D’Addario revisited accusations that it used AI-generated music in a recent promotional video for its new NYXL HD electric guitar strings, insisting that the track was performed by human musicians and claiming that an unusually large production chain caused the misunderstanding.
Last week, the strings and accessories giant came under fire after guitarists claimed online that demos of its new NYXL HD strings sounded suspiciously like they were generated using AI. The company was also criticized after comments disappeared from the original post and some users claimed to have been blocked.
Daddario initially denied the allegations, only acknowledging that the demo was “overproduced” and not generated by AI. in a statement to guitar worldthe company said it “made the choice to demo these products with fully produced mixes,” but admitted that the decision “backfired.”
In a follow-up post, Daddario added, “To be clear, this strings demo was certainly overproduced, but it wasn’t created by AI. All the guitars were tracked in real life, the drums and synths were programmed in MIDI, and there were tons of plugins and production.”
A behind-the-scenes video was also shared showing the recording sessions and guitar tracks used to create the demo.
However, that explanation did little to resolve the debate. YouTuber Danny Sapko and other users pointed out the obvious differences between the original demo and the behind-the-scenes recording sessions, claiming that the two do not seem to match.
Now, Daddario has provided more details about his stance and how he produced the track in a new statement posted to social media.
“We are a music company. A company built by musicians, for musicians,” the company writes. “So, understandably, we share the growing concern that generative AI could exclude musicians from the creative process.”
“In a recent post featuring one of our products, many of you wondered if we employed generative AI in our demo track. This track was written and performed by one of our employees who took pride in creating an original piece to showcase the new strings he helped develop.”
Daddario said it was an overly complex production process, rather than generative AI, that gave the recordings an artificial sound.
The company says the guitar playing has been processed with “a plethora of plug-ins,” and the drums are created by blending Logic’s stock “So-Cal” kit with an EZ Drummer, with all velocities set to a maximum of 127 “for a big sound.” They argue that these production choices “subtracted all the dynamics and added a ton of digital noise,” creating many of the listener characteristics associated with AI-generated music.
“A plethora of non-AI tools were used to make the original songs sound “more produced.” This added extra noise and inorganic detail to the mix, which people mistook for signs of AI generation. ”
Regarding the discrepancies people found between the original promo and the subsequent workflow video, D’Addario said the footage showed a collection of unmastered stems rather than the finished mix. “The video I posted last week included a DAW clip that was a bunch of premix and premaster stems that didn’t look like the finished product,” the description reads.
The company also revealed that while no generative AI was used to compose or perform the music, AI-assisted mastering tools were used in the final production process.
“While generative AI was not used to create the music, the AI assisted in the mixing and mastering process after the DAW export, thanks to the use of Logic’s ‘Mastering Assistant’ feature and LANDR’s Assisted Mastering.”
It went on to add that “most of the digital artifacts” highlighted by the critic came from “unusual interpretations of modern production techniques,” such as “four series compressors on the drums that add high-end fuzz” and auto-tuning on the guitars that introduce aliasing.
D’Addario said the delay in providing a more detailed explanation was because it was trying to understand why so many listeners were interpreting the recordings as being generated by AI, adding that it would reconsider “what level of production is appropriate” for future product demos.
The statement concludes with D’Addario reiterating his broader position on AI in music. “Remember, we are a company whose products can only be used by humans. If the musicians who make the music were replaced by AI, we would be out of business. Of course, that pales in comparison to the horrifying idea of musical expression being subsumed by machines. As a company of several hundred people, we really want to protect human expression through music.”
