ON THE CUTTING EDGE: It’s The End Of The World As You Know It
For those who need more proof that Microsoft is the root of all evil, New York Times tech columnist Randall Stross offers this latest evidence:
Microsoft has a promotional video on YouTube promoting its Songsmith software, which creates computer-generated musical accompaniment. The video, “Everyone Has a Song Inside” is excruciating:
The video consists of a minimusical whose soundtrack sounds as if it were generated by an inexpensive electronic keyboard. The story opens with a father, who - singing - says he needs to come up with an advertising campaign for glow-in-the-dark towels. Then we meet his daughter, who, while singing and typing on her laptop, shows him Songsmith, “the cool new thing.” Dad then absconds with her laptop and introduces Songsmith to another adult, who speaks the words you will not want to miss: “Microsoft, huh? So it’s pretty easy to use?”
The line is delivered without an I-know-you-know wink acknowledging that Microsoft is not the company likely to come first to mind when ease of use is mentioned.
But wait – it gets worse. Here’s what Songsmith does to the Marvin Gaye classic “Heard It Through The Grapevine”:
OMG.
Thanks for linking to my video -- hope you got a kick out of it. This Songsmith stuff has gone crazy, and I've found it's an amazing way to troll people who take their favorite band WAY too seriously.
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Thanks for writing in so people know who the creative genius behind the video is. When you get around to it, can you do "Black Dog"? Based on your Marvin Gaye, I have some idea what it will sound like. From what I can tell, the notes are mathematically plotted so the software can "predict" where a melody will go. But R&B, soul and jazz artists - as well as Robert Plant - bend their notes and the software cannot predict or follow this so there were lots of spots it was "out of tune" with the singer. This is so not ready for prime time.
PS I bet if you run old Donny & Marie songs through Songsmith they will sound just like the originals. ; )
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I'd love to do Black Dog -- or anything else, but I don't have the studio multitracks to it.
I haven't the slightest what Microsoft was thinking releasing this, esp. because they licensed the algorithm from a company that uses it in a product where it actually WORKS. And there are shareware programs that do an even better job of it.
It's like they focused on all the aspects of the program that could have been done easily and ignored those that simply could have been better-licensed.
Also, I've never been referred to as any sort of genius, let alone a creative one, so I'll let that be my ego-boost for the day :-)
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