What the internet needs
OK, you internet search wizards, software sophonts, hardware hackers, here’s what I need (whether the rest of the internet autochthons do or not): a search engine to locate and identify tunes and musical motives. No, not by name, by matching whatever tune I whistle, play or sing into a mic.
I just hate it when I have a tune running through my head that I cannot peg. Just asked my Wonder Woman, “What’s this from”? and whistled a happy tune (no, not THAT one). Her helpful answer was five words of one of the verses and, “It’s from a musical” (I knew that!)—two of them “as a”.
But it might be a motif from the third movement of a little-known Classical or Romantic period composer or some such that haunts my mental ear for hours. If recollection served, I’d have no problem, but my recolecter seems less reliable in rcent years…
So, I need a tunessearch engine. Get busy, folks!
(BTW, this particular one was easy, given the four words my Wonder Woman sang back to me: Oscar Hammerstein II & Richard Rodgers, State Fair, “It Might As Well Be Spring”—appropriate, this close to the Vernal Equinox, Spring Break and hay fever don’t you think? Sometimes my unconscious is flippin’ brilliant… )
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BTW, you can purchase and download the full recording of this excerpted performance by Full Spectrum Jazz here.
Whistling in the dark at Conservative Cat, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Basil’s Blog and Jo’s Cafe.
Posted: March 16th, 2006 under Blogroll.
Tags: stupid is as stupid does
Trackback URL for this post: http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/wp-trackback.php?p=1877
Comments
Comment from David
Time March 16, 2006 at 9:08 AM
Well, Diane, except for this, “Tunatic can identify music from any genre except classical,” it looks like a good idea.
However that excludes 90+% of music, given the fact that so much of contemporary (as in current stuff)… uhm, isn’t. Music, that is. Maybe it’ll do “classical” rock, though, and perhaps some show tunes.
Thanks!
(I still have no solution to that operatic aria that’s been bugging me for months. I know I know the opera it’s from–never been in it or I’d be able to definitively peg it, but I know I’ve heard it and should know where it’s from but… *sigh*)
Oh. *sigh* Just saw this lil Q/A in the FAQ:
Will Tunatic recognize the tune if I sing/hum it? Currently, no.
Have to keep looking, I guess… *profound sigh*
Comment from Angel
Time March 16, 2006 at 11:19 AM
I have a better ideer..go to the main drag in ya third world
country..u DO hava main drag dontcha?..heh..and jus whistle
or hum it to every unsuspecting pedestrian…till someone either
tells u or knocks u out silly!
Comment from David
Time March 16, 2006 at 11:22 AM
Yeh, the German thing looks even more interesting, though their database only lists some 3,000 pieces so far and leans to pop.
Cornell and NYU have similar things (and in fact, it seems the research @NYU/Cornell is what the German “Query by humming” thing is based on).
Almost there. Just needs something that can actually “spider” alla the millions of mp3s and wavs out there and search through them for a match. All the while accomodating transpositions into different keys, modifications of tempo, etc. (I usually recall things pretty precisely in whatever key they’re written in or that I’ve heard them in, but most folks, not so much.)
Gettin close…
Comment from David
Time March 16, 2006 at 11:37 AM
Angel,No, no “main drag” in twc. And if there were, the three other folks in the county who have similar eclectic musical tastes would be the only ones I could expect help from…
*heh*
And in point of fact, even those three only have musical tastes as broad as mine when considered as a group.
Yeh, yeh, there may be more, but I doubt it…
Comment from Woody
Time March 16, 2006 at 6:41 PM
Even though it won’t solve your problem you must admit that THIS is pretty cool… Right?
Comment from David
Time March 16, 2006 at 6:47 PM
Indeed, Woody, while it will not solve my problem, it is cool. Very.
Thanks!
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Time March 16, 2006 at 7:45 AM
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