C/D: Microsoft Songsmith

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

Assume the brace position:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E&feature=related

Check out the sample songs.

"It's Microsoft, huh? So, it's pretty easy to use?"

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

Death

― Milton Parker, Friday, January 9, 2009 9:43 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i.gizmodo.com/5129613/david-lee-roth-%252B-microsoft-songsmith--pure-horror

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, January 13, 2009 1:33 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I should stop polluting the good name of Sexydancer and give this its own thread, but the 'number of the beast' is pretty frightening

http://www.mutantpop.net/songsmith/

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:57 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if ur feeling sinister

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Tuesday, January 13, 2009 8:19 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Loving the happy/jazzy/etc. pullbars.

This is the most hilarious POS ever. Is the cheesy demo video like that on purpose to amuse ironic hipsters? I suspect it might be :/

It is lolworthy to play with for about 30 seconds and then you want to cry.

finally someone at microsoft is thinking about geir's needs

hhaha omg

they should hook it up to work with beamz

Just hit the song starter button. That's intuitive, right?

Hey guys, some of us may LIKE Microsoft Songsmith, chill out

I like it - and I also think flourescent towels are a great idea. I mean, how many times have you taken a shower in the dark and been unable to find your towel?

Shit's got nothin on JJJinglesmith.

can someone feed one of the jandek acapella records into this thing and report back pls

Assume the brace position:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E&feature=related

My ears.

this could be pretty cool if you had control over the sounds

can someone feed one of the jandek acapella records into this thing and report back pls

― feelin' on Djibouti (haitch),

Fantastic idea. Then also an a capella of Chuck D doing 'Bring The Noise' after that.

This is all that really needs to be posted:
http://music.metafilter.com/2943/Runnin-With-The-Songsmith

haha it sounds like Wesley Willis! In fact Wesley Willis is the only artist whose music would not change if you put his vocal through Songsmith.

i can see myself having some fun with other people's vocal tracks while drunk

I'm getting the feeling no one's really checked out those pixies / iron maiden / blue oyster cult tracks linked upthread yet

or else people wouldn't be saying 'this is all that really needs to be posted'

I stand by my ignorant boasts!

dude the BOC and iron maiden stuff is pretty amazing

Kidding, kidding. That stuff is fantastic.

The Police - "Roxanne"

XD

"Number of the Beast" = Gary Wilson!

the wikipedia article is great, but has not yet been updated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_music

these are the two most referenced precedents in using computers to simulate compositional styles:

Lejaren Hillier & Leonard Isaacson - Illiac Suite, 1957 (interesting piece, sounds convincingly like a 20th century atonal string quartet, pioneering Process Music piece)
http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/illiac_suite.html
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/illiac-suite/

David Cope - Experiments With Musical Intelligence, 1981 (his stuff is horrifying -- does passable simulations of the composers, listening to this when you know what it is, I would slide between light boredom and total terror)
http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/experiments.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cope
CRC 2184: Bach by Design-Experiments in Musical Intelligence; computer composed music of David Cope based on the musical designs of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Joplin, Gershwin, Bartok, and Prokofiev

most people working with algorithmic composition are using them to discover & explore new musical forms (John Cage / Eno / Laurie Spiegel / Autechre), not to simulate previous compositional styles. Hiller & Cope's work is more interested in the implications of Artificial Intelligence and competition. Now that Microsoft's taking it to the commercial arena, it's all about presenting it as a simple labor-saving device.

it's going to be interesting

<< (John Cage / Gottfried Michael Koenig / Xenakis / Eno / Laurie Spiegel / Autechre)

http://rogerreynolds.com/xenakis1.html

Mâche: Stravinsky was playing piano and was fascinated by his own fingers, so he stopped playing. If you are fascinated by the computer, you may stop composing.

Xenakis: Of course, you must not be fascinated by the computer. It's a tool. You must be fascinated perhaps with what you have in mind. If you don't have anything in mind, you cannot be fascinated.

http://music.metafilter.com/2943/Runnin-With-The-Songsmith

This is the greatest music video meme ever. "Roxanne" in particular, holy shit.

The flipside is that the software achievement is actually pretty awesome in my opinion. I haven't seen or used the program but my hats off to the people who actually figured out how to make something like this work. Maybe it's simpler than it seems but it strikes me as pretty tough - I mean the videos are hilarious because the music is chintzy and contrasts with our familiar songs, but very rarely does it sound really out of key and dissonant.

going by its take on "Roxanne," it also doesn't seem capable of processing that 1) not all songs resolve on the tonic of the key they're in and 2) not all chords are straight major chords. this I take to be its weakness. I assume there's a slider for "sad/dark" or something that'll encourage the software to throw in more minor chords, and yeah genuine props to engineers who've gotten software to "think" of music the way a first-year piano student does. but the song Roxanne (which I don't think has any/many complex chords - just somewhat interesting structure) exposes a seeming weakness of the program: the whole concept of "key" is a little beyond its reach. the basic concept - that a song has a root chord - it can understand, but the relationship of the melody to that root is beyond it.

a slider for "sad/dark"

I'd like to imagine that it's labelled somewhat like the throttle control on the ship in Spaceballs (light speed, ludicrous speed)

I used it to make a Meat Puppets Up on the Sun style version of the chorus to Rush's Free Will, but when I saved it to WMA, my vocals were just static.

Um, guys? This is damn good!

Dreadful... Get rid of the vocals and it'd be OK though...
Meanwhile, headbang like crrrrrraaaaazzzzzyyyy to this

embedding disabled by request!

that oasis one is pretty cool, seems to me that oasis's sort of songwriting works the best with songsmith...they tend to do reeeeally defined "strum this chord for 4 bars then strum this chord" type stuff, plus kinda plodding and slow and the way that liam takes a distinct break between each line then goes again once the next chord in the cycle hits

(xpost) ah, I've been anti-rick-roll-rolled

That's something, innit?

There was a quite good "Creep" radiohead one, and a fairly faithful "What's goin on" Marvin one too.

I d/l the software, recorded a vocal (heh, ain't done that in 12 years man!), listened to some results, wiped it.

The version of "Roxanne" is hilarious, especially the indignation in Sting's voice.
The problem with this application is that there just isn't enough variation so it gets repetitive - with a four minute song I just get bored halfway through. Even someone who's only been writing songs for a couple of weeks is going to throw in more changes that this program. And what it really reminds me of is that I have several cheese-tastic 80's Casio and Yamaha keyboards with an auto accompaniment feature that sounds pretty much the same as Songsmith. The only difference is that they aren't completely automatic - I have to press a key to change chords or switch from verse to bridge, or get it to do a drum fill or flourish to finish.

Well, yeah - I mean I'd be surprised if they reinvented the wheel of demo songs while they were figuring out how to make a computer program figure out what key/tempo you're singing in! Whatever its failings, clearly that's the accomplishment of the program, no?

what

I will not rest until the Billboard top 10 is all songsmith jams

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.

At least, I started it when it was just a curiosity to me.

Fair enough. I'm still going to post this one (I like it!):

Better than the original. Would definitely play in my electroclash set.

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.