« on: July 27, 2010, 04:39:01 PM »
http://musicmachinery.com/2010/05/21/the-swinger/Have you ever wondered what a classic Beatles ballad might sound like with a swing beat? How about a heavy-metal Metallica number? Thanks to Tristan Jehan, now there’s The Swinger, which takes just about any song and changes its rhythm into swing.
Jehan— an MIT Ph.D. graduate—took part in last month’s “Music Hack Day” in San Francisco (described as “a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects”), where he unveiled The Swinger. It’s a bit of “python” code (which we won’t pretend to understand) that manipulates a song’s time measure by lengthening its first half and shrinking its second. It’s probably just best to listen to some example tracks, which include songs from Jefferson Airplane, Dire Straits and Prince. Our own favorite is The Swinger version of Guns n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O' Mine,” which is transformed into something downright cheery.