It`s All About Speed: AI`s Impact on Workflow in Music Production
For music production professionals, this study identifies design tensions in AI tools that impact workflow and creative control.
An ethnographic study of professional recording engineers, mixers, and producers found that AI tools create tensions between speed/efficiency and creative agency/control, with design implications for alleviating these tensions.
In this paper, we present the results of an ethnographic study into the impact of AI and automated tools on music production workflow. Focusing specifically on professional participants who identified as recording engineers, mixers, and producers, we discuss their usage of common AI and automated software, as well as their sentiments on the proliferation of these tools. We discuss tensions that may be created between users and automated tools in key areas such as the need for speed and efficiency, controllability, and maintaining creative agency, and how these tensions may be alleviated through tool design.