If you’re one of those people who believes that technology has made music-making too easy, you might want to stop reading now, because Splice’s new CoSo app (iOS and Android) looks about as simple as it gets.
Billed as an “intelligent musical sketchpad,” this enables you to build Stacks - groups of samples that complement each other and work together to create a complete groove. Choose a style and CoSo will create a unique Stack for you - no effort required. If you don’t like what you hear, press a button and you’ll get a different Stack. That’s all there is to it.
If you want to add more layers, simply click the Plus button (a Stack can have up to eight layers), and you can mute and solo layers by tapping and long-pressing. Once you’re happy with a Stack, you can share it on TikTok, send it to your friends or download the layers in the Splice app so that you can continue working on your groove in your DAW.
A limited version of CoSo can be downloaded for free, while Splice subscribers can access the full content library and feature set.
The simplicity of CoSo may well prove to be controversial, and you could argue that it removes the fun - not to mention the creative challenge - of discovering sounds yourself. However, Ale Koretzky, leader of the ML&Audio Science Innovation Team at Splice that created the app, thinks differently.
“I believe we will hear a richer and more diverse selection of sounds bubbling up through this technology,” he says. “Some people will use it to discover sounds and others will use it to create music.
“At Splice we advocate for the artist and put humans at the centre of any canvas. We hope that by integrating intelligent discovery, curation, and creation, we can help creators with instant inspiration wherever they are.”
Splice Co-founder and CEO Steve Martocci, meanwhile, added: “The team has built a beautiful unlock for creativity and it speaks to the heart of Splice’s future. The feedback so far has been deeply motivating for us with talk of empowerment, inspiration and joy; from a little app with no waveforms, no knobs, and definitely no shift key. The sampling community has been waiting for a breakthrough like this, which was only possible when we paired CoSo with the depth of Splice Sounds.”
Find out more on the Splice website.
