We’re always looking to increase the repertoire of our tag categories to benefit our customers. This time, we’re rolling out a new category called “Vocalist Type”. With a 95% accuracy, our AI is able to identify whether the vocals in the audio - main or backing - sounds more like a male or a female.
Differentiating between male vs female vocals is discerning to the human’s ear in most cases. Daryl, our AI developer explained, “Regardless of demographics or age, pitches between the two genders are rather distinctive”. For example, female vocals are generally classified under soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto. On the other hand, male vocals fall into four broad categories - countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass.
However, some artists were able to trick our AI. Here are 3 male vocalists that sound “female”:
Portugal. The Man - "Feel It Still"
Rhye - “Open”
Cigarettes After Sex - “Heavenly”
Olivia, the Head of our Music team highlighted that this isn’t necessarily a case of “inaccuracy” from the AI. “When we’re searching for background music for films and TV shows, it’s geared more towards a search for a vibe, for example, a smoky, jazzy, bar sort of feel. The gender of the vocals isn’t the most important factor here, but you’re also looking for a vocal type to accentuate that vibe. In this case, even though our AI identified as a female vocal, it’s actually a fair prediction of his vocal type - which is ultimately pertinent to the intent of the search for a production company.”
Try our tagging demo here to find out which other artists can get past our AI... and be sure to let us know!
