In December, I covered Nayio's Humming Search, which is supposed to identify songs when you hum into your computer's microphone. It was a colossal letdown. But a few days ago I tried a new song identifier, Midomi [see News.com story], and it worked great. I tried several songs (including the acid test, "Yellow Submarine," that Nayio flunked), and Midomi named most of them just fine. It didn't hit 100 percent accuracy--during my video shoot, it misidentified Oasis's "Wonderwall" on one try out of about seven--but it's accurate enough to be usable. As long as your voice isn't completely shot, as Michael Arrington's must be.
Also cool: Users can sing their own renditions of songs into the system, and it can play them for you when it identifies songs. It's surprisingly entertaining to hear good amateurs covering a tune you've just hummed. And you can buy tracks off the site.
Technical bonus: Midomi uses Flash, which makes it simple. Nayio requires an ActiveX download and didn't work for me in Firefox.
The wow factor is high on this one. It's really cool and potentially useful.
(Credit:
Nayio)
I think it's a great idea. If you hear a catchy tune on the radio and it gets stuck in your head, and you don't know the artist, Humming Search could save your sanity. Plus, it's cool.
Or it would be if it worked. I tried humming several tunes into my computer and got only one hit ("Come As You Are," by Nirvana). My wife, a Juilliard-trained musician who swore at the machine when it couldn't pick up "Yellow Submarine," after we both hummed it ("And you were even on key!" she said), had slightly better luck--Nayio ID'd about 30 percent of the songs she hummed and sang.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Once--or rather, if--Nayio identifies a song you've hummed, it redirects you to Napster, where you can listen to the real version and buy a download.
While I think the idea is cool, my wife was unimpressed, both by the implementation and the concept. She says friends are better at identifying music than computers are: "Hum into a computer or phone a friend? I know what I'd rather do."
See also Shazam and 411Song, mobile phone services that will identify recorded songs when you hold you phone up to the speaker.
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