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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
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?
I have. She's not that bad
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.
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!
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.
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.
Microsoft Bob -- Checkmate!
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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
Half-decent? The Zune is brown. It's like they hired product designers from Canonical.
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Vacuum cleaners - finally something Microsoft can make that won't suck!
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.
Try brand new "DEADBEEF(tm)!" And delicious "BAADF00D(tm)!"
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?
Actually, the iPod Shuffle has a considerably better built-in amplifier than the 'vanilla' iPod models. (This can be measured objectively)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen similar tests for more recent models. nor am I sure if Apple ever bothered to implement the Shuffle's push-pull design in other models.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
It tastes like someone DEFEC8ED on my plate :(.