Real instruments are winning
AI is flooding everything. More fake guitars every day, fewer real ones. Here is why producers who use real instruments win.
By Sébastien Graux · May 6, 2026 · EN|FR
Every producer I know has the same problem right now.
You open your session, you look for a guitar, and everything sounds the same. Because everything comes from the same sound bank. Or worse: generated by AI. And the big artists are starting to feel it.
They don't want that anymore.
The Medellín moment
In 2021 in Medellín, I was in an Airbnb. I had a guitar idea. No studio, no interface, no Neumann mic. Just my phone. I recorded it on the bed, one take.
That take ended up on Ricky Martin's album Play and was nominated at the Latin Grammys.
No studio. No luxury gear. Just me, my guitar, and an idea.
What real artists want
The big artists, the ones dropping hits, they're looking more and more for instruments with a real soul. Because they know that's what makes the difference between a sound that goes unnoticed and one that leaves a mark.
On Water, every guitar is played by me. Not generated. Every note, every bend, every breath — that's my hand, my touch, my sensibility.
That's why my guitars end up on records that go to radio and do millions of streams.
“No studio. No mic. One human moment on a phone.”
If there is one thing to remember
- Stop the banks, stop the generators.
- Find real guitars, played by a real musician, with real soul.
- That's what makes the difference.
To join me on Water: water.95ent.ai/sebastiengrrr
-Sébastien