
Rave.dj – an artificially intelligent mash-up machine - ozzmotik
https://rave.dj
======
citation_please
At great risk of sounding haughty, as someone who's perhaps a bit more into
the DJing scene than what's probably the average HN user, all of these sound
horrible. Beat matching is the easiest part of DJing, and that's about all
that this tool does, so I don't think it's solving any DJing problems
specifically.

One thing that it does do is take away the turntable GUI (or hardware) and
replace it with a two-field upload form, radically reducing the amount of
know-how required to perform beat-matching. That's just really scratching the
surface of what a lot of "live" DJs do (as they're called these days), as many
are bringing instruments like drums and saxophones (see Big Gigantic[1]),
keyboards and vocoders (see Lorenz Rhode[2]), their voice (see Gallago[3]),
and traditional African drums (see Black Motion[4]), let alone simple song
selection and set progression - "reading the crowd".

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkxMjfYOE-g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkxMjfYOE-g)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwf2uvWlL_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwf2uvWlL_c)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmCFPjwlxIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmCFPjwlxIU)

[4]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHEc9uA2Zmw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHEc9uA2Zmw)

When the tool comes along that can style-transfer two songs in the same way
that it can for images, then I will admit that AI is on the verge of taking
our music-creating/music-playing jobs. But for now, I'm satisfied that there's
a bit more to the depth of DJing than that what an AI can learn.

~~~
ArmelC
Hey, I'm one of the devs at Rave.

I posted some general responses here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17852736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17852736)

We're aiming to make the process as simple as possible, so anyone can make
mashups/mixes, and will add on customizations over time. Our focus first and
foremost will be to make sure that the core process is solid before we add on
to it.

Our AI does do more than beatmatching as well. Though a lot of that is going
to be more evident in our mix AI, which we've been focusing on recently.

~~~
slededit
There are a lot of "mixes" on youtube for electronic music that have great
track selection but do simple fades because they don't have the technical
skills. If this technology helps them solve that then it would improve my
listening experience dramatically.

~~~
ArmelC
That is actually precisely what we're aiming to solve! Give those who don't
have the technical skills, a means to get the best result they can get, while
letting them focus on the part that is important to them: the music selection.

------
paraschopra
This is how well thought out products look like.

\- Really simple and intuitive start. I created my first mashup within first 2
minutes and at all times knew exactly what I was doing

\- Inbuilt virality. People _will_ show off their produced mixes to their
friends and on social media.

\- Actually solves a pain point. How many of us have tried mixing songs and
gave up? This gives a sense of creativity while taking care of all the
complexity.

Even though I don't know how they'll monetize this, it seems a really well
thought out product.

~~~
ehsankia
Not only that, but the small things like mashing up the song title and album
art truly make this a quality product.

Here is my first try: Disclosure - Bang That + The XX - On Hold = Hold That

[https://rave.dj/1F1p4ZS9ipWmYA](https://rave.dj/1F1p4ZS9ipWmYA)

~~~
imdsm
I tried to give it a challenge, mixing two completely different genres of
music – medieval with rap. Amazingly the medieval tune followed the beat of
the rap song.

[https://rave.dj/h3o1s4nrg5d2sQ](https://rave.dj/h3o1s4nrg5d2sQ)

------
wattengard
Ok. I think I nailed the perfect one:
[https://rave.dj/ySGzN-0svLlPpA](https://rave.dj/ySGzN-0svLlPpA)

