When I was in eighth or ninth grade, a friend called me one day with a clever scheme. "We should make a website where you can sing part of a melody, and it figures out what song you want!" I told him it sounded like a cool idea, but also a totally impossible one, and went back to watching TRL. For this reason and several others, I am currently a pop-culture blogger of modest means and not, say, a yachting enthusiast-cum-Internet startup king — because, you see, there’s a new website that does exactly what my friend was describing. Midomi.com bills itself as "the ultimate music search tool." Give it a 10-second snippet of music in your own voice — singing, humming, or whistling will do — and it’ll instantly tell you what that song you have stuck in your head is. Imagine if Jason Castro (pictured) had had access to this thing. He might have realized in time that he was on national television singing "Mr. Tambourine Man," not "Mr. Hm-hm-hnh-hm-um-aaahlowin’ you"!
Of course, that’s all assuming it actually works as advertised. I don’t have a microphone hooked up to my computer, so I haven’t been able to test-drive Midomi. (Man, if I were a yachting dotcommer, I would so have a mic right now.) The site’s demo video makes it look pretty intuitive — but the nice lady in the tutorial is just looking for "Amazing Grace," which I can’t imagine anyone actually needing a powerful online engine to track down. If I’m understanding this right, user-submitted sound files provide most of Midomi’s core data. Does that model have any value if you’re trying to identify a song that isn’t already totally unforgettable for billions of people? Feel free to try out some of your favorite, more obscure tunes on Midomi and report back in the comments here — I’m curious to know if this is just a fun gimmick or a legitimately useful tool.
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I wonder if the site will give you multiple results when the song you’re humming is a sample from another song. Like I’m really singing Can’t Touch This, but it gives me Super Freak instead.
Yes, I’m a singing dork and I HAD to try it out. Results are…eh. It’s based upon other people having already recorded the song you’re singing, so it should theoretically get better over time. I tried “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis and “Seasons of Love” from the RENT soundtrack; both worked. Not so much, on the other hand, Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” and Tevares’ “Penny for Your Thoughts”.
Wow, I’m not that old (I think), but when I was in 8th or 9th grade, I don’t think they even HAD websites. Dang.
This works REALLY well. I sang a japanese pop song and it found it! It’s an old song from the mid 90’s too. It found all the other songs I tried, except one obscure golden oldie by Brenda Lee. Cool site, Thanks!
I was going to try a few songs, but it missed so badly on my first attempt that I decided it’s crap. I sang, fairly clearly, the melody from “Roadhouse Blues” by the Doors. I got, among lots of Japanese songs, “A Horse With No Name”, Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, Some Avril Lavigne Song, Some Placebo song, and some Coldplay song. FAIL
i agree! i’m 20 (and i don’t think simon is younger) and I don’t really remember being aware of websites…aol maybe. anyways, doesn’t this site work only if one is able to sing at at least an above average level? haven’t you ever been w/ a tone deaf friend and they’ve hummed a tune and either asked you to name it or remind them of what it is and when you find out what the tune is, it sounds nothing like what they hummed?
I sang “Ay Yai Yai Yai”, which was the song I was trying in vain to remember last summer, and it correctly identified “Cielito Lindo”.
My formidable performance of “Rock the Casbah”, not so much.
I sang “Ay Yai Yai Yai”, which was the song I was trying in vain to remember last summer, and it correctly identified “Cielito Lindo”.
My formidable performance of “Rock the Casbah”, not so much.
I’m 20 too, and I distinctly remember websites existing as far back as 5th grade (so about 10 years ago), because that’s when my family first got AOL – AOL itself isn’t a website, just the means to view them.
You know instead of using Jason Castro’s picture( I know he’s dreamy and all that), you could have use David A. (forgot the words in Beatles Week) or Brooke (stop/ started in ALW week).
But thanks for using Jason’s pictures any way. he’s much easier on the eyes than that Archie.
this site workes!!! nothing more to say