Songsmith "is clearly a true work of genius" | Hacker News Reader

Songsmith "is clearly a true work of genius"

torvalds-family.blogspot.com

19 pointschanux26 comments

Always a shame seeing the people who talk about their bleeding ears and how Songsmith is killing music and all that jazz. It's a fun program. These videos are hilarious if you're fans of the original songs. They let people without music talent add musical backing to their voice, which those people appreciate. There's also some impressive math going into all that, and the results are incredible considering the job is to provide incredible music.

What do people expect? Songsmith to hear Crazy Train and decide, "Hey! Let me create an instantly memorable and unique opening?" No. It's going to essentially add a wall of sound: layered instrumentation and that's it. That's pretty neat. And people who complain about it are either missing the point or deliberately being a pain.

It's a shame people keep saying how terrible Techcrunch is. It's a good blog! Some of Michael Arrington's posts can be hilarious if you know the true story behind the posts. He also enables people who know nothing about the tech industry can join in on the fun whenever there's a sensationalist post, which I think people appreciate. There's also some impressive spin going into some posts, and the results are truly incredible, considering it's just a blog.

What do people expect? Arrington to hear a rumor and decide "Hey! Let me do some research and create an entry that is fair and unbiased?" No. It's essentially a race to be the first to talk about something in the blogosphere: first post wins. And considering how fast he is, that's pretty neat. And people that complain are missing the point or deliberately trying to discredit this fine blogger.

So you take an "art versus fun" argument and turn it into... what? If TechCrunch was taking New Yorker articles and rewriting them with a completely different style, it would be something like what Songsmith does. As it is, you're comparing apples and uranium. There's no similarity.

(Also, I respect Arrington and TechCrunch. I don't read it, but I don't dislike it, either. Congrats, though: this is the first time I've seen that particular obnoxious argument technique used on Hacker News. You've brought us to a new snarky low.)

What are you talking about?

He's just putting together a similiar argument with different parameters...

But the analogy is awful! It's entirely reasonable to expect good reporting from TC, and entirely unreasonable to expect MS Songsmith to produce professional-quality music.

Totally off topic, but I had to go find out what Billy Idol is doing these days. According to wikipedia he's 53 and

'In November 2006, Idol released a Christmas album called Billy Idol: Happy Holidays. It includes classic Christmas songs like "Frosty the Snowman", "Jingle Bell Rock", and "Silent Night", plus some originals.'

Again sorry for going off topic. Couldn't resist.

I find it funny that people said it has awful sounds.

It outputs in MIDI! Use whatever synth you want!

I use my Oberheim Xpander, to paraphrase, "The greatest synth in the world" and the tunes Songsmith puts into it sound great.

In particular: the guy who talks about its being "shitty bluegrass." Yeah, Songsmith takes real live musicians and has them record custom music for your song! It's totally not synthetic.

what an interesting technology. I thought that maybe it would work on my macbookpro because the little girl in the demo appeared to be using one, but I guess it was either a pc or the ad agency screwed up.

Boot Camp?

Is it just me, or does Linus' blog have the most vitriolic comments ever? It's like they are deliberately trying to anger him by disagreeing and arguing with whatever he says.

If Linus takes a snapshot of a kitten, can we discuss kittens on Hacker News next?

The heading I added to this submission was differ from what I see now. Who changed it? Maybe mine was bad & some one has fixed that :) . But I still like the original heading. >> "OK, Let's face it. Linus Torvalds loves an M$ software"

Your original headline was sensational and detracted from what the article was actually saying.

HN has aggressive moderators. (I think. I've never actually seen a moderator. But there've been rumors.)

Well understood the point. And agree too. But wonder why I saw some other headlines of the kind before on HN even on main page. Different ways of treating? I hate that.

If it makes you feel better, I flag each post with a title like that and comment, and I think a few other users do too. So it's not just you.

Here is one heading successfully escaped from moderation (At least at the moment I post this)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=516956

OK, let's face it. HN is not Reddit.

Nobody here wants (or reacts to) sensational titles. We read the article, and then form our own opinion. No need to poison the well.

I've not been on reddit. But on Digg. I started to hate digg and thank god I found HN. I don't want HN be another lame social news site. If my headline tends to drag HN towards their, Hell yeah it's great they changed it. (I don't know who I refer to by 'they'.)

One hint. If you ever find yourself using a $ instead of an S, there's a good chance you need to rethink your title.

Well.. If HN moderators changed mine for $ sign I've no prblem. But it won't stop me using $ sign instead of S when I talk about Microsoft. And this is HACKER news right?

Also, software is not singular...

For the non-native speakers, "software" is a mass noun, not a count noun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun).

Yes I'm a non-native speaker :).

I thought it depends on where I use it.

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