Recently, Microsoft unveiled a new program called Songsmith. Basically, the program adds musical accompaniment to a vocal track, whether it's to something you sing live or to a pre-recorded song. The first time I heard about it, I thought it was pretty cool. I was optimistic that it could be a great program for recording/writing on PCs -- a possible Garageband-like program for those non-Mac users. I never exactly understood the whole craze behind the "FAIL" and "EPIC FAIL" phenomenon, but I believe this lingo would be appropriate here.
Here are some songs that people have plugged in to Songsmith:
Van Halen - "Runnin' With the Devil"
FAIL?
I think there's an issue with the program if it's not even correctly matching up the key/pitch of the music and vocal track. And just listening to Diamond Dave howl...can you imagine what it must have been like to be in the studio recording and only hearing that? Just so we are clear, I happen to like Van Halen and I am a David Lee Roth man...not a Sammy Hagar man. Sure, Sammy's got a great voice but I always felt that Van Halen with Hagar was all about the ballads while Van Halen with Roth was all about the rock. By now, I think you know which style I favor.
Now, look what Songsmith does to "Roxanne" by The Police. I mean, I think the program is taking the whole reggae chord progression to the extreme. I mean really. And any sense of sincerity this song ever possessed has kind of been sucked out.
The Police - "Roxanne"
FAIL?
Knowing Metallica they'll play until they no longer can, but if they ever feel too old to play their music, they can at least take up a career playing cruise ships. I think Songsmith's take on "Battery" is perfect evidence. It's got that Caribbean feel to it, but with that metal tempo. Uh huh.
Metallica - "Battery"
Right.
One last video to display the powers of Songsmith. I don't know if anyone ever heard it, but a year, two years ago the vocal track of an unreleased Smash Mouth song was circulating. It's just singer Stever Harwell singing, with nothing else. Grizzly Bear had it up on their blog a while back, which is where I discovered it. Lucky us, someone on the web took said vocal track and dropped it into Songsmith. Enjoy some bluegrass Smash Mouth.
Smash Mouth - "Days Like These"
EPIC FAIL?
You can download a trial version of the program. See what you get.
5 comments:
Fantastic post. Metallica was a good enough example, but the Smash Mout one absolutely took the cake.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, the Smash Mouth one is pretty great but I'm still all about the Van Halen one. I mean, it really highlights the vocals. I happen to really dig it when Roth shouts "Ooooh, God! Ooooh, God! Home run here! Oooooooww, yeah!" from 2:20-2:25.
And how about that yowl from 0:38-0:42.
I am absolutely loving this version of Roxanne! I think it's just as good as the original! No kidding. The sincerity is there, just listen to the stunning vocal. It was fun to listen to.
The Smash Mouth song is hilarious because it underscores how bad that guy is at singing, since the program obviously could not find an appropriate key.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXG2uKNLIw
Haha. Thanks for sharing that. I somehow missed it.
It looks to be a legitimate promo video, which is sad. It makes the program sound like something better-suited to scoring a children's television program.
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