Club 33
Playlist Author
A New Tool in Identifying Area Music
Identifying needledrop tracks in area music loops is always a task. First someone needs to make a reference recording, and then one or multiple people must pour through it trying to figure out what all the music is. In the case of certain loops this isn't AS difficult- for the Monsters Inc loop I could be fairly confident most of the music would come from the Monsters Inc soundtrack- but for loops that use movie scores or other such things it can be much more difficult.
With the introduction of the new Application store for the iPhone, I have been trying and downloading new and interesting apps. One a friend turned me on to is called Shazam. With Shazam, you hold the phone up to a speaker with music playing and it takes a sample recording, then queries a database to try and identify that song. The sample length by default is 12 seconds, and it can come from any point in the song. The song also does not need to be in the iTunes database- though if it IS the app gives a link to the song in the iTunes store.
Now I personally was sceptical of such an app- would it really work in a real world scenario? But it does! Not only have I tested it with my own music collection but also by listening to random radio stations, and yesterday it was even able to identify a song in the middle of a crowded store in Beverly Hills.
Not only is this very cool and useful for discovering new songs, it occurred to me that it could be useful in identifying needledrop tracks in area music loops. Certainly it could be used "in the field" as it were with in-park speakers, but if a live or induction recording were made it could be used in a quieter environment at home and be just as useful.
To test it out, I tried to identify each of the songs in the Monsters Inc queue music loop that I recorded last week. Now obviously I had already identified all of the tracks in the loop that were commercially available, but it had taken me several hours of work. How would Shazam fair?
To say the least, Shazam TROUNCED me. Not only did it identify ALL of the needledrop tracks (from both the soundtrack and the Riders in the Sky album) on the FIRST TRY, but it revealed I had made a mistake. Two tracks which I had not been able to find on the official soundtrack and thus I had listed from a complete copy of the score I have, as it turns out WERE present on the official album (which, incidentally, means all of the music from the score used in the loop IS present on the official soundtrack).
All in all, identifying ALL of the tracks in the 30:11 loop took less than ten minutes, and the final result was more accurate than the list it had taken me hours to compile.
So now it was time to really test it- try a loop that's a bit more out there. Next I tried the Expedition Everest area music loop, which I had an induction recording.
First track, first try, it got it. The song is Dream by Yungchen Lhamo from the album "Coming Home". Second track , Cho Chendren by Steve Tibbets Coying Droima from the album Cho.
I suspect identifying all of the tracks in the loop at this rate would take less than 15 minutes. This is promising. VERY promising.
EDIT: I should note, however, that the database does not contain EVERY song ever- I was not able to identify the third track in the EE loop for instance. It's not perfect, and who could expect it to be, but it is quite good.
Identifying needledrop tracks in area music loops is always a task. First someone needs to make a reference recording, and then one or multiple people must pour through it trying to figure out what all the music is. In the case of certain loops this isn't AS difficult- for the Monsters Inc loop I could be fairly confident most of the music would come from the Monsters Inc soundtrack- but for loops that use movie scores or other such things it can be much more difficult.
With the introduction of the new Application store for the iPhone, I have been trying and downloading new and interesting apps. One a friend turned me on to is called Shazam. With Shazam, you hold the phone up to a speaker with music playing and it takes a sample recording, then queries a database to try and identify that song. The sample length by default is 12 seconds, and it can come from any point in the song. The song also does not need to be in the iTunes database- though if it IS the app gives a link to the song in the iTunes store.
Now I personally was sceptical of such an app- would it really work in a real world scenario? But it does! Not only have I tested it with my own music collection but also by listening to random radio stations, and yesterday it was even able to identify a song in the middle of a crowded store in Beverly Hills.
Not only is this very cool and useful for discovering new songs, it occurred to me that it could be useful in identifying needledrop tracks in area music loops. Certainly it could be used "in the field" as it were with in-park speakers, but if a live or induction recording were made it could be used in a quieter environment at home and be just as useful.
To test it out, I tried to identify each of the songs in the Monsters Inc queue music loop that I recorded last week. Now obviously I had already identified all of the tracks in the loop that were commercially available, but it had taken me several hours of work. How would Shazam fair?
To say the least, Shazam TROUNCED me. Not only did it identify ALL of the needledrop tracks (from both the soundtrack and the Riders in the Sky album) on the FIRST TRY, but it revealed I had made a mistake. Two tracks which I had not been able to find on the official soundtrack and thus I had listed from a complete copy of the score I have, as it turns out WERE present on the official album (which, incidentally, means all of the music from the score used in the loop IS present on the official soundtrack).
All in all, identifying ALL of the tracks in the 30:11 loop took less than ten minutes, and the final result was more accurate than the list it had taken me hours to compile.
So now it was time to really test it- try a loop that's a bit more out there. Next I tried the Expedition Everest area music loop, which I had an induction recording.
First track, first try, it got it. The song is Dream by Yungchen Lhamo from the album "Coming Home". Second track , Cho Chendren by Steve Tibbets Coying Droima from the album Cho.
I suspect identifying all of the tracks in the loop at this rate would take less than 15 minutes. This is promising. VERY promising.
EDIT: I should note, however, that the database does not contain EVERY song ever- I was not able to identify the third track in the EE loop for instance. It's not perfect, and who could expect it to be, but it is quite good.