~~~
sbarre
Wow, I have to say I'm kind of amazed this mashup was generated and not hand-
crafted..

~~~
empath75
Really.. it sounds like someone just hit play on two songs at the same time to
me. Beatmatching is trivial.

------
thanatropism
So I tried to mix two guitar-heavy songs that were bound to be incompatible
and the results are kind of okay. Only one has vocals and it comes out way out
of tune, but the general development of the songs fits well. It somewhat feels
that this has more to do with the predictable sequence of verse/chorus/verse
bars in pop music. But eh.

The video is pretty good too:

[https://rave.dj/dBgxMMEtR9j-nw](https://rave.dj/dBgxMMEtR9j-nw)

\----

Edit: Here's an example of an utter failure that illustrates my hypothesis: it
mixes a song that has a traditional verse/chorus/verse structure with a techno
track that's a monotonic crescendo. The algorithm doesn't know what to do
about it (the correct answer, although not leading to great music, would be to
use parts from the begginning of the crescendo track so not to overpower the
pop song.)

[https://rave.dj/-Ls2Nu6CPD0Ssw](https://rave.dj/-Ls2Nu6CPD0Ssw)

Edit 2: Here's an easy one it gets wrong: track 1 has great loopable
instrumental grooves that go on each for a few bars before rap vocals kick in.
Track 2 is a person talking. It should _not_ be overlapping vocals, it should
just highlight the instrumental loops.

[https://rave.dj/acvjP2J3oQWF4Q](https://rave.dj/acvjP2J3oQWF4Q)

~~~
e_proxus
I think the tracks needs to carefully picked by a human first, then it can
turn out good. Too many chords and melodies in both tracks just creates a
mess. Pure drum and beat tracks on top of melodies seems to be an easy combo:

Covers on top of the original was a surprising success:

[https://rave.dj/ArkBRLe-216kdg](https://rave.dj/ArkBRLe-216kdg)

[https://rave.dj/Pty3Hy1Fum9Tag](https://rave.dj/Pty3Hy1Fum9Tag)

Pure drum tracks plus acapella:

[https://rave.dj/3K-oowQBpD09GA](https://rave.dj/3K-oowQBpD09GA)

~~~
thanatropism
But dissonant melodies can sound good; for a while bitonalism (some Debussy;
most notoriously Darius Milhaud) was a compromise or a gateway drug to
straight atonalism. My first example has vocals in a different key from the
guitar, but the song structure works.

Basically mixing _any_ pop songs work -- here's a very very very good one with
Sepultura + Pet Shop Boys

[https://rave.dj/SENYa64kow5OLg](https://rave.dj/SENYa64kow5OLg)

... the point being that pop music is very very regular in its
verse/chorus/verse narrative curve.

------
SyneRyder
If there's any Eurovision geeks here, I tried putting two Eurovision songs
together, and now I can't stop watching "I Feed You My Rhythm Inside" by
Margaret Berger vs Loïc Nottet. I must have played this 10 times in a row now.

[https://rave.dj/_sYhWmI-iHgq_Q](https://rave.dj/_sYhWmI-iHgq_Q)

~~~
stephengillie
After watching this, I want to watch another, similar mashup. This site could
really use a recommendation/autoplay system, and I could listen for hours.
Maybe I've been watching Youtube too much.

------
minikomi
As long as there's a pretty predictable 4/4 beat, it seems to do well.

[https://rave.dj/fR61DJEv2DP4Tw](https://rave.dj/fR61DJEv2DP4Tw)

DJ AssultPink - Ass ' n ' TT

Although the BPM detection usually works, It seems to have trouble getting the
songs synced in phrase - 2nd tracks come in starting on the 3rd bar or
something.

------
dschuessler
If there is someone here who also played Donkey Kong Country 2 in his/her
childhood: Some of its tunes make for a pretty decent hip hop beat.

[https://rave.dj/sRxPBRstYvXeuw](https://rave.dj/sRxPBRstYvXeuw)

------
jariz
That blur filter absolutely annihilates my macbook's CPU.

EDIT: 4 hours remaining... hmmm.. feeding it a 400 track playlist probably
wasn't a good idea

------
asdojasdosadsa
Tried to use some generic pop songs (
[https://rave.dj/BtHuRn1-lAnDEQ](https://rave.dj/BtHuRn1-lAnDEQ) \- [madonna -
hung up] & [ timbaland - the way i are ]) and result is not bad at all, a bit
cacophonous in some parts, but other than that it's [the smashup] quite good!

