Yes, I know, there are many video production houses working on weddings and corporate videos who aren’t likely to hire Howard Shore to compose the score. (Well, except for the odd Lord of the Rings geeks tying the knot.) So, it makes sense that we’d see yet another software product that promises to generate the music algorithmically according to a musical genre and custom hit points. Because, of course, it’s not like there are a bunch of composers around hard up for money who would do anything for a gig. Ahem. Sony is teasing their new Wndows-only product Cinescore at the NAB broadcasting show; you can see the details in an online brochure. Basically, it looks like Acid and Vegas, but with the ability to automatically create music rather than assemble it from loops. The brochure even says “Don’t fumble with clunky blocks of prearranged music,” which could be interpreted as a dig at Apple’s Soundtrack and GarageBand, except Sony’s own ACID product started the whole loop rage in the first place.
The problem is, as always, that you’re limited to pre-defined styles, and Sony has included only 20 options. (There are variations; hard to know without hearing it how cheezy it is, but past experience with this kind of product suggests . . . Velveeta.) But look closely at the brochure: clearly, you have everything you need! “High Adrenaline” “Drum ‘n’ Bass”, “High Voltage” Rock, “Fourth World Surge” Ambient (not entirely sure where the Fourth World is, but I guess it’s nations with even more poverty than the Third World?), and, most importantly, Klezmer! (Hey, if you have 20 styles, you better make one of them Klezmer.) I’m sure it’ll go well with the video about . . . parrots . . . shown in the brochure.
I’ll let you know when the demo version is available so the CDM community can unleash its High Adrenaline Klezmer mash-ups on the world.
better grab your crackers and wine…
"Fourth World" is a term coined by experimental jazz trumpeter Jon Hassell. Quote:
"My ambition was to create something like the music of a culture which might have existed�perhaps as seen from the fictional viewpoint of someone in the future discovering a "lost" music.
"In brief, it was an idealized merging of 'third world' tradtions with 'first world' technology to create a Fourth World style�a projection of the idea of tradition into a post-modern (and digital) context."
Doh, thanks, Popo. Sometimes my brain crumbles in the face of marketing materials.
Well, we certainly got post-modern and digital here.
I posit that will push composers into another critical revolution. Just imagine… 400 instances of Klezmer soundtracks each with varying hitpoints every second or so communicating with one another. The future is now. Cage will have his revenge.
But seriously, this actually seems like a worthwhile tool for those with no musical skill (or the cash for someone to score their home movies). I imagine it working in the same way the 'Ken Burns' effect works in iMovie: it just works and you barely notice it, but overall it's better than what the average consumer can do on their own. But, then again, it's a Sony product…
> But, then again, itâ€ââ€ΕΎÂ¢s a Sony product…
I have to chime in that I've found the Sony Media Software stuff (formerly Sonic Foundry) is still pretty high quality.
Their new ACID Pro 6 is very nice.
Honestly, as a Mac user I've had little experience with Sony's software (aside from developing content for their Screenblast project, which was disastrous), and most of my feelings stem from using their hardware and the horrible experiences related to that… but if you say it's high quality, I'll just take your word for it. π
…although I do believe the positive reviews for their Sonic Foundry acquisitions may have something to do with the fact that they're Sonic Foundry acquisitions. π
> …although I do believe the positive reviews for their Sonic Foundry acquisitions may have something to do with the fact that theyâ€ââ€ΕΎÂ¢re Sonic Foundry acquisitions. π
But to be fair that acquisition was completed in 2003, and they've since put out two major releases of ACID Pro, a new version of Vegas + DVD Architect, a version of Sound Forge as well as a handful of other things.
One thing I will say about Sony is, they don't take constructive criticism vary well. They've kicked people off there user group forum, that criticized them for not implementing the right feature sets in to their up dates, like MIDI in Acid. Now their products have the features the people they kicked off their user group were asking for. That's a great way for them to treat their customers!
>But to be fair that acquisition was completed in 2003, and theyâ€ââ€ΕΎÂ¢ve since put out two major releases of ACID Pro, a new version of Vegas + DVD Architect, a version of Sound Forge as well as a handful of other things.
I give Sony credit for making improvements, BUT honestly, they onlly get credit for 1 from me. I'm a longtime Sonc Foundry user the differences between each upgrade tend to fall smac kdab in the "this should have been in the last upgrade" category. I find myself skipping upgrades because of that reason. I recently upgraded from Sound Forge 8 from 5 because 6 and 7 were hardly worth the price. Sony has been using the same effects bundled with these products since version 3. They just got around to having the ability to use VST effects. Don't get me wrong. I love these products. I swear by Vegas as the best NLE in it's price range and I find Sound Forge less clunky than most editors. But i credit Sonif Foundry more with designing a great foundation more than i do Sony for adding some "it's about time features".
I saw a demo last Wed May 24th. It was very impressive
[…] One curious feature is Soundbooth’s “automatic composition” settings, which seem to take a cue from the music-faking capabilities of rival A/V software giant Sony Cinescore. I was unable to test this feature because the sample files weren’t downloading correctly from Adobe Labs’ overtaxed server. The features look well-implemented; the more fundamental problems I have are that a) automatically-generated music never sounds like anything other than automatically-generated music, b) creatives are always trying to get out of hiring composers and musicians even when they have sizable budgets — darned cheapskates, and c) this is drawing attention from other features. With more interactive loop-based music creation in tools like Acid and GarageBand, and Sony’s own Cinescore, it seems like Adobe should concentrate on Soundbooth as an excellent starter-level audio editor — a niche that isn’t filled by other products and would fit a wider audience. […]