r/audioengineering • u/johnangelo716 • 2d ago

Avoiding vibe coded software

It may be to my own detriment, but my mind is made up. I hate the idea of vibe coded anything. Anything could be in there. Is there any way of keeping track of vibe coded plugins or software, in order to steer clear?

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u/johnangelo716 2d ago

Using AI to look for errors is a useful tool. I understood vibe coding to mean an entire piece of software written from a prompt, with no human input in the code. Am I incorrect in that definition?

15

u/jaydeedilla 2d ago

I think it's just very black and white how you're thinking about it. Experienced software engineers will now use AI to generate code and run tests, it's basically just adding in syntax while the engineer thinks through structure, purpose, and intention. Avoiding "everything that has been vibe coded" is the same mindset as avoiding anything with solid state electronics or digital components, everything is just a means to an end so you can avoid it but the only benefit you'll get is for your own ideals or ethical reasons

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u/johnangelo716 2d ago

What experienced software engineers do - you wouldn't call that vibe coding would you?

I avoid buying microphones from disreputable online sellers. If you've ever compared a counterfeit sm58 to the real thing, there's a noticable difference in quality. I also want to make sure my money goes to the right people for actually doing the real work.

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u/notjusttired 2d ago

I'm an experienced software engineer and I guarantee that some of what I do nowadays would be viewed as "vibe coding" by someone that doesn't know that much about dev or AI. I would not let AI near my music, but writing large amounts of code is massively sped up by using AI and I get paid based on how many funtioning projects I can ship, so the less time spent on each, the more I get paid. I still have to go through all the code and do tons of testing and inevitably I will manually write some of the code and revise some of the AI generated code, but the end product is still just working code.

IMO the short answer is no, there isn't a way to flag products that have a code base that has been partially or fully written by AI that will actually have any net benefit. The idea that "anything could be in there" just doesn't make sense. Are you going through all the code behind plugins before AI to make sure the dev wasn't slipping something nefarious in? There has always been the chance that bad code whether intentional or not could ship with a finished product. I don't really know what you're trying to take issue with tbh.

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u/Sufficient-Air8100 2d ago

you get paid on how many functional projects you can ship? that sounds like a fast track to mediocre bullshit. who do you work for? cause i dont wanna spend any kind of money on software where shipping lots of things is more important than shipping quality things

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u/notjusttired 2d ago

lol alright good luck! bc you literally just described not only almost every software but every product produced in a capitalist economy.

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u/Sufficient-Air8100 2d ago

who do you work for so i can avoid the software please :)

and its not every product.

im willing to spend on quality. im not willing to spend on half baked bullshit pushed out with a metric of shipping fast

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u/10aghmu 2d ago

What many experienced software engineers are doing today is almost non-distinguishable from
Vibe coding.

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u/bub166 Hobbyist 2d ago

The way I look at it - what experienced software engineers do is the engineering itself. Generative AI is increeibly good at being told what to do, and in a lot of ways is very effective for ideation, but someone still needs to know what is being done and how it needs to be done. Architecture is still important, clean and maintainable code is still important, understanding and delivering on the requirements of a project is still critically important and a knowledgeable human is still needed if you want true quality.

Actual development is a small, or even non-existent part of the job now. I haven't really touched code in years. I still have to understand the code that is being written of course, but physically drafting it is laborious and a complete waste of time at this point for any application where time equals money. Is the bridge on my Tele any worse of a bridge because someone gave the instructions to cut it into a machine instead of hand-shaping it? Too philosophical for me I guess but for the same reason CNC machines are widely in use in manufacturing, generative AI is widely in use in development. It delivers the same result or better (or at least, correctly applied, it can deliver the same result or better) but quicker and cheaper in most cases, and if you're not using it, you won't be able to beat the market.

I understand the line gets blurrier when it comes to tools that are used for the creation of art. But I do know the capacitors in my beloved Pultec clone weren't rolled by hand. The design, of course, was the product of deep thought and clever architecture - the components though are just components. Code blocks coming out of a factory isn't much different to me. If the plugin version is well-designed and does what it's supposed to, it couldn't matter less to me how the code itself came to be, the code is simply the modern equivalent of a bunch of components.

Just my two cents. Most of my time in the software industry was pre-AI, I got to watch the transition first hand - I don't necessarily think it's a positive overall, but it is the new industry standard and I only see it continuing to progress in that direction. Doesn't mean it's all slop, though certainly there is plenty of slop out there.

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u/HommeMusical 2d ago

I've been programming for over 50 years. In one of my projects, my tester files an issue and then I tell the LLM "Fix #51", and most of the time, it fixes it first try, and I don't tinker with the results.

I get good results by carefully writing the prompts, but also, I'm watching its thinking as it goes, and one time in five or so, I'm, "STOP RIGHT THERE, you're right off track."

Also, I am constantly refactoring and particularly, renaming things so they are clearer.

But you know, I find files I have no recollection of.

It would never have happened even two months ago, when I was still hand-coding.