LaDiDa Demo from khush on Vimeo.

There’s no question iPhone/iPod touch development – really, just clever mobile development – has gotten a bit overhyped lately. But that’s all the more reason to do a round-up of genuinely interesting stories, real innovation happening on the platform. So, I’m clearing out my inbox with some of the more creative tools appearing recently on Apple’s mobile gadgets. There’s no better way to kick off today’s festivities than with this unusual “reverse karaoke” creation.

Sure, people may think they’re tone-deaf. But even the layperson has extraordinary powers of musical perception. So how could you train your iPhone to perceive and respond to music? That’s the question asked by LaDiDa for iPhone, the first of a new line of “intelligent” music applications for mobile devices. A “reverse karaoke” tool, the idea is to listen to singing and fake accompaniment, rather than having you sing along to canned backing tracks. Nothing is pre-programmed; everything is generated on the fly on the device.

It’ll even make up a Bollywood accompaniment to your singing:

LaDiDa Bollywood Duet from khush on Vimeo.

Of course, to me, it’s interesting not only what the iPhone is able to musically, but also what these algorithms are unable to make sound musical. Both reveal a whole lot about how we hear and conceptualize music. I think the team deserves real credit for making this fun, though, and on constrained hardware.

The app’s creator Khush follows in the footsteps of Smule in that it takes hard-core academic music research and uses mobile devices as a vessel for getting that tech in the hands (literally) of the general public. (See my interview with Smule founder and ChucK originator Dr. Ge Wang.)

Parag Chordia, developed at professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the gentleman you see in the video, spoke to CDM about what’s happening behind the scenes. He tells us about how this application was developed, and how the intelligent algorithms work (or at least try to work, as music analysis and auto-accompaniment remain at early stages).

First, an explanation of the app.

Finally, the wait is over. As technology companies battle for the living room, Roland has built the ultimate convergence device. The VIMA concept keyboard addresses the need of the average home consumer to play organ and keyboard sounds, manage digital photos and videos, and perform karaoke using a single, integrated product. The days of having to play 88-key keyboards without the convenience of transforming your digital video and photo content into interactive karaoke performances can now be a distant memory.

Translate what I just said to Japanese, and I think it might make sense.

Roland has just unveiled VIMA (rhymes with ZIMA), “a new concept keyboard that blends various musical and visual content applications into one consumer-friendly unit.” Yes, previously you needed a Mac with iLife to make soundtracks for your videos and photos, a digital piano, and a karaoke machine, just to get the functionality that’s now combined in the VIMA. I know there have been countless times where I wished I could transform my keyboard into a karaoke machine, so this should come as a major relief.

Side note: I know we have some CDM readers in Japan, so maybe you can tell me if it is in fact more likely that you’d find an 88-key digital piano / karaoke workstation in a living room there than here. If so, your country really is awesome.

I never do this, but in this case you have to read the whole press release to believe it:

Okay, synth sleuths. Here’s a puzzler for you from composer/producer Fer Isella. He’s got a mysterious instrument called the Webcor Music Machine he retrieved from a backyard sale, but can’t find out anything about it:

It’s really amazing sounding. It’s called “The Music Machine” by Webcor.
It’s got organ section, rhythm section, tape player and recorder. You can
record yourself playing with the radio tuner that it’s got, and the same
radio antenna has in its tip a MICROPHONE! He-he that you can sing too. The
2 speakers on the bottom sound really amazing, big bassy sound.
If you have any info about this machine please let me know.

I’ve never heard of it, though it does look fascinating. To help jog your memory, I’ve posted a gallery of images Fer sent my way. Any clue? Who is Webcor? And why don’t keyboards come with built in radios any more?

[wpg2]archived/webcor/[/wpg2]

This week's CDM Fine Reading Award goes to channelnewsasia.com for profiling an inventor we really care about: the inventor of karaoke, Daisuke Inoue. Aside from being the most horrendous case of "really should have patented that" ever, Inoue turns out to be an Ig Nobel Prize Winner (alongside the authors of published report The Effects of Country Music on Suicide),
and reached his stroke of genius by being . . . a really lazy
accompanist. (I can relate to that.) What's next? Automatic
cockroach-killing gadgetry and the ability to wash dishes and laundry
without soap. (I can relate to those, too.)

Flash-forward to now and witness the digital music connection here: new
karaoke machines by Taito are powered with geeky synthesis description
language Csound, and can even correct your tone-deaf singing. MIT creator Dr. Vercoe brought one to last year's SEAMUS festival, where we learned electro-acoustic pioneers like Jon Appleton really can't sing.