music

Music is pretty much one of the best things in life–some people might even say it is the best thing in life. Playing an instrument is supposed to do all sort of great things for us, but most would agree that getting started with music can be pretty difficult. While DAWs like FL Studio exist to help us produce whatever we hear in our heads without strumming a single chord, digital production is quite a bit more difficult than most people realize. From programming drums to synthesizing new sounds, it can be just as time-consuming as learning to play guitar. “Why can’t I just whip out my smartphone, hum a little ditty, and let it do all the hard work of producing a track?” you might be thinking.

Well, soon you will be able to, thanks to a new app from Casio. You won’t even need to hum all the way through–it’ll generate a whole song from one section!

Casio, probably best known for releasing the world’s first totally electric, compact calculator in 1957, has been releasing instruments like synthesizers since the 1980s. In fact, there’s a good chance that if you had a cheap synth growing up, it was made by Casio. While not everyone necessarily appreciated the sound produced by the affordable, digital synthesizers, there’s no doubt that Casio had a massive impact on the music world.

▼Attack! Sustain! Delay! Release!

Casiotone_CT-380Wikipedia (Tompzone)

Now it looks like Casio is aiming to change the music world again with digital music production–and this time you won’t even have to know where middle C is!

Debuting at the 2014 Gakki Fair held at Tokyo Big Site over from the 21st to 23rd, Casio’s newest creation is an app which records a tune hummed by the user and then transforms the hummed melody into a proper song. Users don’t even need to come up with a chorus and verse melody–the app is designed to extrapolate everything from the little bit hummed. Users can also choose the key, tempo, and genre for the song, including rock and pop, after which a two- to three-minute song will be generated and saved on the phone. Then all that’s left to do is send the track to your favorite label and you’re on your way to fame and riches!

Sadly, though, it looks like you’ll have to wait a while before you can go boycotting Spotify with Taylor Swift. The app is still in development and neither an official release date nor a price has been announced, though we assume that it won’t be much longer.

▼This is apparently what it will look like though.

casioiPhone Channel

While we may joke about this app, it may actually end up being a powerful tool. After all, automated music generation is already a thing, so it’s not really an outlandish concept, though we’re sure quite a few musicians already hate the whole concept. Still, it will be interesting to see what kind of tunes this app can produce–we doubt it’ll be anything to rival a proper band though.

And at least you’ll never have to worry about your phone forcing its music into your iTunes library like Bono!

Sources: Asahi Shinbun, iPhone Channel
Images: Wikipedia (Ysangkok)