Microsoft Songsmith
What a great fun product. I mean that seriously; me and my kids had loads of laughs with the six-hour demo.
It’s a simple premise, as Microsoft explains:
Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer’s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC’s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you.
It’s also fun listening to the melody lines of famous songs being interpreted by it. For example, Oasis’ “Wonderwall” sounds like those crappy dance remixes that chart sometimes:
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is less successful:
The Police’s “Roxanne” also loses in translation:
It’s a great toy. But I think it’s fair to say that Microsoft Songsmith does to music what Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 does to websites.