Friday, January 9, 2009

Microsoft Research Makes Music

Among many of the announcements by Microsoft at CES this week, the firm said that its research division has released a new software program which automatically generates musical accompaniment to whatever a person sings. The software--Songsmith--uses a microphone and a Windows computer to analyze a singer's voice, and automatically create music to match their singing. The software allows users to select one of 30 styles of music and to save and record that music to share with their friends. Microsoft--which will sell the software online for $29.95--said the effort is an outgrowth of efforts by researchers Dan Morris and Sumit Basu, who are also music hobbyists.