Like to sing in the shower or in the car? Want to subject others to your incoherent warblings as if they were a real song? Microsoft Songsmith may be for you. And if you’re a professional lyricist, musician, or someone with real musical talent? Songsmith may be incredibly helpful for you, too.
The technology is actually quite impressive. Songsmith takes a cappella vocals – no matter how disjointed – and interprets a musical melody to lay behind them. Meaning? Meaning that with no musical talent whatsoever, you can now compose, record, and share songs with whomever is willing to listen.
But what if you actually have talent? Songsmith could be of potential use to you, too.
“Songwriters can use Songsmith as an ‘intelligent scratchpad’ to work with new melodies, quickly turning your scratch recordings of new ideas into richer, deeper explorations. Musicians can also play instruments right into Songsmith, instead of singing.”
No doubt a great deal of research went into the development of the product, and it probably has some very interesting potential applications. But, I must admit, after watching the promo video, I’m having a hard time clearing my head enough to figure out what those uses might be.
Who knows? This might be another one of those Seinfeld things.
Scoble has just posted an interview and demo with two researchers from Microsoft – who coincidentally also star in the promo video. They provide additional insight on the product and highlight some of its potential applications.
Interested users can download a trial version from Microsoft Research. The product is available for purchase for $29.95 US.
Something tells me that the American Idol tryouts just got a lot more interesting.
