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Filed under: Audio, Fun, Internet, Microsoft

Idol fail and Songsmith make for great mashups

by Lee Mathews Jan 26th 2009

Have you played with Microsoft Songsmith yet? If not, here's what it does: sing into mic and Songsmith magically creates an accompaniment.

Does it work? Well, yes. Mostly. And when it doesn't, the blame can't be placed entirely on Songsmith.

Take the following YouTube clip, for example. Black metal - in this case, Naglfar's The Brimstone Gate - probably isn't the best choice for an Idol audition, but it does provide a glorious opportunity for some fun. The same audition with a jaunty island beat behind it? Pure gold.

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Tags: american-idol, hilarity, idol, music, songsmith, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Microsoft, Beta

Get Microsoft Songsmith installed on Windows 7 beta

by Lee Mathews Jan 14th 2009

Over the past few days, many of you have downloaded the Windows 7 beta from Microsoft. Another app that was talked about (that you may have missed amongst the Win7 hoopla) is Songsmith, a slick music creation from Microsoft Research

It's designed to intelligently create music to match a singer's vocals. Don't know the first thing about instrumentation? Don't have a band to back your killer vocals? Songsmith may be just what you need.

Sure, the idea sounds a little sterile, but is it really that far off from the over-processed tripe in heavy rotation on Top 40 radio? I digress. "Back to the lecture at hand," to quote Snoop.

You've got Windows 7, and you want to play around with Songsmith too - but you can't get it to install? Thankfully, Rafael Rivera has come to the rescue again. The same guy that brought us the Blue Badge tool to unlock hidden features in earlier betas has released a batch file and .mst that allow you to get Songsmith installed.

Download the Songsmith trial, then grab Rafael's fix (search for the word simply if you can't find the link). Extract the files in it to a folder, then place the Songsmith installer there as well. Run the .bat, and you're ready to make music. Rather, your Windows 7 PC is ready. All you have to do is sing.

Don't forget to move away from the mic to breathe in.

Tags: music, songsmith, windows-7

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