GENIUS.

Those are fantastic. I'm still stunned by "Crazy Train." That one's better than the old intro for the Osbournes.

Strange to say the least.

Now I want to see 9 it rocked.

Fail.

Every one. Fail.

None of them had the correct chords.

This was extremely painful. Why did I keep clicking, hoping for something good, when every time it just hurt my ears?

I listened to most of them, and most sucked, but I don't think of this as a "Microsoft is teh suck" story.
What it says to me is:

1) many famous vocalists suck; but the band makes up for it (ie: Ric Ocasek)
2) without understanding the meaning and context, a computer's likely to make an inappropriate choice of musical genre
3) safe, "muzak" versions are almost always offensively inoffensive

That said, White Wedding was an interesting take.

Almost as weird as the commercial.

The Beasties one works. I don't know why, but it does.

"White Wedding" was as weird as the Rush one from a couple days ago.

"Hotel California" didn't do anything for me.

"Eye of the Tiger" worked pretty well.

Procedural Texture: many famous vocalists suck; but the band makes up for it (ie: Ric Ocasek)

That was Benjamin Orr the bass player, btw (dead from the AIDS I believe). I've always liked his voice.

That program probably sounded like a good idea on paper. Too bad they use sub-karaoke-level backing music and it seems to suck at trying to figure out which chords to use.

Crazy Train sounds eerily like the Weird Al Yanchovic polka bits that he'd do on his albums. Lame.

The first few were great. Ozzy with a tuba in the background is a sensation altogether new to me, and frankly, I love it.

Those are amazing. Thanks subby for making my day a little bit more interesting.

You sure this wasn't a Weird Al Yankovic song generator?

LOL when I first saw that Songsmith was available, this is EXACTLY what I wanted to do. Ironically, it wouldn't install on Windows 7 Beta, so I said "screw it."

#7 was the most "normal" sounding, though.

Procedural Texture: I listened to most of them, and most sucked, but I don't think of this as a "Microsoft is teh suck" story.
What it says to me is:

1) many famous vocalists suck; but the band makes up for it (ie: Ric Ocasek)
2) without understanding the meaning and context, a computer's likely to make an inappropriate choice of musical genre
3) safe, "muzak" versions are almost always offensively inoffensive

That said, White Wedding was an interesting take.

But you expected it to create the same music from the words? I think this is pure genius and very cool of an application to do that.

temmerling: That was Benjamin Orr the bass player, btw (dead from the AIDS I believe). I've always liked his voice.

His vocals on that track, yes. He died from pancreatic cancer, though, not AIDS (kind of irresponsible to throw that sort of thing out in a thread). He might have been a lifelong bachelor, but he also had a kid and several relationships, so I don't think his lifestyle was ever questioned.

temmerling: Procedural Texture: many famous vocalists suck; but the band makes up for it (ie: Ric Ocasek)

That was Benjamin Orr the bass player, btw (dead from the AIDS I believe). I've always liked his voice.


Benjamin Orr died of pancreatic cancer. He had an awesome voice.

LesserEvil: temmerling: That was Benjamin Orr the bass player, btw (dead from the AIDS I believe). I've always liked his voice.

His vocals on that track, yes. He died from pancreatic cancer, though, not AIDS (kind of irresponsible to throw that sort of thing out in a thread). He might have been a lifelong bachelor, but he also had a kid and several relationships, so I don't think his lifestyle was ever questioned.

I never mentioned his lifestyle. There are many ways to get AIDS. My bad on being wrong on how he died. My brother had told me that and I never thought to question it.

I liked his voice on that track and pretty much everything he sang with the Cars.

I Heard It Trough The Grape Vine by Marvin Gaye featuring... Frank Black?

Gals Panic: Those are amazing. Thanks subby for making my day a little bit more interesting.

/Takes a bow

I ran across this via stumble. Having a background in writing software, I was floored by this, and dumbfounded that it would actually get released to the general public at all. Even the tempo is wrong for all entries.

hogans: Gals Panic: Those are amazing. Thanks subby for making my day a little bit more interesting.

/Takes a bow

I ran across this via stumble. Having a background in writing software, I was floored by this, and dumbfounded that it would actually get released to the general public at all. Even the tempo is wrong for all entries.

That's a problem with the person who did the mashup... It's a simple enough matter to adjust the tempo to the proper BPM for the song, although the better of those mashups (relative term, I know) do have the correct tempo.

For people putting words to music, or those in need of a background track, it provides an excellent starting point to generate a MIDI tune; one could always make adjustments after the fact with Band in a Box or something like that. It would also help if the MIDI samples weren't so cheesy to begin with.

Just an FYI, there used to be a similar product back in the days of Win95.... I have a copy floating around my house here somewhere, so the idea has been around for quite a long time. I'm surprised Microsoft is the only company offering a product like this though, currently.

Link (new window)

Johnny Cash doing NIN's "Hurt" as done by MS Songsmith - this will make you laugh, I swear... it has the most inappropriate arrangement ever.

Well, of course it'll butcher the songs when you select a completely different genre and mood for the backing track. But somehow it makes the Billy Idol music video all the more bizarre.

Queen's We Will Rock You (new window) isn't too shabby.

I think this one is rather hilarious too.

