The vocalists recorded around 16 hours of singing. They enlisted the vocal prowesses of Christian Joel (Tenor), Frederick Tong (Bass), Joanna Gamble (Mezzo-Soprano), and Olivia Doutney (Soprano). Li and Google Arts and Culture developed a machine learning model that was then trained based on four actual opera singers' voices.

In its 'About' widget, Blob Opera explains that the experiment 'pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice.' RELATED ARTICLE: Google Search AI Has Improved: Search Songs By Humming or Whistling A Tribute to the Original Instrument A list of tunes is available for users to choose from: songs include 'Jingle Bells' to 'The First Noel.' Snowdrops and Santa hats adorn the blobs. A pine tree button rests on the lower-right corner for users interested in the blobs' rendition of classical Christmas songs. Each blob can also be muted with the speaker button above their heads.Ī record button is also found on the lower-left corner of the Blob Opera screen (for desktop users), allowing users to record their own experiments on the four-opera blobs. The blobs also grow taller or sway toward the dragging motion direction, with all of their eyes following the cursor - even on standby! Also, as a single blob follows the pitch and the vowel, other blobs instinctively follow the lead.

Users can drag each blob to sing, with the vertical direction corresponding to pitch and the cursor's horizontal movement adjusting the vowel sound the blob makes. In Blob Opera, four brightly colored blobs start falling on the screen one by one, each with their own voice registers: bass, tenor, mezzo-soprano, and soprano. In a wacky fusion of machine learning and classical music, Google has launched its experimental 'Blob Opera' - a quartet of animated blobs singing opera music.Īccording to a blog post from Freya Murray, Google Arts & Culture Program Manager, the machine learning experiment is the brainchild of artist David Li, an interactive artist who has also lent his talents to Cartoon Network's adult-oriented block, Adult Swim.

Create blob opera