Audiocraft Tutorial: Create Music with Meta's AI Tool

Introduction to Audiocraft

On June 9, 2023, Meta introduced an innovative AI tool called Audiocraft, designed for music generation and audio processing through deep learning technologies. Unlike Google's MusicLM, Audiocraft distinguishes itself as an open-source platform. This openness encourages users to delve into music creation and explore possibilities without limitations. In this article, we will walk you through the process of installing Audiocraft, extending its duration limits, and integrating it into your projects through a Streamlit app.

Prerequisites for Installing Audiocraft

Before diving into the installation of Audiocraft, ensure you have the following prerequisites met:

• Python version 3.9
• Pip installed
• PyTorch version 2.0
• FFmpeg installed

To install PyTorch, open your terminal and run:

pip install torch torchvision torchaudio

For installing FFmpeg, run:

sudo apt install ffmpeg

Installation of Audiocraft

To kick off the installation of Audiocraft, follow these steps:

1. Clone the GitHub repository containing Audiocraft.
2. Navigate to the downloaded folder.
3. Install the required libraries with the command:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Now, you are ready to play music with Audiocraft!

Creating Music with Audiocraft

To begin creating music, you'll use the MusicGen module in Audiocraft. Meta provides a user-friendly Gradio UI, which you can launch by running:

python -m musicgen_app

Once executed, the UI will be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:7860. The demo also generates a public URL for collaboration. Note that the first time you run it, it may take longer as the models need to be downloaded, especially if your GPU isn't very powerful.

Audiocraft offers four models to generate music. For instance, the facebook/musicgen-melody model produces melodies influenced by the uploaded music file, while the others generate more ambient-like pieces based on text input.

After experimenting with several prompts using the track "bolero_ravel.mp3," I discovered impressive results. Nevertheless, you might want to expand beyond the default 120-second limit on the song duration.

Extending Duration Limits in Audiocraft

To modify the maximum song duration, follow these steps:

1. Open the project in your favorite code editor and navigate to the demos folder.
2. Locate the musicgen_app.py file.
3. Search for the duration variable (typically found on line 240).
4. Change the value to your desired duration (e.g., 200 seconds for a 3:20 minute song).
5. Save the file and restart the application using:

Ctrl+C and then python -m musicgen_app

Keep in mind that extending the duration significantly affects the processing time, particularly with a longer time length.

Integrating Audiocraft into an Existing Project

Audiocraft can easily integrate into your existing codebase. For demonstration, we’ll construct a simple app that generates a song description based on a URL. Below are the steps to set this up:

1. Create a new directory called audiocraft_app.
2. Create a file named audiocraft_app.py and a requirements.txt file inside this folder.
3. Include the necessary libraries in the requirements.txt file.
4. Install the libraries by running:

pip install -r requirements.txt

5. In audiocraft_app.py, write the code to generate music from a URL.
6. Run the application:

python audiocraft_app.py

Your app should now operate at http://localhost:8501. Input your OpenAI API Key and a URL to generate the song description.

Remember that the initial audio file may take time to generate as Audiocraft needs to download the model. Once completed, you should receive a success message with the song WAV file in your root directory.

Conclusion

Audiocraft is a powerful tool for music creation, offering vast capabilities from simple melodies to intricate compositions. With its open-source nature and user-friendly interface, users can explore new horizons in music generation. Whether you’re a developer integrating Audiocraft into your projects or an artist experimenting with sound, the potential is boundless! So dive in, create, and let your musical journey begin!