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Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note
theodp writes "Remember Mr. Microphone? If you thought music couldn't get worse, think again. Perhaps with the help of R&D tax credits, Microsoft Research has spawned Songsmith, software that automatically creates a tinny, childish background track for your singing. And as bad as the pseudo-infomercial was, the use of the product in the wild is likely to be even scarier, as evidenced by these Songsmith'ed remakes of music by The Beatles, The Police, and The Notorious B.I.G.."
I checked the links. Now I feel so dirty.
Hey Microsoft, will you please stick with the business that you are good at? You know, Operating Systems?
Oh, nevermind.
...it looks like an older generation MacBook Pro with a sticker over its logo.
Plausible deniability?
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
The day the music died.
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
What is needed is to do some of the worst songs ever like those were done and see if improves the worst ones.
drew
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
This is what I think music would sound like without drugs. (NSFW, but WTF, it's Sunday...)
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
And I quote from the demo video...
"Now I'm gonna sing a demo song, it wont be short and it won't be long! Ohhh I'm gonna sing a demo song for youuuu hoooo"
Please don't listen to it, you won't be able to unhear it. It's like audio goatse!
This is supposed to be a news site. Is there any purpose to this article other than blatant Microsoft bashing?
Music Software - check
Portable Music Players - check
Gaming Consoles - CHECK
Search - check
Online portals - check
Commercials - check
Mobile Phone OSes - check
I have. She's not that bad
... with President Obama's executive orders banning torture by US forces and requiring the closure of Guantánamo Bay, there's a dire need for alternative interrogation tools.
2 hours of those absolutely inhuman renditions of 'Roxanne' and 'Sgt Peppers', together with the MS infomercial, would be enough to break even the staunchest jihadist.
"Please, PLEASE NOOOO!! I'll give you current GPS coordinates for Osama bin Laden! Just turn it off PLEASE!!!"
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
I like how, even with Gates gone, everything that happens at Microsoft is attributed to him. If he knew about this product, he would probably call it the dumbest fucking idea he's ever heard.
That version is just so horribly wrong (a depressed love song to a happy calypso tune) that it's pretty much impossible not to laugh or at least chuckle and shake your head at the results
Roxanne - The Calypso Version
Someone should plug Coltrane's "Giant Steps" into Songsmith, and see if their computer explodes. (I'm not volunteering mine.)
There seems to be a lot of flaming here for how the songs sucked etc. , but...
1. Goodness of music is a subjective issue. There may be people who actually like the sound, or the ease of karaoke-ing through it. Kids, perhaps who can be thrilled at the substantial quality of their renditions.
2. I suspect a lot of people are complaining about the examples there because they are comparing it to the originals. Think about how new songs or tunes can be arranged by budding composers using this. Songsmith might offer a lot more customisability making it an important tool.
We should try to look at the bright side once in a while.
Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
You will not besmirch the mighty Shiva from Accounts Receivable!
And yet, the Japanese have virtual singers. Witness Vocalioid 2 (three is better, but there aren't many videos on YouTube):
Clearly, we've lost the digital song war.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
It is far worse!
If you have no strong heart, do not try watching the Songsmith Infomercial.
I REPEAT: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WATCH THE SONGSMITH INFOMERCIAL!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
In other news, Microsoft is notoriously bad at singing and advertising.
Note that I specifically decided not to post this as AC so hopefully I won't be flagged as a troll...
But I think this is actually really cool.
Is it going to make any musical masterpieces? Probably not.
Does it sound like a fun little toy to mess with? Yes, yes it does.
Incidentally, I've never heard Sergeant Pepper before (yeah yeah, go ahead and -1 me for cultural illiteracy), and I thought the music worked rather well with the lyrics, even if it didn't sound particularly interesting.
Bill Gates has not been actively involved with day-to-day Microsoft decision for at least a year. He is now involved with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This foundation has relatively little to do with music, although a number of musicians do work with the foundation.
The equivalent to ./ stories like this would be to refer to Apple as "Steve Jobs made music 30% more expensive" (do the math).
And besides the headline was a serious troll.
Just listen to those demos, they're freaking amazing (not that I liked any of them, but just looking at the queues and matchings of everything, this is impressive beyond words). Specifically (and unsurprisingly) the rap song at the end was the clear winner, sounding eerily well-matched to the vocals. (Disclaimer: perhaps I'm impressed because I'm intimately familiar with the first two while I don't know the third song's original intended sound, but I do expect something with less acoustic range/complexity is easier to adapt.)
This gets negative vibe because it comes from our favorite enemy (at least while we transfer our hate to somebody more worthy of it these days), but I think this could be the start of something great, even if it means we have to listen to some crap on the way. Isn't that the big benefit to Creative Commons? Isn't that why we eat up Lessig's remix argument?
This is a good first step. Sad that it's not Free Software, as the next step is incorporating remix and a larger (user-submitted) library of base music to the system (see the intro video on the microsoft.com article link), and perhaps the step after that is in getting the system to automatically figure out things like tempo and an optimized list of suggested music stylings.
To Microsoft (if you're actually reading this) or perhaps otherwise those who wish to re-implement the idea: even as a closed-source solution, if you create a system that would allow (advanced) users to create their own base music, you will start a music revolution.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Have a look here:
http://www.menwithouthats.com/micro.html
Men Without Hats knew this was coming.
Pop goes the world!
But what does it do do if you don't (or like me, can't) sing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN9pGgg8YlQ
What if you just talk or make random hooting noises?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qyjLuWVU8
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN9pGgg8YlQ
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It just worked.
