Oh yeah! Someone pick me up off the floor please.
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Frank obviously had that on his Synclavier.
Now that it’s on Windows, this could really help those “Go Tell It On The Mountain” chicks.
Mental Illness.
i don’t often feel like commiting suicide but i will make an exception for songsmith.
Seems like Mac’s GarageBand with Down’s Syndrome.
Or at least made for people with it.
Her voice makes me want to kill someone.
I dunno… I think I kinda like the concept behind it…
Let’s say, you’re a musical person (maybe you’ve been cursed with perfect pitch), but you’re also a musical illiterate (wouldn’t know an A from a G afa notation goes). You could, theoretically, hum an awesome melody line into this thing, and get an orchestrated accompaniment to that melody line.
(I’m sure this technology has existed for years, I know it has, but it hasn’t been in MY hands…)
Okay, so your awesome melody line has a cheesy Bosa Nova rhythm, but what the fuck? You still have cheesy Bosa Nova accompaniment, which you didn’t have when you sang your awesome melody in the first place. And you’re so illiterate, you couldn’t think up – let alone write – a cheesy accompaniment for your awesome melody if you wanted to; plus, you can tweeze it…
I have personally witnessed Karaoke (which I normally deplore – unless it’s done really really well) transform a “non-singer” (with an ear) into a singer. I’m kinda in favor of programs that make music exploration easy for those not trained to understand the physics of it.
It really is UN-FUCKING-BELIEVE-ABLE! Expext Wall Street Reports read to us accompanied by Songsmith.
It’s a good thing that books made of paper are vanishing with time: just imagine the printed versions of music encyclopedias in 300 years documenting the musical genies of the early 21st century …
I am Visibly and Quite possibly Dying as a result of watching that video.
I noticed you can get a free trial version, so hey, we should do a Songsmith compilation! (I was actually singing that last sentence…)
So I come home from work and relax in front of the computer the way I always do – wearing some lovely, sheer pink pantyhose, a feather boa, with an enormous buttplug in. The I watched this video and thought, “Dear Lord, _THAT_ is sooo fucking gay!”
Looks like its a Mac laptop and the font that is used is even exactly Apples… Funny.
I wonder what would come out if you sang some of Franks music into it? Could you recreate even a recognizable version of Franks music with the thing? Does it have a slider bar to dial in Dada?
[quote comment=”3568″]I wonder what would come out if you sang some of Franks music into it? Could you recreate even a recognizable version of Franks music with the thing?[/quote]
Indeed! Has anyone run The Dangerous Kitchen gesprechener Sprache gesprochener Spiel through this thing? (I can’t because, like, Hi I’m a Mac)
I sang Inca Roads into Songsmith and it sounded alot like ZPZ.
Buy Songsmith TODAY!!! (eyebrows not included).
I can’t believe I’m soaking in it.
[quote comment=”3571″]I sang Inca Roads into Songsmith and it sounded alot like ZPZ.[/quote]
So THAT is Dweezil’s secret!
Since it’s a Microsoft product, I’m sure it works really, really well.
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not ><
This is the musical version of Poe’s Law (look it up)
And for fuck’s sake, give Dweezil a break on the ZPZ stuff, would ya please? Either like it or don’t like it, but from some of the comments here and elsewhere on the intertubes you would think DZ is just a half a notch less reprehensible than Hitler.
Frank was his DAD. Cut him some J.R. “Bob” Dobbs-approved SLACK and quit being a bag full of flaming dicks.
could stand only 40 seconds….fighting hot ball of vomit in my GI tract…must hold on….
– Gosh, I have to come up with an ad campaign for ‘PCB-Soaked Cigarettes For Kidz!’! Even *I* wouldn’t buy that! But if I don’t come up with something TODAY, I get my crime carved into my back!
Say, Trixie, what are you doing? I’ve never heard you sing before!
