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How Snapdragon X Series is tuning up the music industry

We were at a major music industry trade show to demonstrate how the combination of Snapdragon native apps with AI capabilities can change the game — here’s what we saw
Written by
PJ Jacobowitz
Jan 27, 2025
3 min read
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The music industry is ready to play a different harmony — one that fully embraces the power of artificial intelligence.

That’s never been clearer than at the music industry trade convention The NAMM Show, where Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., attended for the first time last week. We showcased new innovations for musicians in collaboration with Microsoft Windows 11 Copilot+PCs with Snapdragon X Series processors.

The demos were a perfect example of both the growing number of PC apps that run natively on Snapdragon, as well as the value that Snapdragon X Series' dedicated NPU (neural processing unit) brings through AI-enhanced applications. Taken together, these upgrades can do everything from cutting down the time for isolating vocals using an app like Moises Live, to real-time stem separation in Djay Pro to mix vocals of one song with the beat of another, representing a gamechanger in music production.

Music is just the latest area where AI is showing up and offering its benefits. The rise of generative AI has driven nearly every industry to investigate the potential advantages of AI. After a lot of initial hype, you’re starting to see these tangible benefits materialize.

These benefits were on display at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants). The Anaheim, California trade show is the largest international gathering for the music creation, and performance products, sound and live event industries. Last year NAMM drew more than 62,000 attendees from 125 countries. 

Here were some of the key demos at the Qualcomm Technologies booth (114010).

 

A sneak peek

Following the launch of Copilot+ PCs last year, our priority has been ensuring that your favorite apps will run on the Snapdragon X Series processor powering them. The number of Windows apps running natively on Snapdragon tripled last year, and 90% of Windows users’ time is now spent in native apps.

We’re keeping that momentum going in early 2025. Cubase 13, a popular digital audio workstation and essential music production software for professional composers and artists, is already native on Snapdragon. At NAMM, we showed off a prototype developer build of Cubase 14 for Snapdragon with support for MIDI 2 instruments.

That’s important because the MIDI 2 standard supports a higher 32-bit resolution, bi-directional communication and dynamic configuration for easier device setup. Attendees were able to try these instruments out at our booth.

We also showed off Bitwig Studio, another digital audio workstation designed for live performances and composing, recording, mixing and arranging music. It introduced native support for Snapdragon in November, and you can get it here.

 

The NPU edge

While Copilot+ PCs are earning rave reviews for their performance and battery life, an equally essential benefit comes from the Snapdragon X Series' powerful NPU. The processor is dedicated to AI tasks and unlocks new AI-powered features for popular apps.

Take audio control app Moises Live, which debuted a new NPU-powered feature at CES and was at NAMM. The feature, which allows you to isolate vocals or instruments from any audio in Windows in real-time, was developed exclusively for the Snapdragon X Series NPU.

With the app, you can instantly turn a music video into an instrumental piece or isolate just the guitar part so you can learn it. Moises Live uses neural networks running on Snapdragon NPU to deliver real-time instrument isolation, and attendees got to see it first hand. 

Audio enhancement

More companies are getting on board with Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon. RME, which creates premium USB audio interfaces to capture audio from analog instruments including guitars and microphones, recently announced driver support for more than 27 devices going back to 2009.

Another example is Fractal Audio, an award-winning amp modeler and effects processor that digitally recreates amps, cabs, effects and more and is used by Metallica, John Mayer, Aerosmith, U2 and more. It offers Snapdragon-native drivers  so you can build and control Fractal rigs from your Copilot+ PCs.

These demos offer a taste of what Snapdragon can bring to the music industry. The show is open to the public, so it’s a great opportunity to see the innovation yourself.

 

Everything at Qualcomm Technologies’ NAMM booth:

SnapdragonAIAudio and Music

Opinions expressed in the content posted here are the personal opinions of the original authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Qualcomm Incorporated or its subsidiaries ("Qualcomm"). The content is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Qualcomm or any other party. This site may also provide links or references to non-Qualcomm sites and resources. Qualcomm makes no representations, warranties, or other commitments whatsoever about any non-Qualcomm sites or third-party resources that may be referenced, accessible from, or linked to this site.

Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

About the Author
PJ Jacobowitz
PJ JacobowitzStaff Manager, Marketing, Qualcomm Technologies
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Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Our leading-edge AI, high performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity deliver proven solutions that transform major industries. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.

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