The session took place over 30 hours at Mahadevan’s personal studio, where his team of producers, lyricists, and sound engineers worked alongside Google's tools to push the boundaries of creative expression.
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As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the creative landscape, one of its most compelling applications is unfolding in the world of music. In a recent Lab Session by Google, Grammy Award-winning Indian music icon Shankar Mahadevan joined forces with the tech giant to explore how AI can support and enhance India’s rich musical traditions.
India’s diverse sonic tapestry—ranging from Bollywood and regional cinema to Carnatic, Hindustani, folk, devotional, and dance music—served as the ideal backdrop for this experimental collaboration using Google’s Music AI Sandbox.
The session took place over 30 hours at Mahadevan’s personal studio, where his team of producers, lyricists, and sound engineers worked alongside Google's tools to push the boundaries of creative expression. The goal: to see how AI can fit organically into the workflow of making film soundtracks. The outcome was Rubaroo, a song born through the synergy of human creativity and machine intelligence.
“I strongly believe that music is sparked by a trigger—be it visual, audio, or emotional,” said Mahadevan. “Music AI Sandbox acts as that trigger. It nudges your brain into a creative direction, whether it’s crafting a new melody or reimagining a sound in a different genre.”
Mahadevan used simple text prompts within the AI tool to generate musical samples featuring traditional Indian instruments like the tabla and dholak. These samples were looped into his digital audio workstation as he improvised vocal melodies. Later, the Sandbox generated additional instrumental layers to enrich the composition.
Lyrical inspiration came from another Google Labs tool, TestFX, which uses words as creative prompts. Typing “Rubaroo” into its “Simile” and “Scene” tools produced metaphors and imagery that helped shape the song’s final lyrics.
This experiment offers a window into the future of artistic creation—one where AI isn’t a replacement for human ingenuity, but a powerful partner. For artists like Mahadevan, it’s a new kind of collaboration that expands possibility while preserving vision.
“This is not about replacing musicians,” Mahadevan emphasized. “It’s about unlocking new ideas—ideas that might not have surfaced without a little help from AI.”