– (singing) ‘I’m getting force-fed mayo, Dad/I’m learning what to think/successful music is simple, Dad/there’s no need to blink’
****OK, I kind of like the ‘force-fed mayo’ line, but I couldn’t get a reference to ‘cultural foie gras’ in there…
_______________________
I do kind of agree with SOFA, though, at least theoretically. I teach music myself, and love the way technology makes learning some things much much easier. I even use garageband to good effect, although not all that much. There is no doubt in my mind that musical talent is much more widespread than is generally thought. The fact that music is, in most industrial countries, just a hobby – and an expensive one sometimes – makes it a lot less likely that most of that talent is going to get developed in any way.
The positive potential of all this is for the overall quality to rise: if anyone can crank out a decent sounding thing, people with pretentions (commercial or otherwise) will have to try harder. The negative potential, of course, is that you see music as rigid loops, immutable categories. Frank used ‘musical icons’ to great effect, but he was doing it on purpose; they were another layer of commentary and ’emotional spin’. But if you grow up thinking that icons themselves, without context, ARE music, that’s sort of sad.
To double-paraphrase things Frank said about Jazz and Disco: Jazz isn’t the only genre of music that’s dead. Rock also is completely dead. There are a few approved beats, bass lines and sounds you must use if you’re going to do Rock. Much as I appreciate the interesting and creative work some people have done with loops, the more general effect is a hardening of categories, which diminishes them all.
[quote comment=”3604″]To double-paraphrase things Frank said about Jazz and Disco: Jazz isn’t the only genre of music that’s dead. Rock also is completely dead. There are a few approved beats, bass lines and sounds you must use if you’re going to do Rock. Much as I appreciate the interesting and creative work some people have done with loops, the more general effect is a hardening of categories, which diminishes them all.[/quote]
Peter Banks, the first guitarist of Yes, made an interesting comparison in a comment where he noted that Yes began as a cover band. Yes would create these overblown, jammy versions of pop tunes in their
early days, in which they would mix in classical themes, TV theme music, and all kinds of musical flotsam. Peter likened this to remix culture with all the loops–but importantly, he noted that, unlike the loopers/remixers, Yes could occasionally make the music sound *better* than the source material.
Using samples in weird ways can be tremendously creative and original, but using entire loops I often find to be an excuse for not creating one’s own rhythms or working with people who can do so. Perhaps we will have to mark the day when *every single measure* that James Brown ever recorded will have been used in a loop at some point.
How bland was that commercial?! Kids today are tiring of today’s modern music and are listening to music of the ’60s and ’70s, which they’ve discovered via the internet. I even overheard a bunch of kids on the bus the other day discussing Brian Jones and Mick Taylor’s different techniques on the guitar!
[quote comment=”3600″]I can’t tell if this is a joke or not ><
This is the musical version of Poe’s Law (look it up)
And for fuck’s sake, give Dweezil a break on the ZPZ stuff, would ya please? Either like it or don’t like it, but from some of the comments here and elsewhere on the intertubes you would think DZ is just a half a notch less reprehensible than Hitler.
Frank was his DAD. Cut him some J.R. “Bob” Dobbs-approved SLACK and quit being a bag full of flaming dicks.[/quote]
Just because Frank was Dweezil’s Dad doesn’t mean anyone should “cut him some J.R. “Bob” Dobbs-approved SLACK”. Like any other musician, Dweezil succeeds or fails based on his own musical ability, and his ability (or lack thereof) as a bandleader. I’m not suggesting that he passes or fails in either department. KUR is simply a forum for discussion. Take it or leave it. But to suggest that any discussion about Dweezil, ZPZ, ZFT is a taboo topic feeds into the perspective that only Dweezil & friends can possibly perform Frank Zappa’s music, and that the Zappa Family Trust is the sole arbiter of the Zappa legacy. I tend to disagree. There is room in this world for as many cover bands willing to perform FZ’s music, not just ZPZ. And believe it or not, I can be critical of Dweezil while at the same time digging the music he makes (this is the difference between blind adoration and general respect for the artist’s abilities). Who else sees the Oedipus themes working themselves out in the Zappa family?
Getting back on topic, though, listening to these actors sing made me appreciate the vocal abilities of Dale Bozzio…
Barry, is it me, or is Microsoft growing more and more evil by the day? No need to torture people anymore, just force them to watch this commercial…