Scrambled Hackz

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70664-0.html?tw=wn_index_2 links to a news item about Scrambled Hackz -

"1) Scrambled Hackz analyzes the audio portion of a video file to determine the tempo of the incoming audio, and then slices it up into discrete chunks of a quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note and so on (a process also used by audio editing programs such as Ableton Live and Sony's Acid software).

2) Using a large number of vectors, those slices are classified into a database according to their sonic characteristics.

3) When you send new audio information to the program (using, say, your voice and a microphone), it follows approximately the same process, becoming classified in the database. The software then outputs the pre-analyzed sample that is most similar to that newly cached sample.

4) The result, as you can see in the video, is that König is able to reconfigure a Michael Jackson interview or any number of '80s music videos on the fly, so that they produce a sound similar to whatever he inputs. On screen, the software plays the frames of video that accompany the selected audio."

Discuss....

Your Honor, prosecution evidence item #7 will clearly show the jury that the defendant ...

4) The result, as you can see in the video, is that König is able to reconfigure a Michael Jackson interview or any number of '80s music videos on the fly, so that they produce a sound similar to whatever he inputs. On screen, the software plays the frames of video that accompany the selected audio."

Anybody who actually wants to sound like MJ has to have a screw loose...

...or, life imitates art.

No, that's using the term "art" too loosely.  I retract.

In all seriousness, I'm an "old school" guy.  Owning ideas and the means to use them is how much of the world makes a living.  So today we have this growing tide of sentiment that there is no such thing as intellectual property.  What shall we call this?  Intellectual communism?  All ideas must be shared freely?  That's ludicrous.  We have no moral backbone anymore to call taking someone's else's "property" stealing?  Protest record conglomerates all you want, and support all the indie musicians and labels till you're broke, but don't redefine stealing for the rest of us.

I've got nothing against open-source projects.  Those are way cool and I enjoy them as much as the next guy (I owe much personal sanity to VirtualDub).  But here is a very clever software idea made for the express purpose of violating copyright.  As a sometime composer and recording producer who works for a living, I find that very offensive.

But here is a very clever software idea made for the express purpose of violating copyright.

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not so sure that it does. What it does is rather worse than that - it enables your ideas to sound as though they came from - whoever. This isn't copyright theft - it's identity theft. And it could get perfectly innocent people either in to or out of a lot of trouble...

If it works at all well, yes, this would be true on all counts.

Of course, our laws can't cope with the digital universe as it is now, let alone with new ideas such as S. H.  So no doubt this guy will get away with it.

The New Digital World:  Nothing You See or Hear is Real.

[If it works at all well]

If it works at all well, yes, this would be true on all counts.

Well fortunately, at present it doesn't. You can see this very clearly here. Play the video...

The New Digital World:  Nothing You See or Hear is Real.

Which brings us back to live performance and the joy of listening to those who actually know how to play/sing.

So very true.  If only more people appreciated that joy.  It seems like a whole adrenaline & technology-addicted generation is being lost to that cause.

Strikes me as nothing more than a "gee-whiz" kind of thing.  Watching this sort of chaos garners no more than a head-shake from me.  Technically interesting, but there's absolutely no heart.  And, I'm afraid it's an accurate display, in yet another way, of the Emperor's New Clothes.  LSD in the '60s comes to mind here: fascinating to users but an assault on the mind.  Sadly, there are those who, if not actually loving it, are at least irrestibly drawn to these sorts of things.

Strikes me as nothing more than a "gee-whiz" kind of thing.  Watching this sort of chaos garners no more than a head-shake from me.  Technically interesting, but there's absolutely no heart.  

Pretty much my reaction to the video as well.

From the technical point of view, I'm impressed by what it does and how quickly it's able to do it.

As far as the end result ... well ... um ...  
I won't be buying tickets.