Output’s Sample Pack Generator lets you create samples with text prompts

Audio brand Output is aiming to inspire music-makers with a new AI offering – Pack Generator, part of its new Co-Producer service. By using text to describe a sound, genre, or style, you can create a free and unique sample pack that’s all yours and is royalty-free. The catch? Well…That’s for you to decide.

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Pack Generator is the first product from Output’s Co-Producer suite. Co-Producer will soon boast more AI-powered music-making tools, but we’d say that this debut release is a pretty dramatic entrance.

What is Output’s Pack Generator?

OK, so how does Pack Generator work? The Beta software operates in your web browser and the interface is little more than a text box and a big yellow button. Dream up the sound you want – maybe it’s a synthesizer playing a chord progression, a drum beat, or a guitar  – and describe it using text.

You can use language that’s emotion- or scene-driven, or go in-depth with genre, key, tempo and instrumentation, and even ask for stems based on an artist you admire. Hit ‘Generate 4 New Packs’, and wait for the algorithm to analyse the text and create your packs.

That’s it. Do you like the sounds that Output’s AI has created for you? If yes, you can download any of the packs for free, with each one boasting 30 royalty-free samples. Don’t like any of them? Try a new prompt or hit the Generate button again for a fresh offering. You can then import these into any DAW or sampler you like and use them as inspiration to create a new track. Or you can just not use the service; that’s also allowed.

Output says that Pack Generator “stands apart from other AI music tools” because it’s designed to inspire creators, not replace them. The machine learning algorithm is also not trained on copyrighted material but is “fueled by a blend of generative AI and authentic audio samples from real musicians,” a press release details.

Gregg Lehrman, CEO and founder of Output says: “We are a company built by musicians so we are deeply connected to the cultural conflict between AI’s capabilities and our own creativity. We believe that AI can enable us all to spend more time making music and less time dealing with mundane tasks like searching for sounds, for example. Technology should never take away from the creative process for those that want it.”

Is Output’s Pack Generator any good?

So, here’s one of perhaps many catches: it’s not always on point. Here are some prompts we tried and their results.

• Prompt 1: synth chords with a slow attack envelope; nostalgic, warm and smooth
• Prompt 2: people talking, birds whistling, cars driving by, gentle rain
• Prompt 3: four-to-the-floor disco beat, 114bpm, LinnDrum LM-1 drum machine with 55% swing

The sounds are pretty diverse, and creative, that’s for sure. But the AI model isn’t able to understand and generate everything yet. No doubt Output will continue to update the service and its capabilities, though, considering it’s only in beta.

Pack Generator’s other issue lies in the more ethical realm – what does this mean for producers who are commissioned to create sample packs? And will this really help inspire more music-makers? We’ll be exploring this in an upcoming feature, so be sure to sign up to the MusicTech newsletter to keep in the loop.

In the meantime, you can try out the Pack Generator on Output’s Co-Producer platform.