On a side note, that was filmed in the Microsoft Research building, and many people there run OSX. Interestingly enough, you are allowed to use any platform you want as a Microsoft employee (I've even met Linux users who work there), but the Gates Foundation mandates you use only Microsoft products (source: friend who works for the foundation).
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
I think the Slashdot crowd is showing too much of its human side here, and not enough of the geeky analytics that bring me here.
As the old saying goes, it's not how well the bear dances, but that it dances at all. I watched the demo and thought that Songsmith must have some *very* interesting algorithms behind it. Sure, the music sounds trite to the human ear, but aren't you kind of amazed at how much is done?
To analogize, think of recognition technology. I can't tell one raccoon (or orangutang or giraffe or shrew) from another. Anyone who makes software that *can* do so has some mad skillz in my book, regardless of the human utility.
1. Come up with something better than that chintzy MIDI backup.
2. Build a few songsmith boxes
3. Profit from your new crap music empire
4. ????
5. Die in remorse
??? part goes BEFORE "profit" part.
There is no step 5.
It is all sex and coke parties after the profit part.
Rainier: My new movie is me, standing in front of a brick wall for 90 minutes. It cost 80 million dollars to make.
Jay Sherman: how do you sleep at night?
Rainier: On top of a pile of money, with many beautiful ladies.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It's a freaking toy for christ's sake. The sky is not falling.
Microsoft gained fame and fortune by putting office automation software into the hands of inexperienced users. In theory, anyone can learn to use MS Office. Having no talent is not that much of a drawback. The product does a pretty good job of concealing the cluelessness of the user. Life is good when your target market is dummies.
Then they put development tools into the hands of inexperienced people. No talent? No English? No problem! If you can click a mouse, you can be a database designer or network admin (well, kind of). Find cheap people, put them through a few classes and BAMMO! A fresh batch of Mouse Clicking Solutions Experts ready to work for anyone who pays more than Walmart.
As the IT industry has been dumbed down, outsourced, and off-shored, it became inevitable that these concepts would be applied to something other than IT. Like music. And who else to do it but the company who specializes in enabling people to use computers to try something for which they have no talent?
I can't wait to go out and get a copy of Songsmith. I hear they have a whole genre of this stuff in R&D: Flightsmith, Medsmith, Boatsmith, CEOsmith, not to mention the beta version of PresSmith (Obama has had the country fooled for months!)
MS Rocks! WhoooHooo!
please be joking. please be joking. please be joking. please be joking.
Seriously guys, I'm pretty sure I just saw the dad in a porn movie. He certainly acts like it.
...must have gotten a pre-release version decades ago.
The Slashdot summary is absolute nonsense. It's like listening to complaints about MS Paint; that people are going to ruin their camera shots with its horrible tools.
This product is obviously not intended for the average Slashdot user, but rather to children, parties and whatnot. Furthermore, this tool has the potential of helping people understand how music is built up.
Personally, I think this is a really interesting idea and I wonder what the reception would look like if this was an iSongsmith product.
Full Tilt
You don't get it. This is how Microsoft will destroy the RIAA.
This isn't even version 1.0. It's maybe 0.5 (sounds open source, doesn't it.) Of course it sucks. Most new Microsoft products suck at version 1.0. By version 3.0, they rule the world.
Remember how US music law works. Anybody can parody anybody else for free (hence the legions of Elvis impersonators) and anybody can make a new recording of an old song by paying a fixed royalty limited by law. That royalty goes to composers and songwriters, not the RIAA. The maker and user of this program owe nothing to the RIAA.
That's the key to this. As this technology gets better, there will be programs that listen to the repertory of a musician or a singer and build vocal tract and style models. There will be programs that take in a song recording and extract the music, lyrics, and expression, reducing it to something like MIDI with more annotations. Then the synthesis program will put them together, perhaps producing a "cover recording" indistinguishable from the original, at least when heard in a car. Plus you can have fun running combining different songs and musicians.
At that point, musicianship has been automated. Microsoft can dictate terms to the RIAA.
Don't laugh. I'll bet that in a few years, most videogame soundtracks will come from something like this. Then commercial soundtracks. Actual musical recordings will take longer, because there's a heavy "branding" factor. But it will come.
I for one applaud Microsoft, now everyone can finally catch up to the synth music eternalized in the 80's! All you require is a dual core computer wit 2GB of RAM with Windows Vista Genuine Ultimate Edition and every last shred of your human dignity. And if you have no dignity left, no need to worry, they can loan that out since they know you'll be paying it back with interest when Windows 7 comes out!
They're really just toys. They won't "destroy music" any more than karaoke destroyed singing as an art or profession.
The way other Slashdot readers scream "Oh No No No No Oh God No!", I came up with some theories:
I think the technology/products are enablers - for children to start experiment with writing their own songs. It's not about the quality of songs, it's the jump-start of children's creativity.
Once children realize how easy it is to create music, they'll have a huge bonfire lit within them.
What do you think?
With X-Box, you need to hack the HD in order to run any other software. With the PS3, you simply go into the system menu and select (install other OS).
Sony's just as evil as the next company. From what I understand, they declared the PS3 to be a "computer system" as a means of avoiding tariffs in Europe, and to do this they needed to offer access to the OS. Plain and simple. They tried this with the PS2, but it didn't offer access to the OS, and thus failed the test (as I am led to believe).
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
If we get access to install any new operating system that we desire, and to use the PS3 for whatever reason we want, then how can that be bad?
If Sony is circumventing the tariffs by being "forced" into making the PS3 more open (and I use that term guardedly), then we still benefit a LOT more than by owning an Xbox360.
Composer - brain - heart + Computer = Songsmith
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!