The Microsoft Research Songsmith site proclaims, “Everyone has a song inside...” and releases an application called Songsmith to enable these songs to be made and heard. It’s only natural to compare this with GarageBand, the iLife application for Mac OSX, but, as ever, when we compare Apple and Microsoft, it’s not a like for like comparison. Songsmith seems to have a very linear workflow. The user picks a style and can modify this with a slider for mood and a drum groove starts, Songsmith then ‘listens’ to the user singing and guesses a ‘harmonisation’ of the impromptu melody. It has to been seen and heard to be believed. Personally, I think it’s simply awful and wholly uninformed from a musical perspective, BUT, if it does help people gain access to music making then that’s surely a good thing.
January 23rd Update: Some amusing results are now posted on YouTube - use this search