------
lysp
Interesting mashup -

[https://rave.dj/ac-w-nK_8vCiFQ](https://rave.dj/ac-w-nK_8vCiFQ)

I tested - Run DMC - It's like that vs Funky Town.

~~~
mohn
Run DMC vs. Toni Basil - 'Hey Trickey' did not turn out as good as I'd hoped:

[https://rave.dj/KEmdgiqJTerSEg](https://rave.dj/KEmdgiqJTerSEg)

------
cookiefonster
A few Raves I did that I like (most are with It's Everyday Bro because rave.dj
tends to work well with that song):

[https://rave.dj/kzPLdIZQmIsS0Q](https://rave.dj/kzPLdIZQmIsS0Q)

[https://rave.dj/y1qMUYY7GbNmKA](https://rave.dj/y1qMUYY7GbNmKA)

[https://rave.dj/JaJYoO_hBQNkjw](https://rave.dj/JaJYoO_hBQNkjw)

[https://rave.dj/U4BPJ9duII-o9Q](https://rave.dj/U4BPJ9duII-o9Q) (gets off-
sync later sadly)

[https://rave.dj/Xx-6ojmH86hxpA](https://rave.dj/Xx-6ojmH86hxpA)

None of these are perfect but Rave is A LOT of fun to mess around with,
there's no denying that.

~~~
paulm12345
I think you'd probably like making a mix too!
[https://www.rave.dj/iOfKQXFw3TxTWA](https://www.rave.dj/iOfKQXFw3TxTWA)

Just provide ~50 or more songs for best results

~~~
cookiefonster
I've done it before, those are a lot of fun too.

------
subsubsub
Any blog posts on how this is working?

Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson & The Wurzels...

Scream Harvester:
[https://rave.dj/talVuJvYAn6zbA](https://rave.dj/talVuJvYAn6zbA)

~~~
citation_please
Seems to just be a beat matcher / BPM adjuster, which is interesting in
itself, but quite basic features in any DAW/DJing software.

------
LordHeini
It produces some quite funky technical death metal too.

[https://rave.dj/ULx2nBaldJ9ocw](https://rave.dj/ULx2nBaldJ9ocw)

~~~
maze-le
This one is great! My grindcore experiment wans't too successful, but it gave
me a chuckle anyway.

Nasum & Napalm Death: Face the Children

[0]: [https://rave.dj/yjDMS4Pu0a81ZA](https://rave.dj/yjDMS4Pu0a81ZA) (Napalm
Death: Suffer the Children vs. Nasum: The Masked Face)

------
mburst
Seems to be pretty awesome. I tested out two instrumental bits in Hardwell -
Spaceman and SHM - Greyhound and found that the algorithm had some issues with
the low end clashing on mixing between the songs [https://rave.dj/qP-
eYlelx75GjQ](https://rave.dj/qP-eYlelx75GjQ) Though it leveled out after a few
seconds. Would love to know more about how it works!

~~~
m00dy
Definitely. I'm so curious.

------
appstorelottery
Rammstein Vs. Crazy Town. Dark :-)

Du By The Hast [https://rave.dj/sN4EnkKdPfj-ow](https://rave.dj/sN4EnkKdPfj-
ow)

