Well, not all MIDI sounds bad. Have a listen to the Addictive Drummer demos for example. It can sound pretty damn good / real. Still, your point is well taken. MIDI guitar emulations for example are still pretty dang bad. One wonders if this is because a guitar is a more continuous vs discrete instrument compared to drums. Even with all of MIDI’s rich parameters, it’s pretty tough to describe pick angle, materials, etc.

Also, I wonder if there will be a natural “backlash” against generic AI music and towards stuff that has more human imperfection. But then again even the AI will learn to imitate the imperfections so what exactly will make a piece more human in the long run?