C/D: Microsoft Songsmith

Still waiting for the Wesley Willis versions...

I kind of hate that I started this thread when Songsmith was just a curiosity and now it's another goddamned meme that the Internet needs no more of.

― Badder Meinhof Syndrome (libcrypt), Friday, 30 January 2009 04:21 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

and you were into the Manics when, exactly?

i dig the survivor one

another goddamned meme

This is like that "Hitler Downfall subtitles" meme, except for musicians

that "Eye of the Tiger" one is really fantastic and I would listen to it for uncomplicated non-lulz pleasure

I am conflicted about the wtf-singularity-into-meme thing because it seems like "their early demos were good"ism but on the other hand yeah: first time I saw the ad, holy fuck, most bizarre thing ever; once it achieves critical cultural mass, it loses its weirdness - if everybody points and calls it weird/fucked up, the fun goes out of it. on balance though more fun = good, less fun for fewer people = not good, so bring on the memehood

btw has everyone read the great "don't worry, we're not going to ruin music!" stuff over at the official site:

Why would musicians be interested in Songsmith?

Sure, Songsmith lets novice musicians get their first taste of music creation. We’re really proud that we’re giving people that opportunity. But we’re also musicians, and this project has been intended to help both novices and experienced songwriters from day one.

Is Songsmith going to replace the craft of songwriting? Never. Could it be a super-useful “intelligent scratchpad” for exploring new melodies and ideas? Definitely. If you’re a songwriter, you’ve probably had the experience of coming up with a melody, then reaching for the nearest object with a “record” button on it, just to get your idea down. Imagine that first quick experience also letting you explore chord progressions, styles, even basic arrangement ideas. Then of course you’d work with other tools, other people, your instruments, and your own musical intuition to really develop a song. But Songsmith can be a great tool that lets you quickly explore new ideas in places where you couldn’t before (on the go, on the bus, in the airport, etc.). And Songsmith works great with instrumental input too...

anybody who wants in on the ground floor of a less potentially-viral meme let me repeat: Songsmith works great with instrumental input too

"It's just a bit of fun"

LOL

(xpost) by chance were you referring to this?

Father Dougal McGuire: Ready Ted? Let's do it!
Father Ted Crilly: Dougal, don't take it so seriously, it's just a bit of fun.
[Scene jumps forward to some time later. Room is filled with smoke and there is a cigarette hanging out of a stressed out Ted's mouth]
Father Ted Crilly: Just play the fucking note!
Father Dougal McGuire: The first one?
Father Ted Crilly: No not the fucking first one! The fucking first one's already fucking down! Just play the fucking note you were fucking playing earlier! I've been playing the fucking first one! We have the fucking first one!
Father Dougal McGuire: So i'll just...
Father Ted Crilly: Just play the fucking note you where fucking playing there! Fucking what you where just fucking doing! Play the fucking note!

^^^ if MS could come up with an AI program that could allow the solo songwriter to experience the long drawn out shouting arguments of collaborative songwriting, then they might be onto something...

ha, no. I'm not explaining it though...

white wedding's great

Hey folks.. I'm the person on YouTube making most of these videos. The embedding on the original Never Gonna Give You Up is disabled because of YouTube's Content ID system; I later uploaded one for embedding purposes that, er, circumvents the Content ID system.

For those of you who like my videos, thanks for the compliments. If you don't, get a sense of humor. :-)

Welcome to ILX, azz100c.

if MS could come up with an AI program that could allow the solo songwriter to experience the long drawn out shouting arguments of collaborative songwriting, then they might be onto something...

lol

Johannes Kriedler - Charts Music - Melodies derived from stock charts, arranged by Songsmith

Kraftwerk predicted this. But they just couldn't get those damned robots to work. It took Microsoft to take it to the next level.

Actually, my opinion of this software has totally gone up after hearing "Eye of the Tiger" and "White Wedding."

yeah, I've had this version of EOTT in running through my head all weekend. I'd seriously bump a hi-quality mp3 of it, were such a thing to be made available...

Some clues:

It seems that the 'save' file it creates is a zip file consisting of the WMA file and a XML detail file.

So, how to create these:

1) Work out the BPM of your given vocal track.
2) Start up a new project, sing the song yourself into the mic.
3) Save file. Exit Songsmith.

4) Unzip file, put your vocal track into a multitrack editor along with your given vocal track.
5) Edit the given vocal track so that each line plays at exactly the same time as yours.
6) Save new given vocal track, rename it and zip it up again

7) Run songsmith, open file with it, and enjoy. Or change the 'track' to suit.

Couldn't you just play the vocal track into songsmith from an external source instead of singing it yourself?

I've been tempted to do some Songsmithing myself but I'm waiting for this instead..

that's wrong dot com in excelsis

someone needs to call Almighty and have them cover that Wonderwall version

billy idol meets dueling banjos

The best one to come out since I was following the thread is the Will Smith "Wild Wild West" in the style of, well, the wild wild west.

haha, this song is kind of dope now.

where did dude get an acapella of Wild Wild West... or why did they ISSUE an acappela of Wild Wild West?!

this sounds like buck 65 now.

where did dude get an acapella of Wild Wild West... or why did they ISSUE an acappela of Wild Wild West?!

It's on the 12". I know this because I bought it for a buck a few years ago. Hours of joy!

Woah, that's a different Songsmith version of it than the one I knew though.

^^^ this one

This new jam is pretty dope:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/video_ScienceIsCool.html

They need to get that balloon boy on this.

never forget :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDVzUAOZ8Bk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22AWPW5s4EA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HElbMgmJFoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHduATM-o7M&feature=related

That Nirvana one is awesome, it would be even better if they could run Kurt's vocal through software and make it sound like Billy Ocean.