------
kvgr
Just one side note, that moving background is giving me motion sickness :) But
I am gonna probably spend a lot of time, making mixes...

~~~
Zopieux
Yes, this background video makes for a terrible experience. I know it looks
cool and startupy (at least it did in 2015) but this trend has to stop.

Ended up hiding it with an ad blocker rule.

------
ArmelC
Hey all! I'm one of the devs at Rave (working on the website). This is really
cool to see all this interest in us!

To address a few points I've seen on here: We do more than just beatmatching.
That said, most of our recent technical advancements are done on our mix AI,
as it's been our recent push. Give mixes a try (which work better the more
songs you give them)! We'll be pivoting back to mashups soon as well to
continue improvements on that AI, particularly rolling in some of the
improvements we developed through the mix AI.

Our goals have really been to bring mashups and mixes to those who don't have
the technical ability first and foremost, and focus on making it as accessible
as possible. We want to make sure our baseline is solid before targeting
customizations. I feel paraschopra's post really captured what we wanted to
achieve.

Ultimately, we're still at the beginning of what we want to do, and have
plenty of improvements on the way.

~~~
samstave
Some feedback:

* Awesome job, here are some feature suggestions:

* The ability to rate the mix/mashup as the author

* The ability to rate as an audience

* visual of the algo's understanding of the songs sound profile and how its lining them up

* The ability to select the time-range of the song which must be included/excluded from the mix

* ability to ask it to weight a repeating frequency of a song

* name of the artist/track/video playing displayed

\---

Where are you guys located?

~~~
paulm12345
Good suggestions, we're located in Kitchener Ontario Canada.

RE: "ability to ask it to weight a repeating frequency of a song" \- you'd
want songs to appear in your mix more than once?

~~~
samstave
Yes, if I am mixing a series of my favorite songs... also I may want it to mix
from A B C B A B C A to see how that sounds...

------
jjcm
Pretty interesting. I used to be heavily into the mashup scene, even going so
far as to make mashup.fm (another turntable/plug.dj clone). Here's some of my
favorite classical mashups alongside the rave.dj version:

Thomas the Tank Engine vs Biggie Smalls

Original:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETfiUYij5UE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETfiUYij5UE)

Rave.dj: [https://rave.dj/XUBqv8IsZPVZMQ](https://rave.dj/XUBqv8IsZPVZMQ)

This was the easiest as it's just a vocal track laid onto a beat, but it
really jumps the tracks around a ton, seemingly randomly. It at least doesn't
jump mid-measure though and fits with the beat.

\------------------------------------

Modest Mouth (Modest Mouse vs Smashmouth)

Original:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEmJH7JsKgM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEmJH7JsKgM)

Rave.dj: [https://rave.dj/gUb_lU_PrHBdKA](https://rave.dj/gUb_lU_PrHBdKA)

The Neil C original is a classic, and really fits two songs together that
don't belong near each other. Rave plays the intros in sequential order, with
vocals overlapping all over. They really need a central channel filter to see
if they can pop the vocals out from the instrumentals. This is really a
tuesday-surprise lunchroom casserole of a mashup, with a rather abrupt ending.

\------------------------------------

Korn vs Taylor Swift

Original: [https://soundcloud.com/user-490703809/we-are-coming-
undone-k...](https://soundcloud.com/user-490703809/we-are-coming-undone-korn-
taylor-swift-mashup-by-isonsine)

Rave.dj: [https://rave.dj/usdGtcmoNJeItg](https://rave.dj/usdGtcmoNJeItg)

This one really works because of some of the more complex editing on Isosine's
part. The rave one is a disaster. Feels like you're standing in between two
parties that are blasting two jams, that just happened to have their
drops/choruses line up.

\------------------------------------

Kanye West vs The Beatles

Original:
[http://mashup.fm/media/Hey_Jude_We_Major_More_Popular_than_J...](http://mashup.fm/media/Hey_Jude_We_Major_More_Popular_than_Jesus_-
_Kanye_West_The_Beatles-105124470.mp3)

Rave.dj: [https://rave.dj/ZcRpPLK6QZEvZA](https://rave.dj/ZcRpPLK6QZEvZA)

This is a personal favorite, and I think it works because of how long the Hey
Jude intro is. It really means you forget about Kanye completely until he
jumps in. It works because of how slow of a buildup Hey Jude is. The Rave
version has no nuance here. They speed up Hey Jude, up-pitching it in the
process and making it sound like Raffi or some other child entertainer. They
down pitch Kanye, making him seem like some gangsta thug. It really doesn't
work at all.

