artists like The Weeknd or Bon Iver. Dare to dear I guess…
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Scaler 2
Melody generators usually do a fine job generating meldoic phrases but do a poor job helping you dial in the melodies you’re given. They rely on the game of numbers to achieve an excellent result, which burns a lot of time, flicking through what the plugin spits out and waiting for the perfect melody.
But Scaler 2’s powerful editing and adjusting features give you near complete control over what its powerful AI generates. Now editing inversions, note length, velocity, and more can be done quickly and fluidly.
Not only that, but Scaler 2 also comes stocked with hundreds of chord sets, 400 unique mood-based chord sets, and genre-specific chord templates to help you get off the ground, editing and creating instantly. It’s one of those rare production resources that acts more like a generative studio assistant than just a simple plugin.
Learn More About This Plugin Here
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