It's just something about the turntable "scratching" that really helps.

paulseta: Link (new window)

Johnny Cash doing NIN's "Hurt" as done by MS Songsmith - this will make you laugh, I swear... it has the most inappropriate arrangement ever.

I made it through about two and a half seconds before I chortled myself into a blind fit of incomprehensibility.

If you only listen to one, make it #4 Van Halen - Running With the Devil.

paulseta: Link (new window)

Johnny Cash doing NIN's "Hurt" as done by MS Songsmith - this will make you laugh, I swear... it has the most inappropriate arrangement ever.

ROTFL.

paulseta: Johnny Cash doing NIN's "Hurt" as done by MS Songsmith - this will make you laugh, I swear... it has the most inappropriate arrangement ever.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. And also No.

Rick roll

duanecu: Queen's We Will Rock You (new window) isn't too shabby.

Thanks for the kind words :) That one came out well, I agree! Then again, I've been doing nothing but playing with Songsmith (in between pesky work) for the past few days. Matching the tempo is the hardest part - it might work for a while, then when the later verses go out, Songsmith gets lost completely. I tried doing 'Ride the Lightning' and it just rocked on G and D for three minutes, so I edited it all in Adobe Audition to keep the chord changes in.

I think my best work so far is The Ballad of El Scorcho (whoever knew Weezer could sound so depressing!).

There's another Farker here who did these before me though, his ones are fantastic.

I've also done Muse and more Muse.

If you're trying to make your own, it really does help to have some knowledge of music composition/software. I've seen some real bad ones on Youtube, completely out of time, the chords don't even match the melody, etc. It's not just as simple as pressing a few buttons, and with a bit of work, it's quite surprising what Songsmith can actually do, music-wise.

It just sounds so farkin' cheesy!

LesserEvil: Just an FYI, there used to be a similar product back in the days of Win95.... I have a copy floating around my house here somewhere, so the idea has been around for quite a long time. I'm surprised Microsoft is the only company offering a product like this though, currently.

What about GarageBand, in Apple's iLife suite?

how are you isolating and separating the vocal tracks from these songs?!

ZAZ: "White Wedding" was as weird as the Rush one from a couple days ago.

"Hotel California" didn't do anything for me.

"Eye of the Tiger" worked pretty well.

I thought that Eye of the Tiger would be the most full of fail in the bunch but it almost sounded like it was supposed to be that way. IMHO Runnin' With the Devil was the most horrible of the bunch. Which in reality all sucked. White Wedding was just too funny to be the worst.

icebalm: how are you isolating and separating the vocal tracks from these songs?!

Find acapella tracks on the net - there are a few places, though I've downloaded some badly-isolated ones where you can still hear most of the backing music pumping in and out.

After the novelty of making popular song remixes wears off, I'll actually be quite intrigued as to how this can be used as a serious composition tool - not for recording, but just for bringing new chord sequences under melodies and ideas.

Eye of the Tiger sounds like a ballad.

12349876: Eye of the Tiger sounds like a ballad.

That's what I thought when I heard it...after laughing my ass off for a good minute and a half.

The most surreal one of the bunch is definitely Running With The Devil.

MythRender: 12349876: Eye of the Tiger sounds like a ballad.

That's what I thought when I heard it...after laughing my ass off for a good minute and a half.

The most surreal one of the bunch is definitely Running With The Devil.

The drunken karaoke lounge cruise Van Halen is surely the best, alongside the multi-part 'Blackened'. Some guy probably used his entire 6-hour trial making that beast.

Best IMO

Metallica - Battery (new window)

I thought hotel California was actually pretty good.

Crazy train was hilarious.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band made me feel like I was on drugs. Just like the Beatles probably were.

The Cars was kind of weird.

Marvin Was pretty happenin'

Wow... Rush - Tom Sawyer (new window) C=64 Chippy style

which was a video response to Radiohead - Creep (new window)

Nirvana's "In Bloom" M.S.
[yes it's out of sync, but that makes it worse/better]
Link (new window)

fuzzwell: None of them had the correct chords.

The "White Wedding" arrangement was actually quite good.

Sounds goofy with Billy Idol's vocals, of course, but the melody works with that bluegrass arrangement.

icebalm: how are you isolating and separating the vocal tracks from these songs?!

There are places online you can get vocals that were isolated from the original mix. I don't know any of them, but they exist; a few of the YouTube video comments threads have links.

As for taking vocals out of a mixed track, every music store recording department clerk will tell you it's like trying to take the eggs out of a baked cake. Ain't gonna happen.

Software exists that will help mask the vocals through frequency cancellation and other techniques, but none of them are 100% effective. You can still hear reverb and delay artifacts from the recorded vocals in the processed track, but it becomes less noticeable when someone else sings over it all in amateur talent competitions & auditions.

Mobkey: Almost as weird as the commercial.

I prefer the Songsmith'd version of the commercial.

I bet David Lee Roth would enjoy #4, at heart that guy is cornball with a side order of cheese.

Sergeant Pepper was lively

And then sometimes Songsmith improves a tune.

Songsmith boldly reharmonizes the supporting vocals in Roxeanne (new window). An interesting effect.

So did Microsoft make this as a joke or what? It doesn't seem to have any real use, just novelty...