Have you got the music in you?

About a year ago I found a nice piece of software called ‘Virtual DJ’. At first I was clueless. There were a lot of shiny knobs and some things that made a creaking noise when I put my curser over them. Quickly, I figured out how to make Stevie Wonder sound like he’s just sucked on a helium balloon, while making Matt Bellamy sound like someone’s jammed a stale pork pie down his throat. Then I made things faster, slower and heavier.

Then the first track came out. It was simple and rough. A weird take on Life in Technicolor ii by Coldplay. I mixed it with some in-built samples and recorded it; all of this was done within 2 hours. It sounded bad, but it was something that I had made. I listened to it twice and made something new. A mix of No Time For Tears by The Enemy. It sounded better and louder. I was hooked.

Then came the album. It was sketchy but people liked it. I made fifteen copies and they all went within one week. No more have been made and no more ever will. So 5 months later I’m working on the difficult second album and have been testing a new piece of software.

The pieces of software I use are very difficult to use, unattractive and clunky. But I have to use it because it’s my only option. Mac users have the great Garage Band and Linux has...well...Linux doesn’t have ANYTHING in general, so that’s out of the question. But
Microsoft has just released SongSmith. And I’ve been having a go.
Obviously this is not a £600 piece of software; in fact you get everything you need to create a simple song in demo mode. The interface is attractive and it’s very easy to use. The playback is smooth and – although rough around the edges – sounds professional.

In fact, there’s only one thing stopping this programme being as good as GarageBand. This is not mixing software, it’s not even creating music. All this programme allows you to do is sing over a backing track. There’s ways of adding your own riffs and drums I think but they don’t sound very good on the videos and samples I’ve seen.

Don’t get me wrong, this could be used well in a school environment. Probably not in the upper-regions of secondary schools but from ages 5 to 14, this could be a great part of music lessons, teaching students how to use: Tempo, bass, beats, layering techniques and quality finishing. I wouldn’t suggest this for higher-secondary use because it would have no gain to GCSE/A-Level music. There’s a lack of versatility and serious lack of ‘stuff’ to use.

So to all the teachers and parents with young children, go for it. Let the young ones use it, catapult them into mini-stardom. But to all you teenagers and secondary-education teachers, don’t bother in the upper school, give it to the kids and move them up to programmes like “Virtual DJ”.

Ease of use: 9/10 Actual music making capabilities: 2/10
Aesthetics: 8/10