\------------------------------------

I really want this to become better, but I feel like it needs to be trained
more tricks (vocal separation for one) to really be worth it. Also minor QOL
improvement would be to allow you to preview tracks before you add them to the
mix. Hard to find one that's a good audio only rip of a song sometimes.

~~~
nerdbeere
Enya vs. The prodigy

Original:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5knIIyKpSK4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5knIIyKpSK4)

Rave.dj: [https://rave.dj/moZFRBY95T53zA](https://rave.dj/moZFRBY95T53zA)

Very pleased with the result.

------
maze-le
Love it!

What I find very interesting is, the stability of the system. There must be
quite the heavy load on the machine: retrieval, analysis, tempo matching,
mashup creation, encoding and all on a ~11 hours HN-related stress test.

------
cjohansson
Acoustic Blues - Spotify playlist via rave.dj:
[https://rave.dj/NX2BLIeTJW_YtQ](https://rave.dj/NX2BLIeTJW_YtQ)

Was better than I expected, this is kind of a stress test

------
tonetheman
Pressure Jean [https://rave.dj/23kYqXObZm0izg](https://rave.dj/23kYqXObZm0izg)
Billy Jean and Under Pressure... what a lovely site.

------
logicchains
This one managed to match up the lyrics of two similarly-themed songs
surprisingly well, assumedly by accident:
[https://rave.dj/y0GOaTZwBsEvYw](https://rave.dj/y0GOaTZwBsEvYw). "But mighty
fine only got you somewhere half the time, the other half either got you...
eighteen years, and on the eighteenth birthday he found out it wasn't his!"

------
andybak
And a surprisingly successful merger of Cutty Ranks and Abba with the awesome
title of "Limb Queen"

[https://rave.dj/Mgv2ZGiuYfNnow](https://rave.dj/Mgv2ZGiuYfNnow)

I giggled all the way through it. A bit of better volume balancing where the
two songs overlap and I'd play that at a party with no regrets...

~~~
senorjazz
nice - as you say, would be better if the Abba track was lower in the mix when
it first comes in, but the timing and parts used to bring it in are spot on.

Perhaps the algorithm would do better with better quality versions of the
track rather than youtube quality?

------
bhalley
Awesome project! I just made
[https://rave.dj/0GU6N96tgPXj9Q](https://rave.dj/0GU6N96tgPXj9Q) and it's
awesome! love being able to use a Spotify playlist.

Have you considered using BunnyCDN instead of Stackpath for the CDN? It'll
probably be much cheaper.

------
rcv
Wow, it actually produced something kind of reasonable for the least
reasonable input I could come up with. I present "In the Hall of the Dracula
Mountain King"
[https://rave.dj/1jK2s4-jAt3meg](https://rave.dj/1jK2s4-jAt3meg)

------
toomanybeersies
Ironically, this seems to really struggle to make good mixes from techno. It
mashes it up a bit too much.

~~~
johnmorrow
You could say that for this one as well, but its still pretty impressive
[https://rave.dj/sVAYFGYFUxM2nw](https://rave.dj/sVAYFGYFUxM2nw)

------
chejazi
Use case recommendation: pick a track with a good background beat and another
track that is mostly lyrical to lay over it. ie:
[https://rave.dj/XDTIdjbTSIWHxw](https://rave.dj/XDTIdjbTSIWHxw) (gets great
at 30 seconds)

------
baxtr
I played with it and used some generic party songs. The result is not bad.
This one for example, "Hey ya! on steroids"

[https://rave.dj/iIeQ-Bx8mnFDWQ](https://rave.dj/iIeQ-Bx8mnFDWQ)

------
stef25
Holy crap, Dolly Parton vs Richie Hawtin. It's much much better than expected
but not quite ready for the dancefloor yet.

[https://rave.dj/wpsuhBh9kc5OZA](https://rave.dj/wpsuhBh9kc5OZA)

------
logicchains
周杰伦 meets 3 Inches of Blood: what the world really needs is more bilingual
songs about slaying the orcs!
[https://rave.dj/aO7XPBNgFR7W_g](https://rave.dj/aO7XPBNgFR7W_g)

------
paulm12345
Check out mixes of many songs, they include many more advanced techniques than
seen in mashups:
[https://www.rave.dj/iOfKQXFw3TxTWA](https://www.rave.dj/iOfKQXFw3TxTWA)

------
d3sandoval
Seems like you can put rap with anything and it'll sound good!

Here's the Killers with Eminem:
[https://rave.dj/3OYTG3uFFUrMIg](https://rave.dj/3OYTG3uFFUrMIg)

------
sbhn
Cat music mashup. Guaranteed to make your cat look at you as if you’re an
idiot. [https://rave.dj/PKqlwGPNObCcaw](https://rave.dj/PKqlwGPNObCcaw)

------
meltonian
My first two attempts didn't turn out that great. However, N.W.A + Beatles
works!

[https://rave.dj/lym2TmHHLQhOiQ](https://rave.dj/lym2TmHHLQhOiQ)

------
suda50
Turn Down for What seems to go well with a lot of songs:
[https://rave.dj/cBQ8koXg_09blA](https://rave.dj/cBQ8koXg_09blA)

~~~
r3bl
Because it's one of the rare electronic songs that became popular whose speed
is ~100 BPM (BPM = beats per minute in this case). That makes it compatible
with a lot of pop and hip hop songs. Add to that the fact that it contains
almost no lyrics (while pop songs contain almost no low frequencies) and you
have a match.

------
sylvinus
As expected, French House mixes very well ;-)

Daft Punk + Justice:
[https://rave.dj/Lpr1oWauUIIeaA](https://rave.dj/Lpr1oWauUIIeaA)

~~~
xgbi
Tu traines sur HN toi ? :)

Gui13

------
justatdotin
that was actually heaps better than I expected..
[https://rave.dj/q9LAsKpPBKVPhw](https://rave.dj/q9LAsKpPBKVPhw)

------
PelCasandra
Blondie (Rapture) and The Beastie Boys (Fight for your Right)

[https://rave.dj/E_SszLqaCgUrgg](https://rave.dj/E_SszLqaCgUrgg)

------
ratsimihah
Love the UI and UX and the idea, but unfortunately the end result was
impossible to listen to. Might've been just me picking 2 incompatible songs.

------
wc_cs
Little L x Boogie Nights
[https://rave.dj/G1X1uN36e977Hw](https://rave.dj/G1X1uN36e977Hw)

------
pinebox
Useless. All the prog house tracks I would actually want to mix with a tool
like this are around 9 minutes, which is "too long".

------
default-kramer
Does the "Mix many songs into a DJ set" option even work? It seems to create a
mashup instead.

~~~
cwftw
Try adding more than two songs, ideally 50 or more to give the AI something to
work with. I'd recommend picking a YouTube playlist.

------
TheOtherHobbes
Doesn't work for me - I get short glitchy bursts of noise and then it stops.

Chrome 68.0.3440.106 on an iMac Pro.

~~~
GEverding
Can you hop onto the discord server so we can help you.

------
joaomacp
The two best results I got (both were 'easy' for the AI, but I was still
surprised):

Supa Hot Fire + Linkin Park:
[https://rave.dj/Kph8bLPfCCmsaw](https://rave.dj/Kph8bLPfCCmsaw)

A known bass drop + Sia - Chandelier:
[https://rave.dj/h9rjxodw1vjgkw](https://rave.dj/h9rjxodw1vjgkw)

------
Froyoh
What's with the high CPU usage?

