Will Off-Key Karaoke Be Wiped Out?

Annie Bougie

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Apple just patented MaSfPRTFfK, which stands for "Methods and Systems for Providing Real-Time Feedback for Karaoke". It detects when a singer is singing off-pitch according to some pitch data stored with the karaoke song data. The idea is to give some kind of feedback to the singer so they can learn to sing on key. How this technology will be available to programmers writing karaoke systems, I'm not sure, but I'm going to keep my eye on it. I like to sing (ahem, I mean butcher) karaoke, and I'm thinking of writing a karaoke program since everything out there basically sucks. Maybe when I do write my program with this technology, I'll learn just how bad I really do sing. A singing programmer is usually not a good thing.

Will this eradicate bad karaoke at the bars? Probably not as long as alcohol is still involved. Now, if they added a breathalyzer as well.... Posted on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 4:32 AM | Back to top

Comments on this post: Will Off-Key Karaoke Be Wiped Out?

# re: Will Off-Key Karaoke Be Wiped Out?

I find that no mater how much alcohol I consume I can not be convinced to sing Karaoke. I don't need software to know that I am off pitch. But to spare an audience from the screeching wails of drunken harpies I think apple is on the right path. Further more, if the software was integrated with an automatic stage left hook for the vocally retarded I would fund that software.

Left by Jesse T on Jul 10, 2009 2:10 AM

# re: Will Off-Key Karaoke Be Wiped Out?

A version of this concept is already in use in the music recording industry to automagically correct pitch and tone before preprocessing of the audio. It is best to do this before processing to mitigate artifacts similar to jaggies on JPG images.

Perhaps that would be a more interesting solution. Have the karaoke machine fix the sounds of the performers instead of just warning them they suck.

Left by Chris on Jul 13, 2009 7:00 AM

# re: Will Off-Key Karaoke Be Wiped Out?

My experience as a programmer has been mostly for business applications, and I've only recently been exploring applications involving streaming media. I was aware that these components are available for professional singers, which explains why they sound so much better than I do (at least that's what I tell myself). I really don't know what's available for software, or if I would have to write it all myself at a lower level. That sounds like a lot of work, but it could be fun, and it would certainly make singing karaoke a lot more enjoyable for all :-)

Left by Me on Jul 14, 2009 2:51